Exodus 4:1-4:17 Moses pt. 2 1-18-09
Last week we started looking at the story of God calling Moses to liberate his people from Egypt.
The Israelites multiplied in Egypt to the point of outnumbering the Egyptians, so a new Pharaoh enslaved them. Forced labor designed to kill them did not work, so he commanded all Israelite baby boys to be thrown into the Nile.
Moses’ mom places him in a makeshift ark and positions him to be found by a daughter of the Pharaoh. When Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses she raises him as her own. Moses most likely gets educated among the Egyptian elite.
When Moses is about 40 he attempts to give justice to an Israelite being beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster. He kills the man, and hides his body in the desert.
When the Pharaoh finds out, he attempts to kill Moses, so Moses flees to Midian and lives there for 40 years.
One day, God appears to Moses through a burning bush – a flame burns the bush, but does not consume it. In the conversation so far Moses finds out God’s name – “I will be what I will be. I am what I am.” YHWH.
These 4 Hebrew letters form what’s known as the tetragrammaton. God says this is his name forever, his title for all generations.
God commands Moses to tell the Israelite leaders that God has heard and seen what is going on and has come to liberate them. God will lead them out of Egypt to the land of Canaan.
Then God tells Moses, “They will listen to your voice, and you shall go with the elders to tell the king of Egypt ‘we’re outta here.’”
Read Text
Then Moses answered, "But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'"
The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff." And he said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw the staff on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses drew back from it.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Reach out your hand, and seize it by the tail"-- so he reached out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand -- "so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."
Again, the LORD said to him, "Put your hand inside your cloak." He put his hand into his cloak; and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. Then God said, "Put your hand back into your cloak"-- so he put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his body -- "If they will not believe you or heed the first sign, they may believe the second sign.
If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."
But Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."
Then the LORD said to him, "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak."
But he said, "O my Lord, please send someone else."
Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, "What of your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad.
You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs."
Excuses, excuses, excuses…When God calls us to do something, is there any excuse we can give that He will consider valid?
Would our God who knows us intimately inside and out ask us to do something we cannot do?
God asks Moses to do an incredible thing – liberate over a million souls entrapped in brutal slavery. Moses does what we all do when we sense a call to do something good or even extraordinary.
He looks at himself and assesses his own ability. Can I succeed in this endeavor? If I think I can, I might move forward, if I think I can’t, I won’t. As Moses grades his ability to do what God calls him to do, he comes up short in his own eyes. He knows he has no credibility with his own people or the Egyptian rulers. He knows his inarticulate speech and his speech impediment make him unqualified.
So Moses asks God, “What if they don’t listen to me or what if they don’t believe you’ve actually appeared to me?”
This is a relatively strong argument given his failed attempt to be a liberator 40 years earlier and his status as a murderous outlaw. He has a death warrant waiting for him in Egypt and his people do not trust him.
But God had already told Moses explicitly, “They will listen to your voice” – Your fellow Israelites and the Egyptians will hear you.
Moses challenges God’s previous promise, but God doesn’t get angry. Other prophets appearing later in Israel’s history will object based on natural weaknesses too. Jeremiah claims to be too young to speak for God. Isaiah claims to be a man of unclean lips – unworthy to speak God’s Word.
God displays amazing patience and attempts to get Moses’ eyes off of himself and onto Him.
He asks Moses, “What is in your hand?” And Moses replies, “A staff.” As a shepherd, Moses used this staff to support his steps in the wilderness, to guide his father’s flock to good land, and to drive away wild animals. This staff comes to represent the power of God to guide Moses’ steps through the desert of Sinai, to lead God’s people to the Promised Land, and to strike down the enemies of God.
God tells Moses to throw it on the ground, and the moment he does, the staff turns into a snake. Moses responds the same way you or I would. He jumps out of the way. He’s not startled like we would be at the sight of a gardener snake, he’s fearful of his life and runs away.
Next, God tells Moses to grasp the snake by the tail. Any snake handlers here today? Anyone know the proper way to hold a poisonous snake?
You grab it behind its head so that it cannot turn and bite you. The most dangerous place to grab a snake is by the tail. Grab a snake by the tail and it will wrap around and bite you.
God looks for Moses to grab the snake in the worst possible spot to reveal his faith in Him. Do you feel Moses’ relief when the moment he grabs the snake it turns back into a staff?
God interprets this event by saying; this power I give to you is so that the people will believe that I have appeared to you. The people will believe you if you throw down your staff and it turns into a snake. Yeah God, that ought to do it.
Without any preamble, God tells Moses to put his hand inside his cloak. He does so and when he takes it out, his hand is leprous – diseased – as white as snow.
OK, this just seems mean. Leprosy is a contagious and ritually defiling skin disease. People with this disease are separated from the community and the law will later require them to announce their presence by dressing differently, keeping their hair messy, and crying out, “Unclean! Unclean!” in public places.
In an instant, Moses has leprosy. I guarantee you Moses does not reply (looking at hand) “Huh, that’s interesting.” I imagine an agonized wail and a scene where it looks like Moses fights his own hand.
God tells him to put his hand back inside his cloak – touch your bare chest with your diseased hand! This would spread the disease! But Moses settles down and obeys and when draws his hand out of his cloak, the disease hasn’t spread, instead, his hand is restored.
God reveals his power to Moses. “I am the God who has power over disease and healing. I am with you. I am sending you. Get your eyes off of yourself and onto me.”
Then God tells him that if the people won’t believe these signs he is to draw water from the Nile and pour it on the ground. When he does so, it will become blood. Moses can’t practice this wonder here in the desert, but it does foretell the first plague God uses to reveal his presence to the Egyptians.
Even after this experience, Moses returns to assessing himself and his ability or lack of ability to do what God calls him to do.
He says, “I’ve never been an eloquent speaker. I have a speech impediment that remains even now after I’ve met you and we’ve spoken together.”
His objection is twofold. He’s not competent, lacking the qualifications for being a good motivator of the Israelites or the Egyptians. And, he has a physical disability – a speech impediment.
Have you ever felt incompetent for a given task? Have you ever seen yourself as unfit physically, mentally, or spiritually for what God wants you to do or say?
Moses tells God, “I believe you are all that you are, but I am still who I am – same old stuttering Moses.”
Again, God attempts to get Moses’ eyes off himself and onto Him. God says, “Who gives speech, who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? It’s me! I not only know your difficulty, but I made you the way you are. Go! Do as I say and I, the God of speech will teach you what you are to say.”
We see an ongoing biblical pattern of God using weakness for his strength. In the Bible we continually see the weak made strong, the last coming first, the lowly being made great. The pattern exists to draw attention to God instead of glorifying the human agent of God’s work.
The ultimate weakness – the death of Christ on a cross – is the greatest strength of God to forgive and the greatest strength for those who receive from him. He offers forgiveness, love, and a new kind of eternal life.
Through this entire dialog, God remains with Moses and reveals his identity and promises to enable Moses to do what he’s asking him to do. God is not upset. He doesn’t mind it and maybe even likes it when we come to him in honesty and talk about why we resist what he wants us to do.
But then Moses says something wrong. Moses simply says, “Yahweh, please send someone else. All excuses aside, I don’t want to go. Send someone else.”
This makes God angry. The text says literally, “God’s nostrils flared.” His anger flames against Moses. Blatant refusal to do what God asks Moses to do and what God asks us to do makes God angry.
Even in his anger, God gives Moses a partner in his brother Aaron. He’s already on the way to meet Moses, so it was probably already God’s plan to send them in partnership, but this wasn’t the way God wanted the conversation to go.
Together, Moses and Aaron approach the Israelite leaders and the Egyptian leaders in order to gain the release of the slaves.
What do we learn from this story? How does this text call us to faith in God? How does this story address our lives as Christ followers?
Did you notice I changed the sign outside the church? It now says, “Messes welcome.”
God’s grace, his forgiveness, his love is sufficient to bring us into relationship with him. The cross of Christ stands as a sign of God’s great love for us. He’s done all that is needful to create relationship with us.
If we enter into that relationship – if we draw near to the burning bush of God’s love to hear from God we will hear him offering forgiveness and love. Then he will give us marching orders for our lives.
We live in the age of what Peter calls the “priesthood of all believers.” God’s Spirit moves within all believers for carrying out of God’s will.
None of us have arrived and become perfect. We don’t become great and then get used by God to do his will. He works within our messiness, our imperfections, and our fears. He knows what we can and cannot do and he knows his ultimate power to let his will be done in us and through us.
God asks us to get our eyes off of ourselves – our own weaknesses and past failures – and to fix our eyes on God. He will not ask us to do what we cannot do. He only needs us to utilize his power to carry out our lives of service.
I think it was Fred Craddock who recently wrote about his desire at an early age to be a preacher. He felt called by God to proclaim God’s Word. When given his first opportunity to preach, he studied hard and rose to the pulpit. He spoke poorly for a grand total of 5 minutes. His next sermon wasn’t much better or longer.
If Craddock had kept his eyes on himself – his seeming lack of ability and his obvious failure – he would have abandoned his call, but because Craddock kept his eyes on God and the surety of his call, he has been used by God to preach for over 35 years. He’s been instrumental in training and building up today’s preachers.
What is God calling you to do? God remains active in our world today. How does he want you to participate in his activity? How does he want you to speak for him or act on his behalf?
If we don’t know, we need to get straight to listening.
If we do know, what excuses do we use to get out of doing what God wants us to do? What will my family think? Will my husband think I’m crazy? Will I be laughed at? Will I still be happy? Will I fail? I’m not qualified. I’m not gifted. I have a physical difficulty.
God welcomes dialog. He will patiently listen and interact with us based on our objections. One thing God can’t stand is out and out refusal.
We each have a job to do in this life. We have a calling to act for and even speak for God. The question is not our ability, but God’s power working through us. The question isn’t who we are, but rather who God is. He is the God who made you, loves you, and will enable you to go down the path he has for you.
Let’s get our eyes off ourselves and onto God and get on with living in active obedience to him.
Monday, January 19, 2009
January 11, 2009 "Moses pt. 1" Exodus 3:1-15
Exodus 3:1-15 Moses 1-11-09
When I say “Moses” what images, words, and ideas come to mind?
For the next several weeks we want to recapture the life of Moses. We need to gain a biblical, and not just a Hollywood version of Moses.
Some applications will be given within the story, but primarily, I want us to let the story of Moses’ life and what God does through him speak to us. Dicing up the story and bringing three neat points to bear would limit the scope and magnitude of God’s work of salvation for Israel.
Let’s allow this story to give our community and us individually what we need. Listen for God’s interaction with you today within this narrative.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, gives the message of God’s creative acts and the beginning of his covenant relationship with his chosen people. God promises Abraham that he will raise up a great nation through his children. He says, “I will be your God and you will be my people.”
At the end of Genesis, the family of God travels to Egypt to buy food because of a terrible drought. At the time Joseph is the Pharaoh’s right hand man, so they are given Egyptian land and everything they need to live. Genesis ends.
430 years of silence lie between Genesis and Exodus. God promised that Abraham’s people would multiply abundantly so they would be as numerous as the stars in the sky – an uncountable multitude.
At the end of Genesis they number about 70. At the beginning of Exodus, 430 years later, they number between 1 and 2 million. This seems unbelievable, but I did some rough math on these numbers and it’s more than possible given even moderately busy mothers.
The Israelites grow in number so quickly that they begin to outnumber the Egyptians.
When a new king begins ruling Egypt, he feels threatened by the Israelites and decides to subdue them before they can join with Egypt’s enemies and overthrow him.
No one knows how the Israelites became slaves – whether it happened overnight or gradually – but the design of the Egyptian king is plain. Hebrew slaves offer help in his public works, and forced labor will keep them from multiplying further – busy slaves don’t have time to become parents.
As he forces more and more work on the slaves it becomes clear that the labor is designed to kill the Israelites. Images on Egyptian monuments show taskmasters with giant whips in their hands. They try to work the Israelites to death.
Work alone could not stop the Israelites from multiplying, so the king instructs the midwives to kill all the male Hebrew babies they help deliver in order to stop the increase in population. The midwives prove terrible executioners and even give a wonderfully fanciful excuse, saying, “The Israelite women are vigorous and give birth before we arrive.”
So the king takes a more direct approach and orders all Hebrew baby boys to be thrown into the Nile.
Moses arrives on the scene at this point. He’s born to unnamed parents who somehow avoid the death squads by hiding their son for three months. When Moses’ mom cannot hide him any longer she does all she can for her son.
She makes a small basket boat out of reeds and natural sealants. The text uses same word for the craft Noah built at God’s command. She builds an ARK for her baby, places Moses inside, and floats him down the Nile. She does all she can for her son and leaves the rest in the hands of God.
The daughter of Pharaoh finds Moses floating down the river while Miriam – Moses’ older sister – watches nearby. The woman wants to keep the baby, so Miriam asks her if she can get one of the Hebrew mothers to nurse the baby for her and she agrees. The irony is so sweet. Miriam gets Moses’ own mother to nurse him and she gets paid by the Pharaoh for her service.
