Second of Four Summer Sermons-“Daring Faith”
[Addenda 7/13/2016: an emergency sermon on 7/9/21026 has modified the overall sequence of the four sermons in the proposed series to this one: Russell, Russell, Hernandez, and Russell.]
The July 2, 2016 Sabbath worship service at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta featured the second of four sermons in a summer teaching series entitled “Daring Faith: The Key to Real Life.” Berean Lead Pastor Fredrick Russell delivered the first sermon on June 25. It was based on events described in Matthew 13:53-58 (and also in Mark), the “homecoming” of Jesus back to Nazareth. It was titled “A God with Limits.” It was a warning about the consequences of not having a level of faith that is sufficient enough to warrant the full extent of God’s blessings. Jesus’ early acquaintances did not credit His capabilities, and thus reaped sparingly of the miracles that Jesus broadcast copiously elsewhere.
This Sabbath’s sermon was enigmatically titled “Filling Your Bucket,” but the meaning of the title was soon made clear. Here is a link to the ENTIRE SERVICE. Pastor Russell’s remarks commence at time marker 1:31:00.
As did the first installment in the summer sermon series, this sermon addressed the subject of the blessings that God, and God through Christ can provide. In the previous sermon, a lack of faith marked the half-hearted participation of the Nazarenes in the blessing process. In this second sermon, the faith of Mary Magdalene resulted in the forgiveness of her sinful past. The congregation was urged to fully participate in the blessing process, and not merely as a potential recipients. They were admonished to be disbursers of blessings themselves, via the motif of this sermon, a “bucket” analogy originated by an influential American psychologist.
Jesus, a copious disperser of blessings, is the model we were urged to emulate. There are many examples in the Bible where He improves the lives and attitudes of those who desperately stand in need of improvement. The principal example used for this sermon was, as noted, Mary Magdalene. Jesus wrought miraculous changes for the better in her lifestyle, and also in her future prospects (heaven, we presume). Pastor Russell asserted that when Jesus told her to “go and sin no more,” she literally followed His orders, thus becoming a “new creature.” But just as the Nazarenes in the first sermon failed to credit Jesus with wonder-working power, the people who had known Mary “back in the day” (and this, conceivably, could have been a great number of former customers of the reformed harlot) could not come to grips with the reality of a genuine transformation in her character.
To describe the content of the metaphorical “bucket” that served as a motif for the sermon as “self-esteem” might be an over-simplification, as there exists many persons who are highly satisfied with themselves for all the wrong reason (or even for no reason at all). Smug complaisance, were it to be symbolized by a metaphorical substance in a metaphorical bucket, would be nothing but metaphorical horse manure. The kind of self-esteem enjoyed by Mary Magdalene, in contrast, is the result of her repentance and subsequently wholesome lifestyle. This yielded a harvest of the “Fruit of the Holy Spirit” as described by Paul. Flattery can serve to fill the buckets of superficial people, but syncophancy is not what is being advocated by either this “bucket” business or Pastor Russell’s references to it. A good filler of buckets seeks to reward virtuous behaviors, and not to just indiscriminately “puff up the pride” of proud people (another one of Paul’s characteristic expressions).
The business about “buckets” is derived from the book “How Full is Your Bucket” (link is to a PDF that picturesquely condenses the basic concepts into 17 simple “PowerPoint” ready projections). Here is a LINK to an “Executive Book Summary” of the work. It restates one of the three concepts to be found in The One Minute Manager, a idea that is also reflected by the proverb “You can catch more flies with honey, than you can with vinegar” (here is an extremely relevant link to a rendition of Johnny Mercer’s “Accentuate the Positive,” as performed by the songwriter himself). The following quote is from an “Executive Summary” about the genesis of psychologist Donald O. Clifton‘s enduring and doubtlessly lucrative “bucket” metaphor:
Moved by horrifying tales of the psychological torture of American prisoners of the Korean War – where there was a 38 percent POW death rate -Clifton and his colleagues in the 1960s wondered: If people can be destroyed by unrelenting negative reinforcement, can they be uplifted and inspired to a greater degree by similar levels of positivity?
