When my wife calls me, sometimes I cannot hear her calling, even though she might even be shouting for me. At such occasions, she gets rather angry about it, and my one and only excuse is that I am getting old, and I am getting a bit hard of hearing.
The stories from the Gospels as to how Jesus called his disciples are all very known to some of us present here today, and over the years, some of us have heard it many times. The story of how God called Samuel to be his prophet should also be rather familiar to some of us present here today.
However, I am very much aware as I am standing here speaking to you, that there are many people who are failing to hear the call of God. Although the church often talks about how we are all called to be followers of Jesus, and despite all the sermons we hear every year that tells us that we are all called to be like the prophets of old and to hear and speak of God’s word to one another.
Why do you think that may be the case?
Why do you think that so many people, many of them are very fine people, many of them are people who already believe in God, who already believe in Jesus, and accepted Jesus as their Saviour, believe that God is not and has not been speaking to them personally? That God is not trying to, in some way or other, guide them in the path that they should be taking? That God is not, and has not been reaching out to them?
I think that the answer to that is that some people failed to hear the call of God, that they failed to notice how God is summoning them. They did not hear it not because the call has not been issued, but it is because either they have no idea as to how God calls us, or maybe because they allow themselves to pass over that call. Maybe they are used to putting aside the call of God as it were, as it might be something that they do want to do, or do not think that they can do it, and so grow used to ignoring the Word when it comes.
Let us think about the boy Samuel for a moment…
He was a special boy – like some of you are – he was a special gift from God to his mother Hannah. He was dedicated to the Lord by his mother upon his birth and sent, when still at a very young age, to live with the Priest Eli at a place call Shiloh.
The scriptures told us that he was living in a time when the Word of the Lord was rare, a time when visions of the future were not widespread at all.
Nevertheless, Samuel was living in a holy place in the holy presence. He witnessed the sacrifices made at the alter in Shiloh, and even as a young boy, he was wearing the line ephod and ministered in the house of God.
Just like his teacher, Eli, Samuel prayed to God.
Just like his master – he served God faithfully.
Like other people, he had heard the teachings proclaimed, he heard the story of the love of God.
Samuel was living in a very special place. In fact, the scriptures told us that Samuel grew up in the presence of God.
Samuel in that case, of all people, should have been able to recognize the call of God when it came to him. But as the story in chapter three of the Book of Samuel told us, when the time came, he did not. He did not recognize the call of God, until Eli recognized that call for him.
We are told by the Scriptures that three times the Lord called out to Samuel when he was lying in bed, and three times he answered by saying “Here I am” and ran all the way out to see Eli who was in the room next to him.
The third time that this happened, Eli understood that it was God’s voice calling Samuel and he instructed Samuel to “Go, lie down, and if the Lord calls you, you shall say, speak, Lord for your servant is listening.”
And so, it only after that did Samuel finally heard what it was that God wanted to say to him. So it was only then that Samuel learned of the fate that was to befall Eli. So it was only at that time did Samuel learned that he was to speak the Word of God to others.
How very much like Samuel are a great many of us. Living in a special place. Listening to the stories of His love for us. Serving Him in his house and in this world where we are living in. Just like Samuel we are dedicated to the Lord. Just like Samuel, a lot of us are thinking that the voices we hear in the middle of the night comes from another room, thinking that those are just dreams which came to us as a result of eating that midnight snack before bedtime. Quite often many of us feel that the inner nudges that we feel is only coming from our own intuition, or from maybe from the fact that our unconscious mind is just playing tricks on us.
God calls all of us in many ways. God speaks to us all in many different forms. And almost of His calls are gentle. Almost all of them are subtle ones; almost all of them can be mistaken as for something else. That is until we really hear those calls, then we discover the power of God is in them and behind those calls.
That is what happens in today's gospel lesson. The power behind the call of God is discovered by the one who finally decided to listen to it. The Gospel reading tells us that shortly after his baptism Jesus decided to go up to Galilee. At that time he already had Andrew and Simon Peter as his disciples.
As he was getting ready to leave Bethany to go on to Galilee Jesus goes out and finds Philip – he seeks him out, just as he seeks out Samuel, and just as he seeks us out – and he says to Philip, “follow me”.
Philip responded to the call of Jesus and as he was preparing to join Jesus he goes out and locates a man by the name of Nathaniel, telling him “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote. Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth”. It is obvious from the Gospel reading that both Philip and Nathaniel were men who were seekers, men who were looking for the promised one of God. However, we can see that Nathaniel was not prepared to accept that it was the call of God that he has heard through Philip. He doubted what Philip told him replied to him: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Still, Nathaniel went along with Philip. He went with Philip to check out what he has just been told by Philip. And in doing so discovered that Jesus is a prophet, that Jesus has special powers. For Jesus knew without being told where he was at the moment when Philip called him.
Jesus said to him: “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these. Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Do we listen to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ – Do we check out the calls they issued out to us on behalf of God. Do we check out the call to meet the Lord in a particular place and time? Do we check out the call to discover what we have been looking for?
Do we check out the call?
If I praise all of you all too much now – let me know, because when I look out here on Sunday morning, I see faithful people. I see people here who have decided to follow Jesus, people who are struggling real heard to do what is right. I see people who worship and who pray. I see people who listen to the holy stories, and seek to obey the will of the Lord.
I see amongst you all people who are like Samuel, and Philip and Nathaniel. I see here people who work for God.
But still, I cannot help but wonder, when I see you, how many of you here today believe that God has spoken to you? How many of you do believe that God has called you in person and not sent an angel to do it. He has personally called you to do what you are doing here in the church? Here in this place call Hong Kong?
And of those of us who do believe this. How many of you here believe that God is still with you – guiding you, or tying to guide you, each and every day?
God is calling all of us – He is calling ALL OF US! He is calling us not to just Him. He is also calling us to do and say certain things at certain times. He is calling for us to walk a particular path with Him, a path that is very similar to, but not the same as the path of all the disciples, apostles and saints of all the ages before our time and of this day and age.
God has a personal plan for you.
God seeks to guide you in your daily life.
And that call of God to you is a personal call.
God is seeking you out, just as Jesus called out Philip.
God is calling you by your name – just as He called Samuel by name.
God calls us in our dreams. He calls in the voice of those people who are tying to help us find our way. He calls us through our spouses and the people at work. He calls us when we take the time to calm down and to read His Word, or to meditate. He calls us when we are trying to decide as to what to do next in our life. He calls us when we gaze upon the heavens. He calls out to us when we are praying.
God is calling us.
A great many people speak to God, they pray to him daily, whether it be five minutes a day or half an hour a day, or even an hour a day. They do that without even really thinking of how it is that God might answer them, without seriously thinking as how they are meant to listen to Him.
It is like picking up the telephone to speak into it, and instead of HOLDING IT LIKE TH IS, they are trying to HOLD IT LIKE THIS.
I remember a cartoon I looked at in a newspaper some time ago. In the cartoon the yard was filled with children playing in the way that only children can. They were yelling and screaming, blowing horns, and crying. The dog was barking, a plane flies overhead, and there were two boys beating drums. Inside the house, the mother of one of the children says to her husband, “Listen. That is PJ crying!”
I am sure that those of you who are mothers sitting here today will be in agreement with me if I said that mothers’ ears are conditioned to h ear the sound of her child’s voice, no matter how much noise there might be in the background.
God calls each and every one of us for a purpose – a very good purpose. He calls us to come to him so that He may be able to transform our lives. He calls on us to listen to Him and to do what he tells us to do, so that he might change us, and the world we are living in, making it holy and good, full of love and joy, whole and at peace…
If we really want to hear what God is trying to tell us, it will certainly help to hold the telephone in the correct way. It will certainly help if we have learned as to how and where He will speak to us. It will certainly help if we, by continual practice, conditioned our ears and hearts and minds to hear His voice.
Listen for God’s voice where-ever you may be – in whatever you see or hear. Whether it is a dream you have just had. Whether it is the message of a preacher you have just heard. Whether it is in the still small voice y9ou have heard inside you at the seashore, or in the words of a friend who is telling you how God has dealt his or her situation, and what it is that he or she thinks that God is trying to tell you.
That happens when you belong to a church you know. That happens when you are gathered with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes they speak to you about God. Sometimes they have a message from God that is meant especially for you.
Listen to the “Good Book” and judge the things you hear by the Book and by the Spirit that is within you. Examine what is happening around you and pray about what you just heard or read. Look and listen – and I promise you that you will hear the voice of God, you will hear his call.
LISTEN.
Listen and then do as you feel or believe that you have been called to do, and if it is truly the Word of God, you will find and experience the power that lies behind that very Word, that very call.
You will see things happening as promised. You will see changes that are good. You will see God glorified and people who only seek after their own desires humbled. You will see mercy and grace, judgment and vindication. You will see new life arise out of sinners and new hope comes out of despair.
Listen, and it will be as Jesus promised to Nathaniel, you will see heaven opened up and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
Listen and you will find what you have been looking for all the time.
Let us pray. Dear Lord, we know that you do call each and every one of us. Help us to listen for you call. Help us to be able to recognize it and to accept it. Help us discover your personal Word for us. Help us discover your personal demands upon each and every one of us. Let us discover your personal will for each and every one of us. We ask of it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
You impress God when you do not try to.....
There was a very lost, wicked, and rebellious man who decided it would be good for business if he went down to the church and joined it. He was an adulterer, an alcoholic, and had never been a member of a church in his life.
But when he went down to place membership, he gave public testimony to the church that there was no sin in his life, and that he had grown up in the church, and they readily accepted him as a member.
When he went home he told his wife what he had done, and his wife, a very godly lady, exploded. She condemned him for being a hypocrite, and demanded that he go back to the church the next week and confess what he really was. Well, God used his wife to really break him, and he took it to heart.
The next Sunday he went back to the church, walked down to the front again, and this time confessed to the church all of his sins. He told them he was dishonest, an alcoholic, an adulterer, and that he was sorry. They revoked his membership on the spot. He walked out of the church that day scratching his head and muttered to himself: "These church folks are really strange. I told a lie and they took me in; and when I told the truth they kicked me out!"
The Lord Jesus told a story of two men in a similar situation who had totally different results. One man tried to talk himself into God’s kingdom, but he didn’t make it. One man tried to talk himself out of God’s kingdom and he did make it.
Let’s take a look at the passage in LUKE 18.
Now Luke makes it plain who Jesus told this parable to. In VERSE 9, it says,
"Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others."
Now if you want to know whether or not you are being addressed in this parable, let me ask you some questions:
• Do you ever look at people who don’t go to church, and think you are better than they are because you do go to church? If so, Jesus is talking to you.
• Do you ever look at people in prison, and think you are better than they are because you are not? If so, Jesus is talking to you.
• Do you ever look at people who are divorced, and think that you are better than they are because you are not? If so, then Jesus is talking to you.
• Do you ever look down your nose at anyone for any reason, and think you might be better than them? If so, Jesus is talking to you.
I promise you, every one of you will find yourself somewhere in this story, because at one time or another, all of us are guilty of trying to impress God.
Today, we are going to find out what impresses God and what doesn’t.
1. YOU IMPRESS GOD WHEN YOU DON’T TRY TO
In VERSES 10-12, we read,
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ’God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortionists, un-just, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’"
I know immediately you are ready to jump all over the Pharisee because he was, to say the least, a bit arrogant. Quite frankly, he really was an Eagle Scout. He dotted every religious "i" and he crossed every theological "t." He went strictly by the book. He had a heart for religion; the problem was his religion had no heart.
He was standing in the center of the inner court right in the heart of the temple. The reason he stood there was because it was where he could be heard the clearest and seen the best. He let everybody know just how wonderful he was. First of all, we read that he fasted twice a week. Now the Old Testament only required a Jew to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement. But this man fasted a 103 times a year more than he was required.
Then we read that he tithed everything that he possessed. Now the Old Testament only required that you tithe your income. But this man tithed everything that he earned and everything that he bought. In other words, he was a double thither. Now there is nothing wrong with fasting more than once a week, and there certainly is nothing wrong with giving more than a tithe.
But the problem was, this man thought back then what a lot of people keep thinking today--he thought his goodness gained him brownie points with God. He thought God accepts a person based on what they do for Him, or in other words, he thought he could get to heaven by his good works. He was religious and proud of it.
If you put your trust in anything--church membership, church attendance, baptism, religion, good works—anything at all other than Jesus Christ, to make God accept you, you are fooling yourself. The Pharisee thought that God would be impressed with all that he was doing. So now we learn the first clue on what impresses God.
What impresses God is when you don’t try to impress God.
I heard about a fifth grader that came home very excited from school one day. She had been voted "prettiest girl in the class." The next day she was even more excited when she came home, for the class had voted her "the most likely to succeed." The next day she came home and told her mother she had won a third contest, being voted "the most popular."
But the next day she came home extremely upset. The mother said, "What happened, did you lose this time?" She said, "Oh no, I won the vote again." The mother said, "What were you voted this time?" She said, "most stuck up."
Well this Pharisee would have won that contest hands down. He had an "I" problem. Five times you will read the little pronoun "I" in these two verses. He was stoned on the drug of self. He suffered from two problems: inflation and deflation. He had an inflated view of who he was, and a deflated view of who God was. He couldn’t see the truth because his “I’s” were too close together. His pride had made him too big for his spiritual britches.
C. S. Lewis once said, "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course, as long as you are looking down, you can’t see something that’s above you."
This Pharisee had fooled himself about himself. He says, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men." But he was like other men, because "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
There was a man on trial charged with burglary. As he was standing there, the judge said, "Sir, you can let me try your case, or you can choose to have a jury of your peers." The man thought for a moment, and said, "Your honor, what are peers?" The judge said, "Well, they are people just like you." The defendant said, "Forget it, I don’t want no thieves trying me!"
VERSE 11 says, he
"stood and prayed thus with himself."
The original Greek manuscript actually says, "he stood and prayed to himself."
When you approach God with pride, you wind up talking to yourself. Someone said, "The only person God sends away empty is the person full of himself." Prideful prayer is nothing more than an echo in your own ears.
2. HUMILITY IMPRESSES GOD.
The contrast Jesus gives would have been easily recognized to those hearing this parable. A tax collector was as different from a Pharisee as the Pope is from a Postal Worker.
Tax collectors were the scum of Jewish society. They were the IRS of the Roman government. They charged exorbitant rates, they skimmed extra money off the top, they would steal candy from a baby, and a welfare check from their own mother. They were considered traitors to the nation of Israel. Just look at Zacchaeus, whom we spoke about this morning in LUKE 19.
They were so despised they could not hold public office or even give testimony in Jewish court because their word was considered worthless. The tax collector was to the Pharisee what an outlaw is to the sheriff. This man no doubt was a liar and a cheat.
But now the story takes a strange twist. The Pharisee tried to impress God, but wasn’t able to. The tax collector was not trying to impress at all, he was just being humble of heart, and that impressed God immensely.
Humility impresses God. This tax collector was as humble as the Pharisee was proud. You could see it in his feet.
VERSE 13 tells us,
"And the tax collector, standing afar off,"
The Pharisee went to the center of the court and stood in the sunshine where he would be noticed by the most people; the tax collector stood on the outer edges of the court of the Gentiles in the shadows, not carrying to let people see him pray. He just wanted to have a dialogue with the Lord God.
You could see his humility in his eyes. The passage goes on to say that he "would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven."
