Promises, how seriously do you think people take promises? Sometimes I wonder, and I think in a political year how many times are we used to promises, and how many presidents have promised that they would solve the Social Security problem, or make reforms to the health care. I think a lot of times we look at a promise as an expression of an intention rather than a commitment. How many of you right now have made a promise that you are working really hard to fulfill? Paul told me yesterday when we were asking these questions, he promised his wife that he would run in that 5K today. And he did it - in 33 minutes. Here is a promise that I have made and that I am working at very seriously.

(video)

Mike in Sudan: I just wanted to say that those of us from Ohio have been committed to this seed and tool project – making a five-year commitment to education and child protection and development. We will stand by you as our brothers and sisters and we will come back for the next five years to see how you are doing. We are doing hard work at home; we are committed to work here for five years. We are excited about what you're doing. Keep doing the hard work, and all your people, we know, work hard here together. You keep working hard and we will back you up. We'll get you the resources that you need.

(End of video)

A lot is riding on that promise! Carolyn, you keep asking me why I go in dangerous times - that's why, because I told those people I would. As Christians, as followers of Jesus, every perspective we have about life needs to be not what I think or feel but from God's perspective. How does God view promises that we make to other people or to God? That is what James is going to teach us. "Guide us, Holy Spirit, we pray. In the name of Jesus, Amen."

The two verses we are going to look at in James at first reading don't mean what they seem to mean; they have a deeper meaning. James 1:26, "Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves." It is saying those who do not control their words, or another way to say that would be "who promise more than they can deliver on" is what that kind of tongue means. Their religion is worthless when it is all God-talk and little God-walk. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Promises, I think we can all admit, are really easy to make, but it's another thing to have the resources and commitment to follow through on those words that you spoke. That is why James is saying those of you who consider yourself religious, be careful about too quickly making a promise because God is going to hold you accountable for the promises you make. Everything for God comes down as this one word in verse 20, and it's an important word; I have asked you to circle that word in your Bibles before - righteousness. Righteousness is about right relationships. That's what the word righteousness is all about - being in right relationship with each other and right relationship with God. You cannot separate one from the other. If you're not in a right relationship with your sister or brother, you can't be in a right relationship with God and visa versa. This is the recurring theme in the Book of James: all relationships are based in trust and integrity.  If you're going to trust me, then there has to be an alignment between my words and my actions. Words don't mean anything if there is not a follow through with my action.

Here is how Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes 5:5. "It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it." There is a message here in the Book of James for all of us: don't commit to more than you can deliver. Be careful what you say yes to and know how to say no. Jesus teaches us that anyone who sets out to build a project never starts building that project until they first sit down and calculate the cost to see if they have the resources to deliver. It is why Jesus said, "Be careful; don't use a lot of words and smooth talk. Let your yes be yes (simply say yes), or say no." There are going to be a lot of good opportunities and situations for all of us to say yes to, but we've got to learn to distinguish good opportunities from God opportunities. Good ways to serve or good priorities from those priorities that truly are God priorities. Do any of you deal with this - where you have so many things that you can say yes to, and they are good things to say yes to; and you want to say yes.

I had been invited to rejoin the Board of United Theological Seminary, and it's a great opportunity. Sue is teaching at the seminary and I will teach a course in June at the seminary. We're creating a partnership between Ginghamsburg Church and the seminary; and it's close to our Ft. McKinley Campus. With everything Pastor Bowie is going through, and this full commitment to the Ft. McKinley Campus in June, for a month I've been praying about this and praying about this. Finally, Thursday, I felt God's answer came to me and it was, "No, this is not the time. It's a good thing, Mike, but it's not the God-thing for you at this time." From God's perspective, what we have to realize is that any time we make a promise, we have to make sure we have the goods or the resources to deliver on that promise. Everything is about follow-through and the words you use. That's why those of you who consider yourself to be religious, control your words. Don't speak until you know you have the follow-through to make it happen.

