Discernment Chapel
Welcome to our opening Chapel of the 2009-2010 school year. There’s been lots of shifting and changing taking place both in our nation and I’m guessing your lives as well. In your lives you are on a journey towards adulthood. Every day people tell you what kind of an adult you should become. But I would bet very few of you are aware of how many people are currently trying to steer your preferences: how you spend your time; what kind of music you listen to; what kind of friends you have; how you should dress; what you should eat or drink; whether to attend college; which college; what you should believe; your morality; and your political ideology to name just a few.
In our nation, divisiveness is under every stone: the war in Iraq; the health-care debate; budget issues, environmental concerns, global warming, the economy, and the latest political money and sex scandals. In these tumultuous times, it’s hard to tell peoples’ true intentions. On almost any one of these issues, both sides tell partial truths in order to manipulate you, the voter, into taking their side. How do you choose who to believe? Is the choice different for a Christian than someone else? Will the Bible tell me whether the current health care reform bill before congress is good or whether to cap carbon emissions from our coal plants? Some people talk as if this lack of honesty or the difficulty in knowing which path to choose is a new one. Yet, if Scripture has anything to say about it, people have not changed in over 4000 years. Truth is as rare a commodity today as it has always been. So how do we find this elusive truth? We use ‘Discernment’.
At first glance, the word seems simple. So straightforward, in fact, that I’ve rarely heard someone mention the issue as more than an aside in a larger discussion of the Christian life. Or, if it is talked about, it’s discussed in an over-simplified black-and-white manner. Discernment is being able to tell right from wrong… kind of. Although the statement is true, the topic is much more multi-faceted than that. Discernment is about seeing deeper into reality than most people. It’s about finding truth in what is obscured or hidden.
Today, my purpose is to broaden our current understanding of the necessity and usage of discernment in the “normal” Christian life. Perhaps later we’ll do a chapel full of applications. Maybe we’ll listen to some music together and pick it apart. Maybe we can convince Mr. Walhout to show us some movie clips and lead us through a crash course in film discernment. But all those are outside of the scope of today’s talk.
Let’s begin pushing some boundaries shall we? Listen to the proverbs and notice how the writer varies the usage of our word of the day.
Proverbs 3:21 (New International Version) 21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment,
do not let them out of your sight;
Proverbs 10:12-14 (New International Version) 12 Hatred stirs up dissension,
but love covers over all wrongs.
13 Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning,
but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.
Wisdom, judgment and love
Proverbs 14:6 (New International Version) 6 The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none,
but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.
Knowledge
Proverbs 15:14 (New International Version) 14 The discerning heart seeks knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.
Proverbs 16:20-22 (New International Version) 20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,
and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
21 The wise in heart are called discerning,
and pleasant words promote instruction. [a] Wisdom of the heart
22 Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it,
but folly brings punishment to fools. Understanding
Proverbs 17:10 (New International Version) 10 A rebuke impresses a man of discernment
more than a hundred lashes a fool.
Correction and being teachable
Proverbs 17:28 (New International Version) 28 Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent,
and discerning if he holds his tongue.
Speech
Proverbs 19:25 (New International Version) 25 Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence;
rebuke a discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.
Proverbs 28:11 (New International Version) 11 A rich man may be wise in his own eyes,
but a poor man who has discernment sees through him.
Seeing the truth in others
Notice how this simple idea of separating into the categories of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ weaves itself into what we would consider ‘wisdom’. Each of these topics—knowledge, judgment, love, understanding, correction, being teachable, language, perception—could be a chapel in themselves. Again, I simply want to whet your appetite for this topic. Let’s look at some New Testament examples.
In Hebrews, the writer briefly talks about some pretty weighty things: the priesthood of Christ and Jesus learning obedience through suffering. Then he says:
“11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14)
The writer links spiritual maturity with the ability to discern good from evil. Even this contains more nuance than most would initially believe. Just because I’m older than you doesn’t mean I’m more spiritually mature. What Paul considers “mature” has nothing to do with your number of revolutions around the sun.
Just because you can see the distortion of sin in our culture or in the people’s lives around you doesn’t mean you are spiritually mature. It also means you must actually be able to see the good and the bad. Generally, in our Christian culture, we are very adept at seeing the bad. If you look at the average person’s life, it doesn’t take a lot of discernment to see what is wrong with them. In fact, the world around us can do that decently well and we wouldn’t generally consider our spiritual culture in the U.S. “mature” in the things of Christ. A deeper level of discernment exists for the Christian.
