August 31, 2003
By Jack Price

            When Jesus took the mound and delivered the first Sermon on the Mound, (in relief of John the Baptist? Or maybe Moses?) he finished up by saying something along the lines of "anyone he gets it and does it is pretty wise (as wise as a person who builds away from the beach and on a solid foundation."  On the other hand, anyone who gets it and doesn't do it is pretty foolish (as foolish as a person who chooses to live in a sandcastle.)  How wise you are is reflected in your doing more than anything else.  So, the summary of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount can be reduced to the slogan of a company that makes athletic equipment:  "Just do it."

The New Testament epistle call James is one of those books that almost did not make it into the Bible.  Just at the last minute, with the barest majority possible, the church decided that James ought to be part of the Christian Bible.  How wise they were.  In James there is a very practical and very powerful theological message summarized in today's scripture (James 1: 22-25).

²² .Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. ²³ For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; ²⁴ for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. ²⁵ But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-they will be blessed in their doing.

            The epistle of James provides us a way to take a very practical look at discipleship and take stock of the spiritual growth taking place in our lives.  This passage in particular stresses the importance of being "doers of the Word and not hearers only."  It's the "doing it" that cuts, shapes, and polishes the jewel that is each of us.  We are like "diamonds in the rough" that God is cutting and polishing into beautiful and precious jewels.

            As we stand on this field of dreams, it is itself a diamond in the rough.  Built on a dream, the baseball diamond now serves as a place for making children's dreams come true, for raising money in support of valuable ministries on their behalf, and again today as a place for Crossroads Church to gather in worship and to celebrate Spirit and community.  I am reminded of another diamond in the rough, a baseball kind. Sandy Koufax was a hard-throwing, left-handed pitching prospect who was at the end of his rope.  He had great stuff and all sorts of potential, but couldn't get the ball over the plate.  In addition, he suffered from painful arthritis in his pitching elbow.  Just when his promising career seemed about to fall apart, Sandy learned that, if he didn't try to throw every pitch as hard as he could that he got a lot more pitches over the plate.  That change, and his ritual of icing down his elbow daily, especially after pitching, resulted in Sandy Koufax becoming the dominant pitcher of his generation in baseball - a baseball gem!

            Biblical history is filled with people whose lives required a whole lot of shaping, and cutting, polishing to shine as brightly as we see them now.  Sarai was a young wife adjusting to life with her new husband Abram in suburbs of the big city of Ur.  Her name meant "my princess" or "my daughter," which underscored that she was the possession first of her father, then of her husband.  Her life seemed to open before her with a home, husband, and the expectation of children.  Then some unexpected things happened to Sarai.  Her husband came home one day and announced he had accepted a call to move.  He wasn't sure just where they would eventually land, but it was God who had extended the invitation, so it would turn out okay.  All he knew was that they would be leaving the comforts of home and heading out into the wilderness.  Along the way, they got into lots of scrapes and frightening situations.  Finally, despite her fondest wishes, it appeared that she would never be able to have children.  Life looked pretty bleak for Sarai.  She tried to make the best of it - gave her handmaid to be a surrogate mother, but jealousy led her to banish Hagar and her young son Ishmael.  Finally, she was given a child, Isaac, and also a new name Sarah.  Instead of "my princess" her new name meant "Princess" and "daughter of God."  She and Abraham did arrive at their Promised Land.  The rough road was indeed a refining process for Sarah, shaping her many facets and polishing her legacy in the community of faith.

            Sarah had a grandson, one of a pair of twins.  He was a real troublemaker - Jacob.  From the beginning, he was clawing and grabbing for what he could get.  They named him "Deceiver and Supplanter" because at birth he was clutching to pull his older twin back into the womb, to have the status of oldest son for himself.  But his brother Esau was born first.  Their competition and conflict led to heartbreak and Jacob swindled Esau first out of his birthright, then out of their father's blessing.  In the wilderness of exile, Jacob encountered the living God of his fathers.  He had a vision of the stairway to heaven, long before Led Zeppelin.  We sing of climbing Jacob's ladder.  He followed the Spirit to find his wife.  Jacob was himself then deceived and swindled by his new father-in-law into working seven years to marry Rachel.  Then, finding himself married to the older (and not so beautiful) sister of his beloved, he worked another seven years to marry Rachel.  Then, as a wealthy man, he returned to face Esau.  The night before their reunion, or perhaps confrontation, Jacob wrestled with the Lord - likely also with his own conscience, and greeted the dawn with a limp and a clear sense of direction.  From all this, Jacob became a shining jewel whose name was changed to Israel.  His children's children fill the remaining pages of the Bible.

