“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near! This isn’t a joke. This isn’t just a line from the Bible. And so you’d better know two things right now. First, what is the kingdom of heaven? What is it that is so near? And what does it mean to repent? It’s coming. The kingdom of heaven is coming.
What is the kingdom of heaven? The word that is translated “kingdom” in Greek is basileia and while it can sometimes refer to a location or a place where a king rules, it more often refers to the fact that a king IS ruling. The king’s reign. So what’s is the difference?
Well, a kingdom has boundaries. You can walk into a kingdom and then back out of a kingdom. But the rule of a king, the reign of a king has to do with who the king is and what he does— not the place. It’s like the difference between a noun (which just sits there) and a verb (which is active and living). The kingdom of heaven has to do with HOW God reigns or THAT God is ruling. It’s not a location, it’s more like an experience. When John the Baptist said that the kingdom of heaven was coming near, he wasn’t referring to crossing the bridge between Iowa and Nebraska, he was talking about how life, how hearts and how the world was about to change for everyone. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”
John the Baptist said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John the Baptist said, “The kingdom of heaven is near.” But when Jesus was standing right in front of him in the gospel of John he said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is here!” “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” According to 1 John 3:8, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Under God’s kingship the power of sin could be destroyed. And John the Baptist wants us to be prepared to experience the joy of that revelation.
So he calls us to repent. What does that mean? Well, it’s more than just saying that you are sorry. When my daughter Sophia was just a little girl, we would put her in timeout when she did something wrong. When she was done, she had to say she was sorry and give us a hug. At first, she seemed to really be affected. But later on, she would simply graze our shoulder with a finger as she walked on by and said almost as an afterthought, “Sawee!” Was that TRUE repentance?
Repentance means not just saying that you are sorry, not just feeling bad, but actually turning around and turning away from your sin. Turning your back on sin. I’ts making a change. Finding a new focus. Jesus said, “You can’t serve two masters.” You can’t just sin and then say your sorry and keep doing it, that’s not repentance, that’s just guilt.
But that’s what most of us do isn’t it? Saying, “I’m sorry” nowadays means, “I feel bad.” I feel really bad for hurting your feelings, but you are kinda being a sissy. But I feel really bad about that. I’m sorry that I keep ignoring you honey. I feel really bad that this football game is just more interesting than you are. I’m sorry. I feel really bad about that. I’m sorry that I hate you. I’m sorry. I really wish that I didn’t feel this way. I know it’s not good for me. I wish you weren’t the way you are. I feel really bad about that. I’m sorry.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” John the Baptist cries out, Stop saying that you are sorry! Do you think that God doesn’t see what you are doing? Are you just here because someone told you this was the right thing to do? That you SHOULD feel bad? That you should get baptized because it’s the religious thing to do? Don’t just SAY that you’re sorry, bear fruit worthy of repentance. Start living it out!
If you are sorry that you don’t read your Bible more, start bearing fruit worthy of repentance. . . start reading it. You are going to have to make a change. If you’re sorry that you’re impatient with your kids, that you yell at them all the time, start bearing fruit worthy of repentance . . .pray for your kids, pray for yourself, get more sleep I don’t know, but do something. Make a change! Don’t just feel bad, that’s not repentance. Do whatever you can to get away from whatever it is that’s causing you to sin.
In Pauls’ first letter to the Corinthians he says we have to run from sin. “Flee!” He says. “Flee from sexual immorality.” Don’t just say your sorry and keep doing it. Run! Run away! Don’t just say your sorry for commiting adultery and then keep her number in your cell phone. Don’t just say your sorry for sleeping with your boyfriend and then hang out him alone, at night, in an empty house, in your bedroom. That’s not repentance. You might feel bad for letting it happen, but God doesn’t want your guilt. He wants to set you free!
He wants you to experience the kingdom of heaven where sin isn’t just tolerated but destroyed through forgiveness. If you are ready to make a change, to repent, he is ready to forgive unconditionally. There is nothing that you have ever done that God will not forgive. Not because you said you felt bad, but because you wanted a new life. God is in the business of giving new life.
I read a book once that explained how you trap a monkey. Do you want to know how to trap a monkey? Well, in India at least, one way is to cut a little hole in a coconut, just about the same size as the monkey’s hand. The monkey will come and reach his little hand inside the coconut and grab some of that yummy sweet stuff and then try to pull it out . . . but he won’t be able to now that he’s got that stuff in his fist. Unless he let’s go of his prize, that coconut will slow him down enough to catch him. Repenting means to let go of your sin. To turn from your old life so that you can live a new one. You cannot hold on to your sin and still expect to find freedom from it. .
We all have something to turn away from and it can feel like if we do leave that sin behind then what will we be left with. I get that. It makes you feel good, I mean, sin often makes you feel really good. What will you do with your time if you stop? You might feel like you’re losing everything.
I used to play a card game called “Magic”. It’s a tradable card game like Pokeman if you’ve ever heard of that. Anyway, each card has a picture on it and a little description that changes the rules of the game in some way. I loved to play it. All the time.
I played it first with my dad who bought me the cards. We played it every day for about two years. We spent one entire Thanksgiving vacation playing it with breaks only for going to the bathroom. Then, when I went to college I stopped, but I didn’t repent. I kept my cards. I started again. But when I realized that I had become addicted again I stopped again. But I didn’t repent. I held out the hope that I could play again under the right circumstances. And, lo and behold, during my last year of seminary, I found out that I could play the game online. It still cost money, but now I could play any time of the day or night. A year later I had spent over a thousand dollars and had lost hours of time with my family that could never be returned.
I was so addicted to this game. When I was depressed, it was like a drug that I could go to and take away the pain for a little while. It was exciting! I couldn’t imagine finding joy outside of playing that one game. I didn’t want to repent. What would I do? I thought that I could just look at the cards, or keep the application on my computer, or go to the website and read about it, but that temptation was so strong that I had to not just feel bad about playing, I had to repent and turn my back on it. Out of my house, off of my computer, and out of my life!
I couldn’t just let it hang around and hope to be strong enough to fight because if I stuck my hand in that card box again I knew I just couldn’t let go. I was trapped. And no matter how bad or guilty I felt, until I got rid of it and truly repented, I couldn’t find the forgiveness and the freedom I was seeking. I wasn’t prepared to be forgiven for my addiction until I was really ready to leave it behind forever.
It’s almost Christmas. Are you prepared? Or do you have something to let go of? John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, “Don’t look at me! Look at him!” He’s the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Let go of everything but him. People like the Pharisees and even John’s own disciples come to him to ask him questions and John always says, “This isn’t about me! It’s about Jesus! That guy! Over there!” I must decrease, he must increase. What is Christmas about for you? Jesus or something else? We must repent so that we can experience the kingdom of heaven. To be prepared to celebrate Jesus. Not Santa. Not the Christmas party. Not the vacation. Jesus alone.
What do we have to repent of as a church? We have to listen to the words of John the Baptist and remember that our community is about Jesus alone. Like all churches, we tend to lose our focus on Jesus and are start making it about all kinds of other things.
Why do you come to church? Because of me? Because you like me or think I’m nice or something? Because I’m new and interesting or at least new? It’s not about me! It’s about Jesus. It’s not about the praise band or the organ! It’s about Jesus. It’s not about any church leader! It’s about Jesus. It’s not about your friends. It’s not even about you, believe it or not. It’s about Jesus. Follow the long bony finger of John the Baptist who says, “It’s about him! Jesus. Only Jesus.” We must let go of everything else and repent for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
It’s time for all of us to stop just feeling bad or feeling sorry. Repent and get ready, for the kingdom of heaven is not only near—it’s right here. Jesus promised, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name I am there among them.” The kingdom of heaven is here. Experience the power of the Holy Spirit right now and repent, let go of everything else and hold on to Jesus Christ your Savior. He’s all you’ve got, but he’s all you need. By God’s authority I declare unto you the entire forgiveness of all your sins. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit. Welcome to the kingdom of heaven. Amen.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Sermon for November 28th (Christ's Second Coming)
Our gospel reading today comes from Matthew chapter 24, verse 36. Jesus is talking about the day he comes again: the second coming of Christ! The prophets of the Old Testament called this, “The Day of the Lord.” Some today call it, “The End of Time” or “Judgment Day”. But Jesus didn’t just start talking about it one afternoon out of the blue, he was answering a question given to him by his disciples, “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” How many of you wonder the same thing? When will Jesus be coming again? How will I know? What will be the signs? How will I be able to tell the difference between today and that day or whether today is that day?
Before today’s reading, Jesus spends some time talking about the “signs”. He describes what the day will look like when he comes again. “For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” It will be like lightning. It will be fast, it will be shocking, it will be public. When Jesus comes again, it will not be behind closed doors. It will not be secretive. Everybody will know. And it will happen suddenly. “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” That’s all from Matthew, that’s not Revelation folks, that’s simply Jesus talking to his disciples one day.
What have you heard about the second coming of Christ? Does your image fit what Jesus actually said? I think that it is extremely important that we test our individual theories against what scripture says on this topic. I have heard, and read, many things about the end of time and, so often, they don’t seem to really jive with what Jesus says. Sometimes even popular books, like the Left Behind series, seem to leave scripture behind for the sake of a good story. People disappearing and leaving their clothes behind? Nobody knows what’s happening except for a few Christians who weren’t really believers before? That doesn’t sound to me like the second coming of Christ that Jesus is talking about here.
According to 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” Jesus did not come in secret and he will not return in secret, like a mystifying magic trick. When Jesus comes it will be like lightning. There will be trumpets. It will be a surprise, yes indeed, but it will be very, very public. “I’m coming soon. Get ready.” Jesus says.
Some will say, “But what about the time before that. What the Bible calls the “time of distress”? The Great Tribulation!” Yes, we must talk of that as well because it is certainly what most people focus on. The Great Tribulation. But first, let me point something out to you. This time of distress, by whatever name you want to call it, is BEFORE Christ comes again. According to scripture, it is BEFORE the consummation of the kingdom. “Immediately AFTER the distress of those days, “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn.”
Let me make this perfectly clear once more. According to scripture, when Christ come everything old has passed away. The new has come! There will be a time of great trial and tribulation, the book of Daniel says, “But everyone whose name if found written in the book--will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” In Mark, Jesus says, “those days of distress will be unequaled from the beginning when God created the world until now—and never to be equaled again. But for the sake of the elect he has shortened them.
Does that make sense with concepts such as the rapture where true believers “escape” this time of trial? Throughout Revelation, God’s people are called to “overcome” and to be faithful through patient endurance. In Revelation 7, there is a great multitude who is said to have come through the Great Tribulation and were washed by the blood of the Lamb.
Why am I making such a big deal out of this? Well, because I believe we have slipped in our theology. We are slicing and dicing scripture, cutting and pasting this with that until we are all so confused we don’t know what to think or believe. We’ve left scripture behind for a good story. And so we become worried that we don’t know enough about the End Times as if that was somehow a prerequisite for eternal life. It’s interesting to speculate, but not at the expense of trusting in Jesus as the final Word for your life. Maybe it’s just too simple. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.” Jesus says, “I’m coming soon. Get ready.”
In the last two weeks, I’ve had multiple people ask me about how exactly Jesus is going to come again. There is an idea out there and Jesus will be born again, walk around as a thirty year old again but, this time, we’d better recognize him or else! But that’s not what the Bible says at all. I remember, when I was in high school, I told my dad that if he ever came home one day and I wasn’t there and he couldn’t figure out why, that Jesus must have come by and asked me to leave with him. I’d have to go without saying goodbye.” Now why would I have said that? Well, I guess I believed that this was what was going to happen? And, I guess I had delusions of grandeur . . . I wanted to be one of the disciples! But what does scripture actually say!
Remember last week’s reading from Acts? It said right there how Jesus would come again, “Jesus was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Where is the confusion? The Bible is very clear on this.
But do you know what? I think that we want more. We want more drama. We want more suspense. We want a good story. And, so, like me, we imagine Jesus coming back for more disciples hoping to be a hero for Jesus. We want a long drawn out story like the Left Behind series, to excite us. We want Kirk Cameron to be our hero for Jesus! It’s more exciting than what scripture tells us. “Be ready. I’m coming soon.” We end up focusing on the Great Tribulation instead of the everlasting kingdom. On knowledge of prophecy instead of faith in promises.
Instead of trusting in Jesus’ promise to come again, we get wrapped up in looking for “signs” that he’s about to come! Jesus’ return stops being something that we prepare for and hope for and starts becoming something we “study”. And while those signs of Jesus’ return might be “right on” here’s the danger: don’t get focused on the trees and miss the forest. Jesus explains the purpose of his talk with the disciples and it wasn’t so that they’d be able to say “I knew you were coming! I saw the signs!” No, Jesus says, “Keep watch, because you do not know of what day your Lord will come. Be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect him.” It’s not about what you know, it’s who you know. Following God’s will has less to do with watching a specific timeline than it does with watching over your way of life. Don’t get so focused on the world events that you never take a look at yourself. Get yourself ready so that no matter what the world throws at you, you can stay faithful.
This is the first week of Advent in the church year. Advent is a time of preparation. We are preparing for Christmas, but we are also always expecting the return of Jesus as he promised. How are you preparing? By watching the signs? Watching the news? Or by watching over your heart?
How are you preparing for Jesus second coming? What will Jesus find in your house when he enters it like a thief? Don’t just memorize prophecies, trust in promises. Your promises. There will be trials. There will be a great Tribulation. Get ready to stay faithful to Jesus and his Word to the end. The End Times can sometimes appear very dark and complicated, but they are also quite simple. Jesus promises, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that where I am there you may be also.”
Before today’s reading, Jesus spends some time talking about the “signs”. He describes what the day will look like when he comes again. “For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” It will be like lightning. It will be fast, it will be shocking, it will be public. When Jesus comes again, it will not be behind closed doors. It will not be secretive. Everybody will know. And it will happen suddenly. “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” That’s all from Matthew, that’s not Revelation folks, that’s simply Jesus talking to his disciples one day.
What have you heard about the second coming of Christ? Does your image fit what Jesus actually said? I think that it is extremely important that we test our individual theories against what scripture says on this topic. I have heard, and read, many things about the end of time and, so often, they don’t seem to really jive with what Jesus says. Sometimes even popular books, like the Left Behind series, seem to leave scripture behind for the sake of a good story. People disappearing and leaving their clothes behind? Nobody knows what’s happening except for a few Christians who weren’t really believers before? That doesn’t sound to me like the second coming of Christ that Jesus is talking about here.
According to 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” Jesus did not come in secret and he will not return in secret, like a mystifying magic trick. When Jesus comes it will be like lightning. There will be trumpets. It will be a surprise, yes indeed, but it will be very, very public. “I’m coming soon. Get ready.” Jesus says.
Some will say, “But what about the time before that. What the Bible calls the “time of distress”? The Great Tribulation!” Yes, we must talk of that as well because it is certainly what most people focus on. The Great Tribulation. But first, let me point something out to you. This time of distress, by whatever name you want to call it, is BEFORE Christ comes again. According to scripture, it is BEFORE the consummation of the kingdom. “Immediately AFTER the distress of those days, “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn.”
