Finding and Losing Life

Mark 8:27-38
16th Sunday after Pentecost
Elizabeth M. Deibert
16 September 2012                     

 

We are about to read what could be called the most crucial verses in the whole Gospel of Mark.   This the middle point and the pivot point.   It is the first time Jesus is called Christ.   It is the first time he tells the disciples what is coming and what cost will be required of those who follow him.   These verses are at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.  But before we read them, let us sing Psalm 19, our Psalm for today, reminding ourselves of the supreme life-giving value of God’s word.  

 

Mark 8:27-38

²⁷ Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi;

and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"

²⁸ And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah;

and still others, one of the prophets."

²⁹ He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?"

Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."

³⁰ And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹ Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering,

and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed,

and after three days rise again.  ³² He said all this quite openly.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

³³ But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said,

"Get behind me, Satan!

For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

³⁴ He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them,

 "If any want to become my followers,

let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

³⁵ For those who want to save their life will lose it,

and those who lose their life for my sake,

and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

³⁶ For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

³⁷ Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

³⁸ Those who are ashamed of me and of my words

 in this adulterous and sinful generation,

of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed

when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."  (NRSV)

                                                                                                                                   

A small plane with five passengers on it had an engine malfunction and was going down. The pilot came out of the cockpit with a parachute pack strapped on his back and addressed the group: "Folks, there is bad news, and there is good news. The bad news is that the plane's going down, and there's nothing more I can do. The good news is that there are several parachute packs by the wall back there. The bad news is that there are four of them and five of you. But good luck. Thank you for choosing our airline, and we hope you have a good evening, wherever your final destination may be." He gave the group a thumbs-up sign and was out the door.

A woman leaped up from her seat. "I'm one of the most prominent brain surgeons in the northeast. My patients depend on me." She grabbed a pack, strapped it on her back, and leaped out.

A man stood up. "I am a partner in a large law practice, and the office would fall to pieces without me." He grabbed a pack, strapped it on his back, and leaped out.

Another man stood up and said, "I am arguably the smartest man in the world. My IQ is so high I won't even tell you what it is. But surely you understand that I must have a parachute. He grabbed a bundle and leaped out.

That left only two people on the plane, a middle-aged Presbyterian elder and a teenage boy.

The elder said to the teenager, “You take the last parachute. You're young; you have your whole life ahead of you. God bless you and safe landing."

The teenager smiled and said "Thanks for thinking of me, but guess what?  There are still two parachutes left. The smartest man in the world just grabbed my backpack."  (story adapted from Alyce MacKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, Patheos Progressive Christians)

As we come to the anniversary of 9/11 every year we are reminded of those who raced up the stairs of the burning towers to try to save those who could not get down.    We think of those who were courageous enough to challenge their hijackers on the plane.  

We think of all in our military service and our foreign ambassadors, our FBI, CIA, police, paramedics and firefighters who have been willing to put themselves at great risk, even to die to keep us and others safer in this world.    We owe them a great debt of gratitude.

And to all who are struggling to build coalitions of peace and harmony in every land, to those, like our Presbyterian mission co-workers in Pakistan, who are teaching at Forman Christian College in Pakistan, who with their three children have to go into hiding in their compound when unthinking people put out videos which are rude and disparaging of faith groups and their leaders.   It is so wrong, so unnecessary to offend like that with words and then the consequences worse, that people are killed in reaction to it.   Until we learn to set aside egotistical attitudes, fundamentalist thinking, and build kindness and understanding, until we learn to speak respectfully, our world will always be unsafe.   That’s one of the reasons we keep doing Peace in the Park, our small effort to teach peacemaking skills to elementary children in the East County area on a teacher workday.   It’s one of the reasons we have invited an international peacemaker to come for a week and help us understand what it is like to be a Christian in a country where Christians make up 1% of the population.

Jesus helps us to see that to find life, we must be ready to give life to others as he did.   "For those who want to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it."

A. E. Houseman, a non-Christian poet, called this first half of Jesus' saying "the most important truth about life ever uttered."

Those who want to save their lives will lose them. The word life in the Greek is psyche. It means the vital life force that sustains our inward being.  That word life (psyche) shows up four times in these two verses. The Hebrew version of psyche is the word nephesh. Both terms refer to the vital life-force at the depth of our being that nothing on this earth can snuff out because it is a gift from God and belongs to God. "  We wrongly assume this life force is ours to do with as we please, that it belongs to us. 