A few bars of “Oh, How I Love Jesus,” and “Amazing Grace,” sung by Pastor Russell (an infinitely better singer than myself), along with the congregation, preceded the reading of scripture. This scripture was from Luke 7, Verses 36-50. Below are enough sections of it to bring it to your full remembrance (unless you have never read the Bible before, which is a most regrettable omission, and one that must be remedied immediately).
…one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him… A woman… who lived a sinful life… came there with an alabaster jar of perfume… she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know… that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you… Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon [the Pharisee] replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. (NIV- excerpted)
The remaining verses deal with the love of the woman who anointed Him, in contrast to the lackluster hospitality of Simon. Her sins were forgiven her. This was a result of her great faith (“Dairing Faith, Pastor Russell, added, the title of the four part sermon series).
The pastor offered his own synopsis of the book: “Everyone has an invisible bucket [he produced an actual bucket as an illustration] that is either being filled, or that bucket is being emptied. And everyone has an invisible ladle [a ladle was now displayed] [with which] they are either filling another person’s bucket, or they are taking out of a person’s bucket.” The pastor quoted the book’s authors, who write that people are at their best when their buckets are overflowing. They are at their worst when their buckets are empty. “And those buckets are filled, and they are emptied based on what a person says to another, or what they do to another person,” the pastor informed us. Every interaction between people results in the filling or emptying of their respective buckets. There are situations where both buckets may be filled simultaneously, because when you fill another’s bucket, your own gets filled as well. It is not a Zero-sum game. You need not rob Peter to pay Paul. More esoterically, it is not the spiritual equivalent of the economic practice of Mercantilism. It is, rather, reminiscent of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. A little kindness can pay compound interest, immediately upon deposit. Conversely, by draining another’s bucket, you also drain your own [unless you are some twisted sadist; summarizer’s comment, as he has encountered this type of person before, frequently. Far, far too frequently].
Pastor Russell related that when he was a conference president, he never spoke at one of the churches under his charge without saying at least one positive thing about the pastor, even if it were nothing more significant than the beauty of their footwear [I am obsessed with this Johnny Mercer song lately, so here is yet one more golden opportunity to link the 1945 hit “Accentuate the Positive“]. After a few more comments, the pastor directed the attention of the congregation to the helpful “teaching notes” that he usually provides to accompany his sermons. These notes divided the incident involving Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Pharisee Simon into two “bucket emptying” concepts (relating to ungrateful and unforgiving Simon), and three “bucket filling” characteristics of Mary. By filling her Redeemer’s bucket with faith and love, she also managed to fill her own.
Conversely, there are those that live with a perpetually full bucket, as the people who surround them are bucket fillers. and not bucket drainers. Parents, like employers, are in a position to either fill or empty the buckets of their children based on how they interact with them. “What increases your positive emotions?” This second question led to the pastor’s conviction that all of us, at times, require affirmation by others. Those who never offer this necessary affirmation to others (wives, husbands, kids, etc.) are not good bucket fillers. An example of extreme affirmation was offered by the pastor. A child comes home with an “F” on their report card. “What a nice ‘F,'” the pastor says to the fictional young dunce. “I like the way that it is formed!”
General information on the “bucket” metaphor now yielded to specific application of this metaphor to Simon the Pharisee’s dinner party. Pastor Russell commenced this narrower focus by pointing out that Simon was a wealthy man. It is not mentioned in Luke, the pastor acknowledged, but this Simon is the same individual who once had leprosy. Lepers were perceived by Jews of that era as being forsaken by God. But Simon, a leader of the people, was healed by Jesus. This was doubtless the reason that caused Simon to invite Jesus to his home. Women were traditionally excluded from these gatherings. The account of this gathering in the Gospel of John reveals that the disciples, including Judas, were also on the scene.
