1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,360 Well, I've got good news and bad news. 2 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:06,880 Depending on your perspective, we are either descending to new 3 00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:10,760 depths of nerddom today, or ascending to new heights of 4 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:15,880 nerddom just depending on where you sit on this issue. 2 simple 5 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:18,560 words will will let you know what I'm talking about. 6 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:24,800 Star Trek. All right, I, I, I, I'm not like 7 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:29,600 a Star Trek universe aficionado, but I feel compelled to confess 8 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:33,400 that I know way more than anyone has a right to about Star Trek. 9 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,240 The Next Generation. Do you know the character Wharf? 10 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,160 Probably not, because you're not a nerd like I am. 11 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:46,960 Wharf is a Klingon and and he's he's, he's, he's lives and works 12 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:51,360 on the Starship Enterprise. But his home system, his home, 13 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,720 you know, world, the Klingon world is an honor. 14 00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:57,280 Shame culture, honor means everything. 15 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:01,280 Shame is an awful thing. And there is a series of 16 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:07,120 episodes of multi episode story arc in which Wharf is publicly 17 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:11,440 shamed in the Klingon Empire because his father has been 18 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:14,440 convicted of being a traitor. His father's been dead for 19 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:18,680 years, was was accused and convicted after his death of 20 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,080 being a traitor. He wasn't really a traitor. 21 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:24,360 Just so you know, was a different Klingon. 22 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:26,680 That was the traitor. Watch the show. 23 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:28,240 It's really good. Trust me. 24 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,760 But but Wharf accepted what is called discommodation. 25 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,800 And the purpose of discommodation in the Klingon 26 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:43,120 Empire was if you had done something so bad that rather 27 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:46,000 than just killing you and putting you out of your misery, 28 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:50,680 you would be publicly disgraced, shamed and dishonored. 29 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:54,560 You were not permitted in Klingon society anymore. 30 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:57,040 You were. Your name would never be spoken 31 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:00,080 again. Your descendants, forever and 32 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,800 ever, would share in your shame and dishonor. 33 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:06,760 The whole purpose of discommodation was to shame 34 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:12,040 someone and cut them off from good, honorable society. 35 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:18,040 This commendation is not unlike what a lot of folks experience 36 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:22,640 in our world today, particularly in in the social media world. 37 00:02:22,920 --> 00:02:25,080 And I'm going to talk about that in a little bit. 38 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:30,560 But we're talking today about canceling, calling things out 39 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:35,360 without canceling. It's right to call out treachery 40 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:39,600 as as a government when there's a traitor and and that traitor 41 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:42,680 behaves in such a way that costs innocent people their lives, 42 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:44,760 which is what Worf's father was accused of. 43 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,320 That needs to be called out. How do you call someone out for 44 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:54,440 bad behavior without canceling them, without shaming them to 45 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:58,760 such a degree that they are simply punished, cut off, cut 46 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:03,840 out forever excluded from polite and good and righteous society? 47 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,680 We get an example of that in the story of Tamar. 48 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:10,240 And we're going to spend one more Sunday here on Tamar next 49 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:13,400 week, obviously be looking at the resurrection of Jesus. 50 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:18,000 But I want to, I want to talk about Tamar's example here. 51 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:21,400 And, and just to go back and read that one passage again, 52 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:26,840 just as a refresher, Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law. 53 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:30,000 Judah had three sons. Tamar was the wife that he 54 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:34,080 arranged for his oldest son, ER. The Bible says that ER did evil 55 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:36,880 in the Lord's sight and he was so evil that God just killed 56 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:39,120 him. And then by custom, law and 57 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:44,560 tradition, Tamar was given to Judah's second oldest son for to 58 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:49,200 to be his wife so that she would have the safety and security and 59 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,560 shelter of a family to belong to, and then she would have 60 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:54,720 children to care for her in her old age. 61 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:58,880 The Bible tells us that Onan was so evil that God killed him. 62 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:04,400 And then Judah, out of a sense of paranoid superstition, said, 63 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:07,880 well, there can't be anything wrong with my kids there does 64 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:11,200 Tamar must be cursed. She must be a jinx. 65 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:13,360 I'm not going to give, I've got one son left. 66 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,760 I'm not going to give her to him to be his wife because he'll end 67 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,640 up dying too. But he didn't wasn't honest with 68 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,279 Tamar about it. He said, you go home. 69 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:24,120 My youngest son, Shayla, he's too young to marry. 