And then we get clingy. We cling for dear life to other people, money, possessions, alcohol or food or another substance, our looks, our youthfulness, the neighborhood or country we live in, the prestige of our job or how well our children are doing in school, sports, life.   Both of our arms are occupied clinging to our lives—and we don't have an arm free to reach out to anyone else.   Give ME the parachute.  (Alyce MacKenzie, much of last two paragraphs)

And in a political season, we are often encouraged to think about nothing but self.   Which candidate will make my life better?   Our vote should be for leaders whom we believe will work with congress, governors, and leaders of other nations to make life better for all people.   That’s the way Christians think – for the sake of others, not just self.

The second half of our key verse is "those who lose their life for my sake and the gospel's will save it."   If we really put others first in a way that humanizes them, we will gain the life that is really life, even if we die.   The most inspiring stories in both political conventions were ones of persons sacrificing for the benefit of others.   We know that it is that generous, self-denying, life-giving spirit that makes life beautiful.

Self-denial (a notion John Calvin said is "the sum of the Christian life") is not about squashing all our personal desires or choosing victimization.   Self-denial is not self-annihilation, but complete self re-orientation.  Self-denial does not mean seeking or embracing abuse for its own sake, as if suffering itself is redemptive or a mark of virtue.  (Matt Skinner, workingpreacher.org)  No, Jesus is calling us to align ourselves so strongly with him that we live rightly, that we do justly, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God, no matter the consequences of doing so.   And then we are fulfilling our humanity. (Richard Deibert, Mark)

And it might give us some comfort that Peter, the Rock, who is able to answer the question rightly about Jesus being the Messiah, the Christ, is also the first to misunderstand what that actually means.  Peter gets the job title correct, but he misses badly on the job description.  (Alyce MacKenzie, goodpreacher.org)  Peter shows us how easy it is to be both right and wrong.   I will follow you to the end, he says, just before he denies even knowing him.   You are the Messiah (the Christ, in Greek) Peter says, but when Jesus talks about being killed, Peter challenges him.   And Jesus the Christ says, “Get behind me, Satan.”  Peter is called Satan when he wants to take charge over the Messiah and lead the way. 

Disciples must always be willing to fall in behind Christ, trusting him to lead the way.   That’s the redefinition of self which is required, as one who gives up one’s pysche for Christ’s sake.  It’s not that the same consequence will be ours – death on a cross.   It is that we are willing to do the right thing, no matter the consequence.   Discipleship is worth the cost, because it is life.   Disciples are not to guide or possess Jesus, as Peter learned.   They are to be guided and possessed by Jesus.   Get behind Christ because following him will humanize you and the world.   Let him lead you into the life, no matter the struggle, no matter the challenge, no matter the pain.   Paul said, “To me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  

That’s what it means to find life by losing it.   It’s being willing for Christ’s sake to run into a burning tower when everyone else is running out of it.   It’s being willing for Christ’s sake to give up some of your freedom of speech, to respect someone else’s faith or life.   It’s being willing for Christ’s sake to live more simply, so someone else can simply live.   It’s being willing for Christ’s sake to die to give birth to a fuller humanity.   It’s being willing for Christ’s sake to sacrifice your psyche, your ego, your desires to empower the healthy desires or dreams of another.  Jesus does not need to be the only one carrying a cross, so to speak, for we have opportunities daily to give sacrificially to humanize other people.   And that’s what followers of Christ do – they care deeply for others.  They find life by giving it away.   So, how about it – wanna join the losers club?   Life is not about finding yourself, it’s about losing yourself.  Come on, lose your life.  Give it away.   Don’t waste it, spend it gloriously on others. 

First Things First

Deuteronomy 6:1-12
Welcome Back Sunday
Elizabeth M. Deibert
9 September 2012

 

Holy Spirit, as we hear your Word, inspire us to see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

Stephen Covey achieved international acclaim, and is perhaps best known, for his 1989 self-help book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which sold around 12 million copies world-wide.   The third habit, Putting First Things First, became his second best-seller.   In these books, Covey helps us see that

·        Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.

·        Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them.

·        The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

By showing up at church, you have scheduled your priorities.  Covey was onto to something very helpful, but it was not new, as he himself admitted.  No, even back in the 6th Century, before the Common Era, before Christ, the Israelites under stress of exile were reminding themselves to put first things first.   In the narrative, Moses is reminding the people as they enter Promised Land of ample milk and honey, not to forget the Lord their God, who brought them out of slavery in Egypt, not to forget WHO is first and only, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.   Those who recorded these words were living in a much later season in Israel’s life and no one had lived through the original entry into the Promised Land.  In fact, this was a time of exile and they were hoping to return again to their land.   So they needed to remember their love for God as a first priority.