The Pharisee was too proud to look up; the tax collector was too ashamed to look up.
You could hear the sincerity in his voice. For he says, "God be merciful to me a sinner!"
Well, God heard his prayer, for in VERSE 14, Jesus said, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other."
A highway to heaven is paved with humility. Now on the outside you would have thought the Pharisee was much closer to God, but on the inside it was the tax collector who was close to God. We find out why in the following verse.
PSALM 34:18 says,
"The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit."
What impressed God so much was this man was simply willing to humble himself before God.
It hit me as I was thinking about this, that there is only one thing worse than being a sinner. The only thing worse than being a sinner is not admitting that you are one!
3. LET ME OFFER YOU SOME CLOSING REMARKS.
In VERSE 14, listen to what Jesus said about the man who impressed God. "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The Lord Jesus draws a conclusion from this story that shocked his listeners. Remember the Pharisees wore the white hats, the tax collectors wore the black hats. If you had taken a vote in that crowd as to which man God accepted, and which man was safely in his kingdom, the Pharisee would have won by a unanimous landslide. But there’s only one vote that counts, and that is God’s vote.
The first thing we should all learn from this is that it isn’t important how we see ourselves, but only how God sees us.
The second thing we need to learn is that mercy is something we cannot earn or pay for. It is given freely by God, but only to those who have admitted that we need His mercy.
Many years ago a man conned his way into the orchestra of the Emperor of China, although he could not sing or play an instrument.
Whenever the group practiced or performed, he would hold his flute against his lips, pretending to play, but not making a sound. For years he received a good salary and enjoyed a comfortable living.
Then one day the Emperor requested a solo from each musician. Well, the flutist got very nervous. There wasn’t enough time to learn the instrument. He pretended to be sick, but the royal physician wasn’t fooled. On the day of his solo performance, the imposter took poison and killed himself.
That is where we get the old expression; "He refused to face the music."
The way to impress God is simply face the music. You can face the music now and be a part of the heavenly choir, or you can face the music later and be a part of the satanic screeches.
When you finally realize that you have absolutely nothing in your life aside from Christ, you have finally impressed God
But when he went down to place membership, he gave public testimony to the church that there was no sin in his life, and that he had grown up in the church, and they readily accepted him as a member.
When he went home he told his wife what he had done, and his wife, a very godly lady, exploded. She condemned him for being a hypocrite, and demanded that he go back to the church the next week and confess what he really was. Well, God used his wife to really break him, and he took it to heart.
The next Sunday he went back to the church, walked down to the front again, and this time confessed to the church all of his sins. He told them he was dishonest, an alcoholic, an adulterer, and that he was sorry. They revoked his membership on the spot. He walked out of the church that day scratching his head and muttered to himself: "These church folks are really strange. I told a lie and they took me in; and when I told the truth they kicked me out!"
The Lord Jesus told a story of two men in a similar situation who had totally different results. One man tried to talk himself into God’s kingdom, but he didn’t make it. One man tried to talk himself out of God’s kingdom and he did make it.
Let’s take a look at the passage in LUKE 18.
Now Luke makes it plain who Jesus told this parable to. In VERSE 9, it says,
"Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others."
Now if you want to know whether or not you are being addressed in this parable, let me ask you some questions:
• Do you ever look at people who don’t go to church, and think you are better than they are because you do go to church? If so, Jesus is talking to you.
• Do you ever look at people in prison, and think you are better than they are because you are not? If so, Jesus is talking to you.
• Do you ever look at people who are divorced, and think that you are better than they are because you are not? If so, then Jesus is talking to you.
• Do you ever look down your nose at anyone for any reason, and think you might be better than them? If so, Jesus is talking to you.
I promise you, every one of you will find yourself somewhere in this story, because at one time or another, all of us are guilty of trying to impress God.
Today, we are going to find out what impresses God and what doesn’t.
1. YOU IMPRESS GOD WHEN YOU DON’T TRY TO
In VERSES 10-12, we read,
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ’God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortionists, un-just, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’"
I know immediately you are ready to jump all over the Pharisee because he was, to say the least, a bit arrogant. Quite frankly, he really was an Eagle Scout. He dotted every religious "i" and he crossed every theological "t." He went strictly by the book. He had a heart for religion; the problem was his religion had no heart.
He was standing in the center of the inner court right in the heart of the temple. The reason he stood there was because it was where he could be heard the clearest and seen the best. He let everybody know just how wonderful he was. First of all, we read that he fasted twice a week. Now the Old Testament only required a Jew to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement. But this man fasted a 103 times a year more than he was required.
Then we read that he tithed everything that he possessed. Now the Old Testament only required that you tithe your income. But this man tithed everything that he earned and everything that he bought. In other words, he was a double thither. Now there is nothing wrong with fasting more than once a week, and there certainly is nothing wrong with giving more than a tithe.
But the problem was, this man thought back then what a lot of people keep thinking today--he thought his goodness gained him brownie points with God. He thought God accepts a person based on what they do for Him, or in other words, he thought he could get to heaven by his good works. He was religious and proud of it.
If you put your trust in anything--church membership, church attendance, baptism, religion, good works—anything at all other than Jesus Christ, to make God accept you, you are fooling yourself. The Pharisee thought that God would be impressed with all that he was doing. So now we learn the first clue on what impresses God.
What impresses God is when you don’t try to impress God.
I heard about a fifth grader that came home very excited from school one day. She had been voted "prettiest girl in the class." The next day she was even more excited when she came home, for the class had voted her "the most likely to succeed." The next day she came home and told her mother she had won a third contest, being voted "the most popular."
But the next day she came home extremely upset. The mother said, "What happened, did you lose this time?" She said, "Oh no, I won the vote again." The mother said, "What were you voted this time?" She said, "most stuck up."
Well this Pharisee would have won that contest hands down. He had an "I" problem. Five times you will read the little pronoun "I" in these two verses. He was stoned on the drug of self. He suffered from two problems: inflation and deflation. He had an inflated view of who he was, and a deflated view of who God was. He couldn’t see the truth because his “I’s” were too close together. His pride had made him too big for his spiritual britches.
C. S. Lewis once said, "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course, as long as you are looking down, you can’t see something that’s above you."
This Pharisee had fooled himself about himself. He says, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men." But he was like other men, because "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
There was a man on trial charged with burglary. As he was standing there, the judge said, "Sir, you can let me try your case, or you can choose to have a jury of your peers." The man thought for a moment, and said, "Your honor, what are peers?" The judge said, "Well, they are people just like you." The defendant said, "Forget it, I don’t want no thieves trying me!"
VERSE 11 says, he
"stood and prayed thus with himself."
The original Greek manuscript actually says, "he stood and prayed to himself."
When you approach God with pride, you wind up talking to yourself. Someone said, "The only person God sends away empty is the person full of himself." Prideful prayer is nothing more than an echo in your own ears.
2. HUMILITY IMPRESSES GOD.
The contrast Jesus gives would have been easily recognized to those hearing this parable. A tax collector was as different from a Pharisee as the Pope is from a Postal Worker.
Tax collectors were the scum of Jewish society. They were the IRS of the Roman government. They charged exorbitant rates, they skimmed extra money off the top, they would steal candy from a baby, and a welfare check from their own mother. They were considered traitors to the nation of Israel. Just look at Zacchaeus, whom we spoke about this morning in LUKE 19.
They were so despised they could not hold public office or even give testimony in Jewish court because their word was considered worthless. The tax collector was to the Pharisee what an outlaw is to the sheriff. This man no doubt was a liar and a cheat.
But now the story takes a strange twist. The Pharisee tried to impress God, but wasn’t able to. The tax collector was not trying to impress at all, he was just being humble of heart, and that impressed God immensely.
Humility impresses God. This tax collector was as humble as the Pharisee was proud. You could see it in his feet.
VERSE 13 tells us,
"And the tax collector, standing afar off,"
The Pharisee went to the center of the court and stood in the sunshine where he would be noticed by the most people; the tax collector stood on the outer edges of the court of the Gentiles in the shadows, not carrying to let people see him pray. He just wanted to have a dialogue with the Lord God.
You could see his humility in his eyes. The passage goes on to say that he "would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven."
The Pharisee was too proud to look up; the tax collector was too ashamed to look up.
You could hear the sincerity in his voice. For he says, "God be merciful to me a sinner!"
Well, God heard his prayer, for in VERSE 14, Jesus said, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other."
A highway to heaven is paved with humility. Now on the outside you would have thought the Pharisee was much closer to God, but on the inside it was the tax collector who was close to God. We find out why in the following verse.
PSALM 34:18 says,
"The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit."
What impressed God so much was this man was simply willing to humble himself before God.
It hit me as I was thinking about this, that there is only one thing worse than being a sinner. The only thing worse than being a sinner is not admitting that you are one!
3. LET ME OFFER YOU SOME CLOSING REMARKS.
In VERSE 14, listen to what Jesus said about the man who impressed God. "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The Lord Jesus draws a conclusion from this story that shocked his listeners. Remember the Pharisees wore the white hats, the tax collectors wore the black hats. If you had taken a vote in that crowd as to which man God accepted, and which man was safely in his kingdom, the Pharisee would have won by a unanimous landslide. But there’s only one vote that counts, and that is God’s vote.
The first thing we should all learn from this is that it isn’t important how we see ourselves, but only how God sees us.
The second thing we need to learn is that mercy is something we cannot earn or pay for. It is given freely by God, but only to those who have admitted that we need His mercy.
Many years ago a man conned his way into the orchestra of the Emperor of China, although he could not sing or play an instrument.
Whenever the group practiced or performed, he would hold his flute against his lips, pretending to play, but not making a sound. For years he received a good salary and enjoyed a comfortable living.
Then one day the Emperor requested a solo from each musician. Well, the flutist got very nervous. There wasn’t enough time to learn the instrument. He pretended to be sick, but the royal physician wasn’t fooled. On the day of his solo performance, the imposter took poison and killed himself.
That is where we get the old expression; "He refused to face the music."
The way to impress God is simply face the music. You can face the music now and be a part of the heavenly choir, or you can face the music later and be a part of the satanic screeches.
When you finally realize that you have absolutely nothing in your life aside from Christ, you have finally impressed God
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Habakkuk 5: 1-7, 11
Evil and suffering are a problem, and will continue to be a problem. We live in a society in which we think we can have lives void of suffering. There has never been a bigger group of entitlement oriented, litigious cry-babies, than modern day human beings. It is because of our secular mindset that we continue with the assumption that we have rights to a happy life without pain and evil.
What we know about suffering is this: Some see evil and suffering as a cause for their atheism, or they deny that He is gracious, or they deny that He has any power to stop it. Eastern religions ignore it as an illusion. Other western religions say that God is up there and has His reasons but we can’t possibly know them. Only Christianity has a God that actually intervened and came into the world of suffering. If God has come and suffered, then He must have reasons for its existence if He was willing to come and get involved Himself and suffer upon the cross. I’ve got reasons and I’ll tell you why, and one day I’ll completely remove it, but to show you that I care I’ve come and involved myself in it. All other philosophies and religions either ignore it, or attempt to relegate it to personal opinion.
Sin is the problem. Rebellion, folly, killings, disease and discouragement are all the results of sin.
Habakkuk sees that sin is causing pain, and its injustice is gripping the people of God. Though Habakkuk is perplexed and pained by the suffering and injustice in the world, his frustration does not lead him to accuse God of evil. Rather, it drives him to God in prayerful inquiry, which is a wise example for us all in times of darkness and doubt because many things are hidden in God’s understanding alone, causing our speculation to be mere vanity.
We do not know much about Habakkuk. We know that he was a prophet, that he was also a contemporary of Jeremiah, and that his name means “embrace.”
Verse 1- “The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.”
The oracle can be translated “burden.” It is a term that pictures something that is lifted up and carried. It is described as the message that God has placed upon the shoulders and hearts of His prophets to carry.
This is not a weight that Habakkuk wants. It is something that he would prefer not to have. Its weight is tremendous and he cannot escape the responsibility of declaring it. His understanding of God’s character and his observation of what he sees are in conflict. It is a divine difficulty that God has placed upon him. We must understand that this is God’s word, and therefore, as Habakkuk speaks to us, we can not forget that it is by God’s Spirit that Habakkuk speaks and it is by God’s desire to reveal something of Himself to us that we have this letter to read today.
Habakkuk has been crying out to God for a long time. He is now completely overwhelmed by the situation in which he lives. He is living in the midst of violence, anarchy, cruelty, crime and lust. He turns once again to God and like you and me at the end of our tether in times of distress, he calls out to God: O Lord how long…? Why…?(2-3).
Verse 2- “How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ Yet You do not save.”
Behind the cry “how long?” is the unspoken cry, ‘I have my limits God.’ Behind “why?” is the demand ‘I must have reasons.’ God’s silence is intolerable to Habakkuk.
Habakkuk believes that if only God would explain to him why He is not acting, then Habakkuk’s limits of tolerance would be extended. Habakkuk is desperate to know why God is acting—or not acting—in a particular way.
The word “violence” is used six times in this book. It is a word that describes a violation of the moral law in which a man injures his fellow-man or continues to oppress him.
Habakkuk lived in a particularly violent society. He speaks to us about the endemic, systematic violence all around him. This violence has always been a problem on earth as men live out their wickedness by injuring or killing one another. This evil heat of murder and anger escalated in Judah at the time of Habakkuk.
This difficulty with evil and God’s seeming lack of concern or answer to Habakkuk’s prayer, is troubling to the prophet. God had warned Israel through his servant Samuel, “You will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:18). The result of their rejection of God as King is that a wicked monarchy would bring them into a state of oppression. The prophet cries, and it seems the Lord will not answer. Left to themselves, they will utterly destroy one another.
This is the same cry as Job “I cry out, ‘Violence!’ and you do not answer” (Job 19:7). Only the wisdom of God can answer this question of prayer that remains unanswered.
Habakkuk stands among the innocent with the faithful remnant. Why shouldn’t his prayer be answered?
In light of the truth that God’s intention is to maintain a people for Himself, how can He refuse to provide deliverance in such desperate times?
Verse 3- “Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises.”
The specifics of Habakkuk’s complaint are spelled out more clearly: iniquity and wickedness, destruction and violence, and strife and contention. The entire nation is plagued by these griefs. Both sin and its consequences seem to prevail through the country.
Verse 4- “Therefore the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.”
Yet, having the law does Israel no good. The best law in the world profits nothing if its statues are not maintained. The wicked outnumber the righteous, surround them, and enforce their own will on the people.
Not only are people, culture, families and systems demonstrating evil, but those that are supposed to uphold law and justice are wicked and perverted. Fathers that are supposed to love and shape their children are abusing them. The police aren’t enforcing the law, they’re breaking it. The attorneys aren’t seeking truth, only profit. The judges are not seeking justice, only power. Elected officials are not representing the wants of their constituency, just their selfish gain. This book is over 2,600 years old, and yet the problems then are our problems today.
Are our politicians telling us the truth? Are our courts handing out justice and mercy in godly ways? Perhaps infrequently, certainly not often. Why? Because there is such thing as systemic evil. Systems and governments are comprised of people, and people are wicked. This doesn’t mean that Habakkuk’s culture was as evil as it could possibly be. Nor does this mean that all of our systems are “utterly” depraved. Certainly systems and people can be more depraved and wicked then they are. This simply means that what Habakkuk saw was the depravity and wickedness of mankind acted out before him.