When we talk about follow-through in our promises with people, one of the best stories I know about a friendship in the Old Testament is between David and Jonathan. It is a great story of what it means to be friends and to be faithful into that commitment of friendship. Jonathan was the son of King Saul, who was the first king of Israel. David had become somewhat of a pop phenomenon. By this time, the word had gotten out that as a teenager he had killed the champion of the Philistine army by the name of Goliath, and there were rap songs on the radio about David. They really had written songs and one of the songs was: David has killed his ten thousands and Saul his thousands. If you are king and they are singing about this kid who killed ten thousands and you've only killed thousands, you begin to see that by popular opinion, this young David is a threat to your kingdom and the rightful heir to your kingdom, which was Saul's son, Jonathan. Well, you know how kids are, how racism and all that kind of stuff is taught, kids are just kids and they see each other through God's eyes. To these young boys, it did not matter that David was an enemy of his dad. Jonathan liked David - and David liked Jonathan, and they began hanging out with each other. Saul now saw David as a threat to the kingdom and Saul was out to find a way to eliminate David. Jonathan is a great name, I like that name; Carolyn and I named our son Jonathan. One, it's because Jonathan was such a great example of faithfulness and friendship, but the other meaning is "gift from God." Look with me at 1 Samuel 20:16-17, "So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, 'May the Lord call David's enemies to account.'" When you make a promise to a person, you don't make that promise just to that person, but to their family. In other words, David, by the commitment that I am making to you and to your house, your generations, your children, and your children's children (that's why we have to be careful when we speak promises) whoever comes against you from this day forward, comes against me, including my own dad. That's some kind of promise that David and Jonathan made to each other. "And Jonathan had David re-affirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself." Does that sound like Jesus' kind of love? It's more than words - it's action. It is very little God-talk and huge God-walk.

Jonathan and Saul went off to battle, and both of them were killed in war. Years later, David became king of Israel. Go to 2 Samuel 9:1. After all of this time, David was king and he asked this question, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" Remember Saul, and his kid, Jonathan. Decades later David was remembering that promise. I love this - David's servant said, "There is only one." Remember any heir left of the house of Saul, the throne would rightfully belong to that heir. So if David was like any other king, he would be looking for someone who was left from the house of Saul so he could do what – probably kill him, because that was the rightful heir. But, if you had made a commitment, a covenant with the people of the house of Saul, then you sought their wellbeing. So David's servant said there's just one. When he was a baby, his nurse dropped him and he hit his head and he is lame in both legs and his name is Mephibosheth. He lives in some backwater town called Lo Debar. David sent for Mephibosheth. You can imagine why Mephibosheth would be afraid when the king summoned you - and you are the only heir left of the house of Saul. I love what David said in verse 7, "Don't be afraid for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table." The power of promise! Go down to verse 11 and it says, "So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons." Don't you love it! I love that scripture! When it says that you are eating at the king's table, it doesn't mean you are literally sitting in his dining room. That means all of the resources of David are available to Mephibosheth as if he were his own son.

Let me tell you how this works. Thirty-some years ago, when I was in seminary, I went to India with one of my best friends in the whole world. We were about 23 years old and for a month, we preached in India together, rode elephants in India together, and slept in sleeping bags. His name is Adrian Cole and we love each other, and we made those kinds of promises to one another. Adrian now lives in Oklahoma City. A couple of years ago, Jonathan was in his first year of teaching in Houston, Texas. After Hurricane Katrina hit, another hurricane came named Rita and it was heading right for Houston. How many of you remember what I'm talking about? They told the city of Houston to evacuate. So I called my son and said, "Son, you can't mess with hurricanes. You've got to get out of town." He said, "Well, where am I going to go, Dad?" I said, "To my friend, Adrian Cole." I didn't even have to call my friend, Adrian Cole. The expressway was like a parking lot leaving Houston, and finally they didn't let anyone in and they opened up all expressways going out of town. It took Jonathan about 10 hours and he just showed up at Adrian Cole's house - because of the promise Adrian and I had made to each other thirty-some years ago. Adrian showed him the best time of his life. They went out and played civil war. Adrian is into that civil war stuff, with horses and where they camp and wear the uniforms - and what a weekend! You see, the power of promise! God's view - when we make a promise to another person.