70 00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:27,400 When he's old enough, I'll call you back from your father's 71 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:29,440 household and you can marry my son. 72 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:30,960 He had no intention of doing that. 73 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,800 He wasn't going to do that. Tamar realized that when Shayla 74 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:39,680 reached and then passed the age of marrying and she was never 75 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:42,480 called for. And so Tamar dressed as a 76 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:50,320 prostitute and, you know, caught Judah's attention and she got 77 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:53,320 pregnant by her father-in-law three months later. 78 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:56,160 Everyone knew she was pregnant because that's how pregnancy 79 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:58,160 works. I used that joke two weeks ago. 80 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:04,080 Never mind. And, And the word was sent back 81 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:06,760 to Judah. Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, has 82 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:10,800 been prostituting herself. And Judah said that is awful. 83 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:14,760 And he also saw this as a convenient way to get rid of a 84 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:17,160 problem. She was technically engaged to 85 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:21,360 his son and and now he could just have her killed. 86 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:23,640 And that's what he said. Bring her here. 87 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:29,600 We're going to burn her alive. On the way, Tamar sent a message 88 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:32,000 to Judah. And in that message was a 89 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:33,880 package. And the package contained a 90 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,120 staff and a ring. When Judah thought Tamar was a 91 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:41,120 prostitute and went in to, you know, do things with her, he 92 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,240 didn't have any money with him. So we left a pledge, his staff 93 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:48,320 in his ring, his ID, his driver's license, so to speak. 94 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:52,720 And she sent it back and said the father of this baby is the 95 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:58,880 one who owns these things. And Judah, Judah recognized and 96 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:03,680 said in a remarkable level of insight and maturity, said, 97 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:07,760 Tamar's more righteous than I am because I didn't do right by 98 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:13,760 her. So Tamar was put in a very bad 99 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:17,280 situation. She did what she could with what 100 00:06:17,280 --> 00:06:19,680 she had to make that situation better. 101 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:22,400 It was a huge risk. It almost cost her her life. 102 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:27,160 But when the time came to call Judah out for his hypocrisy, 103 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:30,360 because that's exactly what he'd been, a hypocrite, he'd been 104 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:32,960 superstitious, he'd been a coward, he'd been a liar. 105 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:35,920 He'd been all of these things. He had a responsibility to care 106 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:37,440 for her. He was ignoring that 107 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:40,280 responsibility and she called him out for it. 108 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,200 But the way she did it is incredibly important. 109 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:46,080 Let's take a look at those verses again. 110 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,600 As she was being brought out to be burned alive, she sent a 111 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:52,880 message to her father-in-law. I am pregnant by the man who 112 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:55,920 owns these, she said. And she added to see if you 113 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,600 recognize who's seal and cord and staff these are. 114 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:05,480 And they were, of course, Judas. So Tamar called Judah out. 115 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:10,040 She wasn't a doormat. She wasn't a coward. 116 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:16,000 She wasn't a a, a perpetual victim saying woe is me, life is 117 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:19,040 unfair. There's nothing I can do in a 118 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:21,400 situation that was clearly stacked against her. 119 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,920 And when she had very where she had little to no power in terms 120 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:29,280 of political and social power, She now had leverage over Judah. 