How can we seriously sit back and not recognize that something is wrong when a guy who has a large bag of pot gets 10-15 years in prison while a child molester gets a slap on the hand and sent to a very short term in prison? When murderers get off because of a technicality even though they have confessed their crime and are obviously guilty? When men who are the heads of major corporations rape their company and the pensions of those who are retired and get a short term in prison? Habakkuk’s message is timely, and until we come to the same frustration when we see lawlessness and the perversion of justice, we will not understand this book. Habakkuk’s burden is heavy upon him because he has a deep seated understanding and desire for holy justice. His cry is a cry of righteous indignations.
The world is characterized by apathy and the death of outrage. We are more angry and animated over our minimum wages then we are with the suffering and death of men, women, boys and girls because of the AIDS crisis, poverty, disasters, killings and injustice in this world.
Some of you might be saying that it isn’t all that bad. People are inherently good and therefore we shouldn’t cry out like Habakkuk. Really? Then why do you lock your doors? Why do you have an alarm on your car? Why do we have to sign contracts with people? Why do you buy insurance? Because you realize that there is evil in this world, and without thinking, you take measures to protect yourself from it. The sad truth of Habakkuk’s burden is that his complaint is against God’s people! Those that are supposed to champion justice and mercy, compassion and care, order and civility, are the very ones that are committing these horrible sins. They know God’s law and God’s justice, yet do not esteem either of them.
Justice in not carried out, but is perverted instead. The most difficult thing for a righteous person is to appeal to the courts of the land only to find that a decision would be rendered against him. So the prophet complains. It is a strong one. He can find no justice among God’s own people. Instead, brutality, perversion, lawlessness and injustice prevail in the land. The righteous people of the Lord suffer endless abuse. Prayers of the devout go unheard. How does the Lord explain this terrible circumstance, and His own seeming lack of response to the cry of the prophet?
Now comes God’s divine response. The Lord listened patiently to the complaint of the prophet. His response is not only to Habakkuk but is addressed to a plurality of listeners.
This answer to the prophet is an awesome one. Interestingly, the Lord doesn’t dispute the complaint of the prophet. The Lord agrees with the indictment against the nation.
There is also a total absence of rebuke to the prophet since the Lord is in full sympathy with the prophet’s agony over the suffering of the righteous. When the Lord tells Habakkuk His answer, it is plain that He sees the problem even more deeply than does the prophet. His resolution appears overwhelming.
Verse 5- "Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days—You would not believe if you were told.”
Look, observe, be astonished, wonder! The prophet had presented a problem. The divine response is of such an overwhelming nature that God prepares the people for its reception.
All of His people should be amazed at the judgment that is coming. For no less than the whole of the nation will be struck by this judgment. The faithful are called to watch the storm which is coming, to observe it closely as it advances, and to wonder at the force with which it will finally break itself upon Israel.
Verse 6- "For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs.”
The Chaldeans are bitter and impetuous. Not just a few of them, but the whole nation is ill-tempered and bitter. They are not a people that reason and sort out the facts. They act first and cause sufferings and great injustice.
Their sin of seizing dwelling places that are not their own will be used as a way of serving God’s purpose to discipline His people.
Verse 7- "They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves.”
This nation is feared because of its strength and temper. They act autonomously and do not listen to or follow the law or justice. Much like the unfaithful Israelites who are acting as practical atheists, God will use a nation even worse then they to punish them and show them their sinfulness. They seek to be a law unto themselves and God uses this lawless nation to demonstrate what that looks like.
Verse 11- "Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god."
Yet God will hold even His instrument of punishment guilty for their actions!
The problem of evil is dealt with through Christ on the cross, and is being dealt with now, and will be completely eradicated in the future.
The problem of suffering is dealt with by God who came into this world and suffered. If God Himself has suffered, then our suffering isn't senseless. First, if you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because He hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have to have a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can't know. Second, though we don't know the reasons why He allows it to continue, He can't be indifferent or un-caring, because the Christian God (unlike the gods of all the other religions) takes our misery and suffering so seriously that He is willing to get involved with it himself. On the cross, Jesus suffered with us.
The problem of evil is not a problem for God.
The existence of evil is part of the greater plan for God show the fullness of His divine attributes and for Him to receive the greatest amount of glory. God does all things for the ultimate purpose of His glory.
It is no comfort to think that God could have stopped a particular evil or suffering and simply “allowed” it to happen so that He didn’t intrude upon our freedom. The only comfort is that God is in sovereign control and is infinitely good, and because of these truths, God has a sufficient reason that I cannot see but is for my good and His glory. Our comfort is that God is involved and still loves us through the cup of bitterness that we are asked to drink.
Sin is serious. The answer is the cross.
Romans 8:18-39 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many Brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I will like to finish off this message with the prayers of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Thanks be to God - for his living word - Jesus Christ our Saviour
And for his Spirit - which gives up power day by day. Amen.
What we know about suffering is this: Some see evil and suffering as a cause for their atheism, or they deny that He is gracious, or they deny that He has any power to stop it. Eastern religions ignore it as an illusion. Other western religions say that God is up there and has His reasons but we can’t possibly know them. Only Christianity has a God that actually intervened and came into the world of suffering. If God has come and suffered, then He must have reasons for its existence if He was willing to come and get involved Himself and suffer upon the cross. I’ve got reasons and I’ll tell you why, and one day I’ll completely remove it, but to show you that I care I’ve come and involved myself in it. All other philosophies and religions either ignore it, or attempt to relegate it to personal opinion.
Sin is the problem. Rebellion, folly, killings, disease and discouragement are all the results of sin.
Habakkuk sees that sin is causing pain, and its injustice is gripping the people of God. Though Habakkuk is perplexed and pained by the suffering and injustice in the world, his frustration does not lead him to accuse God of evil. Rather, it drives him to God in prayerful inquiry, which is a wise example for us all in times of darkness and doubt because many things are hidden in God’s understanding alone, causing our speculation to be mere vanity.
We do not know much about Habakkuk. We know that he was a prophet, that he was also a contemporary of Jeremiah, and that his name means “embrace.”
Verse 1- “The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.”
The oracle can be translated “burden.” It is a term that pictures something that is lifted up and carried. It is described as the message that God has placed upon the shoulders and hearts of His prophets to carry.
This is not a weight that Habakkuk wants. It is something that he would prefer not to have. Its weight is tremendous and he cannot escape the responsibility of declaring it. His understanding of God’s character and his observation of what he sees are in conflict. It is a divine difficulty that God has placed upon him. We must understand that this is God’s word, and therefore, as Habakkuk speaks to us, we can not forget that it is by God’s Spirit that Habakkuk speaks and it is by God’s desire to reveal something of Himself to us that we have this letter to read today.
Habakkuk has been crying out to God for a long time. He is now completely overwhelmed by the situation in which he lives. He is living in the midst of violence, anarchy, cruelty, crime and lust. He turns once again to God and like you and me at the end of our tether in times of distress, he calls out to God: O Lord how long…? Why…?(2-3).
Verse 2- “How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ Yet You do not save.”
Behind the cry “how long?” is the unspoken cry, ‘I have my limits God.’ Behind “why?” is the demand ‘I must have reasons.’ God’s silence is intolerable to Habakkuk.
Habakkuk believes that if only God would explain to him why He is not acting, then Habakkuk’s limits of tolerance would be extended. Habakkuk is desperate to know why God is acting—or not acting—in a particular way.
The word “violence” is used six times in this book. It is a word that describes a violation of the moral law in which a man injures his fellow-man or continues to oppress him.
Habakkuk lived in a particularly violent society. He speaks to us about the endemic, systematic violence all around him. This violence has always been a problem on earth as men live out their wickedness by injuring or killing one another. This evil heat of murder and anger escalated in Judah at the time of Habakkuk.
This difficulty with evil and God’s seeming lack of concern or answer to Habakkuk’s prayer, is troubling to the prophet. God had warned Israel through his servant Samuel, “You will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:18). The result of their rejection of God as King is that a wicked monarchy would bring them into a state of oppression. The prophet cries, and it seems the Lord will not answer. Left to themselves, they will utterly destroy one another.
This is the same cry as Job “I cry out, ‘Violence!’ and you do not answer” (Job 19:7). Only the wisdom of God can answer this question of prayer that remains unanswered.
Habakkuk stands among the innocent with the faithful remnant. Why shouldn’t his prayer be answered?
In light of the truth that God’s intention is to maintain a people for Himself, how can He refuse to provide deliverance in such desperate times?
Verse 3- “Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises.”
The specifics of Habakkuk’s complaint are spelled out more clearly: iniquity and wickedness, destruction and violence, and strife and contention. The entire nation is plagued by these griefs. Both sin and its consequences seem to prevail through the country.
Verse 4- “Therefore the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.”
Yet, having the law does Israel no good. The best law in the world profits nothing if its statues are not maintained. The wicked outnumber the righteous, surround them, and enforce their own will on the people.
Not only are people, culture, families and systems demonstrating evil, but those that are supposed to uphold law and justice are wicked and perverted. Fathers that are supposed to love and shape their children are abusing them. The police aren’t enforcing the law, they’re breaking it. The attorneys aren’t seeking truth, only profit. The judges are not seeking justice, only power. Elected officials are not representing the wants of their constituency, just their selfish gain. This book is over 2,600 years old, and yet the problems then are our problems today.
Are our politicians telling us the truth? Are our courts handing out justice and mercy in godly ways? Perhaps infrequently, certainly not often. Why? Because there is such thing as systemic evil. Systems and governments are comprised of people, and people are wicked. This doesn’t mean that Habakkuk’s culture was as evil as it could possibly be. Nor does this mean that all of our systems are “utterly” depraved. Certainly systems and people can be more depraved and wicked then they are. This simply means that what Habakkuk saw was the depravity and wickedness of mankind acted out before him.
How can we seriously sit back and not recognize that something is wrong when a guy who has a large bag of pot gets 10-15 years in prison while a child molester gets a slap on the hand and sent to a very short term in prison? When murderers get off because of a technicality even though they have confessed their crime and are obviously guilty? When men who are the heads of major corporations rape their company and the pensions of those who are retired and get a short term in prison? Habakkuk’s message is timely, and until we come to the same frustration when we see lawlessness and the perversion of justice, we will not understand this book. Habakkuk’s burden is heavy upon him because he has a deep seated understanding and desire for holy justice. His cry is a cry of righteous indignations.
The world is characterized by apathy and the death of outrage. We are more angry and animated over our minimum wages then we are with the suffering and death of men, women, boys and girls because of the AIDS crisis, poverty, disasters, killings and injustice in this world.
Some of you might be saying that it isn’t all that bad. People are inherently good and therefore we shouldn’t cry out like Habakkuk. Really? Then why do you lock your doors? Why do you have an alarm on your car? Why do we have to sign contracts with people? Why do you buy insurance? Because you realize that there is evil in this world, and without thinking, you take measures to protect yourself from it. The sad truth of Habakkuk’s burden is that his complaint is against God’s people! Those that are supposed to champion justice and mercy, compassion and care, order and civility, are the very ones that are committing these horrible sins. They know God’s law and God’s justice, yet do not esteem either of them.
Justice in not carried out, but is perverted instead. The most difficult thing for a righteous person is to appeal to the courts of the land only to find that a decision would be rendered against him. So the prophet complains. It is a strong one. He can find no justice among God’s own people. Instead, brutality, perversion, lawlessness and injustice prevail in the land. The righteous people of the Lord suffer endless abuse. Prayers of the devout go unheard. How does the Lord explain this terrible circumstance, and His own seeming lack of response to the cry of the prophet?
Now comes God’s divine response. The Lord listened patiently to the complaint of the prophet. His response is not only to Habakkuk but is addressed to a plurality of listeners.
This answer to the prophet is an awesome one. Interestingly, the Lord doesn’t dispute the complaint of the prophet. The Lord agrees with the indictment against the nation.
There is also a total absence of rebuke to the prophet since the Lord is in full sympathy with the prophet’s agony over the suffering of the righteous. When the Lord tells Habakkuk His answer, it is plain that He sees the problem even more deeply than does the prophet. His resolution appears overwhelming.
Verse 5- "Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days—You would not believe if you were told.”
Look, observe, be astonished, wonder! The prophet had presented a problem. The divine response is of such an overwhelming nature that God prepares the people for its reception.
All of His people should be amazed at the judgment that is coming. For no less than the whole of the nation will be struck by this judgment. The faithful are called to watch the storm which is coming, to observe it closely as it advances, and to wonder at the force with which it will finally break itself upon Israel.
Verse 6- "For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs.”
The Chaldeans are bitter and impetuous. Not just a few of them, but the whole nation is ill-tempered and bitter. They are not a people that reason and sort out the facts. They act first and cause sufferings and great injustice.
Their sin of seizing dwelling places that are not their own will be used as a way of serving God’s purpose to discipline His people.
Verse 7- "They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves.”
This nation is feared because of its strength and temper. They act autonomously and do not listen to or follow the law or justice. Much like the unfaithful Israelites who are acting as practical atheists, God will use a nation even worse then they to punish them and show them their sinfulness. They seek to be a law unto themselves and God uses this lawless nation to demonstrate what that looks like.
Verse 11- "Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god."
Yet God will hold even His instrument of punishment guilty for their actions!
The problem of evil is dealt with through Christ on the cross, and is being dealt with now, and will be completely eradicated in the future.
The problem of suffering is dealt with by God who came into this world and suffered. If God Himself has suffered, then our suffering isn't senseless. First, if you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because He hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have to have a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can't know. Second, though we don't know the reasons why He allows it to continue, He can't be indifferent or un-caring, because the Christian God (unlike the gods of all the other religions) takes our misery and suffering so seriously that He is willing to get involved with it himself. On the cross, Jesus suffered with us.
The problem of evil is not a problem for God.
The existence of evil is part of the greater plan for God show the fullness of His divine attributes and for Him to receive the greatest amount of glory. God does all things for the ultimate purpose of His glory.
It is no comfort to think that God could have stopped a particular evil or suffering and simply “allowed” it to happen so that He didn’t intrude upon our freedom. The only comfort is that God is in sovereign control and is infinitely good, and because of these truths, God has a sufficient reason that I cannot see but is for my good and His glory. Our comfort is that God is involved and still loves us through the cup of bitterness that we are asked to drink.
Sin is serious. The answer is the cross.
Romans 8:18-39 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many Brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I will like to finish off this message with the prayers of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Thanks be to God - for his living word - Jesus Christ our Saviour
And for his Spirit - which gives up power day by day. Amen.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Luke 18:9-14
Hallelujah Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord indeed for in this morning’s first reading we heard that Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 2 verses 8 to 9 the following words: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.
In the second reading we had this morning from chapter 5, verses 7 to 8 of his letter to the Romans, Paul said: Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christians has throughout the ages called the message of Jesus Christ the Gospel, which means the good news. The good news is based on just two very simple facts: The first one is that we are all sinful and separated from God by our sinfulness. Nobody is holy enough to bear the scrutiny of God. Nobody can, as it were, built a ladder into heaven out of righteousness and have it stand long enough for that person to climb up into heaven. And the second fact is that God loves us. Indeed God loves us so much that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but has eternal life.
