Rev. Ron Sumners
July 18, 1993
I am going to say a word, and the moment I say that word, I want you to see a face, to recall a face and name, someone who comes to your mind when I say the word. Are you ready?
The word is bitter. Do you see a face? I see a face. I see the face of a. farmer in Lowndes County, Alabama, riding a tractor, burning gasoline; purchased on credit, plowing rented land, waiting for rain, rearranging the dust. Bitter!
Do you see a face? I see the face of a man who has worked for the same company for 28 years . He's 49 years old. One day the company tells him that they are phasing out that area of their production and his job will be terminated. Who will hire a .9 year old man? Bitter!
I see the faces of a young couple. 'They seem to be about 19. They are standing in the airport terminal holding hands so tightly their knuckles are white. She's pregnant; he’s dressed in Air Force Blue. They are not talking, just standing and looking at each other. The loud speaker announces his flight and he slowly moves toward the gate. She stands there alone, there is no wedding ring. Bitter!
Do you see a face? I see a young minister in a small town. He lives with his wife and two small children in a cracker box of a house the church calls a parsonage. It's Saturday morning. There is a knock at the door. He answers and there standing before him on the porch is the chairman of his deacons, who is also president of the local bank, and also owns most of the land in the county. The man has in his hands a small television. It is an old television; small screen, black and white. It is badly scarred and one of the knobs is off. He says, "My wife and I got a new 42 inch color set, but they wouldn't take this one in on trade, so I said to my wife, We'll just give it to our "little" preacher. The young minister looks up, tries to smile and say thanks. But I want you to see his face. Bitter!
Do you see a face? I see the faces of a family. They are sitting at home today. Once they sat here, worshipping with you. What happened to them? Who knows exactly! Maybe they got their feelings hurt. Maybe they were disillusioned by turmoil in the church. Maybe they just fell through the cracks and some need for ministry in their life went unanswered by the church. For whatever the reason, they are not here. I want you to see their faces. Bitter!
Will you look at one other face? His name is Saul, Saul of Tarsus. We call him Paul. He was young and intelligent, committed to the traditions of his fathers, strong and zealous for his nation and for his religion, outstripping all of his classmates in his zeal for his people. While he pursues his own convictions, there develops within the bosom of Judaism a new group called Nazarenes; followers of Jesus. They seem, at first, to pose no threat; after all, Judaism had tolerated a number of groups such as Pharisees and Sadducees and Essenes and Zealots, so why not Nazarenes? As long as they continue in the temple and the synagogue, there's no problem.
But before long, among these new Christians a different sound is heard. Some of the young radicals are beginning to say that Christianity is not just for the Jews but for anyone who believes in Jesus. Such was the preaching of Stephen and Phillip and others. They said that it really didn't matter if your background was Jewish as long as you trust in God and believe in Jesus Christ. This startling word hits the ear of young Saul. "What do they mean, it doesn't matter? It does matter! It is the most important thing of all. No young preachers can stand and say that thousands of years of mistreatment and exile and burden, of trying to be true to God, of struggling in a dark and pagan world means nothing. What do they mean it doesn't matter to have your heritage mocked? Of course, it matters!"
Imagine yourself the only child of your parents. When you are 17 years old the family adopts a 17 year old brother for you. When you are both 18, your father says at breakfast one morning, "I have just had the lawyers draw up the papers. I am leaving the family business to my two sons." How would you feel? This other fellow just got here. Where was he when I was mowing the lawn, cleaning the room, trying to pass the ninth grade, being refused the family car on Friday night? And now that I am 18, I suddenly have this brother out of nowhere and he is to share equally? Would you be saying, "Isn't my father generous?" Not likely!
Then imagine how young Saul feels. Generations and generations and generations of being the people of God, and now someone, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, gets the strange idea that it doesn't matter anymore; that Jews arid gentiles are alike. . You must sense how Saul feels. All your family and national traditions, all that you have ever known and believed erased, completely. Every moment in school, every belief held dear, now meaningless, everything that grandfather, father and now you believe, gone. Of course, Paul must stop it! The dark cloud of his brooding bitterness forms a tornado funnel over the small church, and he strikes it, seeking to destroy it. Destroy it in the name of his fathers, in the name of his country and in the name of God. Isn't it a paradox that Paul wanted to destroy the church of God in the name of God? Not so strange; I have seen it happen again and again in Baptist churches.