Let me make this perfectly clear once more. According to scripture, when Christ come everything old has passed away. The new has come! There will be a time of great trial and tribulation, the book of Daniel says, “But everyone whose name if found written in the book--will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” In Mark, Jesus says, “those days of distress will be unequaled from the beginning when God created the world until now—and never to be equaled again. But for the sake of the elect he has shortened them.
Does that make sense with concepts such as the rapture where true believers “escape” this time of trial? Throughout Revelation, God’s people are called to “overcome” and to be faithful through patient endurance. In Revelation 7, there is a great multitude who is said to have come through the Great Tribulation and were washed by the blood of the Lamb.
Why am I making such a big deal out of this? Well, because I believe we have slipped in our theology. We are slicing and dicing scripture, cutting and pasting this with that until we are all so confused we don’t know what to think or believe. We’ve left scripture behind for a good story. And so we become worried that we don’t know enough about the End Times as if that was somehow a prerequisite for eternal life. It’s interesting to speculate, but not at the expense of trusting in Jesus as the final Word for your life. Maybe it’s just too simple. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.” Jesus says, “I’m coming soon. Get ready.”
In the last two weeks, I’ve had multiple people ask me about how exactly Jesus is going to come again. There is an idea out there and Jesus will be born again, walk around as a thirty year old again but, this time, we’d better recognize him or else! But that’s not what the Bible says at all. I remember, when I was in high school, I told my dad that if he ever came home one day and I wasn’t there and he couldn’t figure out why, that Jesus must have come by and asked me to leave with him. I’d have to go without saying goodbye.” Now why would I have said that? Well, I guess I believed that this was what was going to happen? And, I guess I had delusions of grandeur . . . I wanted to be one of the disciples! But what does scripture actually say!
Remember last week’s reading from Acts? It said right there how Jesus would come again, “Jesus was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Where is the confusion? The Bible is very clear on this.
But do you know what? I think that we want more. We want more drama. We want more suspense. We want a good story. And, so, like me, we imagine Jesus coming back for more disciples hoping to be a hero for Jesus. We want a long drawn out story like the Left Behind series, to excite us. We want Kirk Cameron to be our hero for Jesus! It’s more exciting than what scripture tells us. “Be ready. I’m coming soon.” We end up focusing on the Great Tribulation instead of the everlasting kingdom. On knowledge of prophecy instead of faith in promises.
Instead of trusting in Jesus’ promise to come again, we get wrapped up in looking for “signs” that he’s about to come! Jesus’ return stops being something that we prepare for and hope for and starts becoming something we “study”. And while those signs of Jesus’ return might be “right on” here’s the danger: don’t get focused on the trees and miss the forest. Jesus explains the purpose of his talk with the disciples and it wasn’t so that they’d be able to say “I knew you were coming! I saw the signs!” No, Jesus says, “Keep watch, because you do not know of what day your Lord will come. Be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect him.” It’s not about what you know, it’s who you know. Following God’s will has less to do with watching a specific timeline than it does with watching over your way of life. Don’t get so focused on the world events that you never take a look at yourself. Get yourself ready so that no matter what the world throws at you, you can stay faithful.
This is the first week of Advent in the church year. Advent is a time of preparation. We are preparing for Christmas, but we are also always expecting the return of Jesus as he promised. How are you preparing? By watching the signs? Watching the news? Or by watching over your heart?
How are you preparing for Jesus second coming? What will Jesus find in your house when he enters it like a thief? Don’t just memorize prophecies, trust in promises. Your promises. There will be trials. There will be a great Tribulation. Get ready to stay faithful to Jesus and his Word to the end. The End Times can sometimes appear very dark and complicated, but they are also quite simple. Jesus promises, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that where I am there you may be also.”
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Sermon for November 21st (Witness)
In the declaration of independence, we read the following words written by our forefathers, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Nice words. Nice idea. Written on July 4th, 1776. But for many people in America, while the words were nice, they had witnessed personally that the truth was much different.
In Martin Luther King Junior’s “I Have a Dream” speech, given on August 28th, 1963 (almost 200 years later) he said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.' The words were there, but our country hadn’t started living out that truth. In 1870, black people were given the right to vote, but it wasn’t until the 1960’s when many segregation laws were ended that allowed children of all races to go to school together. The words say “equality” but there are still times today when the witness is inequality. Sometimes, in the history of our nation, our words and our witness haven’t been in agreement.
We, as Christians, don’t fare much better. In fact, I believe that we fare much worse on a whole. We do not practice what we preach, as the saying goes. We do not witness to what we believe. Instead, so many times, we witness to things we say that we do not believe in. But what are people to believe? What we say or what we do? Our great words of faith or our public witness to the faith?
We don’t use the word witness much today outside of the courtroom. But when you start going back and seeing where the word came from, how it got into the English language, you learn a lot about what witnessing really means. The word we use for “witness” comes from the Greek verb Marteereo. One who witnesses, who marteereo’s is called a marteeros. A marteer—a martyr. The word “witness” comes from the Greek word “martyr”. A person who dies for what they believe in.
Have you ever wondered how the early church got so big? According to the sociologist Rodney Stark in his book, The Rise of Christianity, he takes a conservative guess at there being around 1,000 Christians in the entire world in the year 40 (that’s several years after Jesus’ death and resurrection). Sixty years later, by the year 100, there would have been around 7,500 Christians total. That doesn’t seem like that many. However, by the year 300, many historians estimate there would have been around 7 million Christians and by 350, it is estimated that Christians would have made up over half of the population—around 33 million. By any historical measurement, that is extraordinary growth.
Now there were many factors influencing the growth of Christianity, but one of the most important is written down in one of the chapters in Stark’s book: Christian Martyrs—Christian witnesses. I have heard over and over again that the Christian church grew due to the blood of the martyrs—people who were willing to die for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ.
From our reading today, Hebrews chapter 12, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Can you imagine who the author is talking to and who he is referring to? Throughout Hebrews 11, the chapter before, he refers to Abel, to Noah, to Abraham, to Sarah, to Moses, but here, he is referring to the witnesses that his readers would have known personally. People who died for the sake of their faith—the first Christian martyrs. He is speaking to people who knew that, at any moment, they might have to stand up for their faith in the face of torture and death. The book of Hebrews shows us that our witness today is just as important as the witness of people in the past.
A Greek writer, Eusebius wrote about one Christian, named Romanus, who became a martyr for his faith and how his witness affected the people around him, “When the judge had informed him that he was to die by flames, with a cheerful countenance and a most ardent mind he received the sentence and was led away. He was then tied to the stake, and when the wood was heaped up about him, and they were kindling the pile, only waiting the word from the expected emperor, he exclaimed, ‘where then is the fire?’ Saying this he was summoned again before the emperor, to be subjected to new tortures and therefore had his tongue cut out, which he bore with the greatest of fortitude, as he proved his actions to all, showing also that the power of God is always present to the aid of those who are obliged to bear any hardship for the sake of religion, to lighten their labours, and to strengthen their ardor.” Stark writes, “To Eusebius, the bravery and steadfastness of the martyrs was proof of Christian virtue. Indeed, many pagans were deeply impressed.”
What’s my point in telling you all of this? To show you that faith means more than you might think. It involves everything: your heart, your mind, your ears, your feet, your mouth and even your actions. Before he ascends into heaven, Jesus tells his disciples, “You will be my witnesses.” When people find out you are a Christian, what is your witness to them? Are they inspired or surprised?
You know those bumper stickers on the backs of trucks that say, “How’s my driving?” And then leave a phone number? What if we all had to wear a bumber sticker, or how about a nametag that said, “I’m a Christian. How am I living?” What if you wrote down your pastor’s cell phone number and encouraged them to call with comments and suggestions.
I know that I mentioned a few weeks back that God sees everything, but today I’d like to point out that it’s not just God who sees. Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses.” We will be, like it or not. Our kids see, our parents and grandparents see, our friends see and, most especially, those who are not Christians see what we do. How we act. Are you happy with your Christian witness to the world? If you had to wear a nametag that said, “I’m a Christian.” Would you feel embarrassed for the witness you were giving? Or would your life lead them to a relationship to Jesus?
I admit that I have very often failed to give a good witness. I remember putting this story in a sermon before, but it’s so awful that I think it’s therapeutic for me to tell it again. One night, Kristy and I were up late working on money and decided to close a credit card account that still had $22.44 cents left in it. But they wouldn’t give us our money back. They’d give us a volleyball. They’d give us a $10 gift certificate to a store we didn’t go to, but they wouldn’t give us our money back. Kristy spoke to them for what had to have been 45 minutes going from supervisor to supervisor until finally I was fed up and wanted to see what I could do. Within five minutes I was yelling at the poor customer service person saying, “Do you know that I’m a pastor and I talk to a lot of people and I’m gonna tell them how awful you guys are!?” A few seconds later I realized what I had just done and handed the phone back to Kristy.
What did I just witness to? Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses.” What kind of God did I just witness to when I said, “I’m a pastor”? I told her that I was sorry, over the phone, but who knows if the damage could ever be undone. Jesus had to die for that sin. But it reminds me that, as a Christian, and as a pastor, my public witness matters. People can’t see my heart, but they can see my actions. Faith is more than what we feel and think and say, it’s also about how we act even in public. It’s about our witness to others.
I want you to look at your life, you daily actions in the light of Christ who calls you to be his witness. Don’t put this on someone else who you think needs to hear it more. Look at yourself and your actions, your lifestyle and your life. Ask yourself the question, “Would somebody believe that I’m a Christian if I never told them that I was?” What is keeping you from living out your faith to witness to the glory of God?
I found an anonymous quote this week that said, “Witnessing is not something we do; it is something we are.” Now, you aren’t going to stop being a sinner. You are still going to mess up and be a hypocrite sometimes. But don’t use that as an excuse for continuing to make a poor witness to Christ. To live as God intended you to live. Maybe you are in a relationship right now with something or with someone that is not pleasing to God? Maybe you are having an affair. Maybe you are addicted to pornography or alcohol. Are you a gossip? Are you a liar? What are you witnessing to? Repent! Return to God! Not just for yourself, but for those you are witnessing to.
It doesn’t matter how broken and ashamed you are right now, God can use you for spreading his kingdom not in spite of your sins but because of them. Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses!” When we give our sins to Jesus, he can find a way to use them for the good of his kingdom. You know people like this. We all do. People you know who have not lived according to God’s commands. Who broke the law or broke hearts or broke themselves. But when they turned from those behaviors, when they confessed and asked forgiveness, when they started down a new path with God, they became a witness to you. They inspired you. They showed you what faith could be. When you repent. When you return to God and lay your sins at his feet. He will say, “I forgive you. You are precious to me. You are mine. You will be my witness.” Amen.
In Martin Luther King Junior’s “I Have a Dream” speech, given on August 28th, 1963 (almost 200 years later) he said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.' The words were there, but our country hadn’t started living out that truth. In 1870, black people were given the right to vote, but it wasn’t until the 1960’s when many segregation laws were ended that allowed children of all races to go to school together. The words say “equality” but there are still times today when the witness is inequality. Sometimes, in the history of our nation, our words and our witness haven’t been in agreement.
We, as Christians, don’t fare much better. In fact, I believe that we fare much worse on a whole. We do not practice what we preach, as the saying goes. We do not witness to what we believe. Instead, so many times, we witness to things we say that we do not believe in. But what are people to believe? What we say or what we do? Our great words of faith or our public witness to the faith?
We don’t use the word witness much today outside of the courtroom. But when you start going back and seeing where the word came from, how it got into the English language, you learn a lot about what witnessing really means. The word we use for “witness” comes from the Greek verb Marteereo. One who witnesses, who marteereo’s is called a marteeros. A marteer—a martyr. The word “witness” comes from the Greek word “martyr”. A person who dies for what they believe in.
Have you ever wondered how the early church got so big? According to the sociologist Rodney Stark in his book, The Rise of Christianity, he takes a conservative guess at there being around 1,000 Christians in the entire world in the year 40 (that’s several years after Jesus’ death and resurrection). Sixty years later, by the year 100, there would have been around 7,500 Christians total. That doesn’t seem like that many. However, by the year 300, many historians estimate there would have been around 7 million Christians and by 350, it is estimated that Christians would have made up over half of the population—around 33 million. By any historical measurement, that is extraordinary growth.
Now there were many factors influencing the growth of Christianity, but one of the most important is written down in one of the chapters in Stark’s book: Christian Martyrs—Christian witnesses. I have heard over and over again that the Christian church grew due to the blood of the martyrs—people who were willing to die for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ.
From our reading today, Hebrews chapter 12, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Can you imagine who the author is talking to and who he is referring to? Throughout Hebrews 11, the chapter before, he refers to Abel, to Noah, to Abraham, to Sarah, to Moses, but here, he is referring to the witnesses that his readers would have known personally. People who died for the sake of their faith—the first Christian martyrs. He is speaking to people who knew that, at any moment, they might have to stand up for their faith in the face of torture and death. The book of Hebrews shows us that our witness today is just as important as the witness of people in the past.
A Greek writer, Eusebius wrote about one Christian, named Romanus, who became a martyr for his faith and how his witness affected the people around him, “When the judge had informed him that he was to die by flames, with a cheerful countenance and a most ardent mind he received the sentence and was led away. He was then tied to the stake, and when the wood was heaped up about him, and they were kindling the pile, only waiting the word from the expected emperor, he exclaimed, ‘where then is the fire?’ Saying this he was summoned again before the emperor, to be subjected to new tortures and therefore had his tongue cut out, which he bore with the greatest of fortitude, as he proved his actions to all, showing also that the power of God is always present to the aid of those who are obliged to bear any hardship for the sake of religion, to lighten their labours, and to strengthen their ardor.” Stark writes, “To Eusebius, the bravery and steadfastness of the martyrs was proof of Christian virtue. Indeed, many pagans were deeply impressed.”
What’s my point in telling you all of this? To show you that faith means more than you might think. It involves everything: your heart, your mind, your ears, your feet, your mouth and even your actions. Before he ascends into heaven, Jesus tells his disciples, “You will be my witnesses.” When people find out you are a Christian, what is your witness to them? Are they inspired or surprised?
You know those bumper stickers on the backs of trucks that say, “How’s my driving?” And then leave a phone number? What if we all had to wear a bumber sticker, or how about a nametag that said, “I’m a Christian. How am I living?” What if you wrote down your pastor’s cell phone number and encouraged them to call with comments and suggestions.
I know that I mentioned a few weeks back that God sees everything, but today I’d like to point out that it’s not just God who sees. Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses.” We will be, like it or not. Our kids see, our parents and grandparents see, our friends see and, most especially, those who are not Christians see what we do. How we act. Are you happy with your Christian witness to the world? If you had to wear a nametag that said, “I’m a Christian.” Would you feel embarrassed for the witness you were giving? Or would your life lead them to a relationship to Jesus?