We all mean a lot to God. Our meaning to God is not what we do in our lifetime, but because of what we are. We are created by God in His own image. We are meant to be friends of God, although everyone of us uses our free will from time to time to do things that are not acceptable to God, however, he still reaches out to us and calls on us to come to him. He reaches out to us, not due to our love, nor any righteousness on our part, but all because of the love, the righteousness, the holiness of his nature, and the nature of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Because of the love of God for us, the door of heaven has been opened to all of us, regardless of who we are, of what we have done, where we are from, what our station in life is, what we did for other people, our nationality or the colour of our skin.
The question remains as to whether we will humble ourselves? Whether we will repent with a repentant heart? Whether we will treat each other as brothers and sisters, regardless of our station in life, where we are from, how much we have, what the colour of our skin is? It depends on whether we will repent with tears and mourning and enter into the rest, the peace that God freely offers us without asking for anything in return.
I would like to share a story with you:
A person by the name of Raymond passed away and went to heaven. God personally greeted him at the Pearly Gates. Are you hungry? Will you like to share a meal with me? God asked of Raymond. Raymond answer was as we all expected a ‘Yes’. So God opened a can of sardines and reached for a chunk of my wife’s favourite bread, rye bread. They shared it. While eating this humble meal, Raymond looked down into hell and saw the inhabitants of hell eating huge chunks of steak, lobsters, Scottish smoked salmon, goose liver, pastries, and fine wines. Raymond was feeling curious, but deeply trusting in God, Raymond remained quiet. The next day God again invited Raymond to join him for a meal. Again it was sardines and rye bread. Once again, out of curiosity, Raymond looked down into hell and sees the citizens of hell enjoying lamb, fresh sea food, champagne, caviar, cheese cakes and nice Swiss chocolates. Still Raymond said nothing. The following day, mealtime arrived with another can of sardines being opened. Raymond could not control his curiosity any longer. Meekly, he asked: “God, I am very grateful to be in heaven with you as a reward for the pious, obedient life I led. But here in heaven all I get to eat is sardines and a piece of rye bread and in the other place they eat like emperors and kings! Forgive me, O God, but I just do not understand the reason behind this.” God signed: “Let us be honest, Raymond. For just two people, does it pay to cook?”
Our Saviour Jesus Christ wants us to know how valuable we are in his sight; however, there is a very big difference between a healthy sense of our own value and worth in the eyes of God and the kind of self esteem we have that is only based upon comparing ourselves to the other people. This is the kind of self-evaluation that would bring us – like Raymond in the story – to think that all the good things we received from God is due to the pious and obedient life that we have been leading in this life.
The Gospel reading of this morning is a reminder to us of this truth. It is a reminder to us, dear brothers and sisters in Christ that it is not what we have done or failed to do that will justify us in the eyes of God. This is a reminder to all of us that what pleases God is not our so call goodness, a goodness that we measure in comparison to other people. What pleases God is not how well we know our Bible, or how long we have been a Christian, or how much we do for the church, or how much we do for other people. At the end of the day, what pleases God is the state of our hearts and whether or not we long with a deep longing for the mercy of God, for meeting Jesus in person, and for the appearing of our Lord.
Let us listen again to the introduction to the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. It goes something like this: To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: And then Jesus tells it – saying: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I sincerely believe that none of us present here today would ever say such a thing in our prayers whether it be right here under this very roof that houses a sanctuary of God, nor will we ever be saying such a prayer at home, or while we are working, or in public transportations or anywhere else for that matter. We would not say such a thing to God or say such things to other people or even to ourselves, for after all, we are the people who believe in the good news. We are the ones who believe in the Gospel and we should know better than the Pharisees. At least we should know how the parable that Jesus tells us today comes out. We know how Jesus said at the very end of telling the story that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And I hope that we are all in agreement that this is as it should ever be. I hope that we are in agreement that people who always think that they are better than anyone else are really a true pain in the neck, and that people who might think that they can in their own way earn their way into heaven are terribly misguided people. I hope that we are all in agreement that people who compared themselves to other people are setting themselves and others up for trouble. I thank God for it. Thank God that we are not like the Pharisee.
Do you hear what I am trying to say? Do you see not the irony of what I just said? Do you not understand that just now how we, or at least I did, whether we wanted to or not, do in fact compare ourselves to one another and just did, as the Pharisee did, take comfort from the fact that we are not as misguided, not as foolish, not as sinful as some other poor misguided, foolish and sinful persons? Do you understand just how we, whether we wishes to or not, do in fact think about how much more we do for God than some other people???
It is, unfortunately, a human condition of making judgements about yourselves and about other people. This is a condition that is a contradiction, a condition that is hateful to God, and a condition that is, if you really pause to think about it, truly depressing. In fact judging ourselves better than some other people – if not everyone else is such a pervasive condition that we need to be saved from it. It is one of the things that demonstrates our need for the totally underserved, the totally unearned, grace and love of God.
Let us now get back to the parable.
After the Pharisee has prayed his prayer of thanksgiving to God, it is now the turn of the tax collector. He stood at a distance, just like some of you who always insists on sitting at the back of the church there. And he would not even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and said: “God have mercy on me, a sinner”.
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
This cry of the tax collector is the basis of what I would call the Jesus Prayer, the prayer that is in one way or another, a continuous reminder of what we are. We are no better than the people next door to us. We are no better than the people who are doing less for God than us. We are no better than the ones who are earning less money than us. We are no better or worse than the ones who are earning more money than us. We are no better than the ones who are of a different skin colour from us. We are no better than those who are in a lower position than us in life. We should use this prayer as a continuous refrain and as something for us to really think about. This is why we should call upon our Lord for mercy and forgiveness for we have all been sinners.
Jesus ended the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee by saying: “I will tell you, this man, rather than the other went home justified before God; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
It is very difficult my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. It is indeed very difficult to avoid making judgements about other people. So the best thing that we can do is to be humble. It is best to think not of how we might be better than other people, or of how some other people who might be worse than us, but rather to think of who we are before God. For it is by grace that you have been saved. It is through faith that we are saved. Forgiveness and salvation are not gained by your good works. It is a gift from God, and it is through Grace that our sins are forgiven and it is through Grace that we obtained salvation.
Some of us may at times find it hard, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to think that God does not judge me as according to what I done in this life. Some of us may find it a challenge to really grasp that God loves me, regardless of what I did in this life. Some of us may still find it difficult, from time to time, to understand the truth that tells us that “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” But that is the Gospel truth. And we should rejoice in it even though we may from time to time have a difficult time accepting it. We should rejoice because we know that God loves us even more than a parent loves his or her troublesome child. We should be rejoicing because we know that God will welcome us when we long for his coming, when we humble ourselves and admit to ourselves and to God that we are in need of his forgiveness, that we are in need of him to have mercy on us who are poor sinners, that we are in need of his help to face life. We should rejoice because we know that God welcome us, his prodigal children home with great rejoicing in heaven.
When we come before God, our hands are truly empty….
What can we offer to God that is not given to us from him?
When we come before God, our hands are truly empty….What can we present to God that God has not given to us to present to him? We are all poor sinners that God has reached down from on high to save. Today, as we sing the next hymn or when we leave this building and go about our business for the day, recall the prayer of the tax collector and the message of Jesus in this parable. Recall the message of the Gospel deep in your heart, and know that God loves you, a sinner. And that God wants you to come before him and offer to him all of your own imperfect self. Let us remember that God wants you to come, and to take away your fear, your anger, your helplessness, your pride, your shortcomings, and to heal you and bless you richly.
Come, seek mercy, not because you are holy, but because you are not. Come seek mercy, not because you are better than other people, but because you are not. Come, ask for God’s blessings, not because you deserve it, but because you do not. Come, follow Jesus, not because you are worthy, but because Christ himself seeks to work in you and through you to heal and make right all that is wrong. Bless is his name – day by day. Amen.
Praise the Lord indeed for in this morning’s first reading we heard that Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 2 verses 8 to 9 the following words: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.
In the second reading we had this morning from chapter 5, verses 7 to 8 of his letter to the Romans, Paul said: Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christians has throughout the ages called the message of Jesus Christ the Gospel, which means the good news. The good news is based on just two very simple facts: The first one is that we are all sinful and separated from God by our sinfulness. Nobody is holy enough to bear the scrutiny of God. Nobody can, as it were, built a ladder into heaven out of righteousness and have it stand long enough for that person to climb up into heaven. And the second fact is that God loves us. Indeed God loves us so much that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but has eternal life.
We all mean a lot to God. Our meaning to God is not what we do in our lifetime, but because of what we are. We are created by God in His own image. We are meant to be friends of God, although everyone of us uses our free will from time to time to do things that are not acceptable to God, however, he still reaches out to us and calls on us to come to him. He reaches out to us, not due to our love, nor any righteousness on our part, but all because of the love, the righteousness, the holiness of his nature, and the nature of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Because of the love of God for us, the door of heaven has been opened to all of us, regardless of who we are, of what we have done, where we are from, what our station in life is, what we did for other people, our nationality or the colour of our skin.
The question remains as to whether we will humble ourselves? Whether we will repent with a repentant heart? Whether we will treat each other as brothers and sisters, regardless of our station in life, where we are from, how much we have, what the colour of our skin is? It depends on whether we will repent with tears and mourning and enter into the rest, the peace that God freely offers us without asking for anything in return.
I would like to share a story with you:
A person by the name of Raymond passed away and went to heaven. God personally greeted him at the Pearly Gates. Are you hungry? Will you like to share a meal with me? God asked of Raymond. Raymond answer was as we all expected a ‘Yes’. So God opened a can of sardines and reached for a chunk of my wife’s favourite bread, rye bread. They shared it. While eating this humble meal, Raymond looked down into hell and saw the inhabitants of hell eating huge chunks of steak, lobsters, Scottish smoked salmon, goose liver, pastries, and fine wines. Raymond was feeling curious, but deeply trusting in God, Raymond remained quiet. The next day God again invited Raymond to join him for a meal. Again it was sardines and rye bread. Once again, out of curiosity, Raymond looked down into hell and sees the citizens of hell enjoying lamb, fresh sea food, champagne, caviar, cheese cakes and nice Swiss chocolates. Still Raymond said nothing. The following day, mealtime arrived with another can of sardines being opened. Raymond could not control his curiosity any longer. Meekly, he asked: “God, I am very grateful to be in heaven with you as a reward for the pious, obedient life I led. But here in heaven all I get to eat is sardines and a piece of rye bread and in the other place they eat like emperors and kings! Forgive me, O God, but I just do not understand the reason behind this.” God signed: “Let us be honest, Raymond. For just two people, does it pay to cook?”
Our Saviour Jesus Christ wants us to know how valuable we are in his sight; however, there is a very big difference between a healthy sense of our own value and worth in the eyes of God and the kind of self esteem we have that is only based upon comparing ourselves to the other people. This is the kind of self-evaluation that would bring us – like Raymond in the story – to think that all the good things we received from God is due to the pious and obedient life that we have been leading in this life.
The Gospel reading of this morning is a reminder to us of this truth. It is a reminder to us, dear brothers and sisters in Christ that it is not what we have done or failed to do that will justify us in the eyes of God. This is a reminder to all of us that what pleases God is not our so call goodness, a goodness that we measure in comparison to other people. What pleases God is not how well we know our Bible, or how long we have been a Christian, or how much we do for the church, or how much we do for other people. At the end of the day, what pleases God is the state of our hearts and whether or not we long with a deep longing for the mercy of God, for meeting Jesus in person, and for the appearing of our Lord.
Let us listen again to the introduction to the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. It goes something like this: To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: And then Jesus tells it – saying: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I sincerely believe that none of us present here today would ever say such a thing in our prayers whether it be right here under this very roof that houses a sanctuary of God, nor will we ever be saying such a prayer at home, or while we are working, or in public transportations or anywhere else for that matter. We would not say such a thing to God or say such things to other people or even to ourselves, for after all, we are the people who believe in the good news. We are the ones who believe in the Gospel and we should know better than the Pharisees. At least we should know how the parable that Jesus tells us today comes out. We know how Jesus said at the very end of telling the story that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And I hope that we are all in agreement that this is as it should ever be. I hope that we are in agreement that people who always think that they are better than anyone else are really a true pain in the neck, and that people who might think that they can in their own way earn their way into heaven are terribly misguided people. I hope that we are all in agreement that people who compared themselves to other people are setting themselves and others up for trouble. I thank God for it. Thank God that we are not like the Pharisee.
Do you hear what I am trying to say? Do you see not the irony of what I just said? Do you not understand that just now how we, or at least I did, whether we wanted to or not, do in fact compare ourselves to one another and just did, as the Pharisee did, take comfort from the fact that we are not as misguided, not as foolish, not as sinful as some other poor misguided, foolish and sinful persons? Do you understand just how we, whether we wishes to or not, do in fact think about how much more we do for God than some other people???
It is, unfortunately, a human condition of making judgements about yourselves and about other people. This is a condition that is a contradiction, a condition that is hateful to God, and a condition that is, if you really pause to think about it, truly depressing. In fact judging ourselves better than some other people – if not everyone else is such a pervasive condition that we need to be saved from it. It is one of the things that demonstrates our need for the totally underserved, the totally unearned, grace and love of God.
Let us now get back to the parable.
After the Pharisee has prayed his prayer of thanksgiving to God, it is now the turn of the tax collector. He stood at a distance, just like some of you who always insists on sitting at the back of the church there. And he would not even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and said: “God have mercy on me, a sinner”.
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
This cry of the tax collector is the basis of what I would call the Jesus Prayer, the prayer that is in one way or another, a continuous reminder of what we are. We are no better than the people next door to us. We are no better than the people who are doing less for God than us. We are no better than the ones who are earning less money than us. We are no better or worse than the ones who are earning more money than us. We are no better than the ones who are of a different skin colour from us. We are no better than those who are in a lower position than us in life. We should use this prayer as a continuous refrain and as something for us to really think about. This is why we should call upon our Lord for mercy and forgiveness for we have all been sinners.
Jesus ended the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee by saying: “I will tell you, this man, rather than the other went home justified before God; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
It is very difficult my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. It is indeed very difficult to avoid making judgements about other people. So the best thing that we can do is to be humble. It is best to think not of how we might be better than other people, or of how some other people who might be worse than us, but rather to think of who we are before God. For it is by grace that you have been saved. It is through faith that we are saved. Forgiveness and salvation are not gained by your good works. It is a gift from God, and it is through Grace that our sins are forgiven and it is through Grace that we obtained salvation.
Some of us may at times find it hard, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to think that God does not judge me as according to what I done in this life. Some of us may find it a challenge to really grasp that God loves me, regardless of what I did in this life. Some of us may still find it difficult, from time to time, to understand the truth that tells us that “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” But that is the Gospel truth. And we should rejoice in it even though we may from time to time have a difficult time accepting it. We should rejoice because we know that God loves us even more than a parent loves his or her troublesome child. We should be rejoicing because we know that God will welcome us when we long for his coming, when we humble ourselves and admit to ourselves and to God that we are in need of his forgiveness, that we are in need of him to have mercy on us who are poor sinners, that we are in need of his help to face life. We should rejoice because we know that God welcome us, his prodigal children home with great rejoicing in heaven.
When we come before God, our hands are truly empty….
What can we offer to God that is not given to us from him?
When we come before God, our hands are truly empty….What can we present to God that God has not given to us to present to him? We are all poor sinners that God has reached down from on high to save. Today, as we sing the next hymn or when we leave this building and go about our business for the day, recall the prayer of the tax collector and the message of Jesus in this parable. Recall the message of the Gospel deep in your heart, and know that God loves you, a sinner. And that God wants you to come before him and offer to him all of your own imperfect self. Let us remember that God wants you to come, and to take away your fear, your anger, your helplessness, your pride, your shortcomings, and to heal you and bless you richly.