121 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:34,200 And she could have publicly shamed, disgraced and humiliated 122 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:36,600 him. She could have waited until the 123 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:40,000 whole crowd, crowd gathered to see the burning and held the 124 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,920 staff in the ring in the cord up in front of everybody said, hey, 125 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:46,800 anybody recognize these? Whose signet ring is this? 126 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:53,000 Oh, it's Judas. And disgraced him and humiliated 127 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:56,120 him. One might say she had a right to 128 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:58,720 do that. Judah was about to kill her in a 129 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:02,360 very publicly shaming and incredibly painful way. 130 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,000 But she didn't. She didn't. 131 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:09,800 She was as forceful as she needed to be, but she was as 132 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:14,560 gentle as she could be. And how she called Judah out. 133 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:18,920 Now, the simple fact was this was still shaming for Judah 134 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,120 because for him to do the right thing, which he did, he received 135 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:26,880 her into his household, not as his wife, but as his ward, and 136 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:30,320 gave her a place to live in safety and security and where 137 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:33,440 she had her children. They were twin boys, Perez and I 138 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:35,400 can't remember the other boy's name at the moment. 139 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:43,400 To do that meant acknowledging the situation and there was 140 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:46,560 shame in that. There was shame in that. 141 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:50,000 But, but shame is a tricky thing. 142 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:56,800 There is a, a teaching going around in, in the United States 143 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:00,720 now, maybe even larger Western culture, that all shame is 144 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:06,520 toxic, all shame is bad, that there is no good use for shame. 145 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,880 Notable people like Brené Brown have have been teaching that for 146 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:14,880 years. I had a counselor tell me that 147 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:17,360 once. Shame is always bad. 148 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:21,440 Shame is always toxic. Shame is always destructive. 149 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:27,960 I beg to differ with that position and opinion there. 150 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:33,000 There are cultures, many cultures, large cultures and 151 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:37,040 ancient cultures for which honor and shame are key parts of those 152 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:38,920 cultures. And you really can't have one 153 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,240 without the other. And, and I'm not prepared to say 154 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:45,960 that that, you know, half or more of the world's people live 155 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:49,560 in toxic culture simply because they employ shame in certain 156 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:51,840 ways and in certain, certain instances. 157 00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:56,760 And certainly the Klingons are a good people, a noble race. 158 00:09:56,760 --> 00:10:01,600 That was a joke too, you know, Thank you for laughing. 159 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,360 It's not as doesn't warm my heart as much when I have to 160 00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:08,680 prompt you to laugh, but nevertheless, I do. 161 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:11,920 Yeah, I did get an applause sign the Amen corner. 162 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,320 Whoever was saying give him a, give him a sign. 163 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:22,000 There are two ways to use shame. I keep forgetting some of my 164 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:23,960 slides. Tamar shame Judah in a way that 165 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:28,080 didn't destroy him, but it gave him space for repentance and 166 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:33,400 restoration. Shame can destroy or shame can 167 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:38,000 restore. There's two ways to use shame 168 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:43,080 and, and, and one of the ways to use shame is a punishment. 169 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:47,400 It's punitive. Shame is used to punish and 170 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:50,120 destroy. This is the essence of cancel 171 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:52,080 culture. And by the way, when I talk 172 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:54,640 about cancer, cancer culture happens from the left and it 173 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:58,000 happens from the right. There is no particular ideology 174 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:02,800 that has cornered the market on the punitive usage of shame, 175 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:07,120 canceling, boycotting, cutting people out because what? 176 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,560 Whatever their hard line is, when that person crosses it and 177 00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:13,200 you say there's no coming back from that, we have to just 178 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:17,120 destroy them, cut them out, make sure that they have no impact on 179 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:20,400 my myself, my family, my community, my culture. 180 00:11:20,560 --> 00:11:25,360 They just need to be out. And that's what cancel culture 181 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:29,800 does when it's sorting back through, you know, social media 182 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:32,000 posts from years and decades ago. 183 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:33,560 I don't know if they're decade old. 184 00:11:33,560 --> 00:11:35,440 So yeah, they're decade old social media posts. 185 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,040 It's been around that long now. And finding out something that 186 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:42,640 someone said or tweeted or posted on whatever platform, you 187 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:46,840 know, back in the mid teens and, and, and, and, and then using 188 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:51,160 that to cost them their job, which has happened, people 189 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:54,280 getting fired for something they posted about when they were a 190 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:58,160 teenager. That's punitive shame. 191 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:03,520 That's shame for the purpose of destruction and punishment. 