I admit that I have very often failed to give a good witness. I remember putting this story in a sermon before, but it’s so awful that I think it’s therapeutic for me to tell it again. One night, Kristy and I were up late working on money and decided to close a credit card account that still had $22.44 cents left in it. But they wouldn’t give us our money back. They’d give us a volleyball. They’d give us a $10 gift certificate to a store we didn’t go to, but they wouldn’t give us our money back. Kristy spoke to them for what had to have been 45 minutes going from supervisor to supervisor until finally I was fed up and wanted to see what I could do. Within five minutes I was yelling at the poor customer service person saying, “Do you know that I’m a pastor and I talk to a lot of people and I’m gonna tell them how awful you guys are!?” A few seconds later I realized what I had just done and handed the phone back to Kristy.
What did I just witness to? Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses.” What kind of God did I just witness to when I said, “I’m a pastor”? I told her that I was sorry, over the phone, but who knows if the damage could ever be undone. Jesus had to die for that sin. But it reminds me that, as a Christian, and as a pastor, my public witness matters. People can’t see my heart, but they can see my actions. Faith is more than what we feel and think and say, it’s also about how we act even in public. It’s about our witness to others.
I want you to look at your life, you daily actions in the light of Christ who calls you to be his witness. Don’t put this on someone else who you think needs to hear it more. Look at yourself and your actions, your lifestyle and your life. Ask yourself the question, “Would somebody believe that I’m a Christian if I never told them that I was?” What is keeping you from living out your faith to witness to the glory of God?
I found an anonymous quote this week that said, “Witnessing is not something we do; it is something we are.” Now, you aren’t going to stop being a sinner. You are still going to mess up and be a hypocrite sometimes. But don’t use that as an excuse for continuing to make a poor witness to Christ. To live as God intended you to live. Maybe you are in a relationship right now with something or with someone that is not pleasing to God? Maybe you are having an affair. Maybe you are addicted to pornography or alcohol. Are you a gossip? Are you a liar? What are you witnessing to? Repent! Return to God! Not just for yourself, but for those you are witnessing to.
It doesn’t matter how broken and ashamed you are right now, God can use you for spreading his kingdom not in spite of your sins but because of them. Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses!” When we give our sins to Jesus, he can find a way to use them for the good of his kingdom. You know people like this. We all do. People you know who have not lived according to God’s commands. Who broke the law or broke hearts or broke themselves. But when they turned from those behaviors, when they confessed and asked forgiveness, when they started down a new path with God, they became a witness to you. They inspired you. They showed you what faith could be. When you repent. When you return to God and lay your sins at his feet. He will say, “I forgive you. You are precious to me. You are mine. You will be my witness.” Amen.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Sermon for November 14th (Speak)
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest fields.” What is this harvest that Jesus is referring to? He is sending his disciples out to bring in those who believe Jesus’ message. If that message finds good soil and is accepted, those believers will become part of the great harvest of all believers at the end of time.
“The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man” Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew. The disciples are being sent out to speak to Jews and every Jew would have already heard that God had promised them a Messiah. Those that believe Jesus is that very Messiah are the good plants that God has planted. Those who do not believe, those who reject this message, who do not believe that Jesus is the promised Savior, are not only rejecting the disciples’ words, but are rejecting Jesus himself, and therefore God’s plan for their salvation. Jesus makes it clear that there are sinister forces at work, namely the Devil, who is planting weeds of doubt and unbelief. Those who accept the message are part of the harvest and those who reject the words are not.
According to the gospel of Matthew chapter 13, “The one who received the seed that fell on the good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” I have heard this described in an interesting way once before. Jesus is teaching the disciples to be fruit inspectors. Jesus just describes what they are looking for. He is saying that they are harvesting apples. If a person accepts the message, they are an apple. If they reject the message, they are something else . . . oranges perhaps. But either way, as Jesus explains, “You shall know them by their fruits.” At the end of the age, God intends to harvest the apples and throw out the oranges.
No doubt some of you are unhappy with the direction that this sermon is going. It doesn’t seem fair that some are apples and some are oranges. God himself doesn’t seem to like that either. He spoke through the prophet Ezekiel, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Sovreign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” Jesus Christ came to turn oranges into apples —to turn sinners into saints—to make unbelievers believers, “Repent and believe in the good news!” he said. But how is he going to get that done?
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? Faith comes through hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
I think that it is very easy for us to become comfortable with our place in history—too comfortable. Jesus promised to come again, but that was 2000 years ago, and so we’ve just figured that he won’t come anytime soon. There’s always going to be enough time for us, for our loved ones, for people who don’t care about their salvation to start caring again. But get a load of this reading from 2nd Peter, “Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
Whenever Jesus came into contact with his disciples, he told them to go and speak, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them everything that I have commanded you.” Why does he care so much? Because the harvest is coming and when Jesus returns like a thief in the night it will be too late. So what are we to do with this borrowed time? God is calling you to speak.
Over the last several weeks, I’ve been talking a lot about faith and what it is and what it means. Faith means to trust, to listen, to follow, to hold onto God’s promises, to confess and to obey. Faith also means to speak. The problem is that we get so focused on ourselves when we start talking about faith that we end up becoming enamored with our own bellybuttons. Have you ever seen a little kid when they find their bellybutton? Suddenly, in that child’s universe, their bellybutton becomes the most interesting thing to look at and they will keep looking down until they find it over and over again. They stick out their little bellies and pull up their little shirts again and again just to make sure that it is there. And then they show it off to everyone who will look. It’s cute for a one year old, but don’t let your faith become your newfound bellybutton.
In the book of James we read, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Do you see that James isn’t saying that there isn’t faith, but that it is not a living faith. Like an dead apple tree in the backyard that never grows apples. Who cares if it is an apple tree anymore? You can show off you faith and show off your apple tree as often as you’d like to anyone who will look, but if it is dead then it might as well be a peach tree, a banana tree or a lollipop tree. No one will be able to tell the difference! It’s purpose is dead.
Remember when I told you about the harvest? And how there are some apples and some oranges and God wants the apples? Did you like hearing that or did you want to change that? Did you feel scared or even angry about it? Why? Because God is loving, right? Well, if you believe that—that God is a loving God— if you have faith in that, if you trust that and are willing to confess that out loud and follow God wherever he leads you, even if it’s to tell someone else about that wonderful promise of salvation then you will want to speak! A living faith can’t just sit back and say, “Too busy.” No! A living faith speaks because it can’t help itself. A living faith must speak because it loves all people and hopes in the goodness and power of God above anything else. Even hoping against hope that God can turns oranges into apples before the harvest day.
In the story today, Moses had many excuses why he couldn’t speak. What can we learn from his story?
His first excuse was this, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Believe it or not, Moses didn’t seem to foresee that he was going to be a hero of the faith; in fact, he didn’t feel worthy. And he was right, he wasn’t worthy, just like you and I are not worthy. Who am I? Who are you? Who are we to be given such a wondrous message of love to give to people who are hurting in this world?
What is God’s answer to all this unworthiness? God doesn’t build Moses up talking about his spiritual gifts or about giving of his time and talents. God simply says, “I will be with you.” Having the faith to speak means trusting that it isn’t about you—it’s about God seeking his lost sheep and using your voice to call them home.
But then Moses said, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you?” I recently remembered how it felt after I received a call to seminary. How could I explain that God was “calling” me to be a pastor? How could I prove it? Was I SURE it was God or just a chemical imbalance?
In the story, Moses is told by God to prove it through a series of three miracles. We look at that and say, “Nice! If I could turn the Nile into blood people would probably believe me too! If I could turn a stick into a snake I wouldn’t be so worried about being believable!” So pray for a miracle. Why not! If you need one, pray for one. In the story of Paul and Barnabas in the book of Acts, we hear that, “they spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.” The point is, it is up to you to speak, God will provide any necessary signs. If you believe you need one, why not ask for one and see what happens?
But Moses complained, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” In today’s vernacular we’d say, “But I’m not a good public speaker! I wouldn’t know what to say!” Once again, this is not about what YOU have to say. It’s what God has to say. God spoke to Moses and said, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” If you don’t already have a Bible, ask us for one. If you are a Christian, you need a Bible and you need to read it. In proverbs we read that we should read God’s Word like we were searching for hidden treasure because in these pages we will find the knowledge of God. “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” God is ready and waiting to teach. Open up your Bible and listen so that you have the words to speak when the time comes.
Moses then starts running out of excuses, “Oh Lord, please send someone else to do it.” “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”
God responds, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to do.” “You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.”
This is probably the hardest part of speaking God’s message. God says very clearly, over and over to his prophets in the Bible, that he will make it so some do not hear. He told Isaiah that he would stop up the ears of the people who he spoke to, Jesus told the disciples he was speaking in parables so that the kingdom stayed hidden for some, God even hardened Pharaoh’s heart. That’s why you cannot have the faith to speak unless you have a living faith that trusts God, listens to him, follows him, holds onto his promises, is able to confess and obeys completely. His ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts, and even if you do everything “right” the good you expect and want may not happen.
So why bother? I will end this message with a heartbreaking note. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” If people never hear the message of Jesus Christ, they won’t be able to believe that his amazing love is for them, that his ultimate forgiveness saves them for eternal life. People need to hear the love of Jesus, because if they don’t know his love, that is hell pure and simple—in this life or after death.
What is the good news in all of this? Where is the hope? You were once an orange. But God gave people in your life the faith to speak so that you might hear and believe. Now you are the apple of God’s eye. He will give you the faith to speak as well. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” God tells us to ask him to send out his workers and so we shall, right here and right now. Let us pray . . .
“The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man” Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew. The disciples are being sent out to speak to Jews and every Jew would have already heard that God had promised them a Messiah. Those that believe Jesus is that very Messiah are the good plants that God has planted. Those who do not believe, those who reject this message, who do not believe that Jesus is the promised Savior, are not only rejecting the disciples’ words, but are rejecting Jesus himself, and therefore God’s plan for their salvation. Jesus makes it clear that there are sinister forces at work, namely the Devil, who is planting weeds of doubt and unbelief. Those who accept the message are part of the harvest and those who reject the words are not.
According to the gospel of Matthew chapter 13, “The one who received the seed that fell on the good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” I have heard this described in an interesting way once before. Jesus is teaching the disciples to be fruit inspectors. Jesus just describes what they are looking for. He is saying that they are harvesting apples. If a person accepts the message, they are an apple. If they reject the message, they are something else . . . oranges perhaps. But either way, as Jesus explains, “You shall know them by their fruits.” At the end of the age, God intends to harvest the apples and throw out the oranges.
No doubt some of you are unhappy with the direction that this sermon is going. It doesn’t seem fair that some are apples and some are oranges. God himself doesn’t seem to like that either. He spoke through the prophet Ezekiel, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Sovreign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” Jesus Christ came to turn oranges into apples —to turn sinners into saints—to make unbelievers believers, “Repent and believe in the good news!” he said. But how is he going to get that done?
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? Faith comes through hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
I think that it is very easy for us to become comfortable with our place in history—too comfortable. Jesus promised to come again, but that was 2000 years ago, and so we’ve just figured that he won’t come anytime soon. There’s always going to be enough time for us, for our loved ones, for people who don’t care about their salvation to start caring again. But get a load of this reading from 2nd Peter, “Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
Whenever Jesus came into contact with his disciples, he told them to go and speak, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them everything that I have commanded you.” Why does he care so much? Because the harvest is coming and when Jesus returns like a thief in the night it will be too late. So what are we to do with this borrowed time? God is calling you to speak.
Over the last several weeks, I’ve been talking a lot about faith and what it is and what it means. Faith means to trust, to listen, to follow, to hold onto God’s promises, to confess and to obey. Faith also means to speak. The problem is that we get so focused on ourselves when we start talking about faith that we end up becoming enamored with our own bellybuttons. Have you ever seen a little kid when they find their bellybutton? Suddenly, in that child’s universe, their bellybutton becomes the most interesting thing to look at and they will keep looking down until they find it over and over again. They stick out their little bellies and pull up their little shirts again and again just to make sure that it is there. And then they show it off to everyone who will look. It’s cute for a one year old, but don’t let your faith become your newfound bellybutton.
In the book of James we read, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Do you see that James isn’t saying that there isn’t faith, but that it is not a living faith. Like an dead apple tree in the backyard that never grows apples. Who cares if it is an apple tree anymore? You can show off you faith and show off your apple tree as often as you’d like to anyone who will look, but if it is dead then it might as well be a peach tree, a banana tree or a lollipop tree. No one will be able to tell the difference! It’s purpose is dead.
Remember when I told you about the harvest? And how there are some apples and some oranges and God wants the apples? Did you like hearing that or did you want to change that? Did you feel scared or even angry about it? Why? Because God is loving, right? Well, if you believe that—that God is a loving God— if you have faith in that, if you trust that and are willing to confess that out loud and follow God wherever he leads you, even if it’s to tell someone else about that wonderful promise of salvation then you will want to speak! A living faith can’t just sit back and say, “Too busy.” No! A living faith speaks because it can’t help itself. A living faith must speak because it loves all people and hopes in the goodness and power of God above anything else. Even hoping against hope that God can turns oranges into apples before the harvest day.
In the story today, Moses had many excuses why he couldn’t speak. What can we learn from his story?
His first excuse was this, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Believe it or not, Moses didn’t seem to foresee that he was going to be a hero of the faith; in fact, he didn’t feel worthy. And he was right, he wasn’t worthy, just like you and I are not worthy. Who am I? Who are you? Who are we to be given such a wondrous message of love to give to people who are hurting in this world?
What is God’s answer to all this unworthiness? God doesn’t build Moses up talking about his spiritual gifts or about giving of his time and talents. God simply says, “I will be with you.” Having the faith to speak means trusting that it isn’t about you—it’s about God seeking his lost sheep and using your voice to call them home.
But then Moses said, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you?” I recently remembered how it felt after I received a call to seminary. How could I explain that God was “calling” me to be a pastor? How could I prove it? Was I SURE it was God or just a chemical imbalance?
In the story, Moses is told by God to prove it through a series of three miracles. We look at that and say, “Nice! If I could turn the Nile into blood people would probably believe me too! If I could turn a stick into a snake I wouldn’t be so worried about being believable!” So pray for a miracle. Why not! If you need one, pray for one. In the story of Paul and Barnabas in the book of Acts, we hear that, “they spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.” The point is, it is up to you to speak, God will provide any necessary signs. If you believe you need one, why not ask for one and see what happens?
But Moses complained, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” In today’s vernacular we’d say, “But I’m not a good public speaker! I wouldn’t know what to say!” Once again, this is not about what YOU have to say. It’s what God has to say. God spoke to Moses and said, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” If you don’t already have a Bible, ask us for one. If you are a Christian, you need a Bible and you need to read it. In proverbs we read that we should read God’s Word like we were searching for hidden treasure because in these pages we will find the knowledge of God. “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” God is ready and waiting to teach. Open up your Bible and listen so that you have the words to speak when the time comes.
Moses then starts running out of excuses, “Oh Lord, please send someone else to do it.” “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”
God responds, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to do.” “You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.”
This is probably the hardest part of speaking God’s message. God says very clearly, over and over to his prophets in the Bible, that he will make it so some do not hear. He told Isaiah that he would stop up the ears of the people who he spoke to, Jesus told the disciples he was speaking in parables so that the kingdom stayed hidden for some, God even hardened Pharaoh’s heart. That’s why you cannot have the faith to speak unless you have a living faith that trusts God, listens to him, follows him, holds onto his promises, is able to confess and obeys completely. His ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts, and even if you do everything “right” the good you expect and want may not happen.