Come, seek mercy, not because you are holy, but because you are not. Come seek mercy, not because you are better than other people, but because you are not. Come, ask for God’s blessings, not because you deserve it, but because you do not. Come, follow Jesus, not because you are worthy, but because Christ himself seeks to work in you and through you to heal and make right all that is wrong. Bless is his name – day by day. Amen.
Friday, August 27, 2010
James 3:14 - 4:8a; Psalm 1; Mark 9:30-37
Frank Laubach, who was a missionary to Africa, likes to tell the story of how he was shown a huge hydro electric dam there which provided power for a Firestone Plant.
Inside the plant was this massive pipe leading into four huge turbines. Below the turbines the pipe continued out to the foot of the dam. All was quiet inside the power house.
Laubach wondered why the turbines were not running and he was told that the pipe was closed at the outlet. Once the gigantic value was opened at the outlet the water would flow through and the turbines would run.
Laubach commented about this later. He said "that is the way our lives are. The pipe must be open up toward God and open down toward others. Then the current can flow through and the wheels can go around and provide the power of God that we need.
We must be open toward God, and open towards others, otherwise the power we need can not be produced.
A simple idea really, but one that is at the root of both the gospel of Mark Chapter nine verses 30 to 37 and the epistle reading of today.
The gospel says, in verses 30 to 34, that Jesus and his disciples were
travelling through Galilee, and Jesus was teaching his disciples about how the Son of Man was going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and be killed, and then on the third day rise; but that the disciples did not understand what he meant - and were afraid to ask him about it.
Instead, they were arguing, and we hear that when they arrived at Capernaum Jesus asked them about it, saying: "what were you arguing about on the road"?
But the disciples were silent because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest among them.
A silly argument really - one that I am sure that no one here would ever get into.
I mean imagine it - trying to decide who is more important...What measuring stick would we use?
Those who farm - are they the greatest - because they produce the milk and food we need to eat?
Are the teachers among us the most important - because they train people in the various jobs they must do and provide them with the tools they need to learn new things with?
Or is it doctors - because without them most diseases would be fatal?
Or how about janitors and garbage men - for without them we would choke in our own waste products?
Or how about domestic helpers – for without them we will not have anyone to look after the children and the elderly, and therefore not able to work.
It is an endless argument once you get into it, and one the disciples did well to remain silent about when confronted by the master.
Why this quest to determine who is most important?
Why this quest to be number one?
I mean, why bother with the whole question?
why bother wondering who is greatest?
why this quest to be better or more powerful than other people?
why this desire to Lord it over our brothers and sisters as if that was somehow important to do?
Surely there is a different way of looking at life? A more helpful way - a way that totally avoids the question of greatness, the question of who should be first and instead looks at quality of life, at what James, in verse 18 of the epistle reading, calls the harvest of righteousness.
Jesus speaks of a different way of living and of thinking when after asking his disciples about what they were arguing about, calls all twelve of them together and says to them:
"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
And then taking a little child and having him stand among them,
he takes the child in his arms and says to them:
Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
I have always liked that, both as an image, and as a teaching.
Jesus calls the twelve - and he calls us - away from our arguments about who is greatest, and who deserves more and who should call the shots and turns our mind instead to the question of our attitude and how willing we are to humble ourselves and to serve one another.
Children were not valued at the time of Jesus in the way they are today. They had no rights. There were no United Nations declarations about how they should be treated, and what it is that they deserve out of life.
Children were not the most important persons in their families, nor were they considered to be the greatest members of their society.
Rather children were expected to be obedient to their parents and to help the family earn its living and to learn what the family expected them to learn. Their needs were subordinate to the needs of the entire family and their role in the family was one of subservience.
Who are the children today - who are those people who are not highly regarded? Who are those without a place of their own? Those without a leg to stand on? Those whose voices are heard not because they have a right to be heard, but only because the more powerful indulge them from time to time?
Who is seen as less important, by us, and by our society?
Whoever welcomes one of these in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
Jesus is saying is that life in the Kingdom of God is not about being the greatest, or the first... but rather about seeing other people as important and this not in degree - not in measurement, but rather in an absolute way, a way that ignores all distinctions.
Life lived according to the way of Christ is a life of opening ones arms and welcoming people into our embrace - and showing them that we care.
It is about opening the pipeline at both ends so nothing at all impedes the flow of power, the flow of love, that produces the harvest we all need and desire the harvest that comes when we live as peacemakers and sow the seeds of peace each day.
To be a peacemaker, to enjoy the harvest of righteousness, requires an attitude of peace, an attitude of humility.
It requires the recognition that it is really only God who is important,
and that God is found in the simple things, in the lowly things, in the
ordinary things.
There is poem about the attitude that Jesus calls those who bear his name to have. It goes like this:
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I am saved"
I'm whispering "I was lost"
That is why I chose this way.
When I say ..."I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need someone to be my guide.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong
I'm professing that I'm weak
and pray for strength to carry on.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
and cannot ever pay the debt.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are too visible
But, God believes I'm worth it.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain
I have my share of heartaches
Which is why I speak His name.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority.
I only know I'm loved.
What is it that you want out of life? What is it you want from God?
I think that most of us looking for a better life for ourselves and our
families and our world.
We would like to feel more at peace,
We would like to have more joy and happiness,
We would like to see an end to the world's problems
We would like to see our children, and our children's children be able to grow up with enough to eat, and the ability to do what they want when they want to, and we hope that what they will want will be good for them and for those that they meet.
This can only come to us when we give up the world's standards of success as they are measured by power, status, and money - and turn as humble children to our Father in Heaven and learn from him.
Recall the words of Psalm one:
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or
take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they
meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams
of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves
do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. The wicked
are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
As long as we discriminate between people, as long as we judge some more important than others, as long as we desire to be more important ourselves as long as we, to use the words of James in today's reading, envy others and have selfish ambitions, we block out what God has in store for us, and our world.
Jesus came among us not as a Lord, not as a boss, not as an important
person but as servant.
He came to touch, to embrace, to heal, to forgive, to help, to love.
and this even when he knew it would take him to the cross.
Our prayer should not be "make me someone important", nor should it be "give me wealth and success".
Rather, knowing that God is fully able and fully willing to give us what we need in life, and that our God is found in those whom the world regards of no account, our prayer should be like that of St. Francis.
Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me
bring your love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is
doubt, faith; where there is darkness, light; and where there is
sadness, joy.
Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to
console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love
with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace for it is in pardoning that I am
pardoned; in giving that I receive; and in dying that I am born
to eternal life.
Blessed be God, who shows us the way in Christ Jesus, day by day, day by day. Amen.
Inside the plant was this massive pipe leading into four huge turbines. Below the turbines the pipe continued out to the foot of the dam. All was quiet inside the power house.
Laubach wondered why the turbines were not running and he was told that the pipe was closed at the outlet. Once the gigantic value was opened at the outlet the water would flow through and the turbines would run.
Laubach commented about this later. He said "that is the way our lives are. The pipe must be open up toward God and open down toward others. Then the current can flow through and the wheels can go around and provide the power of God that we need.
We must be open toward God, and open towards others, otherwise the power we need can not be produced.
A simple idea really, but one that is at the root of both the gospel of Mark Chapter nine verses 30 to 37 and the epistle reading of today.
The gospel says, in verses 30 to 34, that Jesus and his disciples were
travelling through Galilee, and Jesus was teaching his disciples about how the Son of Man was going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and be killed, and then on the third day rise; but that the disciples did not understand what he meant - and were afraid to ask him about it.
Instead, they were arguing, and we hear that when they arrived at Capernaum Jesus asked them about it, saying: "what were you arguing about on the road"?
But the disciples were silent because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest among them.
A silly argument really - one that I am sure that no one here would ever get into.
I mean imagine it - trying to decide who is more important...What measuring stick would we use?
Those who farm - are they the greatest - because they produce the milk and food we need to eat?
Are the teachers among us the most important - because they train people in the various jobs they must do and provide them with the tools they need to learn new things with?
Or is it doctors - because without them most diseases would be fatal?
Or how about janitors and garbage men - for without them we would choke in our own waste products?
Or how about domestic helpers – for without them we will not have anyone to look after the children and the elderly, and therefore not able to work.
It is an endless argument once you get into it, and one the disciples did well to remain silent about when confronted by the master.
Why this quest to determine who is most important?
Why this quest to be number one?
I mean, why bother with the whole question?
why bother wondering who is greatest?
why this quest to be better or more powerful than other people?
why this desire to Lord it over our brothers and sisters as if that was somehow important to do?
Surely there is a different way of looking at life? A more helpful way - a way that totally avoids the question of greatness, the question of who should be first and instead looks at quality of life, at what James, in verse 18 of the epistle reading, calls the harvest of righteousness.
Jesus speaks of a different way of living and of thinking when after asking his disciples about what they were arguing about, calls all twelve of them together and says to them:
"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
And then taking a little child and having him stand among them,
he takes the child in his arms and says to them:
Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
I have always liked that, both as an image, and as a teaching.
Jesus calls the twelve - and he calls us - away from our arguments about who is greatest, and who deserves more and who should call the shots and turns our mind instead to the question of our attitude and how willing we are to humble ourselves and to serve one another.
Children were not valued at the time of Jesus in the way they are today. They had no rights. There were no United Nations declarations about how they should be treated, and what it is that they deserve out of life.
Children were not the most important persons in their families, nor were they considered to be the greatest members of their society.
Rather children were expected to be obedient to their parents and to help the family earn its living and to learn what the family expected them to learn. Their needs were subordinate to the needs of the entire family and their role in the family was one of subservience.
Who are the children today - who are those people who are not highly regarded? Who are those without a place of their own? Those without a leg to stand on? Those whose voices are heard not because they have a right to be heard, but only because the more powerful indulge them from time to time?
Who is seen as less important, by us, and by our society?
Whoever welcomes one of these in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
Jesus is saying is that life in the Kingdom of God is not about being the greatest, or the first... but rather about seeing other people as important and this not in degree - not in measurement, but rather in an absolute way, a way that ignores all distinctions.
Life lived according to the way of Christ is a life of opening ones arms and welcoming people into our embrace - and showing them that we care.
It is about opening the pipeline at both ends so nothing at all impedes the flow of power, the flow of love, that produces the harvest we all need and desire the harvest that comes when we live as peacemakers and sow the seeds of peace each day.
To be a peacemaker, to enjoy the harvest of righteousness, requires an attitude of peace, an attitude of humility.
It requires the recognition that it is really only God who is important,
and that God is found in the simple things, in the lowly things, in the
ordinary things.
There is poem about the attitude that Jesus calls those who bear his name to have. It goes like this:
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I am saved"
I'm whispering "I was lost"
That is why I chose this way.
When I say ..."I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need someone to be my guide.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong
I'm professing that I'm weak
and pray for strength to carry on.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
and cannot ever pay the debt.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are too visible
But, God believes I'm worth it.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain
I have my share of heartaches
Which is why I speak His name.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority.
I only know I'm loved.
What is it that you want out of life? What is it you want from God?
I think that most of us looking for a better life for ourselves and our
families and our world.
We would like to feel more at peace,
We would like to have more joy and happiness,
We would like to see an end to the world's problems
We would like to see our children, and our children's children be able to grow up with enough to eat, and the ability to do what they want when they want to, and we hope that what they will want will be good for them and for those that they meet.
This can only come to us when we give up the world's standards of success as they are measured by power, status, and money - and turn as humble children to our Father in Heaven and learn from him.
Recall the words of Psalm one:
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or
take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they
meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams
of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves
do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. The wicked
are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
As long as we discriminate between people, as long as we judge some more important than others, as long as we desire to be more important ourselves as long as we, to use the words of James in today's reading, envy others and have selfish ambitions, we block out what God has in store for us, and our world.
Jesus came among us not as a Lord, not as a boss, not as an important
person but as servant.
He came to touch, to embrace, to heal, to forgive, to help, to love.
and this even when he knew it would take him to the cross.
Our prayer should not be "make me someone important", nor should it be "give me wealth and success".
Rather, knowing that God is fully able and fully willing to give us what we need in life, and that our God is found in those whom the world regards of no account, our prayer should be like that of St. Francis.
Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me
bring your love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is
doubt, faith; where there is darkness, light; and where there is
sadness, joy.
Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to
console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love
with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace for it is in pardoning that I am
pardoned; in giving that I receive; and in dying that I am born
to eternal life.
Blessed be God, who shows us the way in Christ Jesus, day by day, day by day. Amen.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Job 10:18
"Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me!" Job 10:18
Why me, oh Lord. Why did you let this happen to me?
Ever heard those words uttered before. Have you said them yourself? As I look back on my life, most of the "Why me's" have been a result of my own actions. I can hardly blame anyone else for those. For example, Carmel and I went on a mini vacation a few months ago. I felt the Lord telling me not to. I heard my wife saying that it wasn't necessary. We went anyway and had a terrible time. I asked, "Why me?" As the days wore on and mysterious things happened, and I even came home with a flu, once again I asked "WHY ME?" Upon contemplation over the years, I have come to the conclusion that the "Why me" of that situation could be answered with a "Because of your stupidity and rebellion." I admit it. There was no just cause to accuse God of causing me pain.
Job, on the other hand, had just cause. He was nearly perfect. He was doing his best to live the way God wanted him to live.He kept all the holy days. He paid his tithes. He was honest. He even sacrificed on behalf of his children in case they committed some grievous sin! What more could a righteous God ask? Still, he was inflicted with great financial and personal reversals. Even his children were ripped from his presence by death. All he had left was a spot in the dump, festering boils, shards of pottery to scrape the wounds seeking relief, an ungrateful wife, and three mixed up friends! Indeed, Job could ask "Why me?" and be justified.
He did ask. Eventually he received an answer. It wasn't what He wanted, but it was an answer. "Can you make the sun to rise? Can you cause the tides to flow? Can you bring life where there is no life?" These are the type of questions God asked Job in response to his questions. After Job admitted he could do none of the above, God asked him to do something relatively simple. "Forget the whys and simply praise me in spite of the wrongs." When Job did, his life was restored.
I often ask Pastors about the Job syndrome, I do get answers. I don't necessarily like it. "You have them because they need what only they can offer. They need to see Jesus in you. Touch them with your love, your concern, and your mercy. I am here to show the way to God the Father through Jesus Christ.
Come to think of it, that is why all of us are here, present Jesus to a world of lost people. Amen and Amen.
Why me, oh Lord. Why did you let this happen to me?
Ever heard those words uttered before. Have you said them yourself? As I look back on my life, most of the "Why me's" have been a result of my own actions. I can hardly blame anyone else for those. For example, Carmel and I went on a mini vacation a few months ago. I felt the Lord telling me not to. I heard my wife saying that it wasn't necessary. We went anyway and had a terrible time. I asked, "Why me?" As the days wore on and mysterious things happened, and I even came home with a flu, once again I asked "WHY ME?" Upon contemplation over the years, I have come to the conclusion that the "Why me" of that situation could be answered with a "Because of your stupidity and rebellion." I admit it. There was no just cause to accuse God of causing me pain.