Deuteronomy 6:1-12

Now this is the commandment-- the statutes and the ordinances-- that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy,  ² so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 

 ³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

 ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.   ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.   ⁶ Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.   ⁷ Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.   ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead,  ⁹ and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

 ¹⁰ When the LORD your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you-- a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,  ¹¹ houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant-- and when you have eaten your fill, ¹² take care that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,  out of the house of slavery.  (NRSV)

 

Sh’ma Yis-rael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ek’had.   Six words, summarized in the one title, Sh’ma.    The Hear.   Shema is the first word of verse 4.   It is translated “hear” but it means, hear, listen, and do.   The Sh’ma is the name for the entire credo.   This is the center piece of Judaism, and Christ affirmed it adding the second commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.   For two-three thousand years, our faithful Jewish brothers and sisters have recited the Shema at least twice and often four times/day to remind themselves of their central commitment.   First things first in the morning.   First things first at services.  First things first at bedtime.

 

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin tells us that Jewish martyrs have gone to their death reciting Sh’ma, while those fortunate enough to have a more peaceful ending try to die with the Sh’ma on their lips.   One contemporary Rabbi was said to drive with a bell hanging from the mirror in his car.  He said every time his car turns or brakes, the bell rings, reminding him to keep the commandments, to say the Sh’ma, the great summary.   And he said, if I die in a car accident, the last thing I will hear is the ringing of the bell and so I will die with Sh’ma on my lips.

 

After the imperative to acknowledge God as the one and only comes the challenge to make God number one.   You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.   In Hebrew, heart means heart and mind.   The heart is the center of will, volition, decision-making.  

So we’re not just talking about feeling warm toward God.   We’re talking making hard decisions to follow the way of God, to put God first.   Feelings often follow action anyway.    It doesn’t say, you shall love the Lord your God with part or most of your heart.   But with ALL your heart/mind/will.

 

But it is not enough to love God with ALL your heart, because you shall love the Lord your God with all your soul.   Now this is what I think Jesus was talking about when he said, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”   Loving God with all your soul.

 

In the second century, Rabbi Akiva was tortured to death and has famously been remembered for having recited the Sh’ma at the moment of death.   Apparently the hour for reciting the Sh’ma arrived and he said it and smiled.   The Roman officer became frustrated and said, “Old man, why are you smiling in the middle of all this pain?”   Akiva said, “All my life when I have said “Sh’ma, when I have said, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with your might” I was sad because I was not sure how I could fulfill the command to love God with all my soul.  But now as I am giving up my life, I know I have given my heart, my might, and my soul, as well.   So I can smile.”   (Telushkin, Jewish Literacy, p. 668)

 

We’ve talked about loving God with all our heart, and with all our soul, but we haven’t talked about the last one – loving God with all our might, sometimes translated strength and sometimes translated by Jewish scholars of Hebrew as means.  Loving God with all your means.   I hope in the next couple of years all of us will be able to see the fruit of our growth in loving God with all our means, all our might.   Because that’s what it is going to take for this church to have a permanent home.  

Let me tell you the joy of returning to a church last summer, a church now twenty-one years old.  So many old friends returned, people like us who have moved away.   What a joy to Immanuel Presbyterian – the people and the building, a sign of that the people loved God with a substantial portion of their means.   They are now are blessed with a lasting legacy, never to be forgotten, a sort of Sh’ma seen in the structure of a physical building.   Loving God is worth this sacrifice.   The kids song said, Love the Lord your God with all that you are.   God wants all of you.   See, the thing is God made you and God has given you all.   We Christians affirm that God gave God’s very own self in Jesus Christ.   God gave up all and a covenant of love calls for mutual giving.   That’s it.   Put God first.  

 

But how?   Isn’t that the next question?   Keep these words (the Sh’ma) in your heart, the text says.   Make them part of your life, until your life is transformed by them.  Recite them to your children and grandchildren.   Talk about them both at home and away from home.   Think about them in the morning and at night.   Put them on your hands, on your foreheads, on your doorposts and on your gates.   Repetition.   Surround yourself with the Sh’ma.   So you cannot forget.  So your number one will stay number one.   Throughout history faithful Jews have worn phalacteries and put mezuzahs on their doors – reminders.   I hope you will take home your Shema that the kids passed out and put it in your car or on your mirror or on your refrigerator or on your door.   Sh’ma must leave the page (or parchment) and become written on our hearts and our lives, as the art in front of us illustrates.