So why bother? I will end this message with a heartbreaking note. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” If people never hear the message of Jesus Christ, they won’t be able to believe that his amazing love is for them, that his ultimate forgiveness saves them for eternal life. People need to hear the love of Jesus, because if they don’t know his love, that is hell pure and simple—in this life or after death.
What is the good news in all of this? Where is the hope? You were once an orange. But God gave people in your life the faith to speak so that you might hear and believe. Now you are the apple of God’s eye. He will give you the faith to speak as well. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” God tells us to ask him to send out his workers and so we shall, right here and right now. Let us pray . . .
Sermon for November 6th (Obey)
I’d like to read for you some lyrics from a contemporary Christian musician named Josh Wilson.
Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?
Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see
Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming
so hold on, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the dark before the morning
Genesis 22:1-2, Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” Abraham replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
What would that have felt like for Abraham to be asked to obey such a command?
Mark 10:32-34, “They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."
What would it have felt like for Jesus to go to Jerusalem knowing that it was necessary for him to die there—to die there!— for the sake of the world?
“Marxist guerrillas and the Colombian government were terrorizing the farming village Dora taught in. “Christians are dangerous,” the guerrillas repeatedly said. “Christians cannot lie. If the army asks them about us, they will tell the truth!” On Monday morning, Nov. 17th, 2008, Dora began her day like any other school day—praying with the students. During the day, a neighbor came to see the young teacher, “I’m sorry Dora,” he told her, “but the guerrillas will kill your brother tomorrow.” Later in the day, the neighbor returned. “I am so sorry,” he told her, “I have made a mistake. It is not your brother who will be killed . . . but it is you and your husband. You can take your family and run,” he said, “You can leave this village right now.” Dora reassured the guerrilla messenger, “You do not have to worry,” she said. This is better. My brother was not ready to meet the Lord. But my husband and I are.”
What would it have felt like for Dora to know that she would be killed the next day?
Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?
Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see
Genesis 22:3, 4-6, “Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.” “The fire and the wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”
Abraham obeyed what could only be considered a gruesome command from God. He took his son, the son Abraham had waited for for one-hundred years. Without Isaac, how would God keep the promise God had made? He took his son, his only son, the son he loved—Isaac. The son promised to him. That’s the way the text in Hebrew reads to make it clear that this wasn’t a simple choice. Why did he say, “WE will worship and then WE will come back to you?” According to Hebrews, it was because Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead. In other words, someone was really going to have to die! We know the ending to this story, Abraham did not, but he had faith in the power of God. Faith enough to obey in the face of utter terror. How might we learn to have that same faith?
Mark 14:32-36, “They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, “he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. Abba. Father. He said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Jesus obeyed. He was overwhelmed to the point of death. He prayed that he wouldn’t have to go through with it. That’s the way the text reads to make it clear that this wasn’t a simple choice either. Why? Because someone would have to die and Jesus knew it was going to be Him who was to do the dying. But he also knew the promise. He had given it to his disciples earlier, “Three days later the Son of Man will rise.” He is referring to himself here. He knows the promise; he has faith in the power of God his Father. And that faith, despite the overwhelming sorrow, is enough to obey. How might we learn to have that same faith?
The next morning they began the day like any other. Around 10 am two armed guerrillas, ushered the couple to the back of the schoolhouse to say goodbye to their family. The 12-year old, Marcella cried as the armed men walked her parents across a field to a river just 300 yards away from the school. Marcella could not see her parents, but she remembers hearing the two shots as her parents were executed. “If I met the men who did this I would forgive them,” Marcella said months are her parents had died. I know this would be hard, but I know God forgives them. So I have to as well.”
Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?
Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see
Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming
so hold on, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the dark before the morning
When your faith is put to the test. When you see the ending set before you and it scares the stuffing out of you, how do you find the faith to obey? To believe that God has the power to bring a better ending out of the darkness? When you face your death or the death of a loved one? When you face the anger or belittlement of your friends and family? When you face conflict? Or longsuffering? How do you find the strength to follow God’s call and obey?
The faith to obey does not simply mean doing something mindlessly because you are told to do it, at least not in these two stories. It means moving forward, even in the face of terror, because you have a promise firmly in hand. Three stories. We love one story, but hate the other two. I'd always figured that the difference between them was that Jesus knew that he was going to be raised from the dead while Abraham, or even Dora, couldn’t be sure. We say, we couldn't ever be expected to obey like Jesus. But Hebrews says that Abraham could only do it because he believed that God could raise the dead. I believe that. I fact, there is no way that Jesus could have made it through the garden –there is no way that Abraham could have made it up that mountain—unless they believed that there was more to the story than simply obeying a command. There is no way for you to obey God's command unless you trust in a promise from God. That you believe God can bring a better ending.
Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?
Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see
How can you find the faith to obey? It’s a lot more than simple, “following the commandments” or “doing what you are told”. A lot of people do some pretty awful things all in the name of “obeying”. We so often read the Bible like an instruction book, but it's much more than that. You’ve got to know your promises, you’ve got to. You’ve gotta go home, get out your Bible, and start highlighting the promises God has given to you. Because if you don’t have a promise from God, if you don’t know what he has to say about it, you won’t ever find the faith to obey him.
You can’t obey without a promise. You can’t obey without being able to trust God to create a dawn out of your darkest hour. When God commands you to do anything, if you just think it’s a hoop to jump through in order to look “righteous” you will balk every time. Without a promise, obeying just seems like too much! What do you mean that I have to wait until I’m married? What do you mean that I have to stay with my husband through better or worse? You want me to give HOW MUCH to church? Do I HAVE to talk about faith with others? Without a promise, faith has nothing to hold onto. We just keep making up excuses saying: "It's too hard!" It's too hard to obey.
How can you find the faith to obey? Hold onto your promises and never let them go. When you think you just can’t wait for your marriage night, remember, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” When you marriage is struggling? “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (And here comes the promise) The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. “ You can only stay and obey if you believe there is a God who is powerful enough to heal your heart and make it better. How can you give? “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” Says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” How can you obey and speak? "For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life."
Having the faith to obey means to have the faith that God can take any commandment, any calling and any situation and, according to his promise, create something new, something good and something wonderful.
Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming
so hold on, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the dark before the morning.
Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?
Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see
Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming
so hold on, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the dark before the morning
Genesis 22:1-2, Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” Abraham replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
What would that have felt like for Abraham to be asked to obey such a command?
Mark 10:32-34, “They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."
What would it have felt like for Jesus to go to Jerusalem knowing that it was necessary for him to die there—to die there!— for the sake of the world?
“Marxist guerrillas and the Colombian government were terrorizing the farming village Dora taught in. “Christians are dangerous,” the guerrillas repeatedly said. “Christians cannot lie. If the army asks them about us, they will tell the truth!” On Monday morning, Nov. 17th, 2008, Dora began her day like any other school day—praying with the students. During the day, a neighbor came to see the young teacher, “I’m sorry Dora,” he told her, “but the guerrillas will kill your brother tomorrow.” Later in the day, the neighbor returned. “I am so sorry,” he told her, “I have made a mistake. It is not your brother who will be killed . . . but it is you and your husband. You can take your family and run,” he said, “You can leave this village right now.” Dora reassured the guerrilla messenger, “You do not have to worry,” she said. This is better. My brother was not ready to meet the Lord. But my husband and I are.”
What would it have felt like for Dora to know that she would be killed the next day?
Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?
Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see
Genesis 22:3, 4-6, “Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.” “The fire and the wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”
Abraham obeyed what could only be considered a gruesome command from God. He took his son, the son Abraham had waited for for one-hundred years. Without Isaac, how would God keep the promise God had made? He took his son, his only son, the son he loved—Isaac. The son promised to him. That’s the way the text in Hebrew reads to make it clear that this wasn’t a simple choice. Why did he say, “WE will worship and then WE will come back to you?” According to Hebrews, it was because Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead. In other words, someone was really going to have to die! We know the ending to this story, Abraham did not, but he had faith in the power of God. Faith enough to obey in the face of utter terror. How might we learn to have that same faith?
Mark 14:32-36, “They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, “he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. Abba. Father. He said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Jesus obeyed. He was overwhelmed to the point of death. He prayed that he wouldn’t have to go through with it. That’s the way the text reads to make it clear that this wasn’t a simple choice either. Why? Because someone would have to die and Jesus knew it was going to be Him who was to do the dying. But he also knew the promise. He had given it to his disciples earlier, “Three days later the Son of Man will rise.” He is referring to himself here. He knows the promise; he has faith in the power of God his Father. And that faith, despite the overwhelming sorrow, is enough to obey. How might we learn to have that same faith?
The next morning they began the day like any other. Around 10 am two armed guerrillas, ushered the couple to the back of the schoolhouse to say goodbye to their family. The 12-year old, Marcella cried as the armed men walked her parents across a field to a river just 300 yards away from the school. Marcella could not see her parents, but she remembers hearing the two shots as her parents were executed. “If I met the men who did this I would forgive them,” Marcella said months are her parents had died. I know this would be hard, but I know God forgives them. So I have to as well.”
Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?
Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see
Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming
so hold on, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the dark before the morning
When your faith is put to the test. When you see the ending set before you and it scares the stuffing out of you, how do you find the faith to obey? To believe that God has the power to bring a better ending out of the darkness? When you face your death or the death of a loved one? When you face the anger or belittlement of your friends and family? When you face conflict? Or longsuffering? How do you find the strength to follow God’s call and obey?
The faith to obey does not simply mean doing something mindlessly because you are told to do it, at least not in these two stories. It means moving forward, even in the face of terror, because you have a promise firmly in hand. Three stories. We love one story, but hate the other two. I'd always figured that the difference between them was that Jesus knew that he was going to be raised from the dead while Abraham, or even Dora, couldn’t be sure. We say, we couldn't ever be expected to obey like Jesus. But Hebrews says that Abraham could only do it because he believed that God could raise the dead. I believe that. I fact, there is no way that Jesus could have made it through the garden –there is no way that Abraham could have made it up that mountain—unless they believed that there was more to the story than simply obeying a command. There is no way for you to obey God's command unless you trust in a promise from God. That you believe God can bring a better ending.
Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?
Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see
How can you find the faith to obey? It’s a lot more than simple, “following the commandments” or “doing what you are told”. A lot of people do some pretty awful things all in the name of “obeying”. We so often read the Bible like an instruction book, but it's much more than that. You’ve got to know your promises, you’ve got to. You’ve gotta go home, get out your Bible, and start highlighting the promises God has given to you. Because if you don’t have a promise from God, if you don’t know what he has to say about it, you won’t ever find the faith to obey him.
You can’t obey without a promise. You can’t obey without being able to trust God to create a dawn out of your darkest hour. When God commands you to do anything, if you just think it’s a hoop to jump through in order to look “righteous” you will balk every time. Without a promise, obeying just seems like too much! What do you mean that I have to wait until I’m married? What do you mean that I have to stay with my husband through better or worse? You want me to give HOW MUCH to church? Do I HAVE to talk about faith with others? Without a promise, faith has nothing to hold onto. We just keep making up excuses saying: "It's too hard!" It's too hard to obey.
How can you find the faith to obey? Hold onto your promises and never let them go. When you think you just can’t wait for your marriage night, remember, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” When you marriage is struggling? “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (And here comes the promise) The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. “ You can only stay and obey if you believe there is a God who is powerful enough to heal your heart and make it better. How can you give? “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” Says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” How can you obey and speak? "For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life."
Having the faith to obey means to have the faith that God can take any commandment, any calling and any situation and, according to his promise, create something new, something good and something wonderful.
Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming
so hold on, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the dark before the morning.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Sermon for October 31st (Confess)
“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”
I want you to imagine yourself standing in front of God Almighty, the creator of the universe, the mighty and everlasting God as you shout profanity at your spouse because you’ve had a bad day. Imagine Jesus Christ, your Savior, your friend, the lamb of God who was crucified for your sins listening in as you gossip about what a jerk someone has been to you at church. What would it be like to experience the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as you fall into a dazed and drunken stupor one Saturday night with your buddies. You might feel embarrassed. You might feel guilty. You might feel afraid. You don’t have to imagine any of this. God is by you during every sin and shameless deed, watching, listening, waiting, crying.
Do you realize that during every argument, during every steamy movie’s cinematic sex scene, during every late night party, throughout every bitter feeling, God is present and aware of your thoughts, actions and deeds? Do you realize it now? Imagine what it must be like for God to catch you in the act. To remember what has happened. If you feel even an inkling of shame, of guilt, of fear—then you can appreciate that a man named Martin Luther felt the same way once.
Now, imagine how you would feel if you were a slave being set free. No more beatings, no more demands, no more fear. Imagine falling in love at first sight and having that person love you back. Imagine you were an orphan, and you met your birthparents, and they had come to take you home once and for all. Do you realize that when Jesus died on the cross, he set you free from sin? Do you know that the creator of the universe cherishes you with a love unequaled by any other on earth? Have you heard that your father in heaven has looked and looked for his one lost sheep and now he has found you, you his beloved child? If you’ve ever known the feeling of relief, of freedom, the joyful celebration of reunion, the butterflies of love in your stomach, then you know what Martin Luther felt when he found out that the God he had been terrified of was actually a loving God, his Savior, his Father and his protection.
So then, is that what we are celebrating today on Reformation Day? The thoughts, feelings, and actions of a German monk 500 years ago? No. We are gathered together today because, get this, God’s not done yet! We are NOT simply memorializing the day a monk read the Bible and had his life changed. We are NOT simply remembering the 95 arguments that monk nailed to his church’s door-the 95 Theses. We are NOT celebrating HIS efforts at reform or even his great confession of faith in the face of great danger.
We are gathered together today with the faith and expectation that God’s Holy Spirit is doing it again today. The Reformation. Right here. Right now. In your life. In your heart. In your mind. In this church. Right now. Today. The Holy Spirit is not content with reforming one monk or even one Holy Catholic church in the 16th century. He is after the reformation of each one of you here. So get ready. Maybe historians will have something else to write about one day.
To have faith means to confess and God is out to get that confession out of you one way or another. Hey confirmation students! We talked about this the first week we met together if you remember. When God calls us to confess, he means for us to do two things. Both are important to our faith? Do you know what they are?
First of all, confessing means to admit that you have done something wrong. We do this every week at our worship service. “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves . . . .” We are all sinners here. If you’ve come into this church today broken down by life, believing that you don’t belong anywhere, then you are in the right place. You belong here. Faith means to confess that we are all equal in the sight of God. No matter our virtues and no matter our hang ups. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We stand speechless before God’s almighty justice.
Confessing also means to say, out loud, what you believe. We also do this every week in worship, maybe most clearly in the words of the Apostles Creed. When there is a baptism, we don’t just come up and say, “I believe in my heart”, we stand up and commit ourselves to faith in Jesus before the entire congregation. Why? “Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.” Confessing what you believe, out loud, for the world to hear, is essential for faith.
If you attended a Roman Catholic church, you might begin to realize that the essential part of every worship service there was Holy Communion. In every Roman Catholic service, it is necessary to celebrate the Lord’s Super. If you attended a Protestant church such as a Baptist, Assemblies of God or Pentecostal church, you might begin to see that the essential part of every worship service is “conversion”: the altar call, the testimony of faith, the renouncing of the old self and the regeneration of the new self.