I think the amount of discernment expected of you, the average Christian, will surprise you. It might even offend you. Let’s look at what Paul says. He’s in the middle of a discussion contrasting God’s wisdom with human wisdom and he writes:
“14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"[d] But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:14-16)
At the very end Paul quotes Isaiah 40. Isaiah asks a rhetorical question: “For who has known the mind of the Lord?”—to which the answer is obviously ‘no one’. But Paul changes the answer. “Who has known the mind of the Lord?”—us. As believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, we have access to the mind of Christ. You can know the mind of the Lord. Rather, you already have the mind of Christ living inside of you.
So how do you discern the good and the bad in a person, a movie, a sermon on Sunday morning, or this chapel? Wisdom is a part of it. Knowledge is another. Both are important. But such an answer strips the Christian life of its wonder and mystery, and most importantly, of its power—the power of redemption.
Our callings as Christians are to be Christ’s ambassadors here in this community, bringing about the Kingdom of the Lord ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. Part of that calling means we need to be able to discern the way something has been warped from its original purpose and bring it back into alignment with our Lord’s reign. You cannot run from everything tainted by sin in this world. The entire creation groans under the weight of it. But you also cannot bring something back into its intended purpose unless you can discern how God originally designed it and to what end. As a Christian, you are called to think about a situation like Jesus.
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"[d] But we have the mind of Christ.”
Mere worldly wisdom and the scientific method prove woefully insufficient at such a task. In fact, you can’t do it. You don’t have the strength, the cunning, the ability to fix what has been broken. But the Holy Spirit working through you does. Through the practice of learning to discern His voice in all situations, we can learn to discern both the good and the bad in all things. Then we will be on our way towards spiritual maturity. Then we will be about the work of enforcing Christ’s rule and redemption on a world which does not yet know why it was created or for whom it was created.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we stand in awe of the cross. You desire to redeem all that has been twisted by sin. Forgive us for limiting your work and grace to only what we approve of. We ask you to give us eyes to see and ears to hear how your Spirit is working around us. We ask for increased wisdom and discernment that we may better represent Christ. Give us the grace to see past the sin in our brothers’ and sisters’ lives that we might see the treasure you’ve hidden within. Give us the boldness to nurture and encourage the good in others. It’s as Christ’s ambassadors, as those who speak in his name, that we pray, Amen.
In our nation, divisiveness is under every stone: the war in Iraq; the health-care debate; budget issues, environmental concerns, global warming, the economy, and the latest political money and sex scandals. In these tumultuous times, it’s hard to tell peoples’ true intentions. On almost any one of these issues, both sides tell partial truths in order to manipulate you, the voter, into taking their side. How do you choose who to believe? Is the choice different for a Christian than someone else? Will the Bible tell me whether the current health care reform bill before congress is good or whether to cap carbon emissions from our coal plants? Some people talk as if this lack of honesty or the difficulty in knowing which path to choose is a new one. Yet, if Scripture has anything to say about it, people have not changed in over 4000 years. Truth is as rare a commodity today as it has always been. So how do we find this elusive truth? We use ‘Discernment’.
At first glance, the word seems simple. So straightforward, in fact, that I’ve rarely heard someone mention the issue as more than an aside in a larger discussion of the Christian life. Or, if it is talked about, it’s discussed in an over-simplified black-and-white manner. Discernment is being able to tell right from wrong… kind of. Although the statement is true, the topic is much more multi-faceted than that. Discernment is about seeing deeper into reality than most people. It’s about finding truth in what is obscured or hidden.
Today, my purpose is to broaden our current understanding of the necessity and usage of discernment in the “normal” Christian life. Perhaps later we’ll do a chapel full of applications. Maybe we’ll listen to some music together and pick it apart. Maybe we can convince Mr. Walhout to show us some movie clips and lead us through a crash course in film discernment. But all those are outside of the scope of today’s talk.
Let’s begin pushing some boundaries shall we? Listen to the proverbs and notice how the writer varies the usage of our word of the day.
Proverbs 3:21 (New International Version) 21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment,
do not let them out of your sight;
Proverbs 10:12-14 (New International Version) 12 Hatred stirs up dissension,
but love covers over all wrongs.
13 Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning,
but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.