Why is Saul so bitter at this announcement of the universal embrace of all people in the name of God? Do you know what I believe? I believe that he is bitter and disturbed because he is at war with himself over this very matter. And anyone who is at war with himself will make casualties even out of friends and loved ones. He is uncertain, and it is the uncertain person who becomes a persecutor.
Saul knows God loves all creation. Saul has read the Bible. He has read the marvelous book of Ruth, in which the ancestor of David is presented as a Moabite woman, a Gentile. Certainly, God loves other peoples. He has read the book of Jonah and the expressed love of God for people that Jonah himself does not love. Paul has read the book of Isaiah and the marvelous vision of the house of God into which all nations flow. It is in the Bible. Then what is his problem? His problem is the same one that you and I have sometimes. It is one thing to know something in your head, it's another thing to know it in your heart. And often the battle to get something from head to heart is fierce. The longest trip we ever make is the trip from a head knowledge to a heart understanding. And until that trip is complete we live in great pain and turmoil of spirit. We might even lash out at others!
Do you know anyone bitter like this; bitter that what they are fighting is what they know is right? They are trapped in the impossible battle of trying to stop the inevitable victory of truth. You can hear their bitter retorts, "!'can't tithe, all that church ever does is ask for money!" "What do you mean teach a class, I'm too busy to obligate myself1" "I can worship God just as well at the lake as I can at church!" All these are clever attacks to cover up the battle that is raging inside against the truth that has to get from head to heart!
Do you know someone lashing out in criticism and hatred and violence against a person or against a group that represents the humane and caring Christian way? If you do, how do you respond? Hopefully you do not react to bitterness with bitterness. How do we respond? What do we do with the bitterness that still exists in this fellowship?
Let me tell you a story. A family is out for drive on a Sunday afternoon. It is a pleasant day and they are enjoying the scenery. Suddenly the two children begin to beat their father on the back; "Daddy, Daddy, stop the car! There's a kitten in the road!" "So, there's a kitten in the road; we are taking a drive." "But Daddy, we have to stop and pick it up." "I don't have to stop and pick it up." "But Daddy, if you don't it might die."
"Well, then it will just have to die. We don't have room for another animal. The house is a zoo already. No more animals!"
"But Daddy, are you just going to let it die?" "Be quiet children. We are trying to have a pleasant drive." "We never thought that our Daddy would be so mean and cruel as to let a little kitten die on the side of the road."
So, daddy turns around, returns to the spot and pulls off the side of the road. He goes out to pick up the little kitten. The poor creature is just skin and bones, sore-eyed and full of fleas. When the man reaches down to pick it up, with its last bit of energy the kitten arches its back, bristles up and baring tooth and claw takes a slash at the man, scratching his hand. He picks up the kitten by the loose skin at the neck, brings it back to the car and says, "Don't touch it, it probably has leprosy!'
Back home they go. When they get to the house the children give the kitten several baths, about a gallon of warm milk and plead, "Can we let it stay in the hm.1se, just tonight?" The father says, "Sure, take my bed, the house is a game preserve anyway." They fix a comfortable bed and the one night turns into several weeks. Then one day the father walks in, feels something rub against his leg, looks down and there is a cat. He reaches down toward the cat, carefully checking to see that no one sees him actually petting the cat. When the cat sees his hand, it does not bare its claws and hiss as it did that day on the road, instead it arches its back to be petted. Is that the same cat? No, it is not the same frightened, hurt, hissing, scratching kitten on the side of the road. Love had made the difference!
God wants to offer his love to all of us. He wants to reach out His hand and embrace this church. Do you see His hand? It's covered with scratches! The hands of love always are, scratched and ripped by those who are bitter. But, loving means getting those scratches in order to heal the bitterness and hurt.
Look at your hands! See any scratches? No! Maybe that's because you haven't loved like you shou1d.
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