All of this is of course important for every Christian, but when you attend a Lutheran church, you will hopefully find that the essential part of the service is confession: confessing sins and confessing faith. If we don’t have the Lord’s Supper one week, it’s ok. No hymns, if we must. No offering, no faith talk, no sermon? Still possible. No scripture readings? Well, that’s tough to swallow, but you can still read the Bible at home. What is worship in a community all about? Why do we come together instead of being spiritual at home in our gardens and cornfields? Jesus said, “Repent and believe in the good news.” In worship, you confess your sins, you repent, and then you hear God’s forgiveness so that you can believe again.
In worship, this voice does not come from your own mind, or simply written in the pages of a book for you to read, it’s easy to wiggle out of that. In worship, this forgiveness comes from another person, someone who heard your confession, and when that person says, “By God’s authority, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all yours sins.” You can trust that forgiveness is as good as from the lips of Jesus himself. Because it’s God’s promise. And he promised, “He who hears you hears me. He who accepts you accepts me.” Faith comes through hearing. So that you can believe. Not just repent, but believe.
Without confession, we never admit that God has touched us. That we need a Savior and that we have faith in Him. By the power of the Holy Spirit, there is the possibility of a reformation every day. In your heart. In your life. In your church. Martin Luther didn’t reform the church, the Holy Spirit did. God did. And He still is. Whenever you take a stand for your faith in the face of danger, the Holy Spirit is reforming again. Whenever you confess your faith at church, the Holy Spirit is reforming again.
Yesterday, we had a praise band recharge. Like Martin Luther, these people in praise band are people who realize their failures, their tendency to selfishness, unforgiveness and anger. No one can see their sins without the Holy Spirit reforming their lives. But these men and women also have spiritual gifts of music, leadership, mercy and evangelism (to name just a few) and when they believe that God’s forgiveness is stronger than their sins and stand up in front of you again each week—standing up for their faith—that’s the Holy Spirit reforming this church. Every person who gets involved in this church is part of this reformation. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin and then compels you to stand up for your faith even in the face of your failures.
Martin Luther didn’t reform the church, but he sure did have some great quotes. I’d like to end today with one of my favorites, “Sin boldly, but believe in Christ more boldly still.” You are a bunch of sinners. Praise God for that! Because without the Holy Spirit, you’d never believe it. There is nothing more scary to me than meeting someone who doesn’t realize that they are a sinner. But today, on Reformation Day, we celebrate the possibility of God creating such faith in our hearts, that we stand up for what we believe in, trusting in God’s forgiveness more than our sinfulness, trusting that we are righteousness in God’s eyes through faith alone, not by what we have done or not done. Faith means to confess. To confess yours sins and then for the power of the Holy Spirit to wash over you with such exhilarating force that you start confessing your faith. In your heart. In your mind. In your mouth. In your world. In your church. Praise the Lord! It’s Reformation Day! Amen.
I want you to imagine yourself standing in front of God Almighty, the creator of the universe, the mighty and everlasting God as you shout profanity at your spouse because you’ve had a bad day. Imagine Jesus Christ, your Savior, your friend, the lamb of God who was crucified for your sins listening in as you gossip about what a jerk someone has been to you at church. What would it be like to experience the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as you fall into a dazed and drunken stupor one Saturday night with your buddies. You might feel embarrassed. You might feel guilty. You might feel afraid. You don’t have to imagine any of this. God is by you during every sin and shameless deed, watching, listening, waiting, crying.
Do you realize that during every argument, during every steamy movie’s cinematic sex scene, during every late night party, throughout every bitter feeling, God is present and aware of your thoughts, actions and deeds? Do you realize it now? Imagine what it must be like for God to catch you in the act. To remember what has happened. If you feel even an inkling of shame, of guilt, of fear—then you can appreciate that a man named Martin Luther felt the same way once.
Now, imagine how you would feel if you were a slave being set free. No more beatings, no more demands, no more fear. Imagine falling in love at first sight and having that person love you back. Imagine you were an orphan, and you met your birthparents, and they had come to take you home once and for all. Do you realize that when Jesus died on the cross, he set you free from sin? Do you know that the creator of the universe cherishes you with a love unequaled by any other on earth? Have you heard that your father in heaven has looked and looked for his one lost sheep and now he has found you, you his beloved child? If you’ve ever known the feeling of relief, of freedom, the joyful celebration of reunion, the butterflies of love in your stomach, then you know what Martin Luther felt when he found out that the God he had been terrified of was actually a loving God, his Savior, his Father and his protection.
So then, is that what we are celebrating today on Reformation Day? The thoughts, feelings, and actions of a German monk 500 years ago? No. We are gathered together today because, get this, God’s not done yet! We are NOT simply memorializing the day a monk read the Bible and had his life changed. We are NOT simply remembering the 95 arguments that monk nailed to his church’s door-the 95 Theses. We are NOT celebrating HIS efforts at reform or even his great confession of faith in the face of great danger.
We are gathered together today with the faith and expectation that God’s Holy Spirit is doing it again today. The Reformation. Right here. Right now. In your life. In your heart. In your mind. In this church. Right now. Today. The Holy Spirit is not content with reforming one monk or even one Holy Catholic church in the 16th century. He is after the reformation of each one of you here. So get ready. Maybe historians will have something else to write about one day.
To have faith means to confess and God is out to get that confession out of you one way or another. Hey confirmation students! We talked about this the first week we met together if you remember. When God calls us to confess, he means for us to do two things. Both are important to our faith? Do you know what they are?
First of all, confessing means to admit that you have done something wrong. We do this every week at our worship service. “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves . . . .” We are all sinners here. If you’ve come into this church today broken down by life, believing that you don’t belong anywhere, then you are in the right place. You belong here. Faith means to confess that we are all equal in the sight of God. No matter our virtues and no matter our hang ups. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We stand speechless before God’s almighty justice.
Confessing also means to say, out loud, what you believe. We also do this every week in worship, maybe most clearly in the words of the Apostles Creed. When there is a baptism, we don’t just come up and say, “I believe in my heart”, we stand up and commit ourselves to faith in Jesus before the entire congregation. Why? “Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.” Confessing what you believe, out loud, for the world to hear, is essential for faith.
If you attended a Roman Catholic church, you might begin to realize that the essential part of every worship service there was Holy Communion. In every Roman Catholic service, it is necessary to celebrate the Lord’s Super. If you attended a Protestant church such as a Baptist, Assemblies of God or Pentecostal church, you might begin to see that the essential part of every worship service is “conversion”: the altar call, the testimony of faith, the renouncing of the old self and the regeneration of the new self.
All of this is of course important for every Christian, but when you attend a Lutheran church, you will hopefully find that the essential part of the service is confession: confessing sins and confessing faith. If we don’t have the Lord’s Supper one week, it’s ok. No hymns, if we must. No offering, no faith talk, no sermon? Still possible. No scripture readings? Well, that’s tough to swallow, but you can still read the Bible at home. What is worship in a community all about? Why do we come together instead of being spiritual at home in our gardens and cornfields? Jesus said, “Repent and believe in the good news.” In worship, you confess your sins, you repent, and then you hear God’s forgiveness so that you can believe again.
In worship, this voice does not come from your own mind, or simply written in the pages of a book for you to read, it’s easy to wiggle out of that. In worship, this forgiveness comes from another person, someone who heard your confession, and when that person says, “By God’s authority, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all yours sins.” You can trust that forgiveness is as good as from the lips of Jesus himself. Because it’s God’s promise. And he promised, “He who hears you hears me. He who accepts you accepts me.” Faith comes through hearing. So that you can believe. Not just repent, but believe.
Without confession, we never admit that God has touched us. That we need a Savior and that we have faith in Him. By the power of the Holy Spirit, there is the possibility of a reformation every day. In your heart. In your life. In your church. Martin Luther didn’t reform the church, the Holy Spirit did. God did. And He still is. Whenever you take a stand for your faith in the face of danger, the Holy Spirit is reforming again. Whenever you confess your faith at church, the Holy Spirit is reforming again.
Yesterday, we had a praise band recharge. Like Martin Luther, these people in praise band are people who realize their failures, their tendency to selfishness, unforgiveness and anger. No one can see their sins without the Holy Spirit reforming their lives. But these men and women also have spiritual gifts of music, leadership, mercy and evangelism (to name just a few) and when they believe that God’s forgiveness is stronger than their sins and stand up in front of you again each week—standing up for their faith—that’s the Holy Spirit reforming this church. Every person who gets involved in this church is part of this reformation. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin and then compels you to stand up for your faith even in the face of your failures.
Martin Luther didn’t reform the church, but he sure did have some great quotes. I’d like to end today with one of my favorites, “Sin boldly, but believe in Christ more boldly still.” You are a bunch of sinners. Praise God for that! Because without the Holy Spirit, you’d never believe it. There is nothing more scary to me than meeting someone who doesn’t realize that they are a sinner. But today, on Reformation Day, we celebrate the possibility of God creating such faith in our hearts, that we stand up for what we believe in, trusting in God’s forgiveness more than our sinfulness, trusting that we are righteousness in God’s eyes through faith alone, not by what we have done or not done. Faith means to confess. To confess yours sins and then for the power of the Holy Spirit to wash over you with such exhilarating force that you start confessing your faith. In your heart. In your mind. In your mouth. In your world. In your church. Praise the Lord! It’s Reformation Day! Amen.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Sermon for October 24th (Promise)
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. “ What is faith? Being sure of hope. Being certain of the invisible. The writer of the book of Hebrews lays these words: sure/hope/certain/not seen right up next to each other and tells us: that’s what faith is! But it’s a description, not a command.
What do I mean? Just this, that for someone new to faith, Hebrews 11:1 sounds pretty difficult to attain. If you take this description of faith as a command, as a hoop to jump through in order to be saved, for instance, you might be very hard pressed to be sure that you are “sure” of hope. That you are certain that you are “certain” of the invisible. Every time that you look at your so called “faith”, you might notice that you are not quite sure and certain if it is real faith or not.
Let me explain this another way. When I was in junior high and high school, I was quite interested in girls. Actually, let’s back that up to elementary school. By the time I was ten, I really, really wanted a girlfriend and it only got worse as I got older. But the problem was that the more I wanted a girlfriend, the harder it became to find one! And what did my dad tell me about my dilemma? What were his great words of wisdom? “When you stop looking, you will find her.” So I tried to stop looking and that didn’t work either? If I saw a girl I wanted to date, I would tell myself, “Ok, if I just don’t care for about the next ten minutes she’ll be mine!” Didn’t work. I was told that, “The right one will come along when the time is right.” I waited all day, staring at the clock and it seemed like the time was never right no matter when I asked!”
But then, when I fell in love with Kristy, my wife, and she fell in love with me, the only way I could explain it would be by saying, “When I stopped looking, I found her.” “The right one came at the right time. “ Now I realize what those saying are: they are descriptions of something that is indescribable. Back in school, I thought they were commands or advice, but they weren’t. It’s about letting go of the control, or maybe realizing that there was nothing to control in the first place. They are not commands or directions on how to find love. They are more like a promise that real love is out there and there is nothing you can do to speed it along. Love is a lot like faith in that way.
If someone comes to you and says, “How do I get faith?” or “What is faith?” I would encourage you NOT to tell them Hebrews 11:1. Not that it’s not right, it is right, but it is horribly frustrating to hear for a new believer. How do you get faith? “WELL, faith is simply being sure of what you hope for . . . ah, certain of what you don’t see . . . get it?” Telling someone to : “just believe” doesn’t make sense. Believing something is a lot like falling in love. You can’t make it happen. But I once heard a pastor tell a story about a woman who was looking for faith. And when she asked him how to get it he said, “Just stick around. Come again.” And when she did come back. . . are you seeing it yet . . . when she came again . . . well why would she ever come again, if she wasn’t starting to hope for something, something she couldn’t quite see yet. That may not be a solid rock of faith (yet) but that’s a mustard seed if I’ve ever seen one.
Do you have faith? The kind that’s SURE of everything you hope for? Certain of things you can’t see? Today, the story we are going to study deals with two heroes of the faith that often didn’t act very faithful: Abraham and Sarah. But in order to understand this story, you need a little background information. “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ‘I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.” God made Abram a promise: He was going to become a great man with a ton of kids—enough to make a great nation! God made Abram a promise and, according to Hebrews, “By faith he obeyed and went.”
So what was the first thing that Abram, our faith hero, did on his journey? “Now there was a great famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to live for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” Wow! What a “hero” of the faith! To make a long story short, Pharaoh was going to make Sarai his wife until God inflicted him with serious diseases until he gave her back to Abram. But why did faithful Abram worry he was going to die? God had made him a promise to be a great nation! Tough to do that when you are dead! But when God makes a promise, God keeps it. God delivered Abram from his mess.
A few chapters later, God made Abram another promise, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your very great reward.” Abram said, “What can you give me because I remain childless?” God said, “Look towards the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to count them—so shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, the text says, and God credited it to him as righteousness. Wow! Abram believed. Now that IS faith. But they got tired of waiting. Ten years later, Sarai had Abram sleep with her servant girl so that she could at least have a child running around. His name was Ishmael. Abram believed for sure, but I guess he was also hedging his bets . . . just in case.
Let’s take a time out for a second. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” That’s a great description of faith, but tough to achieve, isn’t it? Are you always sure? Are you always certain? Or do you doubt? Does your faith get challenged? Do you get tired of not knowing enough? Do you get fed up with suffering and heartache? Is ten years of waiting too long? Well guess what: that’s faith too. It’s certainly the faith of Abraham and Sarah. Because our faith is based not on what we can do and on the description of what faith really is, our faith is held together by something that comes from outside of us. Faith needs a promise to hold onto and that promise comes from God.
In our reading for today, Abram is now 99 years old. I don’t know if God had been talking to Abram throughout the 14 years after Ishmeal (the son of the servant girl) was born, but you’ve gotta wonder. I wonder how Abram felt? “I screwed up. I lost my faith. God hates me. There goes my dream. Shouldn’t of done it.” How did Sarai feel? “I messed up. Should’ve waited. Shouldn’t have done it.” And then God speaks. “Abram.” “Oh, God . . . about Ishmael . . .” “Abram. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. As for your wife, I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her.” And Abram thinks. Uh-oh. God’s got a really sick sense of humor. He’s not just mad at me, he’s being sarcastic. The newly named Abraham laughs and says, “Well, how bout we just compromise and you bless Ishmael! Works for me!” God says, “Yes. I’ll do that. AND I’ll raise you another son. Sarai is going to have another child. You’ll name him Isaac. See you then!”
Abraham laughed when God told him his promise. Sarah laughed too when she heard the same thing. If that’s faith . . . well, maybe then there’s hope for you and me! Hebrews writes, “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.” Abraham trusted God’s promise, in God’s power, in God’s ability to do the impossible! He didn’t understand how. He didn’t understand why. He was leaving it in God’s hands because, honestly, what else could he do! Maybe that’s what faith is: waiting around for the right time, letting go of the control, just sticking around and coming back to see what God’s going to do.