So, Moses grows up in the Pharaoh’s house. At some point Moses learns of his Israelite heritage because the text says that when he’s about 40, he goes out to see his own people at labor.
He watches an Egyptian beating one of his people and because no one was watching, Moses kills the Egyptian and hides his body under the sand.
The very next day he watches two Israelites fighting and Moses attempts to intervene. The man in the wrong says, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Moses thought he got away with murder, but someone must have seen and the news spread. Pharaoh hears of Moses’ treachery and tries to kill him. Moses flees for his life to a place called Midian.
For 40 more years the people of God groan under their slavery and Exodus 2:24 says, “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”
God hears, he remembers his promises, he considers the circumstances of people, and he shows concern.
Now we have our text for the day – Exodus 3:1-15.
“Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.
Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."
Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."
But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain."
But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
This is my name forever, and this is my title for all generations.”
Moses, an 83 year old resident alien of Midian tends his father-in-law’s flock. One day he leads the flock to Horeb and he sees a bush on fire, but the fire does not consume the bush.
He’s been in the land for decades, but this event catches his eye. This isn’t a red colored bush. It isn’t a bush catching the rays of the sun in a remarkable way, no this is a marvelous and miraculous occurrence catching Moses’ attention.
The Lord appears as a visible manifestation – a flame that does not consume a bush.
Instead of ignoring the sight or running in fear, Moses draws near to take a closer look. Something wonderful is happening and Moses chooses to probe the mystery.
Did you ever wonder if the burning bush represents something? I wonder if this unconsuming fire represents what is happening to Israel. They are burned by brutal slavery, but remain unconsumed by it.
Maybe the burning bush represents how God will again use nature to have his will be done as he did when he destroyed the inhabitants of the earth by flood. It might foreshadow the plagues to come…Or it might just be the creative way God chose to draw Moses near to him.
Either way, God calls out of the bush, “Moses, Moses,” and Moses replies, “Here I am.” Moses replies in perfect prophetic fashion. When you hear God speaking, you want to reply like he did. “Here am I,” meaning, “At your service, or what is it?”
God says, “Come no closer! Remove your sandals for the place you stand is holy.”
The noun “holy” appears here for the first time in the Bible. God marks off this place as sacred. His presence makes the ground holy. This spot is not mundane; it’s remarkable because God is here.
God commands Moses to take off his sandals. He may consider the leather sandals Moses wears impure because they are made from dead animal skins, or maybe God wanted a show of submission and humility from Moses. In the future the priests ministering in God’s presence will do so with bare feet.
Moses takes his sandals off and God declares who he is. He says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” God declares he’s the God of Moses’ earthly father, and the God of the covenant people Abraham and all of his descendants.
At this, Moses hides his face. He fears contact with the God of his people.
God continues to speak and tells Moses that he is a God of action. He observes the misery of his people. He hears their cries because of their slave masters. He knows their suffering. God declares, “I have come down from heaven to deliver them.” He promises to lead the people out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan.
It is a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s a land of plenty – able to support the flocks and herds of God’s people.
This is great news for Moses and everything goes along swimmingly until God says, “Go, I send you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.” The promises of God are glorious and inviting until God lets Moses know he is the instrument God will use to carry out his plan.
40 years prior, Moses gave a lame attempt to provide justice for one slave. It ended with Moses committing murder and fleeing into exile. Now God asks Moses to revisit his failure and be his instrument for the liberation for God’s people – over 1 million souls.
The correct response to God’s call to action found throughout the Bible is, “Here am I.” Instead, Moses says, “Who am I? Who am I that I should do this?”
He replies with Minnesotian humility and even outright evasion. “Who am I” he says, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and liberate the Israelites?”
Moses sees himself doubly unfit for the task. He’s not qualified to appear before the Pharaoh, and he’s unfit before God to do such a deed. Moses is right on both counts. He’s not special in the Pharaoh’s eyes, and he’s not special in God’s eyes except that God choses him to be his instrument of liberation.
I wonder if we respond in similar ways to God’s command of our lives. He probably doesn’t call us to liberate an enslaved people, but what does God ask us to do as his followers?
What is his general command to us all? What is his specific call on our life? If we know, do we respond with “Who am I?” or do we reply, “Here am I. I’m available for whatever you ask...even if it’s really scary and seemingly doomed to failure.”
God doesn’t want Moses’ ability, he wants his availability. So he redirects Moses’ attention from his own life to God’s existence. He says, “I will be with you.” The question is not who you are, but who I am and I will be with you.”
Moses again tries to wiggle out of his call. He says, “If I come to the Israelites and say the God of your ancestors has sent me to you and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
He basically says, “OK, God, you are with me, but who are you? What is your name?”
God says, “Ehyeh’ ser ehyeh.” I am who I am. God gives Moses his name.
The significance of God giving Moses his name cannot be overstated. At the time, to know a name, was not just to know the letters that signified the person’s identity. It was to have some influence with the person being named.
Moses can invoke the name of God and in so doing, address God – bringing his identity to bear in whatever circumstance he’s in.
God entrusts Moses with his name, and it’s a mighty trust. God’s name is dangerous if misused. That’s why one of the 10 Commandments is, “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.” Don’t use God’s name without purpose, flippantly, or abusively.
But what is this name God gives Moses? “I will be who I will be.” God identifies himself as a verb – a double verb of being. It’s such a mysterious name that it’s been translated a dozen ways.
“I can be and can do anything. I am the existing one. I am because I am. I am that I am.” Or, most prolifically, I am who and what, and where and when, and how and even why you will discover I am” (Mettinger).
The vagueness of God’s most holy name conveys infinite potentiality even as it conceals information. “I am that I am,” but in some way Moses must know and we must know that God says, “I am for you.”
Conclusion:
I encourage you to reflect on this story this week. Let this story get into you and have its impact.
Do we draw near to the mystery and wonder of God, or do we run? He doesn’t send burning bushes all the time, but the evidence of his active life surrounds us.
Think about God’s identity as an active God. Mull over his mysterious name. Consider God’s desire not necessarily for your ability, but for your availability to him.
When I say “Moses” what images, words, and ideas come to mind?
For the next several weeks we want to recapture the life of Moses. We need to gain a biblical, and not just a Hollywood version of Moses.
Some applications will be given within the story, but primarily, I want us to let the story of Moses’ life and what God does through him speak to us. Dicing up the story and bringing three neat points to bear would limit the scope and magnitude of God’s work of salvation for Israel.
Let’s allow this story to give our community and us individually what we need. Listen for God’s interaction with you today within this narrative.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, gives the message of God’s creative acts and the beginning of his covenant relationship with his chosen people. God promises Abraham that he will raise up a great nation through his children. He says, “I will be your God and you will be my people.”
At the end of Genesis, the family of God travels to Egypt to buy food because of a terrible drought. At the time Joseph is the Pharaoh’s right hand man, so they are given Egyptian land and everything they need to live. Genesis ends.
430 years of silence lie between Genesis and Exodus. God promised that Abraham’s people would multiply abundantly so they would be as numerous as the stars in the sky – an uncountable multitude.
At the end of Genesis they number about 70. At the beginning of Exodus, 430 years later, they number between 1 and 2 million. This seems unbelievable, but I did some rough math on these numbers and it’s more than possible given even moderately busy mothers.
The Israelites grow in number so quickly that they begin to outnumber the Egyptians.
When a new king begins ruling Egypt, he feels threatened by the Israelites and decides to subdue them before they can join with Egypt’s enemies and overthrow him.
No one knows how the Israelites became slaves – whether it happened overnight or gradually – but the design of the Egyptian king is plain. Hebrew slaves offer help in his public works, and forced labor will keep them from multiplying further – busy slaves don’t have time to become parents.
As he forces more and more work on the slaves it becomes clear that the labor is designed to kill the Israelites. Images on Egyptian monuments show taskmasters with giant whips in their hands. They try to work the Israelites to death.
Work alone could not stop the Israelites from multiplying, so the king instructs the midwives to kill all the male Hebrew babies they help deliver in order to stop the increase in population. The midwives prove terrible executioners and even give a wonderfully fanciful excuse, saying, “The Israelite women are vigorous and give birth before we arrive.”
So the king takes a more direct approach and orders all Hebrew baby boys to be thrown into the Nile.
Moses arrives on the scene at this point. He’s born to unnamed parents who somehow avoid the death squads by hiding their son for three months. When Moses’ mom cannot hide him any longer she does all she can for her son.
She makes a small basket boat out of reeds and natural sealants. The text uses same word for the craft Noah built at God’s command. She builds an ARK for her baby, places Moses inside, and floats him down the Nile. She does all she can for her son and leaves the rest in the hands of God.
The daughter of Pharaoh finds Moses floating down the river while Miriam – Moses’ older sister – watches nearby. The woman wants to keep the baby, so Miriam asks her if she can get one of the Hebrew mothers to nurse the baby for her and she agrees. The irony is so sweet. Miriam gets Moses’ own mother to nurse him and she gets paid by the Pharaoh for her service.
So, Moses grows up in the Pharaoh’s house. At some point Moses learns of his Israelite heritage because the text says that when he’s about 40, he goes out to see his own people at labor.
He watches an Egyptian beating one of his people and because no one was watching, Moses kills the Egyptian and hides his body under the sand.
The very next day he watches two Israelites fighting and Moses attempts to intervene. The man in the wrong says, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Moses thought he got away with murder, but someone must have seen and the news spread. Pharaoh hears of Moses’ treachery and tries to kill him. Moses flees for his life to a place called Midian.
For 40 more years the people of God groan under their slavery and Exodus 2:24 says, “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”
God hears, he remembers his promises, he considers the circumstances of people, and he shows concern.
Now we have our text for the day – Exodus 3:1-15.
“Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.
Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."
Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."
But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain."
But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
This is my name forever, and this is my title for all generations.”
Moses, an 83 year old resident alien of Midian tends his father-in-law’s flock. One day he leads the flock to Horeb and he sees a bush on fire, but the fire does not consume the bush.
He’s been in the land for decades, but this event catches his eye. This isn’t a red colored bush. It isn’t a bush catching the rays of the sun in a remarkable way, no this is a marvelous and miraculous occurrence catching Moses’ attention.
The Lord appears as a visible manifestation – a flame that does not consume a bush.
Instead of ignoring the sight or running in fear, Moses draws near to take a closer look. Something wonderful is happening and Moses chooses to probe the mystery.
Did you ever wonder if the burning bush represents something? I wonder if this unconsuming fire represents what is happening to Israel. They are burned by brutal slavery, but remain unconsumed by it.
Maybe the burning bush represents how God will again use nature to have his will be done as he did when he destroyed the inhabitants of the earth by flood. It might foreshadow the plagues to come…Or it might just be the creative way God chose to draw Moses near to him.
Either way, God calls out of the bush, “Moses, Moses,” and Moses replies, “Here I am.” Moses replies in perfect prophetic fashion. When you hear God speaking, you want to reply like he did. “Here am I,” meaning, “At your service, or what is it?”
God says, “Come no closer! Remove your sandals for the place you stand is holy.”
The noun “holy” appears here for the first time in the Bible. God marks off this place as sacred. His presence makes the ground holy. This spot is not mundane; it’s remarkable because God is here.
God commands Moses to take off his sandals. He may consider the leather sandals Moses wears impure because they are made from dead animal skins, or maybe God wanted a show of submission and humility from Moses. In the future the priests ministering in God’s presence will do so with bare feet.
Moses takes his sandals off and God declares who he is. He says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” God declares he’s the God of Moses’ earthly father, and the God of the covenant people Abraham and all of his descendants.
At this, Moses hides his face. He fears contact with the God of his people.
God continues to speak and tells Moses that he is a God of action. He observes the misery of his people. He hears their cries because of their slave masters. He knows their suffering. God declares, “I have come down from heaven to deliver them.” He promises to lead the people out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan.
It is a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s a land of plenty – able to support the flocks and herds of God’s people.
This is great news for Moses and everything goes along swimmingly until God says, “Go, I send you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.” The promises of God are glorious and inviting until God lets Moses know he is the instrument God will use to carry out his plan.
40 years prior, Moses gave a lame attempt to provide justice for one slave. It ended with Moses committing murder and fleeing into exile. Now God asks Moses to revisit his failure and be his instrument for the liberation for God’s people – over 1 million souls.
The correct response to God’s call to action found throughout the Bible is, “Here am I.” Instead, Moses says, “Who am I? Who am I that I should do this?”
He replies with Minnesotian humility and even outright evasion. “Who am I” he says, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and liberate the Israelites?”
Moses sees himself doubly unfit for the task. He’s not qualified to appear before the Pharaoh, and he’s unfit before God to do such a deed. Moses is right on both counts. He’s not special in the Pharaoh’s eyes, and he’s not special in God’s eyes except that God choses him to be his instrument of liberation.
I wonder if we respond in similar ways to God’s command of our lives. He probably doesn’t call us to liberate an enslaved people, but what does God ask us to do as his followers?