Job, on the other hand, had just cause. He was nearly perfect. He was doing his best to live the way God wanted him to live.He kept all the holy days. He paid his tithes. He was honest. He even sacrificed on behalf of his children in case they committed some grievous sin! What more could a righteous God ask? Still, he was inflicted with great financial and personal reversals. Even his children were ripped from his presence by death. All he had left was a spot in the dump, festering boils, shards of pottery to scrape the wounds seeking relief, an ungrateful wife, and three mixed up friends! Indeed, Job could ask "Why me?" and be justified.
He did ask. Eventually he received an answer. It wasn't what He wanted, but it was an answer. "Can you make the sun to rise? Can you cause the tides to flow? Can you bring life where there is no life?" These are the type of questions God asked Job in response to his questions. After Job admitted he could do none of the above, God asked him to do something relatively simple. "Forget the whys and simply praise me in spite of the wrongs." When Job did, his life was restored.
I often ask Pastors about the Job syndrome, I do get answers. I don't necessarily like it. "You have them because they need what only they can offer. They need to see Jesus in you. Touch them with your love, your concern, and your mercy. I am here to show the way to God the Father through Jesus Christ.
Come to think of it, that is why all of us are here, present Jesus to a world of lost people. Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Let us pray for Hong Kong and the Philippines
I am a British Hong Kong Chinese. I am not a Filipino, although my wife is Filipino.
Filipinos I met over the years, whether they are in Hong Kong or in the Philippines are peaceful, loving and fun people There are of course always crazy people in any race or any part of the world. We Chinese also have crazy people, such as those in China who attack young children. Does that make all Chinese bad people? I do not think so. The gunman of Monday incident is just an isolated person.
I was one of those who said on Monday night that the PNP did a very bad job. They should have blown in both doors and throw in a couple of flash bangs, and would have prevented all those deaths. They should have grabbed the gunman when he was at the stairs of the bus talking to the negotiators in a relax manner.
Mistakes means we are only human. We cannot blame the entire government of the Philippines for what happened, although we can blame some people for the poor state of PNP, and a SWAT team which is not a SWAT team.
Let us just forgive, look for justice and improvements. Only with forgiveness to others and to ourselves can we move forward. Peace and Blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ to you all.
Filipinos I met over the years, whether they are in Hong Kong or in the Philippines are peaceful, loving and fun people There are of course always crazy people in any race or any part of the world. We Chinese also have crazy people, such as those in China who attack young children. Does that make all Chinese bad people? I do not think so. The gunman of Monday incident is just an isolated person.
I was one of those who said on Monday night that the PNP did a very bad job. They should have blown in both doors and throw in a couple of flash bangs, and would have prevented all those deaths. They should have grabbed the gunman when he was at the stairs of the bus talking to the negotiators in a relax manner.
Mistakes means we are only human. We cannot blame the entire government of the Philippines for what happened, although we can blame some people for the poor state of PNP, and a SWAT team which is not a SWAT team.
Let us just forgive, look for justice and improvements. Only with forgiveness to others and to ourselves can we move forward. Peace and Blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ to you all.
Let us pray for Hong Kong and the Philippines
I am a British Hong Kong Chinese. I am not a Filipino, although my wife is Filipino.
Filipinos I met over the years, whether they are in Hong Kong or in the Philippines are peaceful, loving and fun people There are of course always crazy people in any race or any part of the world. We Chinese also have crazy people, such as those in China who attack young children. Does that make all Chinese bad people? I do not think so. The gunman of Monday incident is just an isolated person.
I was one of those who said on Monday night that the PNP did a very bad job. They should have blown in both doors and throw in a couple of flash bangs, and would have prevented all those deaths. They should have grabbed the gunman when he was at the stairs of the bus talking to the negotiators in a relax manner.
Mistakes means we are only human. We cannot blame the entire government of the Philippines for what happened, although we can blame some people for the poor state of PNP, and a SWAT team which is not a SWAT team.
Let us just forgive, look for justice and improvements. Only with forgiveness to others and to ourselves can we move forward. Peace and Blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ to you all.
Filipinos I met over the years, whether they are in Hong Kong or in the Philippines are peaceful, loving and fun people There are of course always crazy people in any race or any part of the world. We Chinese also have crazy people, such as those in China who attack young children. Does that make all Chinese bad people? I do not think so. The gunman of Monday incident is just an isolated person.
I was one of those who said on Monday night that the PNP did a very bad job. They should have blown in both doors and throw in a couple of flash bangs, and would have prevented all those deaths. They should have grabbed the gunman when he was at the stairs of the bus talking to the negotiators in a relax manner.
Mistakes means we are only human. We cannot blame the entire government of the Philippines for what happened, although we can blame some people for the poor state of PNP, and a SWAT team which is not a SWAT team.
Let us just forgive, look for justice and improvements. Only with forgiveness to others and to ourselves can we move forward. Peace and Blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ to you all.
Ruth 4:14
"Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel" Ruth 4:14
Naomi had a rough life. Her husband lead her from their home into a foreign country because of severe drought. Her two sons married heathen women. Her husband died in that strange place. Then her sons followed their father into the grave. Naomi was a sad, bitter woman (by her own admission. "Don't call me Naomi, call me Marah - for I am bitter.") There was nothing left for her to do but return home.
Calling her two daughters-in-law, she set them free from their family obligations. They did not have to follow her. They did not have to care for her. She was going back to the only place she knew that offered any comfort. Perhaps she could persuade one of her distant relatives to take her in.
Of course we know that Ruth followed her, found Boaz, married him and all lived happily ever after. (No, this is not a fairy tale. It's really true.) We also know that Ruth and Boaz are in the direct linage of David and ultimately Jesus, the Messiah.
Now to you and me. God took care of Naomi's need. And He will take care of ours. Not only will he meet our needs, His greatest desire is to bless us. God didn't have to provide Naomi with a grandchild. She could have lived in her old home and gleaned in the fields until she died an early death. Ruth could have found some scoundrel of a man in the fields of a villainous man, married him and been beaten and abused. Or she could have met a poor man with an acre farm and lived a happy, but poverty ridden life.
But God had other plans. He wanted to bless Naomi and Ruth. He gave them the best. And He wants to give you the best. He really does. But as Naomi had to be obedient to the call of God to return to Israel, so must we be willing to obey the call of God upon our lives. We must be ready to give up some of the busy work that we take upon ourselves. We need to be obedient when He tells us to move in a certain direction. And when we do, His blessings follow. Not because of our obedience, but because our obedience draws us nearer to Him. Amen and Amen.
Naomi had a rough life. Her husband lead her from their home into a foreign country because of severe drought. Her two sons married heathen women. Her husband died in that strange place. Then her sons followed their father into the grave. Naomi was a sad, bitter woman (by her own admission. "Don't call me Naomi, call me Marah - for I am bitter.") There was nothing left for her to do but return home.
Calling her two daughters-in-law, she set them free from their family obligations. They did not have to follow her. They did not have to care for her. She was going back to the only place she knew that offered any comfort. Perhaps she could persuade one of her distant relatives to take her in.
Of course we know that Ruth followed her, found Boaz, married him and all lived happily ever after. (No, this is not a fairy tale. It's really true.) We also know that Ruth and Boaz are in the direct linage of David and ultimately Jesus, the Messiah.
Now to you and me. God took care of Naomi's need. And He will take care of ours. Not only will he meet our needs, His greatest desire is to bless us. God didn't have to provide Naomi with a grandchild. She could have lived in her old home and gleaned in the fields until she died an early death. Ruth could have found some scoundrel of a man in the fields of a villainous man, married him and been beaten and abused. Or she could have met a poor man with an acre farm and lived a happy, but poverty ridden life.
But God had other plans. He wanted to bless Naomi and Ruth. He gave them the best. And He wants to give you the best. He really does. But as Naomi had to be obedient to the call of God to return to Israel, so must we be willing to obey the call of God upon our lives. We must be ready to give up some of the busy work that we take upon ourselves. We need to be obedient when He tells us to move in a certain direction. And when we do, His blessings follow. Not because of our obedience, but because our obedience draws us nearer to Him. Amen and Amen.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Matthew. 5:20
"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" Matthew. 5:20
What if everyone thought that 50% were good enough? "Well, I will almost stop at that stop light." "I think buying half a weeks groceries is good enough. We'll just stretch them out for the week." "I think paying last month's house payment was enough. I won't pay any more."
If part done is not good enough for these things, why do we think we can get by with "I'll just tell people I am saved. After all, if they believe it, isn't that enough?" Or, who among us would pray, "Lord, I'm sick with cancer in both lungs. Would you mind healing just one of them?" Again I ask, how good is good enough?
Jesus told the people that they would have to be better than the best of the scribes and Pharisees in order to be "good enough" to enter heaven without Jesus' sacrifice. Now that is pretty good, those holy guys had the law down to a science. They knew just how far they could walk on a Sabbath day. They counted the grains harvested so they could be sure to pay exactly all of their tithes. They would never think of breaking one of the laws. That is why the young Pharisee who met Jesus was confident when he claimed to have obeyed all the law - from his youth. He felt he was perfect! Jesus pointed out his one flaw: "Go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and follow Me." The young man went away sad - his god was his riches.
No, we cannot be "good enough" to enter the kingdom of heaven alone. It is impossible. If the rich Pharisee couldn't do it after cutting his eye teeth on the law, how can you and I do it when we find it hard to memorize three consecutive verses from the New Testament?
There is only one way to be good enough for the kingdom of God. That way is through the Blood of Jesus. Only by accepting Him as our sacrificial substitute can we ever enter the kingdom - EVER. Only He was good enough - and we have the honor of entering on His coattails. Amen and Amen.
What if everyone thought that 50% were good enough? "Well, I will almost stop at that stop light." "I think buying half a weeks groceries is good enough. We'll just stretch them out for the week." "I think paying last month's house payment was enough. I won't pay any more."
If part done is not good enough for these things, why do we think we can get by with "I'll just tell people I am saved. After all, if they believe it, isn't that enough?" Or, who among us would pray, "Lord, I'm sick with cancer in both lungs. Would you mind healing just one of them?" Again I ask, how good is good enough?
Jesus told the people that they would have to be better than the best of the scribes and Pharisees in order to be "good enough" to enter heaven without Jesus' sacrifice. Now that is pretty good, those holy guys had the law down to a science. They knew just how far they could walk on a Sabbath day. They counted the grains harvested so they could be sure to pay exactly all of their tithes. They would never think of breaking one of the laws. That is why the young Pharisee who met Jesus was confident when he claimed to have obeyed all the law - from his youth. He felt he was perfect! Jesus pointed out his one flaw: "Go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and follow Me." The young man went away sad - his god was his riches.
No, we cannot be "good enough" to enter the kingdom of heaven alone. It is impossible. If the rich Pharisee couldn't do it after cutting his eye teeth on the law, how can you and I do it when we find it hard to memorize three consecutive verses from the New Testament?
There is only one way to be good enough for the kingdom of God. That way is through the Blood of Jesus. Only by accepting Him as our sacrificial substitute can we ever enter the kingdom - EVER. Only He was good enough - and we have the honor of entering on His coattails. Amen and Amen.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Freed by God
Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71; Luke 13:10-17
The story of the bent over women - the woman afflicted by a spirit which crippled her for eighteen years - is a favourite text in many churches.
It is often enacted in workshops, discussed at gatherings, and mediated upon in prayer circles.
It is a very powerful story featuring as it does the unbidden grace of God coming upon a person - a woman - and setting her free to walk upright and to praise God. A story about an awesome miracle - bestowed freely upon one in need in the midst of the worship of the living God - in a place not unlike this place.
"Woman, you are set free from your ailment."
I think that this story is so popular because ultimately this woman, this daughter of Abraham, afflicted for 18 years with a spirit that left her crippled and bent over, is us.
She is no-one important, just another person worshipping on the Sabbath day in the synagogue of her ancestors, just another person carrying a heavy burden, and not doing well with it at all.
She is oppressed, perhaps, as so many say, oppressed by a social system that devalues her, by a world order that sees her as more or less of no account, much as today's world order sees us as more or less of no account - as consumers, as numbers to be valued only by our power to purchase commodities and to be ignored when it seems that we will return less to the bottom line than we take from it, if it seems we will be a drain on the health system - a drain on the economy - a drain on the family.
Eighteen years she was afflicted by spirit that crippled her, that bent her over, that wore her down. Eighteen years.
She is oppressed - perhaps not so much by a social system that sees her as not being important, but by a system of expectations and demands that she simply can't live up. Perhaps she feels forced to carry the burden of a another person's desperate need, or the burden of a child gone wrong, a husband who abuses her, a mother who expects her to look after her, a father who criticizes her every deed...Perhaps she is afflicted by friends who love her only if she does those things that they want her to do and a society that expects her to keep silent about her own woes.
Bent over, crippled, unable to stand upright, in need, this woman comes to the synagogue to worship God - and perhaps to silently pray for help while others read the lesson and others teach - and still others pray aloud, to the God who delivered Israel from bondage, to the God who led Israel with a cloud by day and fire by night, and brought them into a promised land - a land once again under the rule of strangers - she comes to a synagogue full of people, people like her in need, some not knowing just how much in need they are - because their outward circumstances are good, and others, like the bent over woman - knowing their pain - but resigned - after a year, or 18 years, or a lifetime, to their condition.
She is us, and we are her, bent over, crippled, oppressed by a spirit, perhaps a spirit of self-doubt, a spirit that convinces her that she has no strength, no ability, no purpose, even though she is a child of Abraham, even though she is one of God's chosen ones.
And Jesus as he is teaching in the synagogue, sees this woman and discerns that a spirit has oppressed her and bent her over for these many years and in the midst of his teaching he calls her to come to him...
How easy is she to overlook. How easy are all those like her to miss.
Looking at the crowd in the synagogue that day, Jesus, like the rest, could have seen this bent over woman as simply someone needing a good doctor.
Or, like some today, he could have seen her as victim of an unjust society, as one more casualty whose presence informs us of the need for change in our social order, as simply one more person who needs to be set free from the disease and disorder that is present in our world.
How surprised she must have been to have been beckoned forward by Jesus, to have been called to his side.
She is easy to overlook. She is the poorest of the poor children of Abraham, a woman - with a crippling condition, she knows she has little worth, that she not only is bent over, but that to most others she is but a pain and bother, someone who needs more than they give, more than they want to give.
Yet Jesus sees her and calls her. Without being bidden. Without being asked. He sees her and calls to her, and then he touches her and speaks to her saying, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment"
That is for us! That is what so many of us need. The word of Jesus addressed to us. The touch of Jesus healing us. And praise be to God when it happens to us, and praise be to God when it happens to others.
Think of the joy that flooded her soul, think of the joy that would flood your soul - even as a witness to this.
But what happens?
We end up with a concrete illustration of last week's lesson on how the coming of Jesus causes division - how it separates day from night - good from evil. An illustration of how love can expose emptiness and reveal things that are not right.
The synagogue leader criticizes Jesus for desecrating the Sabbath day, as indeed he had according to some of the rules of the faith he was borne to, the faith he taught.
He worked by performing a healing - a healing that could have been put off till another time, after all eighteen years had gone by, what difference a day? Except the difference that God commanded...
Six days shall you labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work - you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Some people cannot see the forest for the trees, others can't see the trees for the forest. And they too are bent over - like so many of us - some more visibly than others, some less so.
There are many rules, many expectations, to be found in our faith, to serve as guides for our conduct.