 

And today as we begin a new year in Lively learning, I invite you to consider a new commitment to being involved in learning together.   If I thought you left here after worship to go home to study your Bibles and pray, I would not push this so much, but few of us are that disciplined on our own.   We need the discipline of others counting on us.   We need the challenge of other’s thoughts and the commitment of growing as disciples together.   Without people counting on you, you simply do not do it.  

 

Would I study scripture well, if you were not depending on me to stand here most every week?  No.   Much as it drives me crazy some weeks to try to write another sermon, I am thankful for the discipline of it, for the way this work shapes my life – even against my own desires.   If something is a priority, then it needs to be given time.   First things first.

 

And we are called to teach the Christian faith to the next generation here.   If we don’t, who will?   They are being shaped by culture at least 14 hours/day six days/week.   We need to make sure that our young people are being taught to remember the faith story – to know that it is not we who make ourselves.   When you come into the land and you have all these wonderful things, don’t think it is because you did it all yourself.    It is God who made us.   It is God who rescues us from danger.   It is God who loves us and gives us good things.   The beauty of life is always a gift of God.  The wonder of life is all because of God.   The most dangerous attitude is one of fierce independence, of self-reliance.  Those are the people who fall hard.   It is always sad to see self-made ones get old and feeble.  It is a painful, humbling process.   Don’t you see?   We were made for relationship with God, for dependence on God, for loving God with all that we are and all that we have – because that’s the love God pours out on us -- a love of full heart, mind, soul, and strength, a love willing to sacrifice for the saving of others.   That is the great Love which inspires our love.

 

Mother Teresa kept putting first things first until she found herself seeing the face of Christ in the poorest of the poor in Calcutta,  India.   She said with her words and her life, Give yourself fully to God.  [God] will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.

She also said, I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Ask yourself “How has he loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?”

Dear Jesus, Lover of our Souls, help us to see you more clearly, love you more dearly, follow you more nearly day by day, until that day we know we have given our all, as you gave your all.

Listening, Doing, Caring

James 1:17-27
14th Sunday after Pentecost
2 September 2012                                       
Elizabeth M. Deibert

 

Spirit of the Living God, help us to welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save our souls.

The letter of James has sometimes been seen as “junk mail in the New Testament, thanks to the reformer Martin Luther,” who was a fan of the Apostle Paul.   (Frances Taylor Gench) Because James counter-balances the theology of justification by grace and faith alone in Paul’s epistles with a theology of sanctification by faithful living, Luther was not enamored with James.   James says little about Jesus’ life, death or resurrection, and lots about how to be a faithful disciple.   James is relevant for our day because it challenges the integrity of the Christian – just as many skeptics are doing today.   People are looking at Christians and saying, “They are any different than anyone else.  They are quick to speak and to be angry, and not especially good at listening to others.   They hear the Word and have a lot of opinions about things, but when it comes to living, they are no different than others.    They are not more compassionate – in fact, the opposite, Christians seem to be more judgmental – quick to point a finger.   I don’t see Christians doing much to help the poor and underprivileged.   Civic organizations do just as well.   The local schools and grocery stores collect food and donations for the poor.”   That’s what skeptics say about us, because we are not always on our best behavior.   Beliefs need to be back up by behavior.

 

And so we have the challenge today from James – a call to discipleship with integrity.    A call to better listening, acting on what we know to be true, and caring for those in need.   This is not too different from our Mission Statement – Our mission is to make God known by growing as disciples of Jesus Christ, building a community of peace, and caring for the needs of others.   I think James, (said to be the brother of Jesus, but we don’t really know whether he was the biological brother or brother in the faith), I think James would be satisfied with Peace’s Mission Statement – at least as a statement, but his question to us would be:   Are you living it out with integrity?

Let’s quiet all the voices in our heads and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church: 

James 1:17-27

¹⁷ Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above,

coming down from the Father of lights,

with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

¹⁸ In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth,

so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

¹⁹ You must understand this, my beloved:

let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;

²⁰ for your anger does not produce God's righteousness.

²¹ Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness,

and welcome with meekness the implanted word

that has the power to save your souls.

²² But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

²³ For if any are hearers of the word and not doers,

they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror;

²⁴ for they look at themselves and, on going away,

 immediately forget what they were like.

²⁵ But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty,

and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—

they will be blessed in their doing.

²⁶ If any think they are religious,

and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts,

their religion is worthless.