When you're talking about the power of promise, to other people, what does it mean when you make a vow to the Lord? I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but how many of you have made some promises to God? Here's what Numbers 30:2 says, "When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said." Everything! When I first read this scripture this week, I thought when it said if those of you who think you're religious yet don't keep a tight rein on their tongue, I thought this was going to be the same tongue that meant gossip and saying cutting things about brothers and sisters. But, this is the same word for tongue that Jesus used in Matthew 6:7 when he said, "When you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard for their many words." So here's this recurring theme. It's not back biting, it's not gossip – it's about the promises we make to God in religious ceremonies. Be careful what you promise to God because you are going to be held accountable to God for every promise you ever make. This is why verse 26 cannot be separated from verse 27. Look at Verse 27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." It's saying you can't make religious words a substitute for sacrificial service. The church today has taken worship and called it worship service. Worship in the church is really an exercise of an hour of words. Whether the words are in liturgy or music or the message, this is simply an exercise of an hour of words - and you cannot substitute religious words for sacrificial service. True worship is what we do for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine. It is why James is saying we need less God-talk and more God-walk.

Lewis Smedes has a great quote about the power of promise, "When a person makes a promise, she reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable - she will be there even when being there cost her more than she is willing to pay." That's the power of promise. How many of you in this room have been baptized? When you were baptized, you made a vow to God and that vow meant that you would follow Jesus in the Via Dolorosa - the way of the cross, toward the hill that Jesus himself did not want to climb. When you were baptized, you made a vow, and the closest thing I can compare it to in our culture is like the captain of a ship who vows to never desert their ship. The captain of the Titanic did not make it off that boat, folks. When you were baptized, you made a vow to God to commit yourself to a cause that you would never quit. We need less God-talk and more God-walk. When you were baptized, you make a commitment to people that you would never desert them. Someone, right now, is sitting here thinking, "Whew! I didn't know about it, my parents had me baptized." Too bad – you don't even get a choice! You're under the oath. That's a good thing. God holds you accountable because your parents gave you to God under oath.

I have an announcement to make. This is a painful announcement. Yesterday, Pastor Bowie and his wife Jeannette came to my office after his therapy session and this whole recovery deal is going to be a lot more complicated and lengthier than any of us first anticipated. So, Michael is going to have to take a medical leave from pastoral ministry in the United Methodist Church. He won't lose his credentials as a clergy. And, in June, they will move back to Houston where Michael will continue his rehabilitation and Jeannette will pursue a career in teaching. Yesterday, in my office there were tears and prayers. Michael so believes in this church and he so believes in our Loving Dayton initiative and our new work at Ft. McKinley, but he trusts the Lord in this part of his life. I want to show you a tape he made this past Wednesday, and I want you to see where Michael is right now, as part of us.

(video of Pastor Mike Bowie)

Hey, Ginghamsburg and Ft. McKinley family! I just want to give you a brief update about my recovery. Many of you all have been asking, "Well, how's Bowie doing?" Glad you asked! But first of all, I want to say thank you for your prayers, for your cards, for your gifts, but most of all for your numerous acts of compassion. I mean you guys have gone above and beyond the call of duty. You have been a blessing to me and my family, and we want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. May I say, words cannot explain how you guys have been a blessing to us, and it is my prayer that you guys be truly blessed to be a blessing to so many people. And for those who have called, for those who have e-mailed and those who have asked about me - I haven't ignored you, I have not forgotten about you, but I'm just trying to re-adjust to this new life-altering process, and it takes time. Many of you have probably said, and I have heard the comment over and over, "Bowie looks good!" Well, that may be true, but guess what? I don't feel as good as I look. For those who have never experienced a trauma to the brain, the brain takes a lot of time to heal. And just think about it, I had a tumor growing on my brain for 10 to 12 years, constantly putting pressure against my brain. So now this process will take a long time. So I want you all to be patient with me and keep praying for me because I believe that this setback will be a setup for a comeback. Romans 8:28 says, "All things work together for good to those who love God." And truly, I know that you love God, I love God, and God is going to do some great things throughout this ordeal. So, I would ask you to be patient with me and continue to pray for us as we move forward in this process. Hey! Remember, I love you - and you can't do anything about it! God bless you.

(end video)

Mike Slaughter: Mike Cargill, send us out in prayer, will you?

Mike Cargill: "Father, we thank You for the time to get together and to fellowship and worship together. As we consider the news of Mike Bowie, Lord, we ask that You would bless his life and bless the life of his family. He has been a joy to all of us. We wish him well. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."