What is his general command to us all? What is his specific call on our life? If we know, do we respond with “Who am I?” or do we reply, “Here am I. I’m available for whatever you ask...even if it’s really scary and seemingly doomed to failure.”
God doesn’t want Moses’ ability, he wants his availability. So he redirects Moses’ attention from his own life to God’s existence. He says, “I will be with you.” The question is not who you are, but who I am and I will be with you.”
Moses again tries to wiggle out of his call. He says, “If I come to the Israelites and say the God of your ancestors has sent me to you and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
He basically says, “OK, God, you are with me, but who are you? What is your name?”
God says, “Ehyeh’ ser ehyeh.” I am who I am. God gives Moses his name.
The significance of God giving Moses his name cannot be overstated. At the time, to know a name, was not just to know the letters that signified the person’s identity. It was to have some influence with the person being named.
Moses can invoke the name of God and in so doing, address God – bringing his identity to bear in whatever circumstance he’s in.
God entrusts Moses with his name, and it’s a mighty trust. God’s name is dangerous if misused. That’s why one of the 10 Commandments is, “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.” Don’t use God’s name without purpose, flippantly, or abusively.
But what is this name God gives Moses? “I will be who I will be.” God identifies himself as a verb – a double verb of being. It’s such a mysterious name that it’s been translated a dozen ways.
“I can be and can do anything. I am the existing one. I am because I am. I am that I am.” Or, most prolifically, I am who and what, and where and when, and how and even why you will discover I am” (Mettinger).
The vagueness of God’s most holy name conveys infinite potentiality even as it conceals information. “I am that I am,” but in some way Moses must know and we must know that God says, “I am for you.”
Conclusion:
I encourage you to reflect on this story this week. Let this story get into you and have its impact.
Do we draw near to the mystery and wonder of God, or do we run? He doesn’t send burning bushes all the time, but the evidence of his active life surrounds us.
Think about God’s identity as an active God. Mull over his mysterious name. Consider God’s desire not necessarily for your ability, but for your availability to him.
Monday, January 5, 2009
January 4, 2009 Matthew 2:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12 "Wise Men" 1-4-09
If I tell you I’ve had an epiphany, what do I mean?
I’ve had a sudden intuitive insight into the essential meaning of something. Revelation struck me and I saw something appeared clearly for the first time.
Epiphany can also refer to the appearance or manifestation of something or someone. Today, we begin celebrating the season of the Epiphany of Jesus Christ. We contemplate the revelatory appearance of Christ and look forward to the day when he appears again.
This season begins by watching the Magi meet the Messiah. The text of this story is Matthew 2:1-12 on page xxx of your pew Bible.
Text:
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."
When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."
When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.
When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.
Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
Our plan for the morning is to walk through this story together and then look carefully at the wise men in order to learn lessons about Jesus and his epiphany – his appearance to the Magi and to us.
Matthew’s account of Christ’s birth begins with a minor but interesting historical problem. He writes, “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born…” Now, this seems pretty innocuous, but we know with certainty that King Herod died in 4 B.C. Four years before our calendar marks Christ’s birth Herod dies, but our text says Jesus was born during his rule. What’s going on here?
The calendar used at the time marked its first year as the year Rome was founded. It’d be like us changing our calendars to year 1 when we founded the United States of America. In this system the year today would be 232.
In the 6th Century Dionysius Exiguus moved year 1 of the calendar to the birth of Christ. Unfortunately, he goofed up and missed the event by roughly 6 years, so by our current calendar, Christ was born in 6 B.C.
Now it really doesn’t matter when Christ was born, but that he was born. However, the significance of this time shift relates to a possible explanation of the star which leads wise men from the East to Jerusalem in search of the King of the Jews.
These men most likely came from Babylonia which is modern day Iraq. We call them wise men, but the text labels them precisely. They’re “Magoi” or Magi. They’re magicians, mystics, and astrologers. They look for answers to life by examining the heavens.
In this story they seek the meaning behind a particular astronomical happening. We hear them asking around the city, “Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
We’ve heard these words countless times during the Christmas season. Maybe you’ve heard a child say them in a nativity play. We need to hear them again for the first time to notice their strangeness.
The Magi aren’t Jews waiting for a Messiah and they don’t know for sure if anyone significant has been born, but they saw a star as it rose above the horizon that enables them to say “The King of the Jews has been born. Where is he?”
How can they know this? One plausible explanation comes from an interesting explanation of the heavenly light they inquire about.
In the year 6 B.C. – the year Christ was most likely born – Saturn and Jupiter aligned in the sky forming one light. At that time people called Jupiter the “King Star” and Saturn the “Sabbath Star.” The combination – the coming together of – the “King Star” and the “Sabbath Star” leads the Magi to conclude that a king of the “Sabbath People” – the King of the Jewish people has been born. They come to the Jewish capital to find him and to honor this newborn king.
When Herod hears about these Magi asking around the city about the birth of a Jewish King he freaks out as only Herod can.
Herod, an Arab Jew, rules over the area on behalf of Rome. He loves his power. He jealously guards his position of being in charge.
Previously he killed three of his sons in order to retain the crown on his head. So when Herod hears these mysterious travelers from the East asking about the birth of the “King of the Jews” his core value – power over others – is threatened.
All Jerusalem is frightened as well because they don’t know how Herod will respond to the potential birth of another king.
Herod summons the theologians and the clergy to ask them where the Messiah will be born. They tell him the Biblical prophecy of Micah 5:2. The Savior will be born in Bethlehem.
This prompts Herod to meet secretly with the wise men and he sends them to Bethlehem with instructions, “Search for the child; and when you’ve found him, let me know so that I can also go and pay him homage.”
There’s something fishy about Herod’s instructions. Bethlehem rests 10 kilometers from Jerusalem. In a 2 hour walk Herod could find the child and honor him personally, yet he sends emissaries instead. Also, Herod refers to the one born as a “child” not as the “Messiah” and certainly not the “King of the Jews.”
Even now Herod has murder in his heart. He knows, “If Jesus is king, I can’t be king.”
Herod responds like everyone who rejects Jesus as Lord of their lives, “If Jesus is king then I can’t be king. If Jesus is king of my life then I am no longer king of my life. If Jesus rules my life, then I no longer rule my life. I simply cannot have anyone taking my godlike independence and self-determination from me.”
The wise men set out for Bethlehem and as they go they see the star again, and it leads them to the infant Savior. It’s interesting to know that Jupiter and Saturn united three times in 6 B.C. – on May 29th, October 1st, and December 5th. This event usually happens once every 20 years, but when Jesus was born, it happened three times in one year.
The wise men find Jesus, and in Eastern tradition they bow down before the baby with their heads touching the dust of the floor in submission to him. They offer Jesus precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
After honoring Jesus and giving him their best gifts, the Magi experience great joy. The text literally says, “they rejoiced with a great joy exceedingly.” After directed in a dream to return east by another route, the Magi return home.
So this is our story. Let’s spend the rest of our time looking closely at the preposterous presence of the Magi in this birth narrative. We’re so accustomed to hearing about them that we no longer realize the scandal of their inclusion.
The Magi linked the study of the stars – astronomy – with the study of the message in the stars – astrology. They believed that humanity dwells in a magnetic-symbiotic relationship with the macrocosm of the heavenly bodies.
So if Babylonia had a daily newspaper, these men wrote the horoscope. They’re the psychics, palm readers, and fortune tellers of our day. They’re the new agers of our time.
The religious establishment rightly opposed them. Rabbis believed God rescued Israel from the astrologers and any power the power the stars might have to direct human life. They so despised astrological teaching and the Magi that one Rabbi of the time wrote, “He who learns from a magi is worthy of death.”
How do these quack astrologers find their way to the infant Jesus and into our Christmas pageants? Their presence must be a historical fact because no writer of Jesus’ life would ever make them up. They’re the fly in the ointment of Jesus’ birth.
Or are they?
What does their presence tell us?
The Magi provide a foretaste of the kind of people attracted to Jesus. The people who loved Jesus naturally were prostitutes, tax collectors on the graft, despised soldiers, a Samaritan adulterer, ostracized lepers, and other sick people.
Jesus walked around with a motley crew in his wake.
The Magi reveal the “mixed bag” nature of every person who has not received Christ’s epiphany. They’re good creationally because God made them, but they’re bad characteristically because of sin. They’re good as bearers of the image of God, but bad spiritually because they remain separated from Him through rebellion. Bruner, 56.
The inclusion of the Magi in this birth narrative throws open wide the gates of the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s for everyone! God’s promise to Abraham that all people would be blessed through him comes to fulfillment in Christ as all people are welcome to receive of him when he appears to them.
The Magi are the first to reveal the truth that Hosea’s prophecy (2:23) is fulfilled in Christ. God says through his prophet, “I will show love to those who were called “unloved,” and to those who were called “Not-My People,” I will say, “You are my people,” and they will answer, “You are our God.”
God desires everyone to receive the epiphany of Christ. God wants everyone to have Christ revealed to them. He wants his son to appear to everyone.
The Magi didn’t have the answers – in fact they had tons of wrong answers – but God chose to appear to them. God chooses to give his Epiphany to the despised astrologers of Christ’s day.
This story tells us we can be critical of doctrines we don’t believe, but we must be careful how we treat people we disagree with.
How do we respond to people we disagree with. Do we fight them or do we invite them to see Jesus in the Bible, our community, and our lives?
Who does our community attract? Does our fellowship here attract the kind of people attracted to Jesus? Do we attract the motley crew that followed Jesus? Do mixed bag people find Jesus here? Paul calls us the body of Christ. Does this body appeal to the sick, misinformed, and ostracized people of our day? Do those who are not God’s people become God’s people here?
Are the Magi welcome here?
Conclusion
We must avoid Herod’s mistake of jealously guarding his power to rule and direct his own life and the lives of others. We can lay down our control and be ruled by our merciful God. Abundant joy awaits those who do.
This story reveals Jesus as the savior of all people. No one need shrink from his presence. He’s available to all. Even if our motives are mixed and our lives are messed up, when he appears, we can worship him and receive him as Savior and Lord.
We can also endeavor to be a community welcoming to those we disagree with and those who most need the epiphany of Jesus Christ. If God has his way, Jesus will appear to them and they will be changed.
If I tell you I’ve had an epiphany, what do I mean?
I’ve had a sudden intuitive insight into the essential meaning of something. Revelation struck me and I saw something appeared clearly for the first time.
Epiphany can also refer to the appearance or manifestation of something or someone. Today, we begin celebrating the season of the Epiphany of Jesus Christ. We contemplate the revelatory appearance of Christ and look forward to the day when he appears again.
This season begins by watching the Magi meet the Messiah. The text of this story is Matthew 2:1-12 on page xxx of your pew Bible.
Text:
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."
When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."
When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.
When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.
Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
Our plan for the morning is to walk through this story together and then look carefully at the wise men in order to learn lessons about Jesus and his epiphany – his appearance to the Magi and to us.
Matthew’s account of Christ’s birth begins with a minor but interesting historical problem. He writes, “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born…” Now, this seems pretty innocuous, but we know with certainty that King Herod died in 4 B.C. Four years before our calendar marks Christ’s birth Herod dies, but our text says Jesus was born during his rule. What’s going on here?
The calendar used at the time marked its first year as the year Rome was founded. It’d be like us changing our calendars to year 1 when we founded the United States of America. In this system the year today would be 232.
In the 6th Century Dionysius Exiguus moved year 1 of the calendar to the birth of Christ. Unfortunately, he goofed up and missed the event by roughly 6 years, so by our current calendar, Christ was born in 6 B.C.
Now it really doesn’t matter when Christ was born, but that he was born. However, the significance of this time shift relates to a possible explanation of the star which leads wise men from the East to Jerusalem in search of the King of the Jews.
These men most likely came from Babylonia which is modern day Iraq. We call them wise men, but the text labels them precisely. They’re “Magoi” or Magi. They’re magicians, mystics, and astrologers. They look for answers to life by examining the heavens.
In this story they seek the meaning behind a particular astronomical happening. We hear them asking around the city, “Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
We’ve heard these words countless times during the Christmas season. Maybe you’ve heard a child say them in a nativity play. We need to hear them again for the first time to notice their strangeness.
The Magi aren’t Jews waiting for a Messiah and they don’t know for sure if anyone significant has been born, but they saw a star as it rose above the horizon that enables them to say “The King of the Jews has been born. Where is he?”
How can they know this? One plausible explanation comes from an interesting explanation of the heavenly light they inquire about.
In the year 6 B.C. – the year Christ was most likely born – Saturn and Jupiter aligned in the sky forming one light. At that time people called Jupiter the “King Star” and Saturn the “Sabbath Star.” The combination – the coming together of – the “King Star” and the “Sabbath Star” leads the Magi to conclude that a king of the “Sabbath People” – the King of the Jewish people has been born. They come to the Jewish capital to find him and to honor this newborn king.
