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Grace, mercy and peace be to you …
Last Sunday we talked about a dog’s life … about how the proper application of the Law in training up a dog’s behavior involves the use of treats and scolding’s, rewards and punishments. We also noted that we human beings are a bit more complicated when it comes to our motivations and behaviors.
Let’s look at that a bit more. Let me take you back a few years … back when most kids attended the school in their own neighborhood. Public elementary schools, at least, were close enough that you could walk or ride your bike… even for 1st graders.
So, let me introduce you to a public school sixth grader we’ll call Mike. Now, mom’s job or dad’s job back then was simply to see that you got out the door so that you had enough time to get to school before the let-you-into-the-building bell rang.
Well, Mike, being a bit rebellious, wasn’t that keen on getting to school with the rest of his classmates. He liked to mess around … take the long way … show up after everybody was already in the building and just barely make it to his seat before the second bell, the tardy bell, rang.
Well, Mike’s timing wasn’t the best for a few days and he ended up sauntering into his classroom on those occasions a few minutes late.
So, off to the principal’s office he was sent. You know what happened there… Punishments. And notes home … which meant more punishments.
Well … for a few weeks after that, Mike was on time … but slowly but surely … his old ways were back again … He was one tardy away from being sent to the principal’s office again.
But then something happened that changed the whole picture. It was announced that students from the sixth grade were going to be selected to be patrol-boys or patrol-girls. Their job was to stand at specific street corners that had stop lights to make sure that the students that were walking to school obeyed the lights and got safely across the street.
These patrol students would get special traffic training … and they would be issued an official patrol-belt: a wide white belt with an-across-the-shoulder strap that would identify them to both students and drivers alike.
“Aw! Too cool,” was Mike’s reaction. “I’ve got to be one of those.” He immediately volunteered to be selected … but … his teacher informed him that his tardiness record was going to be a problem. Patrol students had to be at their posts half-an-hour before the start of school. And any infraction of that would mean immediate dismissal from the patrol ranks. And spot checks were made all the time.
But Mike begged, “Oh, please, please let me be one of these… I’ll be on time … I promise!” Well, grace won the day. Mike was given the chance. He got his training and his belt … and assigned his corner.
And afterward, the school’s spot checks found Mike dutifully on his corner at least 40 minutes before the start of school each and every day.
So, why did Mike’s behavior make such a big change? That’s what we want to talk about this morning …
There’s an observation of human nature that’s taught in supervisory training. Treating an employee like we might our dog by rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior might achieve our purposes for a little while, but before long the old behavior will reestablish itself.
Like punishing Mike for being late to school … it worked for a while … but soon the punishment sort of became, “Oh, hum … what else is new?”
A formula is taught that goes like this: Our basic internal values, those things that we hold to be most dear … drive our attitudes … which then ultimately direct our behavior.
And so … if our values and attitudes toward being on time don’t change… it’s hard to change the behavior they foster.
So why did Mike’s attitude toward being on time change? It was because being on time suddenly became connected to something of value to him personally … being a patrol boy. For THAT he’d make sure he was 10 minutes early.
That change came about because timeliness, for Mike, had become something of highest value to him.
So, why are we talking about this? … Because God is calling us to perhaps make some changes in our own behavior.
We hear again these words, these imperatives, in 1 Thessalonians 5 for today … “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. Pray tell, how would you ever use rewards or punishments to get someone to demonstrate this kind of behavior?
Tell them: “Rejoice! Or I’ll send you to the principal.” or “Give thanks or I’ll make you sorry that you’re not thankful” Absurd, right?
So … if these are the behaviors that God is desiring from us… well let’s work backwards, shall we? … what attitudes of our hearts would drive that kind of behavior on our part?… and then… what values would give birth to those attitudes?
Well, you can imagine that we’d have to have positive, God thanking praying and praising attitudes…
What would give birth to those kinds of attitudes? Just one thing. The gospel of Jesus Christ. The realization that once we were lost … but now we are found. That our treasures are in heaven and they cannot spoil or fade as we await the deliverance which is ours in Christ Jesus.
The key is not to just know the facts of the Gospel, “Jesus died for me.” But to personally embrace it … so that it becomes who we are. We become walking, talking expressions of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
Yes, Pastor, but … I’m a Christian. I love Jesus. I embrace the Gospel … but honestly … I’m not always rejoicing… I’m not always giving thanks for all the things that happen to me … and I’m not constantly in prayer. Is there something wrong with me or my faith??
Well, here’s the short answer. The saint in you has indeed embraced the gospel as you claim … you have received God’s gift of His Holy Spirit… You are God’s child in faith. Heaven is your eternal home.
And yet … as you live on this earth you are still a sinner. A forgiven sinner, yes. But sin colors your response to the gospel since sin really would put yourself ahead of God on the throne of your heart.
So what’s the answer to that problem? Just try harder? Put up signs on your refrigerator … your bathroom mirror …”Rejoice” “Pray” “Give thanks”??
Those kinds of things might work for a while … but what you’re really trying to do, then, is change your behavior for behavior’s sake. Like Mike’s tardiness to school, trying to change that behavior on its own without addressing the attitudes and values behind it… just won’t take.
So… we have to go to the source. To our values. To what is meaningful to us… to the root of our behaviors. How do we change those? Well, we enlist God’s help.
Truth is, ultimately, God is the change agent. Yet, we can’t cop an attitude that ignores our responsibility, either … We can’t say, “You want to me to behave like that, God? Go ahead, make it happen. I’ll just watch.”
If you’re really serious about desiring to have an attitude of joy and thankfulness, a desire to have an attitude of prayer … those things won’t happen unless you give God the chance to make the change in you.
And so, with all things of the human heart, it begins with honest confession and absolution. The saint in us wants to rejoice always, be thankful in all circumstances and be always in a prayerful attitude toward God … but … the sinner in us has 50 ways to Sunday to derail all of our good desires and intentions.
That’s why as Paul speaks these words to us today … he speaks them as imperatives … as Law. Imperatives that act as a mirror … so we will look into that mirror of the law and see how well we are rejoicing always … giving thanks in all circumstances … being constant in prayer.
The sinner in us cannot find excuse … we each are condemned. Especially as the call is for perfection …to act this way … always, constantly, in all circumstances … there’s no room for “almost good enough.”
And so as we confess our “missing the mark” before our heavenly Father… and hear His complete forgiveness of all our sins for the sake of Jesus Christ … His Spirit is now able to fill our hearts with the right kind of values … which give birth to the right kind of attitudes which then drive the Godly behaviors which are God’s will for us in Jesus Christ.
It’s His love in us that produces rejoicing, thanksgiving, and a desire for constant prayer. It’s the gospel at work in our hearts, then, that’s shaping our attitudes and our subsequent words and actions … our behavior.
And if you don’t believe me … here’s the clincher … at the end of our reading for today … as He is referring not only to our salvation but also to our behavior in Christ Jesus, St. Paul says,
“He who calls you is faithful, and He will surely do it.”
And so in this season of preparation … this advent: Rejoice … give thanks and praise! … for your life is indeed in Him and with Him,
Now and forevermore. Amen.
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