You’ve each been given a promise, more than one in fact. Things that sound too good to believe mostly. Things like: “Yours sins are forgiven.” You been given a promise. Things that you don’t understand, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” You’ve been given so many promises. Things that might look darn right incorrect at this juncture of your life, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly!” We feel our guilt and wonder if God could possibly forgive us. We see death and can’t imagine anything beyond that. We look at cancer and infertility and divorce and bitterness and can’t bring ourselves to have faith in anything good. But that’s what faith looks like sometimes. It doesn’t always make sense, or feel good, or stand strong. I don’t want you to put faith in your own faith. For sinners like you and me, that can be very dangerous.
You’ve got to put your faith in the promise of someone greater that you. A God who always keeps his promises, whether to Noah, or Abraham, or you. Maybe that will make sense to you someday, but if not just keep coming, stop striving for faith and let go of your control, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see.” God promises you that he will never leave you or forsake you. That nothing can separate you from His love. If you’re not quite “sure” or “certain” of that yet—just stick around and put your trust in God’s promises—in his power. Not in your powers of faith, but in God’s promise. Amen.
What do I mean? Just this, that for someone new to faith, Hebrews 11:1 sounds pretty difficult to attain. If you take this description of faith as a command, as a hoop to jump through in order to be saved, for instance, you might be very hard pressed to be sure that you are “sure” of hope. That you are certain that you are “certain” of the invisible. Every time that you look at your so called “faith”, you might notice that you are not quite sure and certain if it is real faith or not.
Let me explain this another way. When I was in junior high and high school, I was quite interested in girls. Actually, let’s back that up to elementary school. By the time I was ten, I really, really wanted a girlfriend and it only got worse as I got older. But the problem was that the more I wanted a girlfriend, the harder it became to find one! And what did my dad tell me about my dilemma? What were his great words of wisdom? “When you stop looking, you will find her.” So I tried to stop looking and that didn’t work either? If I saw a girl I wanted to date, I would tell myself, “Ok, if I just don’t care for about the next ten minutes she’ll be mine!” Didn’t work. I was told that, “The right one will come along when the time is right.” I waited all day, staring at the clock and it seemed like the time was never right no matter when I asked!”
But then, when I fell in love with Kristy, my wife, and she fell in love with me, the only way I could explain it would be by saying, “When I stopped looking, I found her.” “The right one came at the right time. “ Now I realize what those saying are: they are descriptions of something that is indescribable. Back in school, I thought they were commands or advice, but they weren’t. It’s about letting go of the control, or maybe realizing that there was nothing to control in the first place. They are not commands or directions on how to find love. They are more like a promise that real love is out there and there is nothing you can do to speed it along. Love is a lot like faith in that way.
If someone comes to you and says, “How do I get faith?” or “What is faith?” I would encourage you NOT to tell them Hebrews 11:1. Not that it’s not right, it is right, but it is horribly frustrating to hear for a new believer. How do you get faith? “WELL, faith is simply being sure of what you hope for . . . ah, certain of what you don’t see . . . get it?” Telling someone to : “just believe” doesn’t make sense. Believing something is a lot like falling in love. You can’t make it happen. But I once heard a pastor tell a story about a woman who was looking for faith. And when she asked him how to get it he said, “Just stick around. Come again.” And when she did come back. . . are you seeing it yet . . . when she came again . . . well why would she ever come again, if she wasn’t starting to hope for something, something she couldn’t quite see yet. That may not be a solid rock of faith (yet) but that’s a mustard seed if I’ve ever seen one.
Do you have faith? The kind that’s SURE of everything you hope for? Certain of things you can’t see? Today, the story we are going to study deals with two heroes of the faith that often didn’t act very faithful: Abraham and Sarah. But in order to understand this story, you need a little background information. “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ‘I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.” God made Abram a promise: He was going to become a great man with a ton of kids—enough to make a great nation! God made Abram a promise and, according to Hebrews, “By faith he obeyed and went.”
So what was the first thing that Abram, our faith hero, did on his journey? “Now there was a great famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to live for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” Wow! What a “hero” of the faith! To make a long story short, Pharaoh was going to make Sarai his wife until God inflicted him with serious diseases until he gave her back to Abram. But why did faithful Abram worry he was going to die? God had made him a promise to be a great nation! Tough to do that when you are dead! But when God makes a promise, God keeps it. God delivered Abram from his mess.
A few chapters later, God made Abram another promise, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your very great reward.” Abram said, “What can you give me because I remain childless?” God said, “Look towards the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to count them—so shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, the text says, and God credited it to him as righteousness. Wow! Abram believed. Now that IS faith. But they got tired of waiting. Ten years later, Sarai had Abram sleep with her servant girl so that she could at least have a child running around. His name was Ishmael. Abram believed for sure, but I guess he was also hedging his bets . . . just in case.
Let’s take a time out for a second. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” That’s a great description of faith, but tough to achieve, isn’t it? Are you always sure? Are you always certain? Or do you doubt? Does your faith get challenged? Do you get tired of not knowing enough? Do you get fed up with suffering and heartache? Is ten years of waiting too long? Well guess what: that’s faith too. It’s certainly the faith of Abraham and Sarah. Because our faith is based not on what we can do and on the description of what faith really is, our faith is held together by something that comes from outside of us. Faith needs a promise to hold onto and that promise comes from God.
In our reading for today, Abram is now 99 years old. I don’t know if God had been talking to Abram throughout the 14 years after Ishmeal (the son of the servant girl) was born, but you’ve gotta wonder. I wonder how Abram felt? “I screwed up. I lost my faith. God hates me. There goes my dream. Shouldn’t of done it.” How did Sarai feel? “I messed up. Should’ve waited. Shouldn’t have done it.” And then God speaks. “Abram.” “Oh, God . . . about Ishmael . . .” “Abram. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. As for your wife, I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her.” And Abram thinks. Uh-oh. God’s got a really sick sense of humor. He’s not just mad at me, he’s being sarcastic. The newly named Abraham laughs and says, “Well, how bout we just compromise and you bless Ishmael! Works for me!” God says, “Yes. I’ll do that. AND I’ll raise you another son. Sarai is going to have another child. You’ll name him Isaac. See you then!”
Abraham laughed when God told him his promise. Sarah laughed too when she heard the same thing. If that’s faith . . . well, maybe then there’s hope for you and me! Hebrews writes, “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.” Abraham trusted God’s promise, in God’s power, in God’s ability to do the impossible! He didn’t understand how. He didn’t understand why. He was leaving it in God’s hands because, honestly, what else could he do! Maybe that’s what faith is: waiting around for the right time, letting go of the control, just sticking around and coming back to see what God’s going to do.
You’ve each been given a promise, more than one in fact. Things that sound too good to believe mostly. Things like: “Yours sins are forgiven.” You been given a promise. Things that you don’t understand, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” You’ve been given so many promises. Things that might look darn right incorrect at this juncture of your life, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly!” We feel our guilt and wonder if God could possibly forgive us. We see death and can’t imagine anything beyond that. We look at cancer and infertility and divorce and bitterness and can’t bring ourselves to have faith in anything good. But that’s what faith looks like sometimes. It doesn’t always make sense, or feel good, or stand strong. I don’t want you to put faith in your own faith. For sinners like you and me, that can be very dangerous.
You’ve got to put your faith in the promise of someone greater that you. A God who always keeps his promises, whether to Noah, or Abraham, or you. Maybe that will make sense to you someday, but if not just keep coming, stop striving for faith and let go of your control, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see.” God promises you that he will never leave you or forsake you. That nothing can separate you from His love. If you’re not quite “sure” or “certain” of that yet—just stick around and put your trust in God’s promises—in his power. Not in your powers of faith, but in God’s promise. Amen.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Sermon for October 17th (Abraham-Follow)
There is an old Far Side cartoon where a flock of sheep is pictured. In the middle of the flock, one sheep is standing up with his hands in the air and his mouth open yelling to the rest. The caption says, “Wait! Wait! Listen to me! We don’t have to be just sheep!” We don’t have to be just sheep. Nobody wants to just be a sheep. Not even a sheep! Sheep are notorious for being followers whether it is to the feeding trough, to the shearers or to the slaughterhouse. Most of us fear being labeled “a follower”, being labeled a sheep, because we want to be seen as leaders—as movers and shakers. But Jesus says, “Follow me.” Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice.” “My sheep follow me.” What do you think about that? To be a follower. Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Perhaps another important question is to ask: Well, if I am to follow Jesus, where would he lead me? That answer is very simple: to the cross. To death. And then. To life. To follow Jesus is to follow him through suffering, even persecution, and then to be led to eternal life. Are you going to follow Jesus? Not just with your heart, not just with your words, but with your actions? Jesus loves you and he is calling you. Will you follow Him?
This morning, you witnessed what following Jesus can mean. This morning, a new child of God was redeemed. Karen was baptized this morning. Her sins were washed away in the flood of God’s forgiveness and that promise is hers to believe in, to trust in, forever. Even the very gates of hell cannot hold a candle to God’s Holy Spirit poured out upon this woman. Today is a celebration of faith. A faith that follows.
Faith means to trust. Faith means to listen. Faith also means to follow. In Acts, chapter 2, the apostle Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Jesus said, “God therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” To follow Jesus by faith alone, is to stand up and confess your faith and to believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised to give you a new life with God. Just as God called Abram to leave his old life and enter a new land, in the waters of baptism, we are called to follow Jesus from our old life to a new life.
But what if you have already been baptized? Some Christians believe that in order to follow Jesus you must wait until a certain age to be baptized. Baptism, for them, is an opportunity to show your commitment (something that a infant could not do). I would agree that baptism is wonderful way to show commitment to Christ, but it is much more than that.
In the waters of baptism, you die, the old you dies, that is. There is now a new you. One that already has one foot out of the grave and with God in heaven. A new you that, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, trusts in God for life. To follow Jesus means to follow him to death, just as he died on the cross, we die in the waters of baptism. Age isn’t the issue here—God’s promise and power is the same. But to follow Jesus also means to live, for just as he was raised from the dead, by faith in his promises we too are able to walk with a new life. The apostle Paul says in Romans, “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his!”
What if you’ve already been baptized? How do you follow Jesus? How do you show your commitment if not through a “believer’s baptism” as it is sometimes called? Well, that depends on how God calls. One example, from my life, was that I had to leave my calling in music that I loved to go to seminary and be a pastor. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian, it meant working against Hitler and the Nazis and risking his life, family and future. Following God often means trading in one thing for another. One job for a new one. One and for another. An old way of living for a new way of life. God may have called you to eternal life long ago, but listen . . . listen. How is God calling you back into your life today? I was asked multiple times to go to seminary before I ever went. It’s taken a few months of deliberation before this baptism took place today, right? And Bohoeffer didn’t face the Nazis without much soul searching and trepidation beforehand. So what has God called you to do . . . that you haven’t followed yet? Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Faith means to follow. It’s the natural action for faith to take. Over internship in Harvey, North Dakota, I heard a story that reminds me a lot about how faith involves following. There was a pastor there who asked a little girl after the service one week, “What are you going to do today. “I don’t know!” She answered, “What!?” Little children understand that faith means to follow. This girl didn’t know what was going on that day, she just knew that she could trust her parents and when they led her into the day, she would gladly follow. We cannot forget the importance of following to our faith. Do you trust God enough to follow where he leads? To follow ALL of the commandments? To follow him and forgive? Even the person you do not want to forgive? Even your enemy?
The Lord said to the man Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land that I will show you.” Abram was called to follow. He was told by God, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” Abram could have simply listened to God and trusted him, but that wouldn’t even make sense without following! Do you understand this? The only way to truly listen to God, the only way to trust God would be for Abram to follow. But in our Christian life we’ve almost made following into an extracurricular activity, rather than a necessary part of our faith lives.
As a musician in a symphony, you must follow. First, you had to be excellent at what you did. But, no matter how good you were, you had to follow the conductor. The good of the piece was more important than the virtuosity of the player. We must follow God’s commandments, yes, but the goal of the commandments is love. Without following Jesus, we become lost in our self-righteousness. In fact, it is our tendency to get lost in making ourselves look good at the expense of others. That’s why the word “follow” is so wonderful.
Faith means to follow. But God has also promised that, for him, faith means to follow. “My sheep hear my voice.” Jesus says, “I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Nothing will snatch them out of my hand.” Or as Psalm 23 puts it, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” This morning, Karen, you followed Jesus and surrendered yourself to his mercy. He forgave your sins once and for all. But in that promise of God, there is so much more he gives. He promises that as you follow him, he will follow you. For all those of you who have been baptized, this is the same promise that you each have. Wherever you go, he will never leave you or forsake you. He is always watching over you. Faith means to follow. God knows this. And just as all of us here are called to follow God, he promises to follow us to the ends of the earth, even through death itself, so that he might bring us to be with him.
Faith means to follow. There are so many times in our lives when we are called to follow into the unknown and simply trust in God to see us through. At the birth of a child, when those labor pains become overwhelming, you are called to follow God through the pain and into the face of a screaming newborn baby. At confirmation, you stand up here at probably the most awkward stage of your life and confess our faith not knowing exactly where that faith will take us. Not knowing all the details, but trusting in God’s grace. In marriage, you promise to love and cherish another person till death do you part, trusting in God’s strength to help you keep that promise even when that other person no longer deserves your love. You find a way to follow God and keep on loving.
At death, you are called to trust in God and fall asleep in the arms of your precious Savior. We cannot know the way, we can only know Jesus who IS the way, the truth and the life. We follow Him to a place we cannot find without Him. He follows us into the grave and then into eternal life. God calls you to trust and listen and follow Him by faith alone, knowing that wherever he leads you, he will follow you there. Jesus says, “Follow me. I will follow you.” Amen.
Perhaps another important question is to ask: Well, if I am to follow Jesus, where would he lead me? That answer is very simple: to the cross. To death. And then. To life. To follow Jesus is to follow him through suffering, even persecution, and then to be led to eternal life. Are you going to follow Jesus? Not just with your heart, not just with your words, but with your actions? Jesus loves you and he is calling you. Will you follow Him?
This morning, you witnessed what following Jesus can mean. This morning, a new child of God was redeemed. Karen was baptized this morning. Her sins were washed away in the flood of God’s forgiveness and that promise is hers to believe in, to trust in, forever. Even the very gates of hell cannot hold a candle to God’s Holy Spirit poured out upon this woman. Today is a celebration of faith. A faith that follows.
Faith means to trust. Faith means to listen. Faith also means to follow. In Acts, chapter 2, the apostle Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Jesus said, “God therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” To follow Jesus by faith alone, is to stand up and confess your faith and to believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised to give you a new life with God. Just as God called Abram to leave his old life and enter a new land, in the waters of baptism, we are called to follow Jesus from our old life to a new life.
But what if you have already been baptized? Some Christians believe that in order to follow Jesus you must wait until a certain age to be baptized. Baptism, for them, is an opportunity to show your commitment (something that a infant could not do). I would agree that baptism is wonderful way to show commitment to Christ, but it is much more than that.