²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father,

is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress,

and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

 

                                                                        NRSV

 

Before you speak, think.   I saw this word THINK posted at the Camphire’s house as an acronym.   T –is it TRUE?   H – is it HELPFUL?   I - is it INSPIRING?   N – is it necessary?   K – is it kind?    Eirinn said she got it from Bill Kemp’s Facebook page, which just goes to show that there can be some eternal value to spending time on Facebook if your peeps, your friends are posting things that are true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, and kind.

James has a lot to say about the tongue.   In chapter one, he says, our religion is worthless if we do not bridle our tongues.   Think about that for a moment.   Worthless.   Later in chapter 3, James says, “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire, and the tongue is a fire….No one can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison.   With it we bless the Lord and with it we curse those made in God’s image.”   Whew.   (slide)  I think I’ll just stop talking right now and we will sit quietly for a while and ask God to forgive us for all the blazes we have started this week, by not being slow to speak and quick to listen.
 

And in this modern world the imperative that we be “slow to speak and quick to listen” includes texting, tweeting, emailing and messaging people.

The essential message of James is that faith without works is dead.   Don’t go on talking about your faith.   Show me your faith.    Walk the talk.  If there’s not some behavior to follow your beliefs, then you must not believe very much.   Preach the Gospel, when necessary, use words.   (St Francis of Assisi - slide) We’re a wordy people.  There are too many words and not enough action in the church and in our nation.

The Reformers always were eager to quote Paul, who said we are saved not by works of righteousness, but by grace through faith.   But even Paul followed his own argument about being saved by grace with the challenge to be dead to sin and alive to all that is good.  So while James says little about grace, Paul covers that well, and Paul agrees with James that cheap grace (assuming that because you are forgiven you can just go on sinning, not striving to become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ) cheap grace is just that, cheap, worthless, and as Bonhoeffer challenges us, discipleship is costly.   It cost his life.
 

(slide) So our scripture lesson from James teaches us to listen, to act on our faith, because action speaks louder than words, and finally he teaches us to care especially for those who are the most vulnerable.   In the first century, widows and orphans were those people.   Today, the poor, the uneducated, those marginalized by language, culture, or circumstance.    It is the responsibility of those who call themselves Christian to protect those who might be trampled by the powerful.  The Bible calls us to work toward having churches, communities, and governments that protect from evil and promote the good.   Governments should provide a check on powerful people, institutions, and interests in the society that, if left unchecked, might run over their fellow citizens, the economy, and certainly the poor.  

James says in our scripture lesson today that religion that is pure before God is all about caring for the poor and vulnerable in society.   And as Christians, we must act on what we know to be just and right, and we must model the kind of peaceful dialogue not often seen in our world today.   We must not disparage people when discussing issues.   We should seek to trust the motives of those with whom we disagree.   We should speak the truth in love, after we have listened carefully, seeking as much to understand and to be understood.  

Real Christian maturity, according to Joan Chittister, modern interpreter of the Benedictine rule of the 6th Century, requires that we immerse ourselves in the presence of God by worship and prayer, by patient listening, by committing ourselves to an ardent search for maturity of faith – spiritually, emotionally, physically.   We must care deeply about peace and justice, about the poor and needy, and about honesty and integrity.   (The Monastery of the Heart)

Or as James said to the early church, five centuries before Benedict:  Listening, Doing, Caring.   As the prophet Micah said, Doing justice, loving kindness, walking humbly with our God.   As the Savior Christ summarized the commandments, the law of God:   Loving the Lord with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.  

As Peace summarizes our purpose as a church:  our mission is to make God known by growing as disciples of Jesus Christ, building a community of peace, and caring for the needs of others.  

It is time for me to stop talking because as the English-born American, the people’s poet Eddie Guest said once, so I’m sure you all agree:

I'd rather see a sermon
Than hear one any day.
I'd rather once you walk with me
Than merely show the way.
The eye's a better pupil
And more willing than the ear.
Fine counsel is confusing
But the example's always clear.
I soon can learn to do it
If you let me see it done.
I can see your hands in action
But your tongue too fast may run.
And the lectures you deliver
May be very fine and true.
But I'd rather get my lesson
By observing what you do.
For a person must understand you
And the high advice you give.
But there's no misunderstanding
How you act and how you live.
Holy Spirit, stop us when too much advice we give.  
Instead please help us focus on exactly how we live.
Help us, Christ, like you to care for weak, not just for strong.
And lead us brave to bear your love, and stand against all wrong.   Amen.