Something to Brag About

When I was growing up in Texas, we had a little book called Texas Brags.  It had all kinds of BIGGEST and BEST stories any son or daughter of the Lone Star State could brag about.

We Texans always like to boast about the size of the state.  You know the story about a salesman from Chicago who was out in El Paso at the far western tip of Texas.  The home office knew the guy was in Texas.  So, without looking at a map, they sent a text message--telling their man in El Paso to see a client in Texarkana.  Now, Texarkana is on the east side of Texas, adjoining Arkansas and Louisiana, as the name suggests: Texarkana.  The salesman out in El Paso got out his map, determined he was nine hundred miles or so away from Texarkana.  His text message response to Chicago told them, “Call on them yourselves.  Chicago is closer to Texarkana than El Paso is!”

The western border of Texas is closer to to Pacific Ocean than it is to Port Arthur, Texas, on the Gulf Coast.  The eastern border of Texas is nearer the Atlantic Ocean than it is to El Paso in the west  (World Book 7988).

Yes, I grew up in a proud state, a state which could boast of many things, not the least of which was our size.  Then while I was away from Texas, attending seminary in Kentucky and not minding things back home closely enough, Congress let Alaska slip in and eclipse Texas as the largest state.  As much as I hate to admit it, Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas in total mileage.

But when Alaska was admitted to the Union in 1959, we Texans lost a major reason for boasting.  We we can longer boast about being the BIGGEST state.  Still BEST, but no longer BIGGEST.

In this Thanksgiving season, we’re looking at words from the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 9, verses 23-24, which point to things we may mistakenly brag or give thanks for and three things worthy of bragging about.

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD." 

This passage really outlines itself:

First of all, we see three things which are not true cause for boasting:

Wisdom

Might or human strength

Wealth or riches

There’s nothing wrong with any one of these: wisdom, bodily strength, or wealth.

And there’s nothing wrong with all three in combination.  But Jeremiah warns, if we boast in any or all of these apart from God, they can replace God in our thoughts and affections.

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.

T. E. Lawrence, who became known as Lawrence of Arabia, tells of an experience in the Arabian desert during World War One.  He and some Arab chieftains were sitting around a campfire out under the stars.

One of the Arabs looked through Lawrence’s binoculars to the heavens and asked, “And the stars -- what are they?”  This led to a discussion of suns out beyond suns and of how greater telescopes would reveal yet greater expanses of the universe with thousand and thousands of stars as yet unseen.  One of the men said, of such visual exploration of space, “When we see them all, there will be no night in heaven.”  This man felt that astronomers were moving dangerously close to conquering all knowledge, not realizing that, in a few more decades, men would walk on the moon and send cameras to explore the planets of our solar system.

This Arab chieftain was concerned that the probing mind of man would destroy the mystery of the universe when he said, “When we see them all, there will be no night in heaven.” 

Though some people think there is danger in knowing too much, we recall Luke’s listing (10:27) of the Great Commandment:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.

If we would love God with all our minds, we should keep open to learning as much as possible.    

Someone said: "The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder."

In other words, the more we learn, the more we can stand in awe of the greatness of God. 

Many Christians are afraid science will wreck their faith, and there are scientists who are agnostics or atheists.  But many devout Christian men and women with advanced degrees in science look to God as the Creator of the universe.  These men and women track the workof the Almighty through the heavens and into the depth of the seas where life began.

Science and religion take separate paths toward explaining the origins of life.  The Bible is not a book of science, so we should not look to Genesis as a detailed account of how the world was formed.  It should not trouble us if scientists tell us the world is billions of years old.  Genesis tells us WHO created everything.  Science seeks to explain HOW it all began.  These need not conflict.

God takes no pleasure in those who glory in their own wisdom to the exclusion of God.  Neither does God put a premium on ignorance.  It is as much an abuse of our minds to let them rust through disuse as to think we have reached such a high level of intellect that we no longer need God.

          A young man came into my office one day at what is now Anderson University and asked me this question: "Mr. Webb, can you tell me some books it would be safe for me to read?"  He was afraid he might read something that would make him think.

