If you visit the National Arboretum in Washington DC you will enter the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum where you will find around one hundred and fifty miniature trees and plants.
Here are pictures of two of them
These trees are normal trees that would grow into full sized trees if they were not shaped in certain ways. I call this the disciplining of the tree. Last week we used a sieve as the illustration of how God sifts out undesirable traits in our character and the sift he uses are the trials that come to each one of us. But in our second message in the series on Pure Joy I want to talk about how God disciplines us to become mature joyful Christians.
Trials are painful events but discipline can be painful or it can be pleasant. Here is how Wikipedia defines discipline, “In its most general sense, discipline refers to systematic instruction given to a disciple. This sense also preserves the origin of the word, which comes from the Latin disciplina, "instruction."
“To discipline thus means to instruct a person or animal to follow a particular code of conduct, or to adhere to a certain "order," or to adopt a particular pattern of behavior. So for example, to discipline a child to wash its hands before meals. Here, ’washing hands before meals’ is a particular pattern of behavior, and the child is being disciplined to adopt that pattern. ’To disciple’ also gives rise to the word disciplinarian, which denotes a person who enforces order. An ideal disciplinarian is one who can enforce order without coercion. Usually however, the phrase ’to discipline’ carries a negative connotation. This is because enforcement of order - that is, ensuring instructions are carried out - is often regulated through punishment.”
In today’s message I want to focus on the systematic instruction part not the coercion part.
In making the bonsai the gardener shapes the branches and roots in certain ways to stunt the growth of the tree and produce it in its miniature form. Wires are used to train and shape the branches. The plant is placed in a small container so that its roots cannot grow too large. You could say that it is instructed in certain ways.
I have an example on the platform here with me—a dwarf fig tree.
The writer of Hebrews contrasts how God acts and how a parent acts. Hebrews 12, beginning with very 5.
“And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, ‘My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.
For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.’
“As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?
“For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way” (Hebrews 12:5-11).
Let’s see how this disciplining process took place in the life of Joseph, the father of Jesus.
“This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us.’" (Matthew 1:18-23).
Joseph has found a wonderful young bride. He is madly in love with here. They are formally engaged. In Jewish culture the only way to break an engagement was to go through a divorce. Joseph felt that he could not go through with the marriage since Mary was pregnant. I am sure that Mary did everything she could to convince Joseph that she had been faithful to him. She had not seen another man. But in Joseph’s eyes the only way to get pregnant was to become intimate with a man. But he did not want to disgrace her so he planned on doing it quietly.
Now comes the first of what I call the disciplining or training of Joseph. Remember we said that discipline was “systematic instruction given to a disciple.” So God jumps into the act. God sends an angel to instruct Joseph that what had happened to Mary had divine approval, that this was a special miracle of God.
So we read, “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).
I imagine that it was not easy for Joseph to follow the instruction of the angel. Word was out that Mary was pregnant. You can imagine the whispers that came from two directions: “Can you believe that Joseph would sleep with Mary before their wedding?” And “I cannot understand why Joseph would continue the engagement with Mary when she has been unfaithful to him.”
This experience shaped his character in ways that we cannot imagine. God was making a beautiful bonsai tree out of him. Our songs, our traditions, our stories, make no mention of any struggles that Joseph must have gone through during this time. But God was preparing Joseph to be a great father to His Son.
The next period of shaping came after they were married. God arranged for Caesar Augustus to proclaim a decree that required every Jew to return to the place of their origin. Joseph was from Bethlehem but he lived in Nazareth. Prophecy foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. So Joseph and Mary set out and find that there is no place for them to stay. Here is the next shaping of the life and character of Joseph. He found a stable for his son to be born in and there is no hint of complaint about the unfairness of the Messiah being born under such humble surroundings.
The shepherds visit and worship the new baby. The wise men visit and worship the new baby, all of which must have made Joseph wonder even more about this very special gift that God had entrusted to him.
Joseph and Mary moved out of the stable and found other accommodations. The baby was too young for them to make the trip back to Nazareth and there were ceremonies they needed to follow at the temple. While in these accommodations wise men visited them and left exquisite and expensive gifts of gold and spices and perfumes.