Even this church has a constitution and a set of rules which, while not thousands upon thousands of years old, is meant to help us in our conduct with one another and to guide our actions.
But to miss what the synagogue ruler missed when he criticized Jesus, is to miss what all the rules and regulations are really all about.
To forget the glory of God and the wonder of a love that can heal with a touch and a word is an illness too - an affliction of the spirit - an affliction that bends one over and leads one to afflict others even as they do seek to reveal the glory of what God is doing and to increase the praise of his name.
I started off by saying that this story of the bent over woman is a favourite story of many people, a favourite perhaps because many of us see ourselves in the story, many of us see ourselves as being bent over as one who needs to be set free, and who longs for it to happen..
I believe that is so - but many there are who have heard Jesus speak, and have witnessed his healing touch, and yet do not accept that which he is offering - that which he does. Because he does not do it in the way that they expect he should, the way the rules by which they organize their lives say he should.
What they see in Jesus - is not the God that they worship, but rather what they see in him is a disregard for holy things, a disruption of order, a change in what was planned long ago an alteration of the usual and proper way of doing things, those things that they have always done in a particular way, because experience has taught them that is the way they should be done.
This is not surprising. Even though it is very sad.
There are many people who cling to their illnesses because they are familiar to them, or because they have been taught that this is what they should expect in life - so why should their not be those who cling to their spiritual blindness - because they know how, within it, to feed and clothe themselves and do that which sustains them..
There are many kinds of oppression that can bend us over, there are many kinds of spirits that can cripple us.
We need to be set free.
And that is why this story of the bent over woman is a favourite story.
And why Jesus is portrayed as speaking so strongly in it,so strongly to the crowd to whom the synagogue ruler had spoken to, when he repeatedly criticized Jesus for breaking the clear rules about the Sabbath:
"You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?"
Sometimes we need verbal heart surgery to set us free, just as sometimes we need the firm voice of faith and the power of the healing touch.
Of course, we are not to be the judge of that for others - our task is not to decide who should be chastised and who should be coddled. Who should be condemned and who should be shown mercy, as the synagogue ruler decided rather our task is to listen to the master - even when it may be uncomfortable to hear his words because they convict us in our hearts of things that we know are wrong.
Our task is to listen, and to respond as he wants us to respond. Our task is to come to him that he may set us free and to bring others to him that they may be set free as well.
Part of the freedom we need is the freedom to accept the passion and the power of love.
So many of us are afraid of the expansive power of love, of how it sweeps aside rules and regulations - and yet fulfills them a hundred times over. We are afraid of how love takes things out of our control - of its unpredictability, - of how it seems to sweep away caution and good sense, and overturn those things that we normally count upon to be fixed and immovable.
And in truth there are things to fear once love gets hold of you, once God comes by a visit.
Nothing for sure will be the same. Our ability to hold on to our sense of who we are and what we want to be about almost surely will be swept away by what God has to say about us and what God wants us to do.
God has a plan and purpose for us - love has its special demands and its special logic, and it will lead us in ways we have never thought of.
We need to be set free for this. All of us. Some more than others. Some less. Each of us has a spirit in us that wars against the spirit of God - a spirit that oppresses us.
But praise be to God - the Spirit of God is stronger than all the spirits that might oppress us.
Jesus sees us, he discerns who we are and the spirits that are is in us, and unbidden he calls to us, just as he called to the bent over woman and unbidden, he reaches out to touch us unbidden, he seeks to set us free.
Jesus is calling to us - he is stretching out his hand - he waits to speak a word to us.
The question is will we recognize him in our midst, and accept what he has to offer us?
Lame Deer, a Sioux Medicine Man wrote, some years ago:
The trouble with white religion is this: If I tell a preacher that I met Jesus standing near me in the supermarket, he will say that this could not happen. He'll say, 'That's impossible; you're crazy.' By this he is denying his own religion. He has no place to go. Christians who no longer believe that they could bump into Christ at the next street corner, what are they?
Jesus sees us in our need.
He knows what oppresses us.
He is here to set us free.
He may be the next person whom you see on the street corner, or the man next to you in the supermarket, or the person who comes next to speak at this lectern in this holy place.
Look and believe, listen and be set free. His word and his touch still drive out the spirits that oppress, and allow those who respond to his call to stand straight once again, to stand straight and to praise God's name - both now and forevermore. Praise be to God. Amen
The story of the bent over women - the woman afflicted by a spirit which crippled her for eighteen years - is a favourite text in many churches.
It is often enacted in workshops, discussed at gatherings, and mediated upon in prayer circles.
It is a very powerful story featuring as it does the unbidden grace of God coming upon a person - a woman - and setting her free to walk upright and to praise God. A story about an awesome miracle - bestowed freely upon one in need in the midst of the worship of the living God - in a place not unlike this place.
"Woman, you are set free from your ailment."
I think that this story is so popular because ultimately this woman, this daughter of Abraham, afflicted for 18 years with a spirit that left her crippled and bent over, is us.
She is no-one important, just another person worshipping on the Sabbath day in the synagogue of her ancestors, just another person carrying a heavy burden, and not doing well with it at all.
She is oppressed, perhaps, as so many say, oppressed by a social system that devalues her, by a world order that sees her as more or less of no account, much as today's world order sees us as more or less of no account - as consumers, as numbers to be valued only by our power to purchase commodities and to be ignored when it seems that we will return less to the bottom line than we take from it, if it seems we will be a drain on the health system - a drain on the economy - a drain on the family.
Eighteen years she was afflicted by spirit that crippled her, that bent her over, that wore her down. Eighteen years.
She is oppressed - perhaps not so much by a social system that sees her as not being important, but by a system of expectations and demands that she simply can't live up. Perhaps she feels forced to carry the burden of a another person's desperate need, or the burden of a child gone wrong, a husband who abuses her, a mother who expects her to look after her, a father who criticizes her every deed...Perhaps she is afflicted by friends who love her only if she does those things that they want her to do and a society that expects her to keep silent about her own woes.
Bent over, crippled, unable to stand upright, in need, this woman comes to the synagogue to worship God - and perhaps to silently pray for help while others read the lesson and others teach - and still others pray aloud, to the God who delivered Israel from bondage, to the God who led Israel with a cloud by day and fire by night, and brought them into a promised land - a land once again under the rule of strangers - she comes to a synagogue full of people, people like her in need, some not knowing just how much in need they are - because their outward circumstances are good, and others, like the bent over woman - knowing their pain - but resigned - after a year, or 18 years, or a lifetime, to their condition.
She is us, and we are her, bent over, crippled, oppressed by a spirit, perhaps a spirit of self-doubt, a spirit that convinces her that she has no strength, no ability, no purpose, even though she is a child of Abraham, even though she is one of God's chosen ones.
And Jesus as he is teaching in the synagogue, sees this woman and discerns that a spirit has oppressed her and bent her over for these many years and in the midst of his teaching he calls her to come to him...
How easy is she to overlook. How easy are all those like her to miss.
Looking at the crowd in the synagogue that day, Jesus, like the rest, could have seen this bent over woman as simply someone needing a good doctor.
Or, like some today, he could have seen her as victim of an unjust society, as one more casualty whose presence informs us of the need for change in our social order, as simply one more person who needs to be set free from the disease and disorder that is present in our world.
How surprised she must have been to have been beckoned forward by Jesus, to have been called to his side.
She is easy to overlook. She is the poorest of the poor children of Abraham, a woman - with a crippling condition, she knows she has little worth, that she not only is bent over, but that to most others she is but a pain and bother, someone who needs more than they give, more than they want to give.
Yet Jesus sees her and calls her. Without being bidden. Without being asked. He sees her and calls to her, and then he touches her and speaks to her saying, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment"
That is for us! That is what so many of us need. The word of Jesus addressed to us. The touch of Jesus healing us. And praise be to God when it happens to us, and praise be to God when it happens to others.
Think of the joy that flooded her soul, think of the joy that would flood your soul - even as a witness to this.
But what happens?
We end up with a concrete illustration of last week's lesson on how the coming of Jesus causes division - how it separates day from night - good from evil. An illustration of how love can expose emptiness and reveal things that are not right.
The synagogue leader criticizes Jesus for desecrating the Sabbath day, as indeed he had according to some of the rules of the faith he was borne to, the faith he taught.
He worked by performing a healing - a healing that could have been put off till another time, after all eighteen years had gone by, what difference a day? Except the difference that God commanded...
Six days shall you labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work - you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Some people cannot see the forest for the trees, others can't see the trees for the forest. And they too are bent over - like so many of us - some more visibly than others, some less so.
There are many rules, many expectations, to be found in our faith, to serve as guides for our conduct.
Even this church has a constitution and a set of rules which, while not thousands upon thousands of years old, is meant to help us in our conduct with one another and to guide our actions.
But to miss what the synagogue ruler missed when he criticized Jesus, is to miss what all the rules and regulations are really all about.
To forget the glory of God and the wonder of a love that can heal with a touch and a word is an illness too - an affliction of the spirit - an affliction that bends one over and leads one to afflict others even as they do seek to reveal the glory of what God is doing and to increase the praise of his name.
I started off by saying that this story of the bent over woman is a favourite story of many people, a favourite perhaps because many of us see ourselves in the story, many of us see ourselves as being bent over as one who needs to be set free, and who longs for it to happen..
I believe that is so - but many there are who have heard Jesus speak, and have witnessed his healing touch, and yet do not accept that which he is offering - that which he does. Because he does not do it in the way that they expect he should, the way the rules by which they organize their lives say he should.
What they see in Jesus - is not the God that they worship, but rather what they see in him is a disregard for holy things, a disruption of order, a change in what was planned long ago an alteration of the usual and proper way of doing things, those things that they have always done in a particular way, because experience has taught them that is the way they should be done.
This is not surprising. Even though it is very sad.
There are many people who cling to their illnesses because they are familiar to them, or because they have been taught that this is what they should expect in life - so why should their not be those who cling to their spiritual blindness - because they know how, within it, to feed and clothe themselves and do that which sustains them..
There are many kinds of oppression that can bend us over, there are many kinds of spirits that can cripple us.
We need to be set free.
And that is why this story of the bent over woman is a favourite story.
And why Jesus is portrayed as speaking so strongly in it,so strongly to the crowd to whom the synagogue ruler had spoken to, when he repeatedly criticized Jesus for breaking the clear rules about the Sabbath:
"You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?"
Sometimes we need verbal heart surgery to set us free, just as sometimes we need the firm voice of faith and the power of the healing touch.
Of course, we are not to be the judge of that for others - our task is not to decide who should be chastised and who should be coddled. Who should be condemned and who should be shown mercy, as the synagogue ruler decided rather our task is to listen to the master - even when it may be uncomfortable to hear his words because they convict us in our hearts of things that we know are wrong.
Our task is to listen, and to respond as he wants us to respond. Our task is to come to him that he may set us free and to bring others to him that they may be set free as well.
Part of the freedom we need is the freedom to accept the passion and the power of love.
So many of us are afraid of the expansive power of love, of how it sweeps aside rules and regulations - and yet fulfills them a hundred times over. We are afraid of how love takes things out of our control - of its unpredictability, - of how it seems to sweep away caution and good sense, and overturn those things that we normally count upon to be fixed and immovable.
And in truth there are things to fear once love gets hold of you, once God comes by a visit.
Nothing for sure will be the same. Our ability to hold on to our sense of who we are and what we want to be about almost surely will be swept away by what God has to say about us and what God wants us to do.
God has a plan and purpose for us - love has its special demands and its special logic, and it will lead us in ways we have never thought of.
We need to be set free for this. All of us. Some more than others. Some less. Each of us has a spirit in us that wars against the spirit of God - a spirit that oppresses us.
But praise be to God - the Spirit of God is stronger than all the spirits that might oppress us.
Jesus sees us, he discerns who we are and the spirits that are is in us, and unbidden he calls to us, just as he called to the bent over woman and unbidden, he reaches out to touch us unbidden, he seeks to set us free.
Jesus is calling to us - he is stretching out his hand - he waits to speak a word to us.
The question is will we recognize him in our midst, and accept what he has to offer us?
Lame Deer, a Sioux Medicine Man wrote, some years ago:
The trouble with white religion is this: If I tell a preacher that I met Jesus standing near me in the supermarket, he will say that this could not happen. He'll say, 'That's impossible; you're crazy.' By this he is denying his own religion. He has no place to go. Christians who no longer believe that they could bump into Christ at the next street corner, what are they?
Jesus sees us in our need.
He knows what oppresses us.
He is here to set us free.
He may be the next person whom you see on the street corner, or the man next to you in the supermarket, or the person who comes next to speak at this lectern in this holy place.
Look and believe, listen and be set free. His word and his touch still drive out the spirits that oppress, and allow those who respond to his call to stand straight once again, to stand straight and to praise God's name - both now and forevermore. Praise be to God. Amen
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Hebrews 12:18-29; Psalm 71:1-6; Luke 13:10-17
There is a tale told about a certain man went through the forest seeking any bird of interest he might find. He caught a young eagle, brought it home and put it among the fowls and ducks and turkeys, and gave it chicken food to eat even though it was an eagle, the king of birds.
Five years later, a naturalist came to see him and, after passing through the garden, said 'That bird is an Eagle, not a chicken.'
'Yes' said the owner, 'but I have trained it to be a chicken. It is no longer an eagle, it is a chicken, even though it measures fifteen feet from tip to tip of its wings.'
'No,' said the naturalist, 'it is an eagle still; it has the heart of an eagle, and I will help it soar high up in to the heavens.'
'No,' said the owner. ' it is a chicken and will never fly.'
They agreed to test it. The naturalist picked up the eagle, held it up and said with great intensity. 'Eagle thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.'
The eagle turned this way and that, and then looking down, saw the chickens eating their food, and down he jumped.
The owner said; 'I told you it was a chicken.'
'No,' said the naturalist, 'it is an eagle. Give it another chance tomorrow. '
So the next day he took it to the top of the house and said: 'Eagle, thou art an eagle; stretch forth thy wings and fly.' But again the eagle, seeing the chickens feeding, jumped down and fed with them.
Then the owner said: 'I told you it was a chicken.'
'No,' asserted the naturalist, 'it is an eagle, and it has the heart of an eagle; only give it one more chance, and I will make it fly tomorrow.'
The next morning he rose early and took the eagle outside the city and away from the houses, to the foot of a high mountain. The sun was just rising, gilding the top to the mountain with gold, and every crag was glistening in the joy of the beautiful morning.
He picked up the eagle and said to it: 'Eagle, thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.'
The eagle looked around and trembled as if new life were coming to it. But it did not fly. The naturalist then made it look straight at the sun. Suddenly it stretched out its wings and, with the screech of an eagle, it mounted higher and higher and never returned. Though it had been kept and tamed as a chicken, it was an eagle.
Society has a way dehumanizing us. Of causing us to fail to see our worth before God. Of making us little more than objects to whom advertisers make their pitch, and about whom governments create statistics and form policies to keep everything safe and predictable.
And religion without vision also has this effect reducing us to the status of law keepers - or law breakers classifying us according to what we believe or do not believe and categorizing us according to the way in which we conform or do not conform to the expectations of the church or denomination in which we happen to find ourselves.
But, in and through Christ Jesus, like the bent over woman that he healed in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, we are sons and daughters of Abraham. We part of the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven - part of the throng who have come - and who are yet to come, to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, where thousands upon thousands of angels are gathered in joyful assembly.