Into this setting, imperceptibly, enters a woman. She comes, unseen, to where Jesus is stationed, and begins to weep uncontrollably. “This woman is mentioned three ways in the Bible,” Pastor Russell informed us. “She is called ‘Mary Magdalene,’ and she is also called ‘Mary the Harlot’ in other places in the Bible, depending on the version that you are using. Mary Magdalene was also the sister of Lazarus and Martha.” Pastor Russell continued to unify what many may have believed to be distinct scriptural “Marys.” He added that this was the woman who was thrown at the feet of Jesus, one whom was caught “in the very act” of adultery. Jesus saved her, at that time, from being stoned to death. He wrote the sins of her prosecutors in the dust. They shamefacedly absented themselves, and then Jesus turned to Mary. “Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.” This is also the same Mary that the Bible reveals as having had seven demons cast from her. Pastor Russell continued. A former prostitute, and a former demonic. This was a woman whom the male populace had exploited, and the “churchmen” had condemned to death. Before Jesus entered the picture, “there had never been a man in her life that treated her right,” Pastor Russell said.
Here is an extremely informative LINK to a chapter of an online book that is focused on Mary Magdalene. The topic of the “Identity of Mary” is described by reference to a “monumental” (and this turns out to be no exaggeration) work by Harry Whittaker called “Studies in the Gospels.” These kind of scholarly investigations are, for Seventh-day Adventists, often verified by what is termed the “Spirit of Prophecy,” or insights revealed to Ellen G. White. An example of this is the church tradition that Peter was crucified upside-down, as he felt unworthy to be martyred in a manner identical to that of Jesus. This early church oral tradition was eventually written down by Jerome. It is verified (for those who choose to believe this) by a subsequent revelation to Ellen G. White.
In the “over-ambitious” (the author’s own term) work “Studies in the Gospels.” the discrete Marys are termed (1) “the woman in the city” (the subject of Luke Chapter 7, partially quoted at the top of this post), (2) Mary of Bethany (to be found in John Chapter 13, sister of Lazarus), and (3) Mary Magdalene. Harry Whittaker makes a strong case for the combination of the three Marys. The insights noted by Whittaker lack footnotes (at least in the online version), but are doubtlessly based on some earlier material that was also available to Ellen White, perhaps via the medium of the aforementioned Australian Bible study guides. Many of the points raised by Whittaker in his enormous book, and assertions made by Pastor Russell in the course of his sermon, are identical.
She sought out Jesus at the feast, the one who had exorcised her, and saved her from a stoning at the hands of men who may have slept with her. Perhaps she had even slept with Simon the Pharisee, the host of the feast. She had, after all, managed to slip in to the house without being challenged. These conjectures help to shed some light upon what followed. “She begins to bathe Jesus’ feet. She is weeping. She is crying.” The pastor restated the great blessings that Jesus had bestowed upon her, and that He may well have been the only man to ever treat her with dignity. He did not know her (another euphemism, one akin to “slept with”) in the night, but “disown her in the daytime,” Pastor Russell declared. She wets His feet with her tears, and having no towel, begins to dry them with her hair. Pastor Russell related Simon’s unspoken thoughts in regard to Jesus: “If He were a prophet, He would know what kind of woman this is, and He would know that she’s a sinner.” Her kind are not welcome in polite society. She was (or had been) a harlot. “If anyone should know, Simon should know,” the pastor proclaimed.
“There was a banker who loaned money to two people. One… he loaned about $100. The other he loaned about $100,000. And neither one of them could pay. And so he forgave both…. and he said ‘Simon, I got a question I want to ask you, brother. Which one of them would be the most grateful?’ Simon was a logical brother. He was rational. He says, ‘of course, the one who is most grateful is the one who is given most!'” Jesus had healed Simon’s leprosy, but he was very much aware of Mary’s background. He had contributed to her fallen state. Notions as to how buckets get either filled or emptied was reintroduced into the sermon, with relation to the two sinners, Simon and Mary Magdalene, that are the subjects of Luke Chapter 7.
The first two points on the teaching notes that accompanied the sermon, as previously noted, dealt with techniques that serve to empty emotional buckets. “If you want to do it to a person, let me show you how to do it,” Pastor Russell facetiously stated. “This is Example One…” These were the methods that were described, methods used by Simon the former leper (who was also, the pastor added, “Simon the former John“).
The Bible reveals that Simon’s attitude toward Mary was in the present tense: what kind of woman she “is,” and not what kind of woman she was. Pastor Russell declared that Simon was not aware of her salvation. Otherwise he would have thought, what woman she “was.” “Look at your neighbor and say ‘praise God for the ‘was,'” the pastor directed.