All seemed to be going so well when suddenly Joseph had another visit from THAT angel and again it was not good news.
"Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." (Matthew 2:13).
Joseph is asleep, in bed, when this vivid dream comes to him. What is he to do? Surely it cannot be true. But he listens to God. He is willing to be shaped by God. He values God’s instructions. God is teaching him to be obedient to every word that He receives.
God wants us to be obedient and he disciplines us as well to develop that character He wants in us and to teach us what pure joy is all about. You see, the only true joy that can come into a person’s life comes when that person follows God and does what God asks.
So Joseph wakes up the family. He tells Mary that they have got to get out of there right away. They pack their belongings and hurry off to Egypt. Herod never knows that his soldiers did not kill the threat to his throne.
We do not know how long the Joseph family lived in Egypt but it was long enough for Herod to die and for his son Archelaus to become the new king.
Joseph continued to earn his living as a carpenter and probably got quite settled in Egypt. There were many Jews who lived there anyway so he probably found many people to make friends with.
Then that angel comes into his life again. “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead." (Matthew 2:19-20).
See how God continues to shape and instruct Joseph. He is teaching him to continually listen and hear his voice. Joseph was to be a powerful influence in the life of Jesus and God wanted him totally committed to him so that he could pass on that commitment to Jesus.
His first impulse was to return to Bethlehem but that angel could not keep away. Matthew tells us again, “But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene." (Matthew 2:22-23).
So for the fourth time the angel comes into his life to train, to shape, to instruct. The angel tells him that it is not safe to go to Bethlehem and he should go back to where he had been living before—Nazareth.
I have taken this extended trip through the life of Joseph to show that discipline is not necessarily painful or something we want to avoid. Discipline is listening to God. Discipline is being open to God.
God tells us that the street to joy, the way to find pure joy is to let God be our instructor, our guide, no matter what it might cost.
For the family of Joseph it meaning leaving a comfortable home in Nazareth. Then it meant leaving Bethlehem in a hurry. After settling in Egypt they then made another move. And all because Joseph was listening to the voice of God.
Now the writer of Hebrews makes a point to say that “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” (Hebrews 12:11).
It was painful for Joseph to keep moving his family around. It was painful to feel that you might be only one step ahead of men out to murder your son. If this bonsai tree could speak it might tell you that part of its training was painful.
When I was twelve years old I began to take piano lessons. I had never touched a piano before. My mother played piano and organ but she had never taught me probably because we never owned a piano or organ when I was young.
Part of the discipline of learning to play the piano was to practice. I practiced one hour every day, first scales, then pieces. Then I began to sit for exams given by the Royal Schools of Music. If you pass all eight grades you can then sit for a diploma in piano. I studied piano for four years and passed grades one through six and also passed the theory exam for grade five. It took a lot of practice and study and discipline, the discipline was to spend that hour rather than reading or playing soccer, to pass those exams.
When my parents came home from Africa (I had been living in England with another family) my mother became tired of hearing me practice all the time so I eventually gave up my music, only to take it up again when I entered college, taking three years of organ and one year of voice. Now before the praise people think they have a new recruit let me say that I have not practiced for many years.
But what the discipline of practice did for me was to help me in my early years as a pastor when in the small churches that I served there was no pianist I would play the piano for the congregational singing, or play the little pump organ that we had in one of our churches.
We all need discipline, whether it is in money management, or in our eating habits, or in how we speak to others, or in the setting of priorities. This Christmas season becomes a real test of our discipline as we get coaxed to spend money we don’t have for presents to give to people we don’t really want to give to. The test of discipline really shows up in our eating when we get tempted with all kinds of sweets and goodies that may taste great but are not so great for our waistline.
This is why the Christ child is so important in our path to joy. He is what gives us the motivation. He is the one worth living for. He is the who gives real meaning to life. And in fact it is Jesus himself who said, "I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 16:6). The way to joy is through Jesus and as any good parent will do he disciplines us to train us in the way. And while at times it may seem painful it will ultimately produce wonderful fruit in our lives just as all the discipline lavished on the bonsai plant produces this wonderful miniature tree.
The sieve is for sifting out the undesirable. The cutting and trimming of the bonsai is to shape that which is good in us. Continue to let God do the shaping.