It is easy to lose track of who we are - and whose we are - and to slip into the old ways - the way of the law and it's regulations; the way of trying to please God by adhering to a code that measures our worth by what we do and our value by what we refrain from doing.
It is easy to forget that we are eagles and that we are meant to fly in the highest heavens.
Today's gospel passage is about how Jesus heals a woman who has been crippled by a spirit for the past eighteen years - she has become a bent over woman, a hunch back - unable to look up - unable to do all the things that we who are not crippled can do.
It is a wonderful passage that shows us something of the incredible grace and the wonderful power of our Saviour.
Walter Wink, in his book "Engaging the Powers", suggests that Jesus' actions in today's reading represented a revolution happening in seven short verses. In this story, Jesus tries to wake people up to the kind of life God wants for them. Jesus often talks about the Kingdom of God where people have equal worth and all of life has dignity - and in this story he acts that message out. In the midst of a highly patriarchal culture Jesus breaks at least six strict cultural and religious rules:
First, Jesus speaks to the woman. In civilized society, Jewish men did not speak to women. Remember the story in the Gospel According to John where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well. She was shocked because a Jew would speak to a Samaritan. But when the disciples returned, the Scripture records, "They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman "
In speaking to the bent over woman, Jesus jettisons the male restraints on women's freedom.
Second, Jesus calls her to the centre of the synagogue. By doing so he challenges the notion of a male monopoly on access to knowledge and to God.
Third, Jesus touches the woman, something forbidden under the holiness code. That is the code which protected men from a woman's uncleanness and from her sinful seductiveness.
Fourth, Jesus calls her "daughter of Abraham," a term not found in any of the prior Jewish literature. This is revolutionary because it was believed that women were saved through their men. To call her a daughter of Abraham is to make her a full-fledged member of the nation of Israel with equal standing before God.
Fifth, Jesus he heals on the Sabbath, the holy day. In doing this he demonstrates God's compassion for people over ceremony, and reclaims the Sabbath for the celebration of God's liberal goodness.
And last, and not least, Jesus challenges the ancient belief that her illness is a direct punishment from God for sin. He asserts that she is ill, not because God willed it, but because there is evil in the world. (In other words, bad things happen to good people.).
The breaking of these six rules or understandings did not go unnoticed by the Jewish leaders. The leader of the synagogue was shocked by Jesus's behaviour and let it be known, saying:
"There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day."
He was like the usher in a church where a man under the influence staggered into the service and sat on the front row.
As the preacher started his sermon, the gentleman shouted "Amen" or "Praise the Lord" or "Hallelujah" after almost every sentence. The entire congregation was becoming agitated about this unusual bbehaviour so the usher made his way to the front to escort the gentleman out.
When the usher informed him that he was making too much noise, he replied, "Well, brother, I've just got the Holy Spirit!" To which the usher replied, "Well, you didn't get it here so you gotta leave!"
By the power of God Jesus healed the bent over woman, and the synagogue leader's response was, "Well, you didn't get the power of God here! Not on the Sabbath!"
But the Lord answered him and said,
"You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?"
Jesus reacted with strong language because the leader of the synagogue just didn't get it. He had no concept of Jesus' radical understanding of the nature of God nor of the purpose for which Jesus came.
Jesus saw God's will as focused on people, not on rules. The rules are there to help people, not to break them. They are there to help us fly like the eagles God made us to be, not to turn us into chickens.
The ruler of the synagogue reflected the understanding that being "religious" was about obeying the commandments.
It's a view that is still with us today. It is found in those conservatives who insist on correct doctrine and belief before all other things - and in those liberals whose only criteria of what faith is about is related to the good deeds that we do, or fail to do.
For Jesus, God's chief concern was that we should love and care for another; that all people should be brought into a healing and saving relationship with himself - and with one another.
To Jesus, God is not primarily a rule-maker, rather God is a life-giver.
When we understand Jesus' view of God, suddenly the focus moves from God's law to God's love for people and the world. Commandments, rules, guidelines, and traditions are subordinate to God's love - a love that is forgiving - a love that is healing - a love that is transforming - a love that sets us free to be all that God made us to be.
Paul reflects on this in today's selection from his Letter to the Hebrews.
Thinking of the events that occurred at Mount Sinai where Moses received the Law, he writes:
"You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire, to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words such that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned."
We have not come, in other words, to a holy place, which we need to be protected from on account of our sin.
Rather, as Paul continues:
You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
The blood of Abel, you will recall, cries out from the earth for justice and retribution, but the blood of the new Covenant speaks to us not of justice and retribution, but rather it speaks to us of forgiveness and of reconciliation.
That forgiveness, that reconciliation, allows us to enter the holiest of holy places without fear.
We have come - in coming to Christ - to a new place, to a place of the Spirit, to a kingdom which cannot be shaken because it is not built out of perishable things, but rather out of imperishable things.
We have come - and are coming to the place where the angels gather in joy and where our names are recorded - and we are counted as the first born - as those who will inherit with Christ all that God has stored up for his beloved.
We are children of the King - meant to come to that place where those who love God, those who are in right relationship with God and seek to do his will, are made perfect.
There is a mystery here. - The mystery of our communion, our oneness, with God through Christ Jesus; - the mystery of how, despite our failings, God sees us and treats us as his beloved, - where he treats us as eagles rather than as chickens.
Life sometimes has a way of beating us down, zapping our enthusiasm, crushing our plans.
Little by little we can find ourselves bent over from the failures, disappointments, and guilt.
And little by little we can find others placing burdens upon us and robbing us of our status as the children of Abraham - the children of promise, - those who have been called to come to Mount Zion - to the heavenly city of God.
We can end up like the bent over woman - lurking at the edges of the sanctuary, wondering where can we go.
This is the place - not these four walls which can be shaken but this assembly - where Jesus walks among us and reveals to us the fullness of the love of God.
This is the place where Jesus calls out to us to come forward and to be healed and to worship God with reverence and awe.
Jesus calls us to be healed of the spirit that afflicts us and bend us over.
Jesus calls us to be healed of the spirit that makes rules and laws about holiness greater the people those rules and laws are meant to help.
Don't refuse Jesus because you feel unworthy of his call.
Rather, come to Christ knowing that it is his will to set you free from those things that make you less than person he created you to be - and that in coming to his heavenly mountain you will find life instead of death - and mercy instead of judgement.
Let us pray... Lord God, loving Christ. We need your help today. We come to you just as we are, trusting in your great mercy by which we have been anew to a living hope through Christ Jesus. Oh lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world - grant us your peace - and bring us to your holy mountain and to the multitude of angels who sing for joy in your presence. Amen.
Five years later, a naturalist came to see him and, after passing through the garden, said 'That bird is an Eagle, not a chicken.'
'Yes' said the owner, 'but I have trained it to be a chicken. It is no longer an eagle, it is a chicken, even though it measures fifteen feet from tip to tip of its wings.'
'No,' said the naturalist, 'it is an eagle still; it has the heart of an eagle, and I will help it soar high up in to the heavens.'
'No,' said the owner. ' it is a chicken and will never fly.'
They agreed to test it. The naturalist picked up the eagle, held it up and said with great intensity. 'Eagle thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.'
The eagle turned this way and that, and then looking down, saw the chickens eating their food, and down he jumped.
The owner said; 'I told you it was a chicken.'
'No,' said the naturalist, 'it is an eagle. Give it another chance tomorrow. '
So the next day he took it to the top of the house and said: 'Eagle, thou art an eagle; stretch forth thy wings and fly.' But again the eagle, seeing the chickens feeding, jumped down and fed with them.
Then the owner said: 'I told you it was a chicken.'
'No,' asserted the naturalist, 'it is an eagle, and it has the heart of an eagle; only give it one more chance, and I will make it fly tomorrow.'
The next morning he rose early and took the eagle outside the city and away from the houses, to the foot of a high mountain. The sun was just rising, gilding the top to the mountain with gold, and every crag was glistening in the joy of the beautiful morning.
He picked up the eagle and said to it: 'Eagle, thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.'
The eagle looked around and trembled as if new life were coming to it. But it did not fly. The naturalist then made it look straight at the sun. Suddenly it stretched out its wings and, with the screech of an eagle, it mounted higher and higher and never returned. Though it had been kept and tamed as a chicken, it was an eagle.
Society has a way dehumanizing us. Of causing us to fail to see our worth before God. Of making us little more than objects to whom advertisers make their pitch, and about whom governments create statistics and form policies to keep everything safe and predictable.
And religion without vision also has this effect reducing us to the status of law keepers - or law breakers classifying us according to what we believe or do not believe and categorizing us according to the way in which we conform or do not conform to the expectations of the church or denomination in which we happen to find ourselves.
But, in and through Christ Jesus, like the bent over woman that he healed in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, we are sons and daughters of Abraham. We part of the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven - part of the throng who have come - and who are yet to come, to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, where thousands upon thousands of angels are gathered in joyful assembly.
It is easy to lose track of who we are - and whose we are - and to slip into the old ways - the way of the law and it's regulations; the way of trying to please God by adhering to a code that measures our worth by what we do and our value by what we refrain from doing.
It is easy to forget that we are eagles and that we are meant to fly in the highest heavens.
Today's gospel passage is about how Jesus heals a woman who has been crippled by a spirit for the past eighteen years - she has become a bent over woman, a hunch back - unable to look up - unable to do all the things that we who are not crippled can do.
It is a wonderful passage that shows us something of the incredible grace and the wonderful power of our Saviour.
Walter Wink, in his book "Engaging the Powers", suggests that Jesus' actions in today's reading represented a revolution happening in seven short verses. In this story, Jesus tries to wake people up to the kind of life God wants for them. Jesus often talks about the Kingdom of God where people have equal worth and all of life has dignity - and in this story he acts that message out. In the midst of a highly patriarchal culture Jesus breaks at least six strict cultural and religious rules:
First, Jesus speaks to the woman. In civilized society, Jewish men did not speak to women. Remember the story in the Gospel According to John where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well. She was shocked because a Jew would speak to a Samaritan. But when the disciples returned, the Scripture records, "They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman "
In speaking to the bent over woman, Jesus jettisons the male restraints on women's freedom.
Second, Jesus calls her to the centre of the synagogue. By doing so he challenges the notion of a male monopoly on access to knowledge and to God.
Third, Jesus touches the woman, something forbidden under the holiness code. That is the code which protected men from a woman's uncleanness and from her sinful seductiveness.
Fourth, Jesus calls her "daughter of Abraham," a term not found in any of the prior Jewish literature. This is revolutionary because it was believed that women were saved through their men. To call her a daughter of Abraham is to make her a full-fledged member of the nation of Israel with equal standing before God.
Fifth, Jesus he heals on the Sabbath, the holy day. In doing this he demonstrates God's compassion for people over ceremony, and reclaims the Sabbath for the celebration of God's liberal goodness.
And last, and not least, Jesus challenges the ancient belief that her illness is a direct punishment from God for sin. He asserts that she is ill, not because God willed it, but because there is evil in the world. (In other words, bad things happen to good people.).
The breaking of these six rules or understandings did not go unnoticed by the Jewish leaders. The leader of the synagogue was shocked by Jesus's behaviour and let it be known, saying:
"There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day."
He was like the usher in a church where a man under the influence staggered into the service and sat on the front row.
As the preacher started his sermon, the gentleman shouted "Amen" or "Praise the Lord" or "Hallelujah" after almost every sentence. The entire congregation was becoming agitated about this unusual bbehaviour so the usher made his way to the front to escort the gentleman out.
When the usher informed him that he was making too much noise, he replied, "Well, brother, I've just got the Holy Spirit!" To which the usher replied, "Well, you didn't get it here so you gotta leave!"
By the power of God Jesus healed the bent over woman, and the synagogue leader's response was, "Well, you didn't get the power of God here! Not on the Sabbath!"
But the Lord answered him and said,
"You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?"
Jesus reacted with strong language because the leader of the synagogue just didn't get it. He had no concept of Jesus' radical understanding of the nature of God nor of the purpose for which Jesus came.
Jesus saw God's will as focused on people, not on rules. The rules are there to help people, not to break them. They are there to help us fly like the eagles God made us to be, not to turn us into chickens.
The ruler of the synagogue reflected the understanding that being "religious" was about obeying the commandments.
It's a view that is still with us today. It is found in those conservatives who insist on correct doctrine and belief before all other things - and in those liberals whose only criteria of what faith is about is related to the good deeds that we do, or fail to do.
For Jesus, God's chief concern was that we should love and care for another; that all people should be brought into a healing and saving relationship with himself - and with one another.
To Jesus, God is not primarily a rule-maker, rather God is a life-giver.
When we understand Jesus' view of God, suddenly the focus moves from God's law to God's love for people and the world. Commandments, rules, guidelines, and traditions are subordinate to God's love - a love that is forgiving - a love that is healing - a love that is transforming - a love that sets us free to be all that God made us to be.
Paul reflects on this in today's selection from his Letter to the Hebrews.
Thinking of the events that occurred at Mount Sinai where Moses received the Law, he writes:
"You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire, to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words such that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned."
We have not come, in other words, to a holy place, which we need to be protected from on account of our sin.
Rather, as Paul continues:
You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
The blood of Abel, you will recall, cries out from the earth for justice and retribution, but the blood of the new Covenant speaks to us not of justice and retribution, but rather it speaks to us of forgiveness and of reconciliation.
That forgiveness, that reconciliation, allows us to enter the holiest of holy places without fear.
We have come - in coming to Christ - to a new place, to a place of the Spirit, to a kingdom which cannot be shaken because it is not built out of perishable things, but rather out of imperishable things.
We have come - and are coming to the place where the angels gather in joy and where our names are recorded - and we are counted as the first born - as those who will inherit with Christ all that God has stored up for his beloved.
We are children of the King - meant to come to that place where those who love God, those who are in right relationship with God and seek to do his will, are made perfect.
There is a mystery here. - The mystery of our communion, our oneness, with God through Christ Jesus; - the mystery of how, despite our failings, God sees us and treats us as his beloved, - where he treats us as eagles rather than as chickens.
Life sometimes has a way of beating us down, zapping our enthusiasm, crushing our plans.
Little by little we can find ourselves bent over from the failures, disappointments, and guilt.
And little by little we can find others placing burdens upon us and robbing us of our status as the children of Abraham - the children of promise, - those who have been called to come to Mount Zion - to the heavenly city of God.
We can end up like the bent over woman - lurking at the edges of the sanctuary, wondering where can we go.
This is the place - not these four walls which can be shaken but this assembly - where Jesus walks among us and reveals to us the fullness of the love of God.
This is the place where Jesus calls out to us to come forward and to be healed and to worship God with reverence and awe.
Jesus calls us to be healed of the spirit that afflicts us and bend us over.
Jesus calls us to be healed of the spirit that makes rules and laws about holiness greater the people those rules and laws are meant to help.
Don't refuse Jesus because you feel unworthy of his call.
Rather, come to Christ knowing that it is his will to set you free from those things that make you less than person he created you to be - and that in coming to his heavenly mountain you will find life instead of death - and mercy instead of judgement.
Let us pray... Lord God, loving Christ. We need your help today. We come to you just as we are, trusting in your great mercy by which we have been anew to a living hope through Christ Jesus. Oh lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world - grant us your peace - and bring us to your holy mountain and to the multitude of angels who sing for joy in your presence. Amen.
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