Wisdom, judgment and love
Proverbs 14:6 (New International Version) 6 The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none,
but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.
Knowledge
Proverbs 15:14 (New International Version) 14 The discerning heart seeks knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.
Proverbs 16:20-22 (New International Version) 20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,
and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
21 The wise in heart are called discerning,
and pleasant words promote instruction. [a] Wisdom of the heart
22 Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it,
but folly brings punishment to fools. Understanding
Proverbs 17:10 (New International Version) 10 A rebuke impresses a man of discernment
more than a hundred lashes a fool.
Correction and being teachable
Proverbs 17:28 (New International Version) 28 Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent,
and discerning if he holds his tongue.
Speech
Proverbs 19:25 (New International Version) 25 Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence;
rebuke a discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.
Proverbs 28:11 (New International Version) 11 A rich man may be wise in his own eyes,
but a poor man who has discernment sees through him.
Seeing the truth in others
Notice how this simple idea of separating into the categories of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ weaves itself into what we would consider ‘wisdom’. Each of these topics—knowledge, judgment, love, understanding, correction, being teachable, language, perception—could be a chapel in themselves. Again, I simply want to whet your appetite for this topic. Let’s look at some New Testament examples.
In Hebrews, the writer briefly talks about some pretty weighty things: the priesthood of Christ and Jesus learning obedience through suffering. Then he says:
“11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14)
The writer links spiritual maturity with the ability to discern good from evil. Even this contains more nuance than most would initially believe. Just because I’m older than you doesn’t mean I’m more spiritually mature. What Paul considers “mature” has nothing to do with your number of revolutions around the sun.
Just because you can see the distortion of sin in our culture or in the people’s lives around you doesn’t mean you are spiritually mature. It also means you must actually be able to see the good and the bad. Generally, in our Christian culture, we are very adept at seeing the bad. If you look at the average person’s life, it doesn’t take a lot of discernment to see what is wrong with them. In fact, the world around us can do that decently well and we wouldn’t generally consider our spiritual culture in the U.S. “mature” in the things of Christ. A deeper level of discernment exists for the Christian.
I think the amount of discernment expected of you, the average Christian, will surprise you. It might even offend you. Let’s look at what Paul says. He’s in the middle of a discussion contrasting God’s wisdom with human wisdom and he writes:
“14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"[d] But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:14-16)
At the very end Paul quotes Isaiah 40. Isaiah asks a rhetorical question: “For who has known the mind of the Lord?”—to which the answer is obviously ‘no one’. But Paul changes the answer. “Who has known the mind of the Lord?”—us. As believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, we have access to the mind of Christ. You can know the mind of the Lord. Rather, you already have the mind of Christ living inside of you.
So how do you discern the good and the bad in a person, a movie, a sermon on Sunday morning, or this chapel? Wisdom is a part of it. Knowledge is another. Both are important. But such an answer strips the Christian life of its wonder and mystery, and most importantly, of its power—the power of redemption.
Our callings as Christians are to be Christ’s ambassadors here in this community, bringing about the Kingdom of the Lord ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. Part of that calling means we need to be able to discern the way something has been warped from its original purpose and bring it back into alignment with our Lord’s reign. You cannot run from everything tainted by sin in this world. The entire creation groans under the weight of it. But you also cannot bring something back into its intended purpose unless you can discern how God originally designed it and to what end. As a Christian, you are called to think about a situation like Jesus.
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"[d] But we have the mind of Christ.”
Mere worldly wisdom and the scientific method prove woefully insufficient at such a task. In fact, you can’t do it. You don’t have the strength, the cunning, the ability to fix what has been broken. But the Holy Spirit working through you does. Through the practice of learning to discern His voice in all situations, we can learn to discern both the good and the bad in all things. Then we will be on our way towards spiritual maturity. Then we will be about the work of enforcing Christ’s rule and redemption on a world which does not yet know why it was created or for whom it was created.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we stand in awe of the cross. You desire to redeem all that has been twisted by sin. Forgive us for limiting your work and grace to only what we approve of. We ask you to give us eyes to see and ears to hear how your Spirit is working around us. We ask for increased wisdom and discernment that we may better represent Christ. Give us the grace to see past the sin in our brothers’ and sisters’ lives that we might see the treasure you’ve hidden within. Give us the boldness to nurture and encourage the good in others. It’s as Christ’s ambassadors, as those who speak in his name, that we pray, Amen.