When Herod hears about these Magi asking around the city about the birth of a Jewish King he freaks out as only Herod can.
Herod, an Arab Jew, rules over the area on behalf of Rome. He loves his power. He jealously guards his position of being in charge.
Previously he killed three of his sons in order to retain the crown on his head. So when Herod hears these mysterious travelers from the East asking about the birth of the “King of the Jews” his core value – power over others – is threatened.
All Jerusalem is frightened as well because they don’t know how Herod will respond to the potential birth of another king.
Herod summons the theologians and the clergy to ask them where the Messiah will be born. They tell him the Biblical prophecy of Micah 5:2. The Savior will be born in Bethlehem.
This prompts Herod to meet secretly with the wise men and he sends them to Bethlehem with instructions, “Search for the child; and when you’ve found him, let me know so that I can also go and pay him homage.”
There’s something fishy about Herod’s instructions. Bethlehem rests 10 kilometers from Jerusalem. In a 2 hour walk Herod could find the child and honor him personally, yet he sends emissaries instead. Also, Herod refers to the one born as a “child” not as the “Messiah” and certainly not the “King of the Jews.”
Even now Herod has murder in his heart. He knows, “If Jesus is king, I can’t be king.”
Herod responds like everyone who rejects Jesus as Lord of their lives, “If Jesus is king then I can’t be king. If Jesus is king of my life then I am no longer king of my life. If Jesus rules my life, then I no longer rule my life. I simply cannot have anyone taking my godlike independence and self-determination from me.”
The wise men set out for Bethlehem and as they go they see the star again, and it leads them to the infant Savior. It’s interesting to know that Jupiter and Saturn united three times in 6 B.C. – on May 29th, October 1st, and December 5th. This event usually happens once every 20 years, but when Jesus was born, it happened three times in one year.
The wise men find Jesus, and in Eastern tradition they bow down before the baby with their heads touching the dust of the floor in submission to him. They offer Jesus precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
After honoring Jesus and giving him their best gifts, the Magi experience great joy. The text literally says, “they rejoiced with a great joy exceedingly.” After directed in a dream to return east by another route, the Magi return home.
So this is our story. Let’s spend the rest of our time looking closely at the preposterous presence of the Magi in this birth narrative. We’re so accustomed to hearing about them that we no longer realize the scandal of their inclusion.
The Magi linked the study of the stars – astronomy – with the study of the message in the stars – astrology. They believed that humanity dwells in a magnetic-symbiotic relationship with the macrocosm of the heavenly bodies.
So if Babylonia had a daily newspaper, these men wrote the horoscope. They’re the psychics, palm readers, and fortune tellers of our day. They’re the new agers of our time.
The religious establishment rightly opposed them. Rabbis believed God rescued Israel from the astrologers and any power the power the stars might have to direct human life. They so despised astrological teaching and the Magi that one Rabbi of the time wrote, “He who learns from a magi is worthy of death.”
How do these quack astrologers find their way to the infant Jesus and into our Christmas pageants? Their presence must be a historical fact because no writer of Jesus’ life would ever make them up. They’re the fly in the ointment of Jesus’ birth.
Or are they?
What does their presence tell us?
The Magi provide a foretaste of the kind of people attracted to Jesus. The people who loved Jesus naturally were prostitutes, tax collectors on the graft, despised soldiers, a Samaritan adulterer, ostracized lepers, and other sick people.
Jesus walked around with a motley crew in his wake.
The Magi reveal the “mixed bag” nature of every person who has not received Christ’s epiphany. They’re good creationally because God made them, but they’re bad characteristically because of sin. They’re good as bearers of the image of God, but bad spiritually because they remain separated from Him through rebellion. Bruner, 56.
The inclusion of the Magi in this birth narrative throws open wide the gates of the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s for everyone! God’s promise to Abraham that all people would be blessed through him comes to fulfillment in Christ as all people are welcome to receive of him when he appears to them.
The Magi are the first to reveal the truth that Hosea’s prophecy (2:23) is fulfilled in Christ. God says through his prophet, “I will show love to those who were called “unloved,” and to those who were called “Not-My People,” I will say, “You are my people,” and they will answer, “You are our God.”
God desires everyone to receive the epiphany of Christ. God wants everyone to have Christ revealed to them. He wants his son to appear to everyone.
The Magi didn’t have the answers – in fact they had tons of wrong answers – but God chose to appear to them. God chooses to give his Epiphany to the despised astrologers of Christ’s day.
This story tells us we can be critical of doctrines we don’t believe, but we must be careful how we treat people we disagree with.
How do we respond to people we disagree with. Do we fight them or do we invite them to see Jesus in the Bible, our community, and our lives?
Who does our community attract? Does our fellowship here attract the kind of people attracted to Jesus? Do we attract the motley crew that followed Jesus? Do mixed bag people find Jesus here? Paul calls us the body of Christ. Does this body appeal to the sick, misinformed, and ostracized people of our day? Do those who are not God’s people become God’s people here?
Are the Magi welcome here?
Conclusion
We must avoid Herod’s mistake of jealously guarding his power to rule and direct his own life and the lives of others. We can lay down our control and be ruled by our merciful God. Abundant joy awaits those who do.
This story reveals Jesus as the savior of all people. No one need shrink from his presence. He’s available to all. Even if our motives are mixed and our lives are messed up, when he appears, we can worship him and receive him as Savior and Lord.
We can also endeavor to be a community welcoming to those we disagree with and those who most need the epiphany of Jesus Christ. If God has his way, Jesus will appear to them and they will be changed.
Monday, December 29, 2008
December 28th Patience Part 2
Two weeks ago we started a two part discussion of patience.
God desires us to be patient with ourselves and those around us – even the difficult people we don’t like. Today we look at various places in the Bible in order to grow in patience.
Let’s begin by looking at the patience of God.
Peter writes (3:9), “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”
Impatient people are quick to judge, but God does not judge quickly. Instead he waits patiently for us to choose to turn from wrongdoing and receive his love and forgiveness.
Paul writes to judgmental impatient people when he says in Romans (2:4), “do you despise the riches of God’s kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
God shows patient love even to despicable people.
He can do this because of his character of love and his place in eternity. God is love, and love is patient. It doesn’t force its way on people, but constantly and consistently shows love and waits patiently for love to be returned. In the face of unrequited love, God waits…
God dwells in eternity. For him a day is ten thousand years. He lives in a world where time is not scarce – in eternity time doesn’t exist as we know it. This maximizes God’s potential for patience.
God is patient because he is love and he dwells in eternity. We rightly praise God for his patience and we can use his example to help us gain patience with ourselves and others.
I don’t know about you, but my problem with impatience begins with myself. I’m actually less patient with myself than I am with other people. Let me give you an example.
Karen is our secretary here at church and like every other human I know she gets the occasional illness. She faithfully reports in and tells me when she’s ill. Guess what I tell her. I express genuine concern and tell her to take good care of herself and not to worry about work. I tell her, “We have you covered.”
When I get sick, I tell myself things I’d never tell Karen. “Get to work! You don’t have time to be sick! People are relying on you; you can’t be sick! If you admit to being ill people will think you’re weak. Fight through it and drive in!”
Can we at least be as patient with ourselves as we are to others?
How patient are you with yourself?
Is there something you want to do, but won’t because of how much time it will take?
In talking with people about how they want to spend their lives of work I often hear impatient answers.
“I’d like to be a teacher, but I haven’t gone to college, and that would take me at least four years!”
“I’d like to get into business, but any good position requires an MBA and that would take me at least two years.”
“I’d like to become a counselor, but it would take me six years to get the education required.”
2 years, 4 years, 6 years are nothing in light of our entire lives. If God has given us a desire in our hearts, what amount of time is too much to spend pursuing the goals he’s given? Is 20 years too much? Is 50?
We see time as a scarce commodity – as a limited resource to be spent wisely. But isn’t this a carnal view of time? What would be a more spiritually accurate view of time?
We talk about receiving “eternal life” in Christ. Normally we view this eternal life beginning when we die, but it starts now. I mean, if death is only a transition into a different type of living, don’t we live eternally now?
Christ defeated death in the resurrection, so when we enter into his life we enter the realm of eternal living. We gain an eternal kind of life now.
If we live in Christ, time is not scarce, it’s abundant.
Being sick isn’t a waste of time – God can move in us even when we’re ill. We need not worry about how long pursuing God’s mission for us takes if we have an eternal view of this life.
One final note on being patient with ourselves; Christians have always been people on the way. We are works in progress. God’s patience and gentleness allows us to go through the process of character development, and it’s a bumpy road.
When we fail, instead of impatiently saying, “How could I have done that?!” and beating ourselves up, we can have God’s perspective of ourselves – his love and patience. We can simply say, “I’m not perfect yet. I still need God’s grace every day.”
In patient self-love, we can ask meaningful questions about our failures. What causes me to mess up? What do I need from God to avoid this error in the future? What change is required?
Just as we attempt to view ourselves in the light of God’s patience and eternity, we can view other people in the same light and be more patient with them.
Our patience with other people is tested in a variety of ways.
One truth of personality theory reveals that not everyone gets along naturally. Some people will rub you the wrong way. Certain people will annoy you. Because you are the way you are and they are the way they are, you will not like them.
Our local body of Christ will have people in it that you don’t like. For the sake of unity, we must be patient.
Paul writes (Ephesians 4:1-3) I…beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Each of us will have people we must simply “bear with.” Pride makes us attempt to change them to make them the way we want them to be, but patience causes us to bear with them.
When we find ourselves in the presence of someone we do not naturally like we can do several patient things to maintain peace and unity.
We can let them be who they are. We can listen to their message behind the things that irritate us.
When in the presence of a person who irritates us we should always pause before speaking and choose our words carefully in order to maintain peace.
We don’t need to be friends with everyone, but we must maintain our unity as one Body in Christ.
Another test of patience comes when people disappoints us.
After telling us to clothe ourselves with patience, Paul writes in Colossians (3:13) “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
We can’t expect perfect consistency from people. We know ourselves to be imperfect and continually receive God’s forgiveness. Because of this, when someone disappoints us, we can respond with patient forgiveness. We can acknowledge we are all people on the way and forgive even as God has forgiven us.
Not getting our way also tests patience.
The great “love chapter” in 1st Corinthians puts it this way: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful…”
Love does not use force – physical, psychological, intellectual, or even spiritual force to get its own way. If we force our way, we love impatiently and imperfectly.
I learned the hard way that love does not insist on its own way while serving as the Associate Pastor of Redeemer Covenant Church. One day I got a phone call from someone we’ll call George.
He wanted my support in banning women from the Sunday evening basketball game. He didn’t like that a woman from the community had been coming to play. It wasn’t that she didn’t play well…in fact she was better than most of the guys...It was that she was a she.
He argued for the importance of men getting together for fellowship without women present. He feared that she would be uncomfortable playing with a group of guys. He asked, “What if someone guarding her accidentally touched her inappropriately?”
I disagreed with him vehemently. I told him, “It’s great that several people from the community are coming to the church and it doesn’t bother me that one of them is a woman. If she is comfortable, she should not be excluded.”
I argued based on the mission of the church. I even argued based on the Kingdom of God.
Because George was in charge of the event, I told him he could do whatever he wanted, but that he would be making an un-Christian decision if he forbade her from coming to play.
I really put George in his place…and I lost a friend. I insisted on my own way and created disunity. I exploded a small issue and made it powerful enough to divide a community.
I knew I was right, but my response was so wrong.
Patience demands that we do not insist on our own way. I could have listened patiently, expressed my view quietly, and let him decide. Instead I attempted to control another person. Patience does not insist on its own way.
A patient person also knows that waiting can be an act of faithfulness. I’m a man of action. I want to do something to help, but sometimes being present and waiting is most needed.
The powerlessness we feel when someone is grieving a loss sometimes prompts us to impatiently propose a solution. We say ridiculous things. If someone grieves the loss of a boy or girl friend, what do we say? “There are other fish in the sea.” Do you know how stupid that sounds? They don’t want just any fish. They want the one they just lost.
What wisdom do we give to the person grieving the loss of a loved one? “Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.” Craziness! Sure it’s true, but it doesn’t ease the pain of loss. Truth isn’t always a healing balm.
Grieving or depressed people need our presence, not our wisdom or advice.
Parker Palmer, the great educator and teacher of teachers recounts a story of a deep depression he found himself in and his friends’ responses.
“Various friends tried to rescue me with well-intentioned encouragement and advice: “Get outside and enjoy the sunshine,” or “You have such a good life – why be depressed?” or “I know a book that might really help you.” For all their good intentions, these friends made me even more depressed.
They did not understand what I was going through, did not understand that there was no easy “fix.” Their advice served only to distance them from me, leaving me even more isolated.
“In the midst of my depression I had a friend who took a different tack. Every afternoon at around four o’clock he came to me, sat me in a chair, removed my shoes, and massaged my feet. He hardly said a word, but he was there, he was with me. He was a lifeline for me, a link to the human community and thus to my own humanity. He had no need to “fix” me. He knew the meaning of compassion” (The Active Life, 85).
