I enjoy church signs. They give you food for thought. And sometimes for a different reason than the church intends.
This week, I saw this sign: The Bible hasn’t change. Have you?
It was clear to me the church who posted the sign intended one thing: The Bible is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And you should be too. But I was driving down the road, praying about the upcoming church wide emphasis on the Disciple Bible Study, an opportunity coming soon to learn more about God’s word. I read that sign this way: Reading the Bible ought to change you. I hope that it does. I hope it changes you regularly. I hope it changes how you relate to those around you, and how you relate to God. I hope that reading the Bible expands your understanding and raises new questions and curiosities. I hope you read and dig deeper as you return to the scriptures regularly as a well of knowledge and wisdom. May you live your life from God’s way as found in the scriptures.
As we continue our series this week from Half-truths: Did I hear your correctly? Let’s take a look at another common phrase that we think is in the scriptures and find God’s stronger hope for us.
On Saturdays, we send out a sneak-a-peak email with a preview about worship. Yesterday, I shared that Gallup poll found that 82% of us believe that “God helps those who help themselves” is a biblical truth. If you ever watched the television show with Jay Leno, people used to tell him on his segment, Jaywalking – that “God helps those who help themselves” is one of the Ten Commandments! I asked you in my Saturday sneak-a-peak, if it was in the book of Hezekiah?
I hope it comes as no surprise that there is no book of Hezekiah! There was a king Hezekiah of Judah, who did what was right in God’s eyes, and a book of Ezekiel, but is not a book of Hezekiah and “God who helps those who helps themselves” is not biblical.
So, where does this come from? Largely, we can thank Benjamin Franklin and Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1736 for cementing the concept into our Western understanding. Previous to Benjamin Franklin, some scholars believe that the concept originated with Greek mythology. This one -third truth, not even one half-truth, in fact, is in opposition to our understanding to what we understand about God.
The partial truth comes from the way in which we participate with God for our blessings. Think about your meal times. Did you ever see the 1965 movie Shenandoah? With Jimmy Stewart, father of a Virginia family at the outbreak of the Civil War, he makes a promise at the deathbed of his wife to raise the children as faithful Christians. So, Charlie Anderson takes the kids reluctantly to church and gathers them for a blessing at every evening meal.
“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’ it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for the food we’re about to eat. Amen.” (1)
While your prayer might be a bit different as you bow your head for meal blessings, we are thanking God for a capacity to earn to a living or have income, to buy groceries, for the preparation of food, and for all the hands that have touched the food as well as planet that sustains us. Our prayers and our work come together.
Our Benedictine brothers and sisters have shaped their orders around the Latin phrase, ora et labora, pray and work. (2) This has a strong foundation in working with God towards God’s ways of solutions. Trusting in Jesus does not means pray, and God will magically take care of everything else. Our faith is meant to move us into action, even as we trust in God. Part of God’s work through us is always that we have to pray and work.
“God helps those who help themselves” has some small basis in scripture, but let me further share with you the true heart of God is caring for those who cannot help themselves. This may be hard to hear, but there are times when we say this is as a way to step out of caring for our neighbors. There are indeed times when persons can not pull themselves up by their proverbial bootstraps. The holes are too deep to climb out of without help.
This Lent, seven of us from West Grove joined close to 100 participants in the poverty simulation. We were given identities complete with names, families, ages, jobs and told to navigate the resources of Chester County for a month. At the end of a simulated month, I was homeless! Even with the assistance of others, myself and other adults were not able to navigate the systems to avoid eviction, even with a job. This was a simulation for the seven of us, but reality for many people.
God calls us to help those who cannot help themselves or requires our help before they can help themselves. This is where the preponderance of scripture lies! In my distress, I cried out to the Lord, says the psalmist! Over and over again. And God heard me! God hears the cry of those in need by using those around them. It was the Levitical command to leave part of the field unharvested for the poor and immigrants to glean from the harvest. Throughout the Old and New Testament, we are called to compassion and mercy to those who can not help themselves.
Here at West Grove, we are blessed by an Emergency Aid Fund. So, often are these families, our families, our community, who have said – God has heard me! While receiving assistance on rental assistance, utility bills, and other needs, our neighbors know that God loves them through the loving presence of someone walking alongside them. Our Emergency Assistance Team, supports our neighbors and walks with them in the midst of real life, showing compassion and mercy, which is the unconditional character of God.
There are times when we can help ourselves and we should, pray and work. Other times, when people can not make without the connection and support of one another. It is there that God prompts us to help one another – we become the answers to one another’s prayers – hands and feet of God – instruments of grace. I lift my eyes up to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from you, maker of heaven and earth! Psalm 121, an ascent psalm sung on the way up the temple a reminder that God has been with us when we need God and God will be with us.
You will find, if you have not already, there are times you can not help ourselves. You do not have the strength, the knowledge, the resources. There may even be times when you think you are responsible for the situation you find yourself in. In those moments, cry out to God, the only one who can help us.
God says to us repeatedly: I am here. You matter. Your life has meaning. Nothing you have done or will do will separate us.
This is grace.
Thanks be to God for the God who helps us work and pray.
Thanks be to God who help us when we (like all of us, sometimes) cannot help ourselves.
This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
Thanks be to God, Amen.
(1) Jimmy Stewart, Shenandoah, Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, 1965.
(2) Benedict. The Rule of Saint Benedict. January 1, 2010
Old Testament Lesson
Psalm 10:14, 17-18a
Psalm 18:6, 16
Psalm 121:1-2
Psalm 10:14, 17-18a
But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief,
that you may take it into your hands;
the helpless commit themselves to you;
you have been the helper of the orphan.
O Lord, you will hear the desire of the meek;
you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear
to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed,
so that those from earth may strike terror no more.
Psalm 18:6, 16
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
He reached down from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of mighty waters.
Psalm 121:1-2
I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, May 5 ~ Saturday, May 11
Sunday: “But you do see! Indeed, you note trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands; the helpless commit themselves to you; you have been the helper of the orphan. “Psalm 10:14. Consider that the saying “God helps those who help themselves” is not biblical at all; in fact, it flies in the face of God’s desire to care well for those who need God’s most complete care.
Monday: “O Lord, you will hear the desire of the meek; you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear.” Psalm 10:17. Pray for those today who need to know that God hears the desires of their hearts, strengthens them, and God will walk with them where they are.
Tuesday: “To do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike terror no more.” Psalm 10:18. Where is God calling you to offer yourself and your resources to serve those in our community with advocacy and support?
Wednesday: “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. “Psalm 18:6. Praise be to God who gives help to all of us, especially those of us, who can not help ourselves.
Thursday: “He reached down from on high, he took me; he drew me out of mighty waters. Psalm 18:16. Pray for those who are in recovery today. May they know and lean on God’s presence and power.
Friday: “I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? “Psalm 121:1. Take time today in hills, fields, or on your porch to give ponder and give thanks for God’s goodness.
Saturday: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2. With whom do who need to share the power of God’s presence and help in your life?