192 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:08,360 That's one way to use shame. But Taylor Lau on his book 193 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:11,000 defending shame, which is a great book if you're, if you're 194 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,800 interested in reading more about this whole honor and shame 195 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:17,200 thing. Taylor Lau defending shame is is 196 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:23,120 a is a wonderful book and he talks about these two types of 197 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:26,880 uses of shame. One punish, destroy, punitive 198 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:29,560 use. The other is to invite to 199 00:12:29,560 --> 00:12:32,920 repentance, redemption and restoration. 200 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:41,280 And this is a positive use of shame, shame that says you need 201 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:46,520 to know that I know that we know that you have done something 202 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:51,760 wrong and, and, and it's and it's wrong enough that it's 203 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:54,000 right for you to feel ashamed of what you've done. 204 00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:59,760 But the purpose of being aware of that, of being ashamed is not 205 00:12:59,760 --> 00:13:02,920 so we can cut you off from the family or cut you off from the 206 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:05,320 church or cut you off from the community. 207 00:13:05,560 --> 00:13:10,760 The purpose of that is so you can say, I screwed up and now I 208 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:15,600 need to make it right so I can move out of this position of 209 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:18,200 shame and back into a position of honor. 210 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:25,640 This is what Tamar did to Judah. She shamed him, but she shamed 211 00:13:25,640 --> 00:13:30,720 him in a way that left room for him to repent, that left room 212 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:34,160 for him to come back, that left room for him to restore the 213 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:37,800 relationships that he had broken, particularly the 214 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,920 relationship as his of his family to Tamar. 215 00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:48,560 And he did all of those things. And it was the shame that she 216 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,840 opened his eyes to that motivated him to act in that 217 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:56,360 way. It was the shame that he felt 218 00:13:56,360 --> 00:14:00,520 that led him to say Tamar's more righteous than I am that led him 219 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:04,280 to bring her into his household. That led to him to care for her 220 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:11,240 as his part of his family and provide a home for her sons and 221 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:16,560 his sons to grow up in. There is a positive use of shame 222 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,440 to invite to repentance, redemption and restoration. 223 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:26,640 I think using shame to punish and destroy is is almost 224 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:28,920 invariably a bad way to use shame. 225 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:33,920 If there's no room for repentance and restoration, then 226 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:38,080 then, then shame is just like another form of execution and 227 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:43,480 there's no coming back from it. The shame that is used and that 228 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,480 we see over and over again in Scripture is this shame that 229 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:50,240 makes space for repentance, redemption, and restoration. 230 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:54,040 We've looked at Tamar's example. Let's look at Jesus's example. 231 00:14:55,560 --> 00:15:01,760 Jesus employed shame at times, repeated times throughout his 232 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:06,800 life and his ministry, but always never to simply punish, 233 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:10,960 never to cut people out, always to open the door to repentance 234 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:16,120 and restoration. If you're thinking about the 235 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:18,960 two, you know the path. It was actually 1 long passage 236 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,120 that we had read this morning. The cleansing of the temple 237 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,160 happened right after the triumphal entry. 238 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:28,440 Jesus came in humbly riding on a donkey and then got out of whip 239 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:30,880 and drove people out of the temple and thinking, my 240 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:32,920 goodness, that sounds punitive to me. 241 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:39,040 I'm going to talk about that because Jesus's example and how 242 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:43,480 he entered Jerusalem as a king gives us an idea. 243 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:48,160 It's a snapshot of his Kingdom, of what his kingdom's going to 244 00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:52,080 be like at the heart and soul of life in the Kingdom of God, the 245 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,720 Kingdom of Jesus Christ. And let's take a look at that. 246 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:59,480 Jesus came as a king, but with humility, as Sheila said, riding 247 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:02,240 on a donkey, not on a War Horse. How about that? 248 00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:03,520 We both made the same point there. 249 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:05,800 This year. We need an Amen. 250 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:07,520 Where's the he's? He's on the other side. 251 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:11,080 So Amen. Jesus came as a king. 252 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:14,800 He didn't come as a puppet. He didn't come as a servant. 253 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:17,800 He didn't come as a genie in the bottle to grant everybody's 254 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:19,600 wishes. He didn't come as Santa Claus. 