Palmer’s friend patiently abided with him. He didn’t try to force his agenda on him. He didn’t try to position himself above Palmer as the expert advice giver. He didn’t shower him with wisdom; he patiently showed love.
Conclusion
We worship a God of profound patience. He is love and he dwells in eternity. Because of this, he does not judge quickly. He reveals his love to us and waits patiently for us to respond appropriately.
God asks us to have his perspective on time as we live in Him. We live in Christ eternally so we can know the abundance of time and remain patient with ourselves and others.
God desires us to “bear with” people we don’t naturally like in order to maintain the unity of his community. We can offer patient forgiveness to people because God has patiently forgiven us.
Faithfulness sometimes demands patient waiting and a ministry of presence. Sometimes people just need our availability, not our advice or rescue.
The only way we can be patient for a lifetime is if we know the patience and love of God.
God desires us to be patient with ourselves and those around us – even the difficult people we don’t like. Today we look at various places in the Bible in order to grow in patience.
Let’s begin by looking at the patience of God.
Peter writes (3:9), “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”
Impatient people are quick to judge, but God does not judge quickly. Instead he waits patiently for us to choose to turn from wrongdoing and receive his love and forgiveness.
Paul writes to judgmental impatient people when he says in Romans (2:4), “do you despise the riches of God’s kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
God shows patient love even to despicable people.
He can do this because of his character of love and his place in eternity. God is love, and love is patient. It doesn’t force its way on people, but constantly and consistently shows love and waits patiently for love to be returned. In the face of unrequited love, God waits…
God dwells in eternity. For him a day is ten thousand years. He lives in a world where time is not scarce – in eternity time doesn’t exist as we know it. This maximizes God’s potential for patience.
God is patient because he is love and he dwells in eternity. We rightly praise God for his patience and we can use his example to help us gain patience with ourselves and others.
I don’t know about you, but my problem with impatience begins with myself. I’m actually less patient with myself than I am with other people. Let me give you an example.
Karen is our secretary here at church and like every other human I know she gets the occasional illness. She faithfully reports in and tells me when she’s ill. Guess what I tell her. I express genuine concern and tell her to take good care of herself and not to worry about work. I tell her, “We have you covered.”
When I get sick, I tell myself things I’d never tell Karen. “Get to work! You don’t have time to be sick! People are relying on you; you can’t be sick! If you admit to being ill people will think you’re weak. Fight through it and drive in!”
Can we at least be as patient with ourselves as we are to others?
How patient are you with yourself?
Is there something you want to do, but won’t because of how much time it will take?
In talking with people about how they want to spend their lives of work I often hear impatient answers.
“I’d like to be a teacher, but I haven’t gone to college, and that would take me at least four years!”
“I’d like to get into business, but any good position requires an MBA and that would take me at least two years.”
“I’d like to become a counselor, but it would take me six years to get the education required.”
2 years, 4 years, 6 years are nothing in light of our entire lives. If God has given us a desire in our hearts, what amount of time is too much to spend pursuing the goals he’s given? Is 20 years too much? Is 50?
We see time as a scarce commodity – as a limited resource to be spent wisely. But isn’t this a carnal view of time? What would be a more spiritually accurate view of time?
We talk about receiving “eternal life” in Christ. Normally we view this eternal life beginning when we die, but it starts now. I mean, if death is only a transition into a different type of living, don’t we live eternally now?
Christ defeated death in the resurrection, so when we enter into his life we enter the realm of eternal living. We gain an eternal kind of life now.
If we live in Christ, time is not scarce, it’s abundant.
Being sick isn’t a waste of time – God can move in us even when we’re ill. We need not worry about how long pursuing God’s mission for us takes if we have an eternal view of this life.
One final note on being patient with ourselves; Christians have always been people on the way. We are works in progress. God’s patience and gentleness allows us to go through the process of character development, and it’s a bumpy road.
When we fail, instead of impatiently saying, “How could I have done that?!” and beating ourselves up, we can have God’s perspective of ourselves – his love and patience. We can simply say, “I’m not perfect yet. I still need God’s grace every day.”
In patient self-love, we can ask meaningful questions about our failures. What causes me to mess up? What do I need from God to avoid this error in the future? What change is required?
Just as we attempt to view ourselves in the light of God’s patience and eternity, we can view other people in the same light and be more patient with them.
Our patience with other people is tested in a variety of ways.
One truth of personality theory reveals that not everyone gets along naturally. Some people will rub you the wrong way. Certain people will annoy you. Because you are the way you are and they are the way they are, you will not like them.
Our local body of Christ will have people in it that you don’t like. For the sake of unity, we must be patient.
Paul writes (Ephesians 4:1-3) I…beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Each of us will have people we must simply “bear with.” Pride makes us attempt to change them to make them the way we want them to be, but patience causes us to bear with them.
When we find ourselves in the presence of someone we do not naturally like we can do several patient things to maintain peace and unity.
We can let them be who they are. We can listen to their message behind the things that irritate us.
When in the presence of a person who irritates us we should always pause before speaking and choose our words carefully in order to maintain peace.
We don’t need to be friends with everyone, but we must maintain our unity as one Body in Christ.
Another test of patience comes when people disappoints us.
After telling us to clothe ourselves with patience, Paul writes in Colossians (3:13) “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
We can’t expect perfect consistency from people. We know ourselves to be imperfect and continually receive God’s forgiveness. Because of this, when someone disappoints us, we can respond with patient forgiveness. We can acknowledge we are all people on the way and forgive even as God has forgiven us.
Not getting our way also tests patience.
The great “love chapter” in 1st Corinthians puts it this way: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful…”
Love does not use force – physical, psychological, intellectual, or even spiritual force to get its own way. If we force our way, we love impatiently and imperfectly.
I learned the hard way that love does not insist on its own way while serving as the Associate Pastor of Redeemer Covenant Church. One day I got a phone call from someone we’ll call George.
He wanted my support in banning women from the Sunday evening basketball game. He didn’t like that a woman from the community had been coming to play. It wasn’t that she didn’t play well…in fact she was better than most of the guys...It was that she was a she.
He argued for the importance of men getting together for fellowship without women present. He feared that she would be uncomfortable playing with a group of guys. He asked, “What if someone guarding her accidentally touched her inappropriately?”
I disagreed with him vehemently. I told him, “It’s great that several people from the community are coming to the church and it doesn’t bother me that one of them is a woman. If she is comfortable, she should not be excluded.”
I argued based on the mission of the church. I even argued based on the Kingdom of God.
Because George was in charge of the event, I told him he could do whatever he wanted, but that he would be making an un-Christian decision if he forbade her from coming to play.
I really put George in his place…and I lost a friend. I insisted on my own way and created disunity. I exploded a small issue and made it powerful enough to divide a community.
I knew I was right, but my response was so wrong.
Patience demands that we do not insist on our own way. I could have listened patiently, expressed my view quietly, and let him decide. Instead I attempted to control another person. Patience does not insist on its own way.
A patient person also knows that waiting can be an act of faithfulness. I’m a man of action. I want to do something to help, but sometimes being present and waiting is most needed.
The powerlessness we feel when someone is grieving a loss sometimes prompts us to impatiently propose a solution. We say ridiculous things. If someone grieves the loss of a boy or girl friend, what do we say? “There are other fish in the sea.” Do you know how stupid that sounds? They don’t want just any fish. They want the one they just lost.
What wisdom do we give to the person grieving the loss of a loved one? “Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.” Craziness! Sure it’s true, but it doesn’t ease the pain of loss. Truth isn’t always a healing balm.
Grieving or depressed people need our presence, not our wisdom or advice.
Parker Palmer, the great educator and teacher of teachers recounts a story of a deep depression he found himself in and his friends’ responses.
“Various friends tried to rescue me with well-intentioned encouragement and advice: “Get outside and enjoy the sunshine,” or “You have such a good life – why be depressed?” or “I know a book that might really help you.” For all their good intentions, these friends made me even more depressed.
They did not understand what I was going through, did not understand that there was no easy “fix.” Their advice served only to distance them from me, leaving me even more isolated.
“In the midst of my depression I had a friend who took a different tack. Every afternoon at around four o’clock he came to me, sat me in a chair, removed my shoes, and massaged my feet. He hardly said a word, but he was there, he was with me. He was a lifeline for me, a link to the human community and thus to my own humanity. He had no need to “fix” me. He knew the meaning of compassion” (The Active Life, 85).
Palmer’s friend patiently abided with him. He didn’t try to force his agenda on him. He didn’t try to position himself above Palmer as the expert advice giver. He didn’t shower him with wisdom; he patiently showed love.
Conclusion
We worship a God of profound patience. He is love and he dwells in eternity. Because of this, he does not judge quickly. He reveals his love to us and waits patiently for us to respond appropriately.
God asks us to have his perspective on time as we live in Him. We live in Christ eternally so we can know the abundance of time and remain patient with ourselves and others.
God desires us to “bear with” people we don’t naturally like in order to maintain the unity of his community. We can offer patient forgiveness to people because God has patiently forgiven us.
Faithfulness sometimes demands patient waiting and a ministry of presence. Sometimes people just need our availability, not our advice or rescue.
The only way we can be patient for a lifetime is if we know the patience and love of God.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Mark 1:1-8 "Prepare" December 7, 2008
This text is rougher than most since I did not edit it (sick with sinus infection)...
Mark 1:1-8 “Prepare” December 7, 2008
What do we do to prepare for Christmas? What are you doing these days to get ready for Christmas?
Let me tell you what my family and I do. We buy a Christmas tree. This year we went to Home Depot and bought a tree and a stand since I couldn’t find the one I know we have in storage somewhere.
We brought the tree home, decorated it with lights and ornaments, and poured water in the stand. Then the kids had great fun playing with the pine needles decorating the floor.
We bring out special candles and light them. We display snowmen and bring out other red and green decorations to celebrate that Christmas is coming.
As an extended family we establish the complicated formula of family gift exchanges. We draw names and set price limits on gifts. We buy gifts and wrap them. We bake Christmas goodies.
We orchestrate the timing of our family celebrations and attend parties to re-connect with old friends.
I imagine we all do stuff like this. But are we preparing for Christmas? If the reason for Christmas is Jesus, are we truly preparing to celebrate Jesus as our Messiah on December 25th?
It seems to me we’re preparing for each other. We’re getting our houses clean and buying presents for each other. We’re maintaining and deepening our relationships with our friends and family. These are great things, but isn’t Christmas about Jesus?
An online author writes, “When we hold our efforts up to the Scriptures, we become aware how misdirected we are. We are like sailors on the Titanic, busily rearranging furniture when we need to be steering the doomed liner around the iceberg.
Could it be that we miss the coming of Christ and the gifts He brings to our lives, because we fail to prepare properly? If so, what is the biblical pattern for readiness to accept the Christ who comes to us?”
Let’s look at the Biblical pattern of readiness in accepting Christ by considering the preparation ministry of John the baptizer as found in Mark 1:1-8
Text
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'"
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
In just eight verses, Mark, the author of this gospel identifies Jesus and tells us some things we need to do in order to prepare for Jesus’ arrival. The words are all about Jesus and our readiness to meet him.
Mark identifies Jesus as the “Christ” and the “Son of God.” What does he mean by these identifying words?
If you ask kids what Jesus’ last name is, what will they say? They’ll say Christ. Jesus’ last name is “Christ, Jesus Christ.” But we know Christ is not Jesus’ last name or his middle name. It is his identity and his ongoing role in history.
Christ means Messiah or Savior. Jesus is the Messiah. Mark identifies Jesus as the Messiah, but not the messiah of human origin or for a humanistic salvation – like salvation from economic crisis. Jesus is the Savior of souls.
Mark calls Jesus the Son of God. Jesus is the Messiah – the only begotten Son of God. Jesus was not made by God; he existed with God from the beginning and now enters human history by taking on flesh to be our Messiah.
This is the Jesus whose arrival we celebrate this Christmas.
John the baptizer further identifies Jesus’ stature when he says, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals."
For us, untying someone’s shoelace isn’t such a big deal. But in their time, loosening the strap of a man’s sandal was deeply humiliating.
Slaves took care of their master’s feet. They untied their dirty, dusty sandals and washed their master’s sweaty stinky feet. But not God’s slaves! Because this task is so demeaning, God’s law forbade Hebrew slaves from untying their master’s sandals.
John says “The one who comes after me; I’m not worthy to loosen the straps on his shoes.”
John’s telling us that if we were nurses in a hospital and Jesus was a patient there, we wouldn’t be worthy to clean out his excrement laden bed pan. Jesus is so glorious, so wonderful, so highly esteemed; we would not be worthy to serve him.
Do we realize just how remarkable Jesus is? Are we preparing to receive our Messiah – the Son of God – rightly this year?
It’s OK to deck the halls with boughs of holly. It’s OK to consider Christmas to be Jesus’ birthday. Some of our families even sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, because we view Jesus as our friend, but maybe we’ve gotten too buddy-buddy with our Messiah.