Ruth was not a child of Israel.  She was a foreigner from the land of Moab who married an Israelite living in Moab because of famine.  Her husband's brother also married a Moabite woman.  Both brothers died and their mother Naomi prepared to return to her home near Bethlehem.  Her daughters-in-law prepared to go with her out of loyalty and in accordance with tradition, but Naomi insisted they stay and find new husbands among their own people.  With reluctance, Orpah stayed, but Ruth clung to her mother-in-law.   In the dust of her grief, her vision was clear.  Her words reflect the deepest and most profound example of committed love in the sparkling and precious devotion of Ruth herself: 

Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!  Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge;

Your people will be my people, and your God my God.

Where you die, I will die -there will I be buried.

            Ruth returned with Naomi and, among the people of Israel, found a new husband Boaz.  Ruth became the mother of son as recounted in the conclusion of the Old Testament book of Ruth.  "The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, 'A son has been born to Naomi.'  They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David the king of Israel."

            None of these people waited until they were ready to do what life challenged them to do.  They responded to life's challenges and acted.  That action is what really initiated the process of shaping and polishing that makes them shine in our sight today.

            Modern psychological thought now underscores the importance of "doing."  Traditionally, people in therapy have sought to understand their issues with the belief that understanding leads to action.  The truth is that more often action leads to understanding.  Begin the act in the way you think is right, and your feelings will follow.  Understanding is important, but the key is to act.  Jesus says, "Anyone who hears these words of mine and does them" is wise.  Do the Word and the feeling will follow.  The cuts, scrapes, and wounds that inevitably come will just as inevitable become our strength, our resilience, and our beauty. 

            The story is told by the well-known poet Robert Bly about a young man who, upon getting out of the army, went seeking employment.  The market was tight and so he took a job chopping wood.  This is a mythic-type story and so, of course, he had to chop this wood for seven years and do it underground!  At the end of seven years, he came to his employer for his wages only to learn that his wages were to be all the sawdust from the wood he had chopped for seven years.  He was naturally disappointed.  So, the man, who was not so young now, gathered up his wages in two large bags and headed for the surface.  When he returned to the world on the surface, he discovered that all the sawdust had turned to gold.

This is true for most of us as well.  Life's truest wages are the direct result of our labor, especially the underground labor of living with integrity and learning how and what to value highly.  The results of struggling with life's challenges and embracing the values of discipleship, justice, and shalom are lots of sawdust in our pockets.  But when we face the worst that life throws at us - loss, grief, betrayal, death - what seemed to be the sawdust of dismal discipline becomes solid gold.

            Crossroads Church, like each one of us, is a diamond in the rough.  Some of us are rougher than others, but all of us, individually and communally are precious gems of God's creation.  The disappointments, betrayals, and conflicts, as well as the joy, excitement, and shared dreams that have characterized our life together are shaping us into multi-faceted and highly polished gems in the treasure chest of God.

It is challenging to be "church" these days, even in a well-established congregation.  We are members of churches and also members of a culture torn by war, racial strife, and greed.  How difficult it is to be truth-tellers when churches themselves tend to lack credibility in our culture.  If we are to speak to others about Gospel truths, we ourselves need to learn to measure success by other than numbers - numbers of people and numbers of dollars!

As a young congregation, we at Crossroads Church are, in some ways, still seeking our stride.  As we approach a fifth anniversary of congregational life, many of the initial energies of formation and birthing have been spent.  As we look ahead, the realities of being church in the "long haul" are becoming clearer.  During these years, we've lost some members even as some have joined us.  As we stand here and wonder about our future, let me encourage each of you and all of us to take confidence in our original call to be church.  Let us place ultimate confidence in the God who called this church into being.  Let us also be encouraged by the testimony of other "diamonds in the rough" whose stories can inspire us.

            It is hard to imagine anyone who faced more of life's challenge and hardship than Helen Keller.  She was born with multiple handicaps.  Late in life, she wrote these words to encourage us:  "I thank God for my handicaps; for through them I have found myself, my work, and my God."  So, let us find a way to thank God for our challenges and our shortcomings; for through them we will indeed find ourselves, our identity, our mission, and our God.