255 00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:24,960 Jesus came as a king, but he came as a king with humility, 256 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:31,320 not on a War Horse to conquer and destroy, but on a donkey 257 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:37,720 with grace and gentleness and compassion to invite people into 258 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:41,920 his Kingdom, not to force people into his Kingdom at the point of 259 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:44,920 a sword. It's the second thing we see in 260 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:48,040 Jesus. Jesus as the king arriving in 261 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:50,720 the capital city. Every king when they arrived 262 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:52,520 into the city would have a herald. 263 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:57,400 If you were a conquering king, you sent soldiers ahead to 264 00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:02,200 herald the arrival of the king, with trumpets blaring and and, 265 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:05,240 and other instruments and and stirring people up. 266 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:08,319 But they were people of power. They were people of violence. 267 00:17:08,319 --> 00:17:11,880 They were people of action that heralded the arrival of the king 268 00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:15,680 so the king could demonstrate his strength as he was arriving 269 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,880 in town. But Jesus wasn't heralded by 270 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:23,920 soldiers. He was heralded by children and 271 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:25,440 and children in that day and age. 272 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:30,040 Children were incredible. Jesus had just said those things 273 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:32,680 about let the little children come to me and the Kingdom of 274 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:36,360 God is made of such as these Jesus that was new things. 275 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:37,800 People weren't thinking those things. 276 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,320 Now we say that we say that we don't really mean it most of the 277 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:43,120 time. I've heard lots of people 278 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:47,360 declaring how how children are much wiser than adults and, and 279 00:17:47,360 --> 00:17:51,680 I always want to ask, are are they doing your taxes right? 280 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,640 Do you have them on your board of directors someplace? 281 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:58,000 You know, or if you get in trouble with the law, you're 282 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:05,200 going to get a four year old. No, Jesus believed this stuff 283 00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:10,560 and, and Jesus had these little children who were not credible 284 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:13,160 witnesses. They were not legally test able 285 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:15,440 to testify. They could intimidate no one. 286 00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:18,200 All they see they, they aggravated some folks. 287 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:21,440 We can see that because they were acting out of their place 288 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:24,440 and out of their station. But Jesus said no, no, no, no, 289 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:26,600 no, no, no. They get to do that. 290 00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:28,800 If they don't, the rocks will do it. 291 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:31,600 So let's let the kids do it. But it was children, not 292 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:35,480 soldiers. Jesus said his that his 293 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:38,360 crucifixion, he could have called 10,000 angels to come and 294 00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:41,560 set him free, could have called an army of angels. 295 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:45,120 He could have called an army of angels to herald his arrival as 296 00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:47,960 king. But instead he let the kids do 297 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:51,480 it. Humility and grace and room for 298 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:54,080 repentance. Jesus drove out those who were 299 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:57,520 exploiting people's faith for personal gain in the temple. 300 00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:01,480 That's what was happening. There was a system set up 301 00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:07,040 according to Scripture whereby to, to, to give your tithe to 302 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:09,760 the temple. You can, you could bring 303 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:14,120 animals, but sometimes for sacrifices, it was, it was if 304 00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:16,720 you were coming from a long way because the Jews were spread out 305 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,600 throughout the region. And, and if you were coming from 306 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:22,000 a long way, you couldn't bring a bunch of animals with you. 307 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,360 You would bring money with you and you could use that money to 308 00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:27,160 buy animals. You could use that money to make 309 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:29,760 donations to the temple. But but whatever you were doing, 310 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:32,680 you had to convert that money into another kind of money. 311 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:35,480 And what was happening with the money changers is people were 312 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:38,880 coming in to worship God and the money changers were ripping them 313 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,520 off with the exchange rate and they were making a fortune doing 314 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:45,880 it. And it was exploitation, pure 315 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,720 and simple. People traveling hundreds of 316 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:53,880 miles sometimes to, to, to obey the call and command of God, to 317 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,400 worship in his temple, to offer the sacrifices that God 318 00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:01,200 commanded them to offer. It was it was the House of God 319 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,120 on earth. It was the place on earth where 320 00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:07,320 if you wanted to be close to God, this is the place you could 321 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:09,920 come. People were coming to draw near 322 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,760 to God and other people were saying, you know, they really 323 00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:15,000 want to be here. I'll bet they'll pay extra for 324 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:16,880 it. It's like Disney World. 