“Buckle your seatbelts for Number Two: he [Simon] locked her into a space she could never escape.” Luke 7:39 reveals the innermost thought of Simon regarding Mary: “She is a sinner…” “Once a sinner, always a sinner,” the pastor said, emphasizing the intransigent stance of the Pharisee. Ellen White writes this about the former leper: “But it was Simon’s ignorance of God and of Christ that led him to think as he did.” Pastor Russell unleashed a litany of negative statements, an imagined excoriation of some poor victim of another’s inability to conceive of the real and lasting changes that Jesus can make in our lives [this “bad cop” diatribe, when deployed by Joel Osteen in his sermons, effectively sets the stage for a subsequent “good cop” revelation that one is, after all, perhaps not a worthless piece of scum]. Pastor Russell lambasted those who keep people in their lives “locked in a particular space,” thus retarding forward progress. “They can’t move on…” he stated. “All that boy was doing was taking the dipper, and emptying her bucket.”
Example One (positive) was described as a “masterful” instance of Jesus’ ability to fill people’s buckets. Pastor Russell emphasized the intense gratification, and attendant thankfulness of Mary, who had suffered much abuse and degradation prior to encountering Jesus. He was the first to treat her with dignity. Her devotion was manifest in the act of washing His feet with tears, and drying them with her hair. “How much more grateful can you become?” She had a “spirit of ministry,” the pastor said. Jesus pointed out Mary’s level of gratitude to Simon, whose own level of gratitude fell short of the appropriate mark. Ellen White reveals this about Simon: “He acknowledged Jesus as a teacher, and hoped that He might be the Messiah, but he had not accepted Him as a Savior. His character was not transformed. His principles were unchanged.”
“All of the sinners look at me,” Pastor Russell requested. “The whole audience, praise God,” he jokingly added, He said that the encounter between Jesus and Mary was one of the very first times that Mary had ever had her bucket filled. “Sometimes you may be the only person [another] person has who can fill their bucket,” Pastor Russell declared. This should motivate us to speak to others with caution [Proverbs 18:21 reads “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits]. We need to be careful how we treat others. We even need to be careful how we look at others. The pastor said that some people we encounter may be poised at the brink of despair, and all it would take to bring them back from the edge is a kind word from ourselves. This is an awesome responsibility, and is, indeed, often a matter of life and death. By showing kindness, we can help fill the buckets of those in desperate need, following the example of our Lord.
Example Three (positive) referred to the “sensitive spirit” that Mary possessed. Negligent Simon had failed to anoint Jesus’ head when He first arrived, but Mary had more than made up for this neglect. She was anointing his feet with costly perfume. Pastor Russell paused in order to tie his various citations into the main theme of the set of four sermons. “This series is called ‘Daring Faith,'” he said. “When she walked into that room, some scholars say, with the exception of the Disciples, she had probably slept with most of those men in that room,” the pastor revealed. “But there was something happening in her heart that was catalyzed by this man Jesus…” Jesus had cast demons out of her life. What Simon failed to realize was that it was the demons who were keeping her tied to a life of prostitution.
The Lord heard the cry of Mary, whose body was under the control of evil forces. The pastor detailed Jesus’ exorcism of Mary: “He called not one out of her, but seven demons.” The traditionally piecemeal tale of Mary continued to be knit together. The Mary who was caught in adultery, “in the very act,” was mentioned next, crowned by a paraphrase of the comforting words of Jesus to her, “Mary, you’ve been condemned all your life. Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more…” The visit of Jesus to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus provoked this comment from Pastor Russell: “the only person who went to sit at Jesus’ feet was Mary, because… Jesus was the only one who had actually filled her bucket.” The pastor stated that only one who can fill our buckets over and over again is “the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you’ve got no one else… you’ve got Him.”
Mary pushed through the crowd of men at the feast of Simon, anxious to get next to Jesus. “And at the end f the story,” Pastor Russell continued, “Jesus said, ‘Mary. It is your faith that has saved you.’ The pastor assured us that, no matter how raunchy your life might have been, nor how decent your life might have been [the pastor interrupted himself in order to remark that are “decent” people in Hell], because [even though] you may show on the outside all of the appropriate ways of living… your heart is so corrupt on the inside.” The pastor stated that, though we may be sitting in church, our thoughts might be wallowing in the gutter. With your family, with your kids, everywhere; it just rolls out of you.” A veneer of sanctimony masks some malicious thoughts, such as “well there goes another person being baptized. When are they going to baptize some decent people?”