         Another similar incident:  I didn't hear this myself, but it was told by a seminary professor who was visiting a Baptist  meeting.  A preacher prayed this prayer: "Lord, I thank Thee that I am igno-RUNT.  Lord, make me ignoRUNTER."  The professor said, "The prayer was answered on the spot!"

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might.

One of the most enduring friendship of my life reached all the way back to seminary, across nearly fifty years. As a young man, Bill Bridges had much to be proud of, to glory in.  Tall, energetic, smart, and musically talented.   He could find music in people who didn’t know they had any.  He had a flair for the dramatic.  I saw him charm an audience at a big Baptist meeting.  His college singers standing in the aisles of a church, their song echoing back and forth between those in one aisle and those in the other.  Then they marched to the platform singing a rousing number.  Before the choir was through, we were in a meditative mood with “Near to the Heart of God.”  Another time, he had swarms of grade school children, singing as they paraded around a church sanctuary representing animals on Noah’s ark.

But in late middle age, Bill was wracked with Parkinson’s disease.  From that point, I watched for several years as this cruel disease ate away at his body, mind, and spirit, I was in his room at Hospice House the night before he died.  This once-robust man had nothing left to glory in.

As we think of glorying in might, we need to move beyond individual human strength to national and international reliance on the strength of battle and nuclear warheads.  Our national leaders send young men and women by the tens of thousands to Iraq and Afghanistan, always with the threat of using greater weapons than we currently use.  We threaten Iran and Syria, using our great arsenal of nuclear destruction to discourage these smaller countries from developing weapons such as those we already possess in abundance.  We supply Israel with the weapons they are using against their enemies.

With war all around us, we need to hear again this second reminder from Jeremiah:

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might.

There is a basic contradiction in this land.  Many people insist we are a Christian nation.  Yet, our leaders build up weapons systems in preparation for blowing our enemies off the face of the earth.  If you must build your strategic systems, don’t build them in the name of the Prince of Peace.

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches

When you hear the warning, let not the rich man glory in his riches, you may feel that warning doesn’t apply to you.  But you don’t have to be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet for this to apply to you.

In the play Driving Miss Daisy, the chauffeur tells Miss Daisy that she is rich.  Miss Daisy is, in fact, quite well off.  But she doesn’t like to admit this.  Instead, she recalls growing up in downtown Atlanta on Forsyth Street when her parents had to scrimp and save.  But when the play takes place, Miss Daisy is wealthy and definitely does NOT have to squeeze every penny from every dollars in order to survive.

Whether our funds are modest or moderate or megabucks, we can readily fall into the trap of worrying about whether our funds will hold out.  We can come to rely on money as our source of strength.  Hear again the cautions:

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD

I confess that as I read those last words, I am caught up short.

but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD

To what extent can I truly say I understand God?

To what extent can I truly say I know God?

When I stop to focus on understanding and knowing God, I have to say with the spiritual: Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

What do I as a mere man understand about the God who made the heavens and the earth?

What do I as a mere man know about the God who loves me and forgives me and saves me?

I’ve been a Christian more than sixty-seven years, and I understand and know more about God than I did when, as boy of nearly eleven, I trusted my life to Christ the best I understood and knew.  But all my understanding, my knowledge, is the proverbial  drop in the bucket!

Job in the depth of unearned suffering declares God is the One who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number (9:10).

Paul in Romans (11:33-35), pondering the ways of God from a different perspective, makes a similar statement:

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord,  or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him  that he might be repaid?"

When I think of bragging about understanding and knowing God, it may be like the only time we’ve been in Paris.  We went to the Louvre museum one Sunday afternoon maybe an hour before they closed.  We wound up virtually running through the halls to see some of the best-known art: da Vinci’s painting of Mona Lisa and the armless statue Venus de Milo.   But I cannot boast of any real understanding of the Louvre and its contents.  I would have to go back time after time after time in order to have any real understanding and knowledge of that museum.

  

We can only see a little of the ocean

As we stand on the wave-beaten shore,

But out beyond the eye’s horizon,

There’s more.  There’s more.

We can only see a little of God’s love

As we stand on this earthly shore.

But out beyond the eye’s horizon,

There’s more.  There’s more.