325 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:24,160 And that's what they did. They ripped them off like Disney 326 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:35,960 World and Jesus said, no, my house in quotes, Isaiah, my 327 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:40,400 house will be a House of prayer for all nations is the full 328 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:42,880 quote for people all over the world. 329 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,560 And you've turned it into a den of robbers. 330 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:51,480 You've turned it into a place of exploitation, an opportunity to 331 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:57,400 to get something from people rather than giving people access 332 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,760 to worship and to God and to faith and to life and to hope. 333 00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:08,000 And that needed called out. And as I said last week, and 334 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,920 I've said before, I'll say again, Jesus was as gentle as he 335 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:15,200 possibly could be and as forceful as he needed to be. 336 00:21:15,360 --> 00:21:18,040 And in this situation he needed to be pretty forceful. 337 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:24,560 And he took a whip and he turned over tables and he used violence 338 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:26,120 to drive people out of the temple. 339 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,360 Why? To clear the way for people to 340 00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:33,640 come to God. The point wasn't to punish the 341 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:38,120 money changers, the point was to remove a barrier of people 342 00:21:38,120 --> 00:21:40,960 having a relationship with God, of being reconciled to God. 343 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:43,840 Our notion that we have today, that the Holy Spirit is 344 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:47,080 everywhere and we can worship God anywhere, and no ground is 345 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:50,320 any more holy than any other ground because God is all that. 346 00:21:50,360 --> 00:21:54,000 That was not their mindset. Their mindset was, as the temple 347 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:57,960 is God's house on earth, if you want to draw near to God, you 348 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:01,200 need to come near to the temple and do the things that God has 349 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:05,280 instruct us to do as part of our worship and the barriers that 350 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:07,560 were put in the way of that to exploit people. 351 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:12,880 Jesus said absolutely not, and he cleared the way for people to 352 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,360 truly come to God, including the people he drove out. 353 00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:22,280 The people he drove out were welcome to repent and come back. 354 00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:26,720 They weren't cut off, they weren't cast out. 355 00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:31,080 They weren't destroyed, they weren't punished, they were 356 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:35,320 publicly shamed by the Son of God himself so they could see 357 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:38,240 the wrong that they were doing and have the opportunity to 358 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:43,240 repent of that wrong. Go back and read through the 359 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:50,920 gospels again and see the places where Jesus shames people, and 360 00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,040 he does it more often than I think makes most of us 361 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:57,440 comfortable. But in every single one of those 362 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,480 places, he always leaves room for repentance and restoration. 363 00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:08,880 It's never leave me forever. It's always see you wrong and 364 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:13,600 change. Turn to me humbly instead of 365 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:17,480 arrogantly. This is the example that we have 366 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,840 from Jesus. Jesus throughout his entire 367 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:24,960 ministry, He called, taught and healed rather than judging, 368 00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:31,280 condemning and killing. Jesus didn't come as a 369 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,080 conqueror. There are religions in this 370 00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:36,480 world that have spread throughout the world at the 371 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:41,040 point of a sword. Tragically and sadly at times, 372 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:45,240 that has been Christianity too, but that is not the Kingdom of 373 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:48,640 God that Jesus came to set up and that Jesus is setting up. 374 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:56,400 That Christianity is spread not at the point of the sword, but 375 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,480 with the weight of the cross. Because that's where Jesus was 376 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:06,640 going with all of this. Jesus himself was shamed. 377 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,640 He took upon himself the shame of the whole world. 378 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:12,600 We're going to talk about that more on Friday, but that's where 379 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:18,200 all of this is going. Rather than using shame to 380 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:23,080 punish others and destroy them, he took that shame upon himself 381 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:30,040 so that he could ultimately destroy shame, our shame and all 382 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:35,160 shame so that we can be free to come back to God. 383 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:39,000 We can be restored to God. We can stand before one another 384 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:45,480 with, with, without the weight of shame destroying us doesn't 385 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:49,200 mean we're never going to feel ashamed when we do bad stuff. 