Pastor Russell revealed that he often cries during worship, for he actually loves God. “I am, obviously, not a perfect person of God- I got my stuff just like everybody else.” He may not have hair, he revealed, but he has tears. “When I heard that song a few years ago… I just began to weep and say ‘God, I get that!'” The main themes of the sermon was recapped, culminating with the statement “those men in the room were the ones who took from her [drained Mary’s “bucket”], and the only man that kept putting back was Him, this man called Jesus. And the room was filled, when she came in… listen to the story…”
The song, “Alabaster Box,” was now performed, and can be located at time marker 2:15:10 on the LINK to the YouTube video of the service. Copyright issues have caused Sony Corporation to remove (temporarily, one would hope) a few recent Berean services from YouTube. It is hoped that this particular service will not suffer a similar fate. This site, homemadegospel, will now potentially violate a copyright by replicating the lyrics to “Alabaster Box.” Reassembled as a narrative, perhaps they will escape the scrutiny of the copyright police:
The room grew still as she made her way to Jesus. She stumbles through the tears that made her blind. She felt such pain. Some spoke in anger. Heard folks whisper, “There’s no place here for her kind!” Still on she came. Through the shame that flushed her face, until at last, she knelt before His feet. And though she spoke no words, everything she said was heard as she poured her love for the Master from her box of alabaster.
And I’ve come to pour my praise on Him like oil from Mary’s alabaster box. Don’t be angry if I wash his feet with my tears and I dry them with my hair. You weren’t there the night He found me. You did not feel what I felt when he wrapped his love all around me, and you don’t know the cost of the oil In my alabaster box.
I can’t forget the way life used to be; I was a prisoner to the sin that had me bound, and I spent my days, poured my life without measure into a little treasure box I’d thought I’d found until the day when Jesus came to me and healed my soul with the wonder of His touch. So now I’m giving back to Him all the praise He’s worthy of. I’ve been forgiven, and that’s why I love Him so much.
And I’ve come to pour my praise on Him like oil from Mary’s alabaster box. Don’t be angry if I wash his feet with my tears and I dry them with my hair. You weren’t there the night He found me. You did not feel what I felt when he wrapped his love all around me, and you don’t know the cost of the oil In my alabaster box.
At the end of the song, Pastor Russell invited “everyone who has a past” to stand. The ladle and bucket were used to illustrate Jesus’ ability to “fill our buckets.” While pantomiming the act of ladling imaginary contents in and out of the bucket he was holding, the pastor observed that “While everyone else is taking from you… He’s never gonna condemn you… all He does is pour into your life.” The case of Mary Magdalen was noted. “He told her… when they were trying to stone her, ‘Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more.’ She took it seriously,” the pastor said. “She didn’t turn another trick. She came in the room that night, and all Simon was thinking in his mind was ‘she still is a prostitute…'” The Pharisee denied her the capacity to change. “One a harlot, always a harlot,” stated the pastor, reflecting Simon’s attitude. Jesus pointed out to Simon the heartfelt tokens of Mary’s gratitude that she was displaying toward Him; the tears, and the perfume.
“Thank you God,” Pastor Russell prayerfully concluded, “that you are always filling us.” Pastor Austin Humphreys was asked to furnish a final prayer. Before this prayer, the pastor made a few last remarks, including a reference to Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Pastor Humphreys underscored the relevance of the Senior pastor’s sermon by forthrightly stating, in the curse of his prayer, that “that woman reflects us. Oh what sinners we are, wretched and filthy… but we are not who we used to be,” Pastor Humphreys testified. Whatever sins we may have committed, grace is always able to receive us. We can come to God’s open arms and declare (as did Pastor Humphreys), “I need thee, oh I need thee!” He restated to the congregation the necessity of “pouring into other people’s buckets,” as the Lord “first poured into us.” A summation by the summarizer of these remarks is relevant to the case of Mary, and to those that Pastor Russell designated as “people with a past” (everyone, as you will recall). It is Romans 5:8:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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