Jesus is the Messiah of God. He’s not a friend like you and I are friends; he’s a friend more powerful than any human. He is the God-man. He’s our creator of the world friend. He’s our Savior of the world friend.
This is the Jesus we prepare to receive anew on Christmas. How do we prepare?
John the baptizer prepared people to meet their Messiah. His ministry fulfills the prophecy Mark recounts, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'"
John wears the garments of a prophet – a camel's hair robe tied with a leather belt. He eats the food of a prophet – locusts and wild honey.
His prophesies that the Messiah of God is coming. Prepare for him! Prepare for the arrival of your Savior! Prepare through repentance and a baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Repent and be baptized.
Repentance refers to a change of mind and to a wholehearted return to God. It implies abandoning our ways and adopting God’s ways – abandoning our wrong ways and adopting God’s right ways.
It means experiencing remorse for what we’ve done wrong and turning from those things toward God. Repentance implies a total life re-orientation!
John tells people to reorient their lives in order to prepare to meet their Messiah.
John also calls the people to be baptized.
We’re so familiar with Christian baptism that John’s baptism doesn’t seem novel to us. But John’s baptism is unique. There are no rules for this sort of baptism in the Hebrew law.
There was a community called the Qumran community that practiced ritual cleansing. The Qumran community left us the Dead Sea Scrolls and the people of that community immersed themselves in water for the cleansing of their lives of sin. They did so three times a day.
But John’s baptism is different. It is once and for all and it was performed by another person in anticipation of meeting the Messiah.
The people must have believed John because they came out in droves. They confessed their sins, turned from them, and were baptized by John. His baptizing ways became so well known that he was named John the Baptizer.
John deflects all of this fame and points to Jesus. “I have baptized you with water; but the one who is to come will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John compares himself and his ministry with the coming Messiah. In the same degree that John is not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal, Jesus baptism will be greater than John’s baptism.
John says, “I baptize with water, the Messiah will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” I cleanse you with water after you repent of your sins, but Jesus will baptize you with the cleansing agent of the Holy Spirit of God.
That’s why when we bring people here for the sacrament of baptism we pray, “Jesus, as we baptize with water, baptize with your Holy Spirit.”
How can we prepare in new ways for the arrival of Jesus the Messiah – the Son of God? How can we do Advent differently this year?
As John helped people prepare, he didn’t ask them to get their houses clean and well decorated. He didn’t tell them to host parties and exchange gifts. He said, “Turn from your wrong ways toward God. As you repent, be baptized and receive forgiveness for your sins.”
Instead of spending all our time this advent season preparing our homes, interacting with friends and family, and buying gifts to exchange, maybe we should spend time preparing our lives to meet Jesus.
Let’s acknowledge the obstacles in our relationship with God. Let’s spend time allowing God to search us and know us and see if there is anything foul in us. Let’s repent of the things that hinder us from receiving Christ, and turn away from them.
Pray.
Mark 1:1-8 “Prepare” December 7, 2008
What do we do to prepare for Christmas? What are you doing these days to get ready for Christmas?
Let me tell you what my family and I do. We buy a Christmas tree. This year we went to Home Depot and bought a tree and a stand since I couldn’t find the one I know we have in storage somewhere.
We brought the tree home, decorated it with lights and ornaments, and poured water in the stand. Then the kids had great fun playing with the pine needles decorating the floor.
We bring out special candles and light them. We display snowmen and bring out other red and green decorations to celebrate that Christmas is coming.
As an extended family we establish the complicated formula of family gift exchanges. We draw names and set price limits on gifts. We buy gifts and wrap them. We bake Christmas goodies.
We orchestrate the timing of our family celebrations and attend parties to re-connect with old friends.
I imagine we all do stuff like this. But are we preparing for Christmas? If the reason for Christmas is Jesus, are we truly preparing to celebrate Jesus as our Messiah on December 25th?
It seems to me we’re preparing for each other. We’re getting our houses clean and buying presents for each other. We’re maintaining and deepening our relationships with our friends and family. These are great things, but isn’t Christmas about Jesus?
An online author writes, “When we hold our efforts up to the Scriptures, we become aware how misdirected we are. We are like sailors on the Titanic, busily rearranging furniture when we need to be steering the doomed liner around the iceberg.
Could it be that we miss the coming of Christ and the gifts He brings to our lives, because we fail to prepare properly? If so, what is the biblical pattern for readiness to accept the Christ who comes to us?”
Let’s look at the Biblical pattern of readiness in accepting Christ by considering the preparation ministry of John the baptizer as found in Mark 1:1-8
Text
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'"
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
In just eight verses, Mark, the author of this gospel identifies Jesus and tells us some things we need to do in order to prepare for Jesus’ arrival. The words are all about Jesus and our readiness to meet him.
Mark identifies Jesus as the “Christ” and the “Son of God.” What does he mean by these identifying words?
If you ask kids what Jesus’ last name is, what will they say? They’ll say Christ. Jesus’ last name is “Christ, Jesus Christ.” But we know Christ is not Jesus’ last name or his middle name. It is his identity and his ongoing role in history.
Christ means Messiah or Savior. Jesus is the Messiah. Mark identifies Jesus as the Messiah, but not the messiah of human origin or for a humanistic salvation – like salvation from economic crisis. Jesus is the Savior of souls.
Mark calls Jesus the Son of God. Jesus is the Messiah – the only begotten Son of God. Jesus was not made by God; he existed with God from the beginning and now enters human history by taking on flesh to be our Messiah.
This is the Jesus whose arrival we celebrate this Christmas.
John the baptizer further identifies Jesus’ stature when he says, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals."
For us, untying someone’s shoelace isn’t such a big deal. But in their time, loosening the strap of a man’s sandal was deeply humiliating.
Slaves took care of their master’s feet. They untied their dirty, dusty sandals and washed their master’s sweaty stinky feet. But not God’s slaves! Because this task is so demeaning, God’s law forbade Hebrew slaves from untying their master’s sandals.
John says “The one who comes after me; I’m not worthy to loosen the straps on his shoes.”
John’s telling us that if we were nurses in a hospital and Jesus was a patient there, we wouldn’t be worthy to clean out his excrement laden bed pan. Jesus is so glorious, so wonderful, so highly esteemed; we would not be worthy to serve him.
Do we realize just how remarkable Jesus is? Are we preparing to receive our Messiah – the Son of God – rightly this year?
It’s OK to deck the halls with boughs of holly. It’s OK to consider Christmas to be Jesus’ birthday. Some of our families even sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, because we view Jesus as our friend, but maybe we’ve gotten too buddy-buddy with our Messiah.
Jesus is the Messiah of God. He’s not a friend like you and I are friends; he’s a friend more powerful than any human. He is the God-man. He’s our creator of the world friend. He’s our Savior of the world friend.
This is the Jesus we prepare to receive anew on Christmas. How do we prepare?
John the baptizer prepared people to meet their Messiah. His ministry fulfills the prophecy Mark recounts, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'"
John wears the garments of a prophet – a camel's hair robe tied with a leather belt. He eats the food of a prophet – locusts and wild honey.
His prophesies that the Messiah of God is coming. Prepare for him! Prepare for the arrival of your Savior! Prepare through repentance and a baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Repent and be baptized.
Repentance refers to a change of mind and to a wholehearted return to God. It implies abandoning our ways and adopting God’s ways – abandoning our wrong ways and adopting God’s right ways.
It means experiencing remorse for what we’ve done wrong and turning from those things toward God. Repentance implies a total life re-orientation!
John tells people to reorient their lives in order to prepare to meet their Messiah.
John also calls the people to be baptized.
We’re so familiar with Christian baptism that John’s baptism doesn’t seem novel to us. But John’s baptism is unique. There are no rules for this sort of baptism in the Hebrew law.
There was a community called the Qumran community that practiced ritual cleansing. The Qumran community left us the Dead Sea Scrolls and the people of that community immersed themselves in water for the cleansing of their lives of sin. They did so three times a day.
But John’s baptism is different. It is once and for all and it was performed by another person in anticipation of meeting the Messiah.
The people must have believed John because they came out in droves. They confessed their sins, turned from them, and were baptized by John. His baptizing ways became so well known that he was named John the Baptizer.
John deflects all of this fame and points to Jesus. “I have baptized you with water; but the one who is to come will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John compares himself and his ministry with the coming Messiah. In the same degree that John is not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal, Jesus baptism will be greater than John’s baptism.
John says, “I baptize with water, the Messiah will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” I cleanse you with water after you repent of your sins, but Jesus will baptize you with the cleansing agent of the Holy Spirit of God.
That’s why when we bring people here for the sacrament of baptism we pray, “Jesus, as we baptize with water, baptize with your Holy Spirit.”
How can we prepare in new ways for the arrival of Jesus the Messiah – the Son of God? How can we do Advent differently this year?
As John helped people prepare, he didn’t ask them to get their houses clean and well decorated. He didn’t tell them to host parties and exchange gifts. He said, “Turn from your wrong ways toward God. As you repent, be baptized and receive forgiveness for your sins.”
Instead of spending all our time this advent season preparing our homes, interacting with friends and family, and buying gifts to exchange, maybe we should spend time preparing our lives to meet Jesus.
Let’s acknowledge the obstacles in our relationship with God. Let’s spend time allowing God to search us and know us and see if there is anything foul in us. Let’s repent of the things that hinder us from receiving Christ, and turn away from them.
Pray.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Sermon text of Isaiah 63:7-64:12 November 30, 2008
Isaiah 63:7-64:12 “Rend the Heavens” 11-30-08
The sermon text this morning is Isaiah 63:7 to 64:12 on page 605 of your pew Bible.
Read Text
“I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, because of all that the LORD has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, "Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely"; and he became their savior in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit; therefore he became their enemy; he himself fought against them.
Then they remembered the days of old, of Moses his servant. Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is the one who put within them his holy spirit, who caused his glorious arm to march at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. Like cattle that go down into the valley, the spirit of the LORD gave them rest. Thus you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.
Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and glorious habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The yearning of your heart and your compassion? They are withheld from me.
For you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our father; our Redeemer from of old is your name.
Why, O LORD, do you make us stray from your ways and harden our heart, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.
Your holy people took possession for a little while; but now our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. We have long been like those whom you do not rule, like those not called by your name.
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people. Your holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
After all this, will you restrain yourself, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and punish us so severely?”
This text is a song of communal lament most likely sung at the site of the burned down temple in Jerusalem. The whole community of God gathered in the temple rubble and sang this song of grief, repentance and plea after the Babylonians destroyed their place of worship.
The people of God – the chosen ones of God – have been dealt with harshly and they reel. They beg God for answers.
Where are you God?
Where is your help?
Where is your presence in our time of need?
Even with this in mind, Isaiah begins this song by remembering what God has done by praising him. He recalls the steadfast love of the Lord.
He recalls the very presence of God saving Israel – how He lead the people through the wilderness, parted the Red Sea, and shook the world when Moses brought the 10 Commandments down from Mount Sinai.
Isaiah calls to mind the way God parted the Jordan River for his people to walk into the Promised Land. God gave the people rest and prepared to make the Name of the Lord glorious.
What happened to destroy the peace?
Like rebellious children, the people of God disobeyed their Heavenly Father. Isaiah laments, “We have long been like those whom you do not rule, like those not called by your name.”
This grieves the Holy Spirit of God and makes God the enemy. So God fights against his own people and allows his holy temple to be destroyed.
Even still, Isaiah entreats God, “You’re still our Father. Even though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us, you are our Father.”
Your name is “Redeemer of old.” Unless you show up, we can’t turn from our wicked ways. Unless you soften our hearts, they will remain hardened. You are the potter, we are the clay.
O that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Isaiah sings for God not simply to see them, but to come down. “Break through the domed firmament and the clouds and intervene” (Blenkinsopp, 264). Draw near!
Come down like fire that causes twigs to burn and then makes the pot boil. Come down like an earthquake. Be the God of the unexpected!
For our part, we confess and repent. We have all become like a person unclean and even our good deeds are filthy rags.
Sin has become continual, defiling, destructive, and barrier producing. It has separated the people from God.
Now the people feel like a withered fall leaf blowing in the wind.
Can I reveal the depth of the people’s sin with the danger of grossing you out a little bit? In this section, Isaiah is talking about a woman having her period. He’s saying that the people of God have become unclean and their good deeds resemble a dirty tampon. Instead of white as snow, they are as unclean as a maxi-pad.
Even in this state, Isaiah calls the people to sing, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.” He leads them in singing, “Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember our sins forever…we are your people… will you restrain yourself, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and punish us so severely?”
The people call on God to draw near to them. “Don’t stand back, God. Don’t be aloof, come near! Have mercy! Speak! Move! Act!”
How do we respond to this song of corporate lament?
It might seem like a strange text for the beginning of Advent, but this season before Christmas is a season of repentance. It’s a mini-Lent on the church calendar. It’s a time for us to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.