386 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,640 We ought to feel ashamed. But the shame doesn't have to 387 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,200 own us and control us. The shame doesn't have to 388 00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:57,480 destroy us. I don't know why you. 389 00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:01,040 I was one of those kids that at times I was shamed growing up. 390 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:04,640 And there were times and I was the one doing the shame, I'm 391 00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,880 ashamed to say, but I had stuff. There were things about me 392 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:13,040 people made fun of. I had at one point really 393 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,280 massive overbite and people made fun of that. 394 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,960 I have a weird shaped sternum points out in the middle. 395 00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:22,640 I've gained enough weight you don't notice it anymore. 396 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:29,160 I got made fun of for that was was would not hated going to the 397 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:31,800 pool or going to the beach because I didn't want people to 398 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,720 see my weirdness. People made fun of it. 399 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:40,280 I didn't like that. There's no place for that kind 400 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,080 of shame in the Kingdom of God where we embarrass and humiliate 401 00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:46,280 people. That kind of shame maybe, maybe 402 00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:50,120 not punishment, but domination. We use shame to put people in 403 00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:54,000 their place and control them. Also a toxic use of shame. 404 00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:59,360 But that doesn't mean shame itself is bad shame. 405 00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:03,240 Shame is a gift that God has given us to help us recognize 406 00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:07,960 when we have gone too far or when we have failed to go far 407 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:15,600 enough, when we have crossed a line or violated a relationship 408 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:19,800 in some way that we ought to feel bad about. 409 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:24,040 But with God, the motivation, the reason for the shame is 410 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:27,840 always to say it's not enough that you feel bad about it now 411 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:30,440 you need to repent. You need to turn away from it 412 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,960 and come back to me and start doing things my way. 413 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:38,880 This is the invitation that we have from Jesus. 414 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,120 This is the example we have from Jesus's great grandmother, 415 00:26:43,120 --> 00:26:47,520 Tamar. Jesus, like Tamar, humbled 416 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,880 himself to invite us to repent and live up to our covenant 417 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:55,760 obligations, the obligations we have to care for the people in 418 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:59,080 this world around us, our family and our neighbors. 419 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:03,200 That question who, who? Who do I love? 420 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:05,280 Jesus? Who am I required to love? 421 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:07,000 You say love is the most important commandment. 422 00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:10,720 Who am I required to love and who am I free to not? 423 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,440 Love was the other part of the unspoken part of that question. 424 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:15,520 You can't possibly mean everyone. 425 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:20,200 And then Jesus told that story, the Good Samaritan where the 426 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:24,560 priest and the Sunday school teacher passed the injured man 427 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,960 by because they didn't want to soil their hands by dealing with 428 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:32,120 an unclean person. And then they hated Samaritan 429 00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:36,080 came and he helped the man and he took him to an end and he 430 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:39,840 provided with him with shelter and food and medical care to 431 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:41,640 cover all of his expenses and more. 432 00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:52,920 And Jesus flipped the question from who do I have to love to 433 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:55,680 who can I love? And he said, who was the 434 00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:03,240 neighbor to that man who was really his neighbor, the 435 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:07,240 Samaritan, the one that did the good thing with the person in 436 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:10,600 need, that provided the help that the person in need needed 437 00:28:11,360 --> 00:28:15,840 real, practical, tangible help. And those are the covenant 438 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:20,240 obligations that we have as Jesus followers to provide help, 439 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,000 to provide aid, to provide assistance, to provide a love, 440 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:27,080 to provide shelter, to provide care, to guard people, spotty 441 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:31,240 soul and spirit, to guard people's dignity and honor. 442 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:35,680 All right, I got time for one more Star Trek. 443 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,240 Everything Jesus did was an invitation to repentance, 444 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:46,080 redemption and restoration. Everything, everything was like 445 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,120 that. And I, no, I keep forgetting 446 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:49,320 slide. I keep forgetting. 447 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:51,600 I get aggravated because I put slides and I forget them there. 