But the word from God through Jeremiah gives us clues for knowing and understanding God.  Let’s read the two verses again.  Notice three things God says He does which help us to know Him:

practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth

Here are the verses:

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD." 

If we know the God of steadfast love, justice, and righteousness, then we have cause to boast.

First, consider steadfast love.

Human examples can help us understand divine qualities.  One example of steadfast love is the experience of  Don Francisco.  Today,  Don Francisco is a Christian recording artist, a real-life version of the Prodigal Son.  His story fascinates me because I knew him long before he gained any fame.  Don wouldn’t remember me, but I worked with him in the Baptist boys’ organization, Royal Ambassadors, when I was a seminary student and Don was a little ten-year-old boy with a flattop haircut.  Don’s daddy, Dr. Clyde Francisco, was one of my professors at the seminary I attended in Louisville.  We had Royal Ambassadors on campus for the sons of students and professors.

I lost track of most of those boys.  But about twenty years after I graduated from seminary, I came across a newspaper story about Don Francisco.  It was a bittersweet story.  When Don became a musician, he went the rock music route and was involved in much of the negatives we often associate with rock.  He said of himself, “I did everything but kill somebody.”

He began his music career with a guitar that cost him two dollars and ninety-five cents.  His rebellious streak led him through six different majors during his unsuccessful college attempts before he turned to music as a major and a career.

As a young man trying to make it in music, Don Francisco was often in trouble and financial difficulty.  He said his dad was always ready to help when he turned back home for help.  He said:

"I’ve run into people my father [knew] who prayed with him for me. I could be out raising hell and get myself in a jam, and call him up, and ask for money, and he’d always give it to me" (White).

Don Francisco said his father’s constant support and love helped him learn to appreciate God’s constant love. Here’s a P. S. to the Don Francisco story.  He was associated with Bill and Gloria Gaither for a time.  Then he went out on his own and continues his faithful musical witness.

Again, a classic modern-day Prodigal Son story, illustrating God’s steadfast love, which is worth boasting about.

If we know the God of justice, then we have cause to boast.

Other Hebrew prophets sounded the trumpet call for justice on behalf of the needy.

Amos berated the well-heeled who took advantage of the poor, cheating them in their purchases by giving less than they should get for the purchase price (8:4-6).  Forsake such abuse.  Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (5:24).

Micah, in the same period as Amos, calls out, 

He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you  but to do justice, and to love kindness,  and to walk humbly with your God?

Jesus declares that His kingdom will be made up of those who feed hungry people, who give drink to the thirsty, who give clothes to the naked, who show hospitality to strangers, who visit prisoners (Matthew 25:31ff).

We have responsibility as individuals to see to the needs of the people around us.  We also have responsibility as the richest nation on God’s earth for employers to increase the minimum wage and for our government to use tax money to provide for the needy through health care.

Jim Wallis with the Sojourners movement points out there are more than two thousand references to the poor and needy in the Bible.  We sin when we fail to work for justice among the neediest.    But we can boast in understanding and knowing  some of God’s love and justice as we share in helping the poor and he oppressed through government spending, through our church contributions, and through personal hands of love and justice.

Third, if we know the God of  righteousness, then we have cause to boast.

A truly righteous person is a good person whose life reflects his values.   I had a boss some years ago who liked to tell about a woman who praised her pastor.  She complimented the minister for his preaching, for his personal counseling, and for other work he did.  Then, after listing all these qualities, she added, “And he’s a good man, too!”   My boss told that story often, and it always drew a laugh.  But it reminds us:  Simply being a preacher does not make a man or woman good.  We cannot boast in our own righteousness but, rather, we can boast in the goodness of God.

The song, “The Solid Rock,” says, “Dressed in His righteousness alone . . . On Christ the solid Rock I stand.  All other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand” (Mote).

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord. 

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SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT---SOURCES

Edward Mote, “The Solid Rock,” The Baptist Hymnal.  Nashville, Tenn.: Convention Press, 1991, Hymn No. 406.

“Texas,” World Book, Volume 16..  Chicago: Field Enterprise Educational Corporation, 1958 Edition.

Gayle White, “Prodigal Son Takes ‘Ministry’ Of Gospel Song,” The Atlanta Constitution, , September 29, 1979.  Page number not recorded.