What is our standing with God these days? How near and dear is our God to us? What is the condition of our hearts before God?
Turning from personal sin toward God must be done this Advent, but today, we look at our corporate sins. To prepare our hearts and lives for the coming of Jesus, what do we need to turn from? As a people, what has made even our good deeds filthy rags?
I contemplated these verses while watching Mumbai burn. Over 170 people died at the hands of terrorists. It made me pray, “How long O Lord?! O that you would rend the heavens and come down!”
I turned on the 6 o’clock news to see some coverage and only saw local stories of lost cats, local theft, and a back alley murder.
I know 6 o’clock is the local news time, but are we so apathetic to suffering in the world that we can’t delay local news in the face of an international crisis? If this attack had happened on American soil it would still be leading the news and our trite local news would wait. The terrorists targeted Americans!
Maybe apathy is one of our corporate sins. Maybe we need to repent this advent season for our lack of concern – our lack of love in action for others.
A mere 10 billion dollars would solve the number one killer of people worldwide – unclean or insufficient water. It causes death by disease. It causes death by thirst.
10 billion may sound like a lot of money, but we spend 10 billion every month fighting in Iraq. Why isn’t there the political will in this nation to end the leading cause of death worldwide?
We are loveless and apathetic.
As the video showed, we spend 450 billion dollars celebrating Christmas. If we want God to rend the heavens and come down, maybe we need to get our hearts re-oriented. As we contemplate the humility of Christ, leaving the throne of heaven to come as a baby, maybe we need to humble our hearts and show the same love he did.
Instead of exchanging gifts this Christmas, maybe we should simply give them to those in greatest need. If the politicians won’t spend our tax dollars to help the least of these, maybe we need to spend our money mercifully.
In preparation for Christ’s birth, Jodi and I will be exchanging gifts with family and friends, but this year we will donate an equal amount of money to feeding the hungry and providing clean water for the thirsty.
Will you join me? Will you give an equal amount of money to those with nothing as you do to your friends and family who have everything they need and most of what they want? It might mean giving smaller gifts to your family. But it does mean giving life to the dying.
$10 buys a Christmas card and a paperback novel, but it can also provide clean water to a child for their entire lifetime.
We need to repent of our apathy in preparation for Christmas.
So I’m watching Mumbai burn. Imagine the bitter irony of seeing the next story on my screen. A temporary employee of Wal-Mart unlocked the doors at 4am on Black Friday and didn’t get out of the way fast enough. She was trampled to death.
This wasn’t local news. I read the story on CNN.com while watching the Mumbai coverage.
Even on Saturday morning the story of death by greed was still front page on the BBC news website. The BBC! This news goes global…our greed is famous!
Children living in poverty on the streets of Addis Ababa hear this story. Children living in refugee camps around the world hear this story. Do they joke amongst themselves, “I want to go to a country where the only reason they kill each other is because of a department store sale.”
Or maybe our greed so repels them that they resolve to live differently when they get here. I know immigrants who make minimum wage and can still send large chunks of money to their families living in poverty in their native lands.
More controversially, do foreigners see American greed as part of the reason why some people hate America…part of the reason terrorists target us on the streets of Mumbai.
As a nation we have worshiped the god of wealth and the security and power it brings for too long. The consequences of our greed is not the city lying in ruins and the temple in ashes as it was in Biblical times. So far we just have a mortgage and credit crisis.
We lived on the edge of our means. We mortgaged our houses and re-mortgaged our houses to maximize our capacity to consume never thinking our homes could lose value.
We maxed our credit, never thinking the economy would stall. We spent our resources on ourselves and look where we are.
If we repent and turn from our greed, will God rend the heavens and come down? If we start enjoying what we have and not wanting what we don’t have, will God come near?
Conclusion:
This song of corporate lament can be our song. We can confess our apathy and greed as a people. We can cry out to God for his return. We can pray, “O God as we turn, please draw near!”
O that you would rend the heavens and come down.
Pray
The sermon text this morning is Isaiah 63:7 to 64:12 on page 605 of your pew Bible.
Read Text
“I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, because of all that the LORD has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, "Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely"; and he became their savior in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit; therefore he became their enemy; he himself fought against them.
Then they remembered the days of old, of Moses his servant. Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is the one who put within them his holy spirit, who caused his glorious arm to march at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. Like cattle that go down into the valley, the spirit of the LORD gave them rest. Thus you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.
Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and glorious habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The yearning of your heart and your compassion? They are withheld from me.
For you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our father; our Redeemer from of old is your name.
Why, O LORD, do you make us stray from your ways and harden our heart, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.
Your holy people took possession for a little while; but now our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. We have long been like those whom you do not rule, like those not called by your name.
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people. Your holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
After all this, will you restrain yourself, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and punish us so severely?”
This text is a song of communal lament most likely sung at the site of the burned down temple in Jerusalem. The whole community of God gathered in the temple rubble and sang this song of grief, repentance and plea after the Babylonians destroyed their place of worship.
The people of God – the chosen ones of God – have been dealt with harshly and they reel. They beg God for answers.
Where are you God?
Where is your help?
Where is your presence in our time of need?
Even with this in mind, Isaiah begins this song by remembering what God has done by praising him. He recalls the steadfast love of the Lord.
He recalls the very presence of God saving Israel – how He lead the people through the wilderness, parted the Red Sea, and shook the world when Moses brought the 10 Commandments down from Mount Sinai.
Isaiah calls to mind the way God parted the Jordan River for his people to walk into the Promised Land. God gave the people rest and prepared to make the Name of the Lord glorious.
What happened to destroy the peace?
Like rebellious children, the people of God disobeyed their Heavenly Father. Isaiah laments, “We have long been like those whom you do not rule, like those not called by your name.”
This grieves the Holy Spirit of God and makes God the enemy. So God fights against his own people and allows his holy temple to be destroyed.
Even still, Isaiah entreats God, “You’re still our Father. Even though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us, you are our Father.”
Your name is “Redeemer of old.” Unless you show up, we can’t turn from our wicked ways. Unless you soften our hearts, they will remain hardened. You are the potter, we are the clay.
O that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Isaiah sings for God not simply to see them, but to come down. “Break through the domed firmament and the clouds and intervene” (Blenkinsopp, 264). Draw near!
Come down like fire that causes twigs to burn and then makes the pot boil. Come down like an earthquake. Be the God of the unexpected!
For our part, we confess and repent. We have all become like a person unclean and even our good deeds are filthy rags.
Sin has become continual, defiling, destructive, and barrier producing. It has separated the people from God.
Now the people feel like a withered fall leaf blowing in the wind.
Can I reveal the depth of the people’s sin with the danger of grossing you out a little bit? In this section, Isaiah is talking about a woman having her period. He’s saying that the people of God have become unclean and their good deeds resemble a dirty tampon. Instead of white as snow, they are as unclean as a maxi-pad.
Even in this state, Isaiah calls the people to sing, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.” He leads them in singing, “Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember our sins forever…we are your people… will you restrain yourself, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and punish us so severely?”
The people call on God to draw near to them. “Don’t stand back, God. Don’t be aloof, come near! Have mercy! Speak! Move! Act!”
How do we respond to this song of corporate lament?
It might seem like a strange text for the beginning of Advent, but this season before Christmas is a season of repentance. It’s a mini-Lent on the church calendar. It’s a time for us to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.
What is our standing with God these days? How near and dear is our God to us? What is the condition of our hearts before God?
Turning from personal sin toward God must be done this Advent, but today, we look at our corporate sins. To prepare our hearts and lives for the coming of Jesus, what do we need to turn from? As a people, what has made even our good deeds filthy rags?
I contemplated these verses while watching Mumbai burn. Over 170 people died at the hands of terrorists. It made me pray, “How long O Lord?! O that you would rend the heavens and come down!”
I turned on the 6 o’clock news to see some coverage and only saw local stories of lost cats, local theft, and a back alley murder.
I know 6 o’clock is the local news time, but are we so apathetic to suffering in the world that we can’t delay local news in the face of an international crisis? If this attack had happened on American soil it would still be leading the news and our trite local news would wait. The terrorists targeted Americans!
Maybe apathy is one of our corporate sins. Maybe we need to repent this advent season for our lack of concern – our lack of love in action for others.
A mere 10 billion dollars would solve the number one killer of people worldwide – unclean or insufficient water. It causes death by disease. It causes death by thirst.
10 billion may sound like a lot of money, but we spend 10 billion every month fighting in Iraq. Why isn’t there the political will in this nation to end the leading cause of death worldwide?
We are loveless and apathetic.
As the video showed, we spend 450 billion dollars celebrating Christmas. If we want God to rend the heavens and come down, maybe we need to get our hearts re-oriented. As we contemplate the humility of Christ, leaving the throne of heaven to come as a baby, maybe we need to humble our hearts and show the same love he did.
Instead of exchanging gifts this Christmas, maybe we should simply give them to those in greatest need. If the politicians won’t spend our tax dollars to help the least of these, maybe we need to spend our money mercifully.
In preparation for Christ’s birth, Jodi and I will be exchanging gifts with family and friends, but this year we will donate an equal amount of money to feeding the hungry and providing clean water for the thirsty.
Will you join me? Will you give an equal amount of money to those with nothing as you do to your friends and family who have everything they need and most of what they want? It might mean giving smaller gifts to your family. But it does mean giving life to the dying.
$10 buys a Christmas card and a paperback novel, but it can also provide clean water to a child for their entire lifetime.
We need to repent of our apathy in preparation for Christmas.
So I’m watching Mumbai burn. Imagine the bitter irony of seeing the next story on my screen. A temporary employee of Wal-Mart unlocked the doors at 4am on Black Friday and didn’t get out of the way fast enough. She was trampled to death.
This wasn’t local news. I read the story on CNN.com while watching the Mumbai coverage.
Even on Saturday morning the story of death by greed was still front page on the BBC news website. The BBC! This news goes global…our greed is famous!
Children living in poverty on the streets of Addis Ababa hear this story. Children living in refugee camps around the world hear this story. Do they joke amongst themselves, “I want to go to a country where the only reason they kill each other is because of a department store sale.”
Or maybe our greed so repels them that they resolve to live differently when they get here. I know immigrants who make minimum wage and can still send large chunks of money to their families living in poverty in their native lands.
More controversially, do foreigners see American greed as part of the reason why some people hate America…part of the reason terrorists target us on the streets of Mumbai.
As a nation we have worshiped the god of wealth and the security and power it brings for too long. The consequences of our greed is not the city lying in ruins and the temple in ashes as it was in Biblical times. So far we just have a mortgage and credit crisis.
We lived on the edge of our means. We mortgaged our houses and re-mortgaged our houses to maximize our capacity to consume never thinking our homes could lose value.
We maxed our credit, never thinking the economy would stall. We spent our resources on ourselves and look where we are.
If we repent and turn from our greed, will God rend the heavens and come down? If we start enjoying what we have and not wanting what we don’t have, will God come near?
Conclusion:
This song of corporate lament can be our song. We can confess our apathy and greed as a people. We can cry out to God for his return. We can pray, “O God as we turn, please draw near!”
O that you would rend the heavens and come down.
Pray
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sermon Test of Matthew 25:31-46 "Faith in Action" 11-23-08
Matthew 25:31-46 “Faith in Action” 11-23-08
Today’s text follows up on last week’s theme of being prepared for the end of time. In the fullness of time, the era of grace ends and the time of judgment begins. The time for making decisions is over and now Jesus judges us. In our text today Jesus gives a surprising image of what his judgment will look like.
Matthew 25:31-46:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'
Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'
And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'
Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.'
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
All nations, all people, and all the angels gather in front of the throne where Jesus sits as judge. You and I will be there there. There is no side room where we dwell in safety from Jesus’ all-knowing eyes. We gather with all the angels to receive reward or punishment. We gather to be judged.
Jesus doesn’t give us a fanciful image. He reveals the historical future for us. Judgment is coming. The present world will end as a dream and the new and everlasting world will begin with this scene.
Judgment will come as a fork in the road of human history. Some go to eternal life with God and others go to eternal punishment in hell.
Let’s begin with a theological question.
Have you ever been asked what will happen to people who’ve never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ in this life? Have you ever been asked, “What happens to people eternally if they’ve never been given the chance to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord?”
I have…I even got asked this question by a pastoral search committee. It’s an important question, and this text gives one of the best answers in the entire Bible.
Those who never hear the good news of Jesus Christ have hope because they met Jesus even though they didn’t realize it.
Jesus so identifies with the suffering that when people who don’t know Jesus come into contact with the hurting, they meet Jesus. He’s everywhere! He’s in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the homeless, the sick, and the imprisoned.
If people don’t hear about Jesus in this life, he will judge them based on how they responded to Him in the least of these. In saying this, Jesus fulfills the promise of his words, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
“Jesus opens up the gates of heaven to the simplest people in the world” (Bruner, 569) and they respond with dismay! “We didn’t know you in our lives and we didn’t see you in the people we served…we just responded with love.” Jesus welcomes them into his kingdom.