448 00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:52,800 But I'm going to read this one to you. 449 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,280 Our King, by word and example, calls us to a triumphalism 450 00:28:56,480 --> 00:29:01,400 marked by grace and humility and sacrifice, not, and never to a 451 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:05,000 triumphalism of moral superiority, conquest, or 452 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:10,320 domination. The triumph that we have. 453 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,240 There's a triumph of being able to live humbly before others, of 454 00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:19,560 showing others great grace, of sacrificing our self for the 455 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:23,480 sake of others, to lift them up and care for them and bear their 456 00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:27,160 burdens. Not to make them behave the way 457 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:31,840 we think they ought to behave, but to love them as Jesus loved 458 00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:33,800 them. Star Trek. 459 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:39,480 So Wharf had to accept this commendation. 460 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,360 There's another character in the Star Trek Next Generation 461 00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:48,720 universe, Wesley Crusher. Wesley was the youngest person 462 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:51,920 that was a regular on the show, and he was at Starfleet Academy 463 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:54,920 doing well. By the way, Wesley was a good 464 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:59,480 student, had a lot of good qualities about him and he made 465 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:02,520 the flight team at Starfleet Academy and they were going to 466 00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:04,720 perform in that graduation that year. 467 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:09,280 And as they were training, there were, I believe six of them on 468 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:11,240 the team. As they were training, there was 469 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:15,600 an accident and and one of his team mates died in the accident. 470 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:21,680 And as the investigation of the accident continued, the the 471 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:27,160 facts didn't add up. It appeared that that the the 472 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:33,120 team was doing, not doing what they said they were doing when 473 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:36,480 the accident in the crash happened, but they didn't have 474 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:40,440 enough evidence to prove it until Captain Picard, who is of 475 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,680 course Captain Picard, found out what was really going on. 476 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:47,800 He saw the evidence with a different eye, and he realized 477 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,880 that they were they were doing not the maneuvers they were 478 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:52,600 allowed to do for the final show. 479 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,760 They were doing a maneuver that had been banned from Starfleet 480 00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:59,600 Academy years ago because lots of people died. 481 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:04,760 The last time people did it, Picard did. 482 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,320 I think it's one of the best episodes of television ever. 483 00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,600 Captain Picard goes to, there's a public hearing that's 484 00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:17,840 happening for all of this. And Picard goes to Wesley and he 485 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,200 says, I know what you did. I know what happened. 486 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:26,120 Let me make this simple for you. You tell the truth or I will. 487 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:33,240 And Wesley stood up at the hearing the next day at the last 488 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:35,960 moment, and he told the truth. And it cost him. 489 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:43,040 Wesley lived with the shame of that, the shame of helping to 490 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:45,760 contribute to the death of a classmate, the shame of lying 491 00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:48,680 about it, the shame of of betraying his team mates who 492 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:50,520 were willing to continue to lie about it. 493 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:55,200 And the way Picard did that is so much like Tamar. 494 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:57,280 I almost wonder whether, you know, the writers of that 495 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,520 episode had her in mind. Because he went to Wesley 496 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:04,520 privately and he called him out for what he was doing. 497 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,960 And he let him feel the full weight of the shame, that 498 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:15,800 shameful things that he had done, the risk, the cost of life 499 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:20,000 and the lies to cover it up. He let him feel the full weight 500 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:26,840 of that, not to punish him, but to give him an opportunity to 501 00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:30,960 step in and do the right thing and be honest about it and live 502 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:37,000 with the consequences. This is what Jesus does for us. 503 00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:42,440 Whenever we feel shame, we don't need to be crushed by it. 504 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:44,320 We just need to know what to do with it. 505 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,320 We go back to God, we confess, we repent. 506 00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,680 If we need to go to another person to make it right, we go 507 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:52,880 to that other person and we make it right. 508 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:59,800 If that involves confession and repentance, and God always 509 00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:05,120 forgives, God always restores when we confess and we repent. 510 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:10,280 And that's how we call out without cancelling, as gently as 511 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,760 possible, as forceful as necessary, always leaving room 512 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:17,320 for repentance and restoration. In Jesus name, Amen.