In the waters of baptism, you die, the old you dies, that is. There is now a new you. One that already has one foot out of the grave and with God in heaven. A new you that, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, trusts in God for life. To follow Jesus means to follow him to death, just as he died on the cross, we die in the waters of baptism. Age isn’t the issue here—God’s promise and power is the same. But to follow Jesus also means to live, for just as he was raised from the dead, by faith in his promises we too are able to walk with a new life. The apostle Paul says in Romans, “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his!”
What if you’ve already been baptized? How do you follow Jesus? How do you show your commitment if not through a “believer’s baptism” as it is sometimes called? Well, that depends on how God calls. One example, from my life, was that I had to leave my calling in music that I loved to go to seminary and be a pastor. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian, it meant working against Hitler and the Nazis and risking his life, family and future. Following God often means trading in one thing for another. One job for a new one. One and for another. An old way of living for a new way of life. God may have called you to eternal life long ago, but listen . . . listen. How is God calling you back into your life today? I was asked multiple times to go to seminary before I ever went. It’s taken a few months of deliberation before this baptism took place today, right? And Bohoeffer didn’t face the Nazis without much soul searching and trepidation beforehand. So what has God called you to do . . . that you haven’t followed yet? Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Faith means to follow. It’s the natural action for faith to take. Over internship in Harvey, North Dakota, I heard a story that reminds me a lot about how faith involves following. There was a pastor there who asked a little girl after the service one week, “What are you going to do today. “I don’t know!” She answered, “What!?” Little children understand that faith means to follow. This girl didn’t know what was going on that day, she just knew that she could trust her parents and when they led her into the day, she would gladly follow. We cannot forget the importance of following to our faith. Do you trust God enough to follow where he leads? To follow ALL of the commandments? To follow him and forgive? Even the person you do not want to forgive? Even your enemy?
The Lord said to the man Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land that I will show you.” Abram was called to follow. He was told by God, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” Abram could have simply listened to God and trusted him, but that wouldn’t even make sense without following! Do you understand this? The only way to truly listen to God, the only way to trust God would be for Abram to follow. But in our Christian life we’ve almost made following into an extracurricular activity, rather than a necessary part of our faith lives.
As a musician in a symphony, you must follow. First, you had to be excellent at what you did. But, no matter how good you were, you had to follow the conductor. The good of the piece was more important than the virtuosity of the player. We must follow God’s commandments, yes, but the goal of the commandments is love. Without following Jesus, we become lost in our self-righteousness. In fact, it is our tendency to get lost in making ourselves look good at the expense of others. That’s why the word “follow” is so wonderful.
Faith means to follow. But God has also promised that, for him, faith means to follow. “My sheep hear my voice.” Jesus says, “I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Nothing will snatch them out of my hand.” Or as Psalm 23 puts it, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” This morning, Karen, you followed Jesus and surrendered yourself to his mercy. He forgave your sins once and for all. But in that promise of God, there is so much more he gives. He promises that as you follow him, he will follow you. For all those of you who have been baptized, this is the same promise that you each have. Wherever you go, he will never leave you or forsake you. He is always watching over you. Faith means to follow. God knows this. And just as all of us here are called to follow God, he promises to follow us to the ends of the earth, even through death itself, so that he might bring us to be with him.
Faith means to follow. There are so many times in our lives when we are called to follow into the unknown and simply trust in God to see us through. At the birth of a child, when those labor pains become overwhelming, you are called to follow God through the pain and into the face of a screaming newborn baby. At confirmation, you stand up here at probably the most awkward stage of your life and confess our faith not knowing exactly where that faith will take us. Not knowing all the details, but trusting in God’s grace. In marriage, you promise to love and cherish another person till death do you part, trusting in God’s strength to help you keep that promise even when that other person no longer deserves your love. You find a way to follow God and keep on loving.
At death, you are called to trust in God and fall asleep in the arms of your precious Savior. We cannot know the way, we can only know Jesus who IS the way, the truth and the life. We follow Him to a place we cannot find without Him. He follows us into the grave and then into eternal life. God calls you to trust and listen and follow Him by faith alone, knowing that wherever he leads you, he will follow you there. Jesus says, “Follow me. I will follow you.” Amen.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Sermon for October 10th (Noah)
Today you will be hearing a lot about a man named Noah who was made famous by building a big boat called an ark. But while it’s easy to focus on the animals and the logistics of 40 days and 40 nights of rain, I believe that this story is about something much more relevant to most of us. But first, how about a quick review from last week. The story about Cain and Abel. I know, I know, sorry to bring that back up again, but understanding that story makes a big difference in how we understand this story about Noah. Now, if you weren’t here last week, please feel free to go back and listen to the sermon online (off of our website) or read it on my blog as well at home. But for those of you who were here the pressure is on!
Why did God favor Abel and his offering and not Cain? Just to make it easier I’ll make this multiple choice: God favored Abel because: A. God likes sheep fat more than whole wheat grain. B. Abel brought the firstlings of the flock while Cain brought grain. C. Abel tried harder than Cain. Or D. God favored Abel because of Abel’s faith. The answer is: D. God favored Abel because of his faith. How do we know? That’s what the text in Hebrews 11 says. It wasn’t Abel’s offering that God favored, it was Abel’s faith that mattered.
So, it’s a new week and we’ve got a new hero of the faith to look at: Noah. Now, how did Noah find favor? (We always find a way to get confused at this point. We tend to forget all the lessons we learned from Cain and Abel.) There are two verses that we must line up, one against the other, to figure this out. First, verse Genesis 6, verse 5, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Every inclination? Every inclination. All the time? All the time! Even Noah? Well, is he part of the earth? Yes. Wouldn’t he have the same inclinations, the same thoughts and the same heart? Yes. “All have fallen short of the glory of God.” Even Noah. So please don’t forget that part when you read what verse 9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
“Noah was a righteous man”, correct, but before we ever hear that Noah was a righteous man, we hear that, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” in verse 7. Noah found favor with God BEFORE we are ever told how righteous and blameless he is! And just like Abel before him, Hebrews 11 says this, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” It does NOT say that God picks the most righteous man on earth to build an arc. It does NOT say that there was only one good guy left on earth so God had to pick that one. “By faith Noah, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” God chose Noah just like he chose Abel.
Now, I am sure that Noah was a great guy because the Bible says it is so. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time”. I hear about these people all the time! Well, sure he doesn’t believe in God, “But he is a great guy!” “I’m not sure if he believes in Jesus, but you’ll never hear anyone say anything bad about him!”
Martin Luther explained that we each have two different reputations. We look one way to the world around us, our community, our family and so on. And we look one way to God. We have one kind of righteousness in the eyes of the world. A “civil righteousness” he called it. So we are good fathers and mothers, or we are awful cooks, or we are shady businesspeople, or we are great athletes, or we are generous givers. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time.” Good job Noah! But in God’s eyes, we don’t look good because of what we do, but because of faith in God alone. In God’s eyes, he saw that every inclination of the thoughts of people were only evil all the time. Bad job Noah and bad job all of us! “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Not by how he acted, but by faith in God alone. And this is really interesting. After the text says that “Noah was a righteous man and blameless among the people of his time” it says this, “and he walked with God.”
For the next several weeks, I am going to be focusing on different aspects of your walk with God. Last week, I talked about trust. God favored Abel. Abel trusted in God’s choice. This week, I’d like to talk about another important part of your faith walk, a part that Noah was really good at. Listening. Noah listened to God.
Here’s an interesting tidbit about the story of Noah and the ark. Do you know what Noah said when God called him to build the ark? Nothing. Do you know what Noah replied when God told him that it was going to flood? Nothing. Do you know what Noah said when God made a covenant with him to never flood the earth again? Nothing. That’s because in this Bible story, Noah has no speaking parts. God does all the talking. Does that mean that Noah was mute? No. After they left the ark, Noah got drunk one night and passed out naked. When Noah found out that one of his sons had told his brothers about it, he spoke up very clearly and cursed his son. Pretty messed up, huh? But remember, Noah was not a perfect hero of the faith, he simply listened when God spoke to him.
Try this for a moment. We are going to pray to God . . . in silence. We are going to ask God to speak to us and then we are going to listen to him. For all of you in Sunday school, you should know how this works. You’ve been learning about the prophet Samuel. When the prophet Samuel was just a little boy, he heard God’s voice and was told to say this, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” I’m sure that many of you pray and tell all your troubles to God, you ask him for things, you thank him for things, you praise his holy name . . . but have you ever taken the time to listen to what he might have to say back to you? This might be a good time to start. Let us pray, “Speak to us, O Lord, your servants are listening.”
Imagine if you took thirty seconds, a minute or more after you prayed to listen to what God had to say back. Maybe you would hear a still small voice, maybe you would simply have a feeling inside you pulling you in a direction that you couldn’t resist, maybe you won’t hear anything. Your God is a living God, a God who spoke the world into existence and continues to sustain you with his breath of life. He is still speaking. Are you listening?
Noah listened to God. He didn’t just HEAR God, he heard and followed—he listened. Some people worry that they might hear their own voice and their own ideas, or worse, the voice of an evil spirit, not God, when they pray. This is certainly a possibility. How might you know the difference? John 14, “Jesus said, The Holy Spirit will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” And again in John 16, “He will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Jesus and the Holy Spirit say the same things.
For example, if you ask God for guidance about staying faithful to your wife and you feel certain that you hear a voice say that you should have an affair instead, then you can be 100% certain that this is NOT the Holy Spirit. Why? Because God does not contradict himself by saying “Do not commit adultery” in one place of scripture and then change his mind later on. But when you are struggling with temptation, you may also hear a voice say, “I will not leave you or forsake you.” That might not be the answer you were looking for, but it might give you the strength to stay committed and the assurance that you are forgiven for even strong temptations. Noah was favored by faith alone. But when he listened to what God commanded him, he became a hero of faith.
The story of Noah’s ark isn’t really about animals is it—it’s about God’s mercy and Noah’s listening. How might you involve listening into your walk of faith? Besides having some silent time at the end of a prayer, how else might you listen? Coming to church and staying connected with the ministry of word and sacrament is important. When you hear the forgiveness of yours sins, when you are challenged or strengthened in the words of a faith talk, song or sermon, you are listening and walking with God in faith.
But reading the word of God, studying the Bible daily, might be the best way to listen to God. I don’t mean simply “skimming” the text, but expecting the words to speak to you. Whenever you open the pages of a Bible, you are in the presence of a living God who is still speaking and you have the opportunity to be changed. God loves to hear from you in prayer, but in the words of the Bible, God is speaking directly to you. Comforting you when you are distressed, judging you when you are sinning and warning you of times to come. Noah was favored by God, and God warned him about things not yet seen. That’s great. But I am also thankful that Noah listened. In holy fear he built an ark to save his family. God might have something to warn you about, but you’ve never listened to what he has to say. Take the time to listen.
Listening does not just mean hearing, but trusting and acting on the words you hear. Trusting God is an important part of faith, like Abel, but listening to the words God speaks might save you one day, like it did Noah. In the words of the prophet Nahum, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, even in a rushing flood.” The Lord promises to speak. He has chosen to be your God and favors you because of faith alone. But remember the story of Noah. When God speaks, you have the chance to listen. It might make a really big difference for you and your family some day. Amen.
Why did God favor Abel and his offering and not Cain? Just to make it easier I’ll make this multiple choice: God favored Abel because: A. God likes sheep fat more than whole wheat grain. B. Abel brought the firstlings of the flock while Cain brought grain. C. Abel tried harder than Cain. Or D. God favored Abel because of Abel’s faith. The answer is: D. God favored Abel because of his faith. How do we know? That’s what the text in Hebrews 11 says. It wasn’t Abel’s offering that God favored, it was Abel’s faith that mattered.
So, it’s a new week and we’ve got a new hero of the faith to look at: Noah. Now, how did Noah find favor? (We always find a way to get confused at this point. We tend to forget all the lessons we learned from Cain and Abel.) There are two verses that we must line up, one against the other, to figure this out. First, verse Genesis 6, verse 5, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Every inclination? Every inclination. All the time? All the time! Even Noah? Well, is he part of the earth? Yes. Wouldn’t he have the same inclinations, the same thoughts and the same heart? Yes. “All have fallen short of the glory of God.” Even Noah. So please don’t forget that part when you read what verse 9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
“Noah was a righteous man”, correct, but before we ever hear that Noah was a righteous man, we hear that, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” in verse 7. Noah found favor with God BEFORE we are ever told how righteous and blameless he is! And just like Abel before him, Hebrews 11 says this, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” It does NOT say that God picks the most righteous man on earth to build an arc. It does NOT say that there was only one good guy left on earth so God had to pick that one. “By faith Noah, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” God chose Noah just like he chose Abel.
Now, I am sure that Noah was a great guy because the Bible says it is so. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time”. I hear about these people all the time! Well, sure he doesn’t believe in God, “But he is a great guy!” “I’m not sure if he believes in Jesus, but you’ll never hear anyone say anything bad about him!”
Martin Luther explained that we each have two different reputations. We look one way to the world around us, our community, our family and so on. And we look one way to God. We have one kind of righteousness in the eyes of the world. A “civil righteousness” he called it. So we are good fathers and mothers, or we are awful cooks, or we are shady businesspeople, or we are great athletes, or we are generous givers. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time.” Good job Noah! But in God’s eyes, we don’t look good because of what we do, but because of faith in God alone. In God’s eyes, he saw that every inclination of the thoughts of people were only evil all the time. Bad job Noah and bad job all of us! “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Not by how he acted, but by faith in God alone. And this is really interesting. After the text says that “Noah was a righteous man and blameless among the people of his time” it says this, “and he walked with God.”
For the next several weeks, I am going to be focusing on different aspects of your walk with God. Last week, I talked about trust. God favored Abel. Abel trusted in God’s choice. This week, I’d like to talk about another important part of your faith walk, a part that Noah was really good at. Listening. Noah listened to God.
Here’s an interesting tidbit about the story of Noah and the ark. Do you know what Noah said when God called him to build the ark? Nothing. Do you know what Noah replied when God told him that it was going to flood? Nothing. Do you know what Noah said when God made a covenant with him to never flood the earth again? Nothing. That’s because in this Bible story, Noah has no speaking parts. God does all the talking. Does that mean that Noah was mute? No. After they left the ark, Noah got drunk one night and passed out naked. When Noah found out that one of his sons had told his brothers about it, he spoke up very clearly and cursed his son. Pretty messed up, huh? But remember, Noah was not a perfect hero of the faith, he simply listened when God spoke to him.
Try this for a moment. We are going to pray to God . . . in silence. We are going to ask God to speak to us and then we are going to listen to him. For all of you in Sunday school, you should know how this works. You’ve been learning about the prophet Samuel. When the prophet Samuel was just a little boy, he heard God’s voice and was told to say this, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” I’m sure that many of you pray and tell all your troubles to God, you ask him for things, you thank him for things, you praise his holy name . . . but have you ever taken the time to listen to what he might have to say back to you? This might be a good time to start. Let us pray, “Speak to us, O Lord, your servants are listening.”
Imagine if you took thirty seconds, a minute or more after you prayed to listen to what God had to say back. Maybe you would hear a still small voice, maybe you would simply have a feeling inside you pulling you in a direction that you couldn’t resist, maybe you won’t hear anything. Your God is a living God, a God who spoke the world into existence and continues to sustain you with his breath of life. He is still speaking. Are you listening?
Noah listened to God. He didn’t just HEAR God, he heard and followed—he listened. Some people worry that they might hear their own voice and their own ideas, or worse, the voice of an evil spirit, not God, when they pray. This is certainly a possibility. How might you know the difference? John 14, “Jesus said, The Holy Spirit will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” And again in John 16, “He will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Jesus and the Holy Spirit say the same things.
For example, if you ask God for guidance about staying faithful to your wife and you feel certain that you hear a voice say that you should have an affair instead, then you can be 100% certain that this is NOT the Holy Spirit. Why? Because God does not contradict himself by saying “Do not commit adultery” in one place of scripture and then change his mind later on. But when you are struggling with temptation, you may also hear a voice say, “I will not leave you or forsake you.” That might not be the answer you were looking for, but it might give you the strength to stay committed and the assurance that you are forgiven for even strong temptations. Noah was favored by faith alone. But when he listened to what God commanded him, he became a hero of faith.
The story of Noah’s ark isn’t really about animals is it—it’s about God’s mercy and Noah’s listening. How might you involve listening into your walk of faith? Besides having some silent time at the end of a prayer, how else might you listen? Coming to church and staying connected with the ministry of word and sacrament is important. When you hear the forgiveness of yours sins, when you are challenged or strengthened in the words of a faith talk, song or sermon, you are listening and walking with God in faith.
But reading the word of God, studying the Bible daily, might be the best way to listen to God. I don’t mean simply “skimming” the text, but expecting the words to speak to you. Whenever you open the pages of a Bible, you are in the presence of a living God who is still speaking and you have the opportunity to be changed. God loves to hear from you in prayer, but in the words of the Bible, God is speaking directly to you. Comforting you when you are distressed, judging you when you are sinning and warning you of times to come. Noah was favored by God, and God warned him about things not yet seen. That’s great. But I am also thankful that Noah listened. In holy fear he built an ark to save his family. God might have something to warn you about, but you’ve never listened to what he has to say. Take the time to listen.
Listening does not just mean hearing, but trusting and acting on the words you hear. Trusting God is an important part of faith, like Abel, but listening to the words God speaks might save you one day, like it did Noah. In the words of the prophet Nahum, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, even in a rushing flood.” The Lord promises to speak. He has chosen to be your God and favors you because of faith alone. But remember the story of Noah. When God speaks, you have the chance to listen. It might make a really big difference for you and your family some day. Amen.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sermon for October 3rd (Cain and Abel)
It’s time today to talk about everyone’s favorite Bible story: Cain and Abel. What? It’s not your favorite Bible story? What?! You don’t know the story of Cain and Abel?! Well, I’m not surprised. Most people don’t really know the story of Cain and Abel and, even if you do know it, it’s probably not your favorite because the story creates problems for us. Many Christians deal with the problems by trying to explain things away, but it is time to stop that. We need to read the text and stop there without adding or subtracting from it in order to truly understand who this God is that we worship and what that means for you and me.
Genesis 4:3, “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” What is your first reaction to this reading? It’s probably to ask a simple question: why? Why did God look with favor upon Abel and not Cain? We want God to look upon us with favor and so we want to end up like Abel and not Cain. Why did God look with favor upon Abel and not Cain?
Read the text. What does it say? Does it say why? No it does not. Read the text! I’ve heard so many explanations that aren’t there! Everyone is interested in judging whose offering was the best: they say that Cain must have brought the chaff instead of the grain, or that an animal sacrifice would have been worth more than grain or that it was the first fruits of the flock rather than the leftover grain or that Cain didn’t really care while Abel did or that God likes meat more than grain. Enough speculation. What does the text say? “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” No reason is given here.
You must look at another text, from Hebrews 11, to find your answer, “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.” Look again at that text from Genesis, “The Lord looked with favor on Abel AND his offering.” God is looking not simply at the difference between lamb or wheat. The offering is acceptable according to who is giving it. In other words, the offering itself doesn’t make the giver acceptable, the giver makes the offering acceptable. Abel is accepted by faith alone.
Let me say this in another way through a story told by Jesus in Mark chapter 12, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.” Which offering is better in this case? Well, the answer is obvious! A large amount of money is better than a fraction of a penny! If God is interested in you giving him the best of the best then the rich people should be favored over the widow. But that is not how this story ends, “Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” What does this story tell us? Only something we already knew from Samuel chapter 16, “The Lord does not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart.”
“By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.” God did not look simply at the grain or the firstlings, he looked at Abel AND his offering. At Cain AND his offering. He looked at their hearts and favored the heart of Abel because of the faith he saw there. Again, should this surprise us? That God cares about faith and not what we bring him? No. Romans chapter 3, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” And Habakkuk 2, “The righteous will live by faith.” Cain and Abel is a story about faith.
But that puts us in a bind. Because faith is not something we own. Faith is not something we can attain as if we can grow a bigger faith muscle to show off to God. Faith is not another work that we can do if we really try hard enough. If God’s favor doesn’t have to do with the gifts you bring to him, whether it be firstlings of the flock, or the fruit of the ground, or a lot of money or a couple of copper coins, then how can we come to him and offer him our faith as if it were something we accomplished. “For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God.” Ephesians 2:9. Faith is God’s gift to you.
But if God favored Abel instead of Cain and it wasn’t because of his offering, but by faith alone . . . given to him as a gift from God. Then God just chose Abel instead of Cain! He gave Abel faith and then favored Abel! And that doesn’t seem fair!
Probably because it’s not. It’s not fair. That’s the problem we have with God. And that’s why everyone hates this story by the way. They’d rather change the text and make God look nicer or else change the text to give us a chance to look better. We don’t want salvation to be up to God and God alone. We really do want it to be up to us. We want to be able to choose God and get the glory in the end. But Paul says in Galatians, “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” If Abel had gained God’s favor with his offering, God’s mercy would have been hidden. It had to be received by faith alone. “For if being made right with God could be gained any other way, Christ died for nothing.”
But Jesus Christ did not die for nothing. He died for you. In this election, God gets the only vote. Yes he chose you. End of story. He decided to save you, though you do not deserve it. Period. According to the first chapter of Ephesians, “In Jesus Christ, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” Words like that don’t leave a lot of space for you and your good works to earn salvation. It doesn’t even leave a lot of room for your great professions of faith unless you are praising God for the faith HE GAVE YOU as a gift!
Our tendency, as sinful people, is to say, “no thanks!” when God wants to save us all by himself and argue that we need to do a little something. Maybe “accept God’s gift of faith into our hearts” or at the very least not “reject” God’s love. But once again we are hemmed in by the Bible, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who does good not even one.” All reject God. Yes, even you. That is what it means to be a sinner. The question is, when you reject God, what does he do?
Jesus said, “You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” When Peter betrayed Jesus, Jesus returned with the forgiveness of sins and a call to feed his sheep. Our fear of election is that God is taking all of our freedom away by telling us he loves us unconditionally. But the joy of election comes when you realize that you’ve only used your freedom to reject, betray and fall away from God’s love. “No one seeks God. All have turned away.” And yet God continues to pursue you with his mercy and love. There are only two choices left: Freedom or Trust.
If you choose that you want the freedom to reject God then I am sure you will. Congratulations! But if you trust God, then come what may, good or bad in your life, you will never be separated from His love. God favored Abel and Abel trusted God. Abel could’ve argued that God was wrong, because Abel was the second born, an unworthy choice. Abel could’ve argued that he wanted the freedom to choose God. Instead, Abel trusted God’s judgment. God did not favor Cain, but still loved Him enough to warn His beloved child, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” But instead of trusting God’s choice, Cain decided to use his freedom to kill his brother Abel. It’s easy to trust in God when God is favoring you, when your health is good, when money is coming in, when everyone loves you. But faith is put to the test, when life is hard. But whether you feel favored by God or not, God calls you to trust him.
Your answer to the choice: freedom or trust, will be based on who you believe is more able to raise the dead in the end. We normally enjoy freedom until we are unable to do anything anymore—six feet underground. Then you start needing an electing God who doesn’t just talk in generalities or in explanations, but actually DOES things through an actual choice. Not a God who writes down in a book that he loves people, but a God who sends a preacher to make it clear that God loves you.
Has God simply “predestined” us for salvation or damnation and determined our every step? Here’s my answer to that: God does not care about theological musings. Whether everyone is saved or not, you’ve still got to tell them or else how can they have faith in Jesus? And if you are worried that someone is predestined for damnation, that would be a great time to let them know God’s unconditional love is for them. You can’t put your trust in philosophical explanations like “universal salvation” or “double predestination”. An electing God doesn’t simply “love the world” he loves you in particular. He doesn’t “condemn the world” but came to save through the world through faith in a particular man, Jesus.
No one likes the story of Cain and Abel, but there will come a time, perhaps that time is today, when you must follow one or the other: You must either walk away from God and trust in your freedom like Cain or trust in God and in his power to save you like Abel. The good news is that, because of Jesus, God favors you. You are His chosen one. When you find yourself believing that, trusting that good word from God, you can be assured that, just like Abel, you have been favored by faith alone.
Genesis 4:3, “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” What is your first reaction to this reading? It’s probably to ask a simple question: why? Why did God look with favor upon Abel and not Cain? We want God to look upon us with favor and so we want to end up like Abel and not Cain. Why did God look with favor upon Abel and not Cain?
Read the text. What does it say? Does it say why? No it does not. Read the text! I’ve heard so many explanations that aren’t there! Everyone is interested in judging whose offering was the best: they say that Cain must have brought the chaff instead of the grain, or that an animal sacrifice would have been worth more than grain or that it was the first fruits of the flock rather than the leftover grain or that Cain didn’t really care while Abel did or that God likes meat more than grain. Enough speculation. What does the text say? “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” No reason is given here.
You must look at another text, from Hebrews 11, to find your answer, “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.” Look again at that text from Genesis, “The Lord looked with favor on Abel AND his offering.” God is looking not simply at the difference between lamb or wheat. The offering is acceptable according to who is giving it. In other words, the offering itself doesn’t make the giver acceptable, the giver makes the offering acceptable. Abel is accepted by faith alone.
Let me say this in another way through a story told by Jesus in Mark chapter 12, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.” Which offering is better in this case? Well, the answer is obvious! A large amount of money is better than a fraction of a penny! If God is interested in you giving him the best of the best then the rich people should be favored over the widow. But that is not how this story ends, “Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” What does this story tell us? Only something we already knew from Samuel chapter 16, “The Lord does not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart.”
“By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.” God did not look simply at the grain or the firstlings, he looked at Abel AND his offering. At Cain AND his offering. He looked at their hearts and favored the heart of Abel because of the faith he saw there. Again, should this surprise us? That God cares about faith and not what we bring him? No. Romans chapter 3, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” And Habakkuk 2, “The righteous will live by faith.” Cain and Abel is a story about faith.
But that puts us in a bind. Because faith is not something we own. Faith is not something we can attain as if we can grow a bigger faith muscle to show off to God. Faith is not another work that we can do if we really try hard enough. If God’s favor doesn’t have to do with the gifts you bring to him, whether it be firstlings of the flock, or the fruit of the ground, or a lot of money or a couple of copper coins, then how can we come to him and offer him our faith as if it were something we accomplished. “For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God.” Ephesians 2:9. Faith is God’s gift to you.
But if God favored Abel instead of Cain and it wasn’t because of his offering, but by faith alone . . . given to him as a gift from God. Then God just chose Abel instead of Cain! He gave Abel faith and then favored Abel! And that doesn’t seem fair!
Probably because it’s not. It’s not fair. That’s the problem we have with God. And that’s why everyone hates this story by the way. They’d rather change the text and make God look nicer or else change the text to give us a chance to look better. We don’t want salvation to be up to God and God alone. We really do want it to be up to us. We want to be able to choose God and get the glory in the end. But Paul says in Galatians, “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” If Abel had gained God’s favor with his offering, God’s mercy would have been hidden. It had to be received by faith alone. “For if being made right with God could be gained any other way, Christ died for nothing.”
But Jesus Christ did not die for nothing. He died for you. In this election, God gets the only vote. Yes he chose you. End of story. He decided to save you, though you do not deserve it. Period. According to the first chapter of Ephesians, “In Jesus Christ, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” Words like that don’t leave a lot of space for you and your good works to earn salvation. It doesn’t even leave a lot of room for your great professions of faith unless you are praising God for the faith HE GAVE YOU as a gift!
Our tendency, as sinful people, is to say, “no thanks!” when God wants to save us all by himself and argue that we need to do a little something. Maybe “accept God’s gift of faith into our hearts” or at the very least not “reject” God’s love. But once again we are hemmed in by the Bible, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who does good not even one.” All reject God. Yes, even you. That is what it means to be a sinner. The question is, when you reject God, what does he do?
Jesus said, “You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” When Peter betrayed Jesus, Jesus returned with the forgiveness of sins and a call to feed his sheep. Our fear of election is that God is taking all of our freedom away by telling us he loves us unconditionally. But the joy of election comes when you realize that you’ve only used your freedom to reject, betray and fall away from God’s love. “No one seeks God. All have turned away.” And yet God continues to pursue you with his mercy and love. There are only two choices left: Freedom or Trust.
If you choose that you want the freedom to reject God then I am sure you will. Congratulations! But if you trust God, then come what may, good or bad in your life, you will never be separated from His love. God favored Abel and Abel trusted God. Abel could’ve argued that God was wrong, because Abel was the second born, an unworthy choice. Abel could’ve argued that he wanted the freedom to choose God. Instead, Abel trusted God’s judgment. God did not favor Cain, but still loved Him enough to warn His beloved child, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” But instead of trusting God’s choice, Cain decided to use his freedom to kill his brother Abel. It’s easy to trust in God when God is favoring you, when your health is good, when money is coming in, when everyone loves you. But faith is put to the test, when life is hard. But whether you feel favored by God or not, God calls you to trust him.
Your answer to the choice: freedom or trust, will be based on who you believe is more able to raise the dead in the end. We normally enjoy freedom until we are unable to do anything anymore—six feet underground. Then you start needing an electing God who doesn’t just talk in generalities or in explanations, but actually DOES things through an actual choice. Not a God who writes down in a book that he loves people, but a God who sends a preacher to make it clear that God loves you.
Has God simply “predestined” us for salvation or damnation and determined our every step? Here’s my answer to that: God does not care about theological musings. Whether everyone is saved or not, you’ve still got to tell them or else how can they have faith in Jesus? And if you are worried that someone is predestined for damnation, that would be a great time to let them know God’s unconditional love is for them. You can’t put your trust in philosophical explanations like “universal salvation” or “double predestination”. An electing God doesn’t simply “love the world” he loves you in particular. He doesn’t “condemn the world” but came to save through the world through faith in a particular man, Jesus.
No one likes the story of Cain and Abel, but there will come a time, perhaps that time is today, when you must follow one or the other: You must either walk away from God and trust in your freedom like Cain or trust in God and in his power to save you like Abel. The good news is that, because of Jesus, God favors you. You are His chosen one. When you find yourself believing that, trusting that good word from God, you can be assured that, just like Abel, you have been favored by faith alone.
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