What about sin and forgiveness? When we talk about the gospel, we always and rightly talk about our sin and our need for forgiveness.
In the end, Jesus comes in glory as one who has dealt with the problem of sin once and for all and his words are built on His forgiveness…a forgiveness that even brings those who knew him not into his eternal kingdom if they served him by serving the needy (Bruner 752).
We don’t need to worry about who’s in and who’s out, that’s for Jesus to determine. He knows clearly who gets in. As plainly as a farmer knows the difference between a sheep and a goat, Jesus knows how to sort humanity.
This doesn’t release us from Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations, but it does reveal his amazing grace to those who’ve never been introduced to him.
So if you get asked how Jesus will judge people who didn’t hear about him in this life, this passage is a good place to turn for the answer.
Now to the main message of this text…In this scene of eternal judgment, Jesus reveals that faith in action is the only faith that leads to life. Or, more pointedly, there is no such thing as faith without service.
All the people who’ve ever lived gather together with all the angels and Jesus sits on the throne as judge. He separates people and sends them to one of the two places he’s prepared.
The sheep enter the bliss of heaven, while the goats go into the torment of hell.
Jesus welcomes the sheep into his kingdom because they fed him, gave him water, housed him when he was homeless, clothed him, visited him when he was sick, and came to see him in prison.
Jesus sends the goats to hell because he was hungry and thirsty and they turned a blind eye. He was homeless and naked and the goats ignored him. He was sick and in prison and the goats didn’t care.
What’s missing from this image? What category of questioning does not appear on Jesus’ lips?
The classic theological questions are missing. The questions from Jesus, “Do you believe I am Savior? Did you follow me as Lord? What do you think of me?”
Here Jesus does not ask, “Did you claim the forgiveness I offer as your own? If so, come into my kingdom, if not, go into eternal suffering.”
In this scene of judgment, why doesn’t Jesus ask us if we believe in Him as Savior and Lord? Why doesn’t he ask us if we’ve received salvation from him by faith? Why doesn’t Jesus ask any questions about belief or theology?!
Maybe faith requires simple and merciful action. Maybe faith only exists as faith in action. Maybe we’ve set up a false tension between faith and works in regard to salvation.
Will you allow me to speak in generalities for a minute or two? I think the Catholic Church has so emphasized good works with regard to salvation that some Catholic Christians have no assurance of their eternal home. They so stress the activity of faith that it becomes the essence of salvation. Do enough good and you’ll get into heaven.
Where is the relationship with God? Where is the blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine?! It’s lost because of an undue emphasis on performance.
On the other hand, in the protestant church, we have so emphasized forgiveness, belief, and proper theology that people don’t think their life of action matters. The point becomes praying to God once for forgiveness and receiving the free gift of eternal life.
Our salvation is so assured that we can live however we want. No wonder people ignore the church [or attack it with shouts of ‘hypocrites]! We are like those in Titus 1:16 who profess to know God, but by their works deny him – people who are “detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.”
We’ve been consumed by a desire to believe correctly and to know enough about God but such knowledge has no use unless it’s put into action. James says “Even the demons believe…and tremble.”
The zealous may go on crusades so that others will pray the sinners’ prayer. Others may put supreme focus on their personal relationship with God. But most typically the convert simply goes about living a normal selfish life.
Could it be that faith requires more than one simple confession at one point in our lives?
(Pause)
This text reveals that genuine faith in Christ is lived, not simply claimed once.
Ephesians 2:8 and 9 has been used for decades as an argument for salvation by faith and not works. It says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”
But do we know the verse that follows these two? It says, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
In Christ we are a new creation – created for good works.
And it’s not like Jesus expects that much. This end of time judgment scene shows what is needed; mercy – practical kindness to the suffering.
Jesus doesn’t say to the sheep entering his kingdom, I was sick and you healed me, or I was imprisoned and you liberated me, no, he says you gave practical little services. When I was hungry you fed me. When I was thirsty you gave me a glass of water. When I was naked and homeless, you took me into your home and clothed me. When I was sick and in prison – as lonely as a human can be – you visited me. You simply spent time with me.
Do we identify Jesus with people in desperate need? Do we understand that when we serve those in need we serve our Savior?
Luther writes, “O dear Lord God! How are we so blind that we don’t take such love to heart! Who could have thought it up that God himself throws himself so deep down into our midst and accepts the works of all those who give themselves to the poor as though they were done for him. Thus the world is full, full of God – in every alley, before your door, you find Christ.”
Bengel asks, “Who would not run to prisons and hospitals on errands of mercy if assured that Christ is there?”
Bill Robinson tells the story of arriving to begin regular work with inmates at the state penitentiary in Stillwater, Minnesota. “The chaplain took me aside and said, “Don’t forget Bill. If Matthew 25…is right, you didn’t come to bring Jesus to these guys; you came to find him.”
Only faith in action exists. There is no such thing as faith without works.
Please understand that I am not contradicting the gospel I’ve preached for almost three years here. I’m not preaching a different gospel. Salvation is a free gift from God. It is not earned. However, we are recognized by others as Christians by our love and by Jesus at the end of time by the results of our faith.
Klyne Snodgrass puts it the best, “There is no tension between faith and works because, properly understood, faith encompasses works and necessitates productive living. Faith works, but it does not use its activity to prove to God or to people that the believer is righteous.
[An executive friend of mine] (My executive friend…) makes corporate decisions in keeping with his faith. That does not make him presentable to God or better than other people. That is just what faith does. It has a new agenda and seeks to work it out. A life of obedience is not something separated from faith; it grows out of the relationship with God that we have by faith. Works are made possible by faith.” 105
By faith, we are what Christ has made us – a new creation made for serving others.
Biblical faith demands that God run our lives, not us. If there’s no evidence in our lives that we’ve laid aside our interests and now respond based on God’s interests, maybe there is no faith in us.
Biblical faith demands all that we are – the intellect, the will, the emotions, and yes even our money and possessions. (Snodgrass, 98) Jesus asks us to use what we have for his kingdom of love and mercy.
He doesn’t say you have to give $1000 to feed the hungry to be saved. You have to do 100 visitations of the sick to be saved. But he does say we have to live the life he’s given us for the sake of others.
In this scene of eternal judgment, Jesus reveals that faith in action is the only faith that leads to life.
How are you responding internally to these words of Christ?
“Disciples who in good faith hear this “damnation of nothings” will fall on their knees in poverty of spirit to ask the Lord for another chance to be someone more helpful the rest of their lives.”
Pray.
This morning I emailed you a short story by Leo Tolstoy entitled, “Where Love Is, There God Is Also.” For those of you without an email address I’ve made copies for you. They’re on the tables in the fellowship hall. I want you to read it this week. It has everything to do with discovering Christ in those in need.
Today’s text follows up on last week’s theme of being prepared for the end of time. In the fullness of time, the era of grace ends and the time of judgment begins. The time for making decisions is over and now Jesus judges us. In our text today Jesus gives a surprising image of what his judgment will look like.
Matthew 25:31-46:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'
Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'
And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'
Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.'
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
All nations, all people, and all the angels gather in front of the throne where Jesus sits as judge. You and I will be there there. There is no side room where we dwell in safety from Jesus’ all-knowing eyes. We gather with all the angels to receive reward or punishment. We gather to be judged.
Jesus doesn’t give us a fanciful image. He reveals the historical future for us. Judgment is coming. The present world will end as a dream and the new and everlasting world will begin with this scene.
Judgment will come as a fork in the road of human history. Some go to eternal life with God and others go to eternal punishment in hell.
Let’s begin with a theological question.
Have you ever been asked what will happen to people who’ve never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ in this life? Have you ever been asked, “What happens to people eternally if they’ve never been given the chance to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord?”
I have…I even got asked this question by a pastoral search committee. It’s an important question, and this text gives one of the best answers in the entire Bible.
Those who never hear the good news of Jesus Christ have hope because they met Jesus even though they didn’t realize it.
Jesus so identifies with the suffering that when people who don’t know Jesus come into contact with the hurting, they meet Jesus. He’s everywhere! He’s in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the homeless, the sick, and the imprisoned.
If people don’t hear about Jesus in this life, he will judge them based on how they responded to Him in the least of these. In saying this, Jesus fulfills the promise of his words, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
“Jesus opens up the gates of heaven to the simplest people in the world” (Bruner, 569) and they respond with dismay! “We didn’t know you in our lives and we didn’t see you in the people we served…we just responded with love.” Jesus welcomes them into his kingdom.
What about sin and forgiveness? When we talk about the gospel, we always and rightly talk about our sin and our need for forgiveness.
In the end, Jesus comes in glory as one who has dealt with the problem of sin once and for all and his words are built on His forgiveness…a forgiveness that even brings those who knew him not into his eternal kingdom if they served him by serving the needy (Bruner 752).
We don’t need to worry about who’s in and who’s out, that’s for Jesus to determine. He knows clearly who gets in. As plainly as a farmer knows the difference between a sheep and a goat, Jesus knows how to sort humanity.
This doesn’t release us from Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations, but it does reveal his amazing grace to those who’ve never been introduced to him.
So if you get asked how Jesus will judge people who didn’t hear about him in this life, this passage is a good place to turn for the answer.
Now to the main message of this text…In this scene of eternal judgment, Jesus reveals that faith in action is the only faith that leads to life. Or, more pointedly, there is no such thing as faith without service.
All the people who’ve ever lived gather together with all the angels and Jesus sits on the throne as judge. He separates people and sends them to one of the two places he’s prepared.
The sheep enter the bliss of heaven, while the goats go into the torment of hell.
Jesus welcomes the sheep into his kingdom because they fed him, gave him water, housed him when he was homeless, clothed him, visited him when he was sick, and came to see him in prison.
Jesus sends the goats to hell because he was hungry and thirsty and they turned a blind eye. He was homeless and naked and the goats ignored him. He was sick and in prison and the goats didn’t care.
What’s missing from this image? What category of questioning does not appear on Jesus’ lips?
The classic theological questions are missing. The questions from Jesus, “Do you believe I am Savior? Did you follow me as Lord? What do you think of me?”
Here Jesus does not ask, “Did you claim the forgiveness I offer as your own? If so, come into my kingdom, if not, go into eternal suffering.”
In this scene of judgment, why doesn’t Jesus ask us if we believe in Him as Savior and Lord? Why doesn’t he ask us if we’ve received salvation from him by faith? Why doesn’t Jesus ask any questions about belief or theology?!
Maybe faith requires simple and merciful action. Maybe faith only exists as faith in action. Maybe we’ve set up a false tension between faith and works in regard to salvation.
Will you allow me to speak in generalities for a minute or two? I think the Catholic Church has so emphasized good works with regard to salvation that some Catholic Christians have no assurance of their eternal home. They so stress the activity of faith that it becomes the essence of salvation. Do enough good and you’ll get into heaven.
Where is the relationship with God? Where is the blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine?! It’s lost because of an undue emphasis on performance.
On the other hand, in the protestant church, we have so emphasized forgiveness, belief, and proper theology that people don’t think their life of action matters. The point becomes praying to God once for forgiveness and receiving the free gift of eternal life.
Our salvation is so assured that we can live however we want. No wonder people ignore the church [or attack it with shouts of ‘hypocrites]! We are like those in Titus 1:16 who profess to know God, but by their works deny him – people who are “detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.”
We’ve been consumed by a desire to believe correctly and to know enough about God but such knowledge has no use unless it’s put into action. James says “Even the demons believe…and tremble.”
The zealous may go on crusades so that others will pray the sinners’ prayer. Others may put supreme focus on their personal relationship with God. But most typically the convert simply goes about living a normal selfish life.
Could it be that faith requires more than one simple confession at one point in our lives?
(Pause)
This text reveals that genuine faith in Christ is lived, not simply claimed once.
Ephesians 2:8 and 9 has been used for decades as an argument for salvation by faith and not works. It says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”
But do we know the verse that follows these two? It says, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
In Christ we are a new creation – created for good works.
And it’s not like Jesus expects that much. This end of time judgment scene shows what is needed; mercy – practical kindness to the suffering.
Jesus doesn’t say to the sheep entering his kingdom, I was sick and you healed me, or I was imprisoned and you liberated me, no, he says you gave practical little services. When I was hungry you fed me. When I was thirsty you gave me a glass of water. When I was naked and homeless, you took me into your home and clothed me. When I was sick and in prison – as lonely as a human can be – you visited me. You simply spent time with me.
Do we identify Jesus with people in desperate need? Do we understand that when we serve those in need we serve our Savior?
Luther writes, “O dear Lord God! How are we so blind that we don’t take such love to heart! Who could have thought it up that God himself throws himself so deep down into our midst and accepts the works of all those who give themselves to the poor as though they were done for him. Thus the world is full, full of God – in every alley, before your door, you find Christ.”
Bengel asks, “Who would not run to prisons and hospitals on errands of mercy if assured that Christ is there?”
Bill Robinson tells the story of arriving to begin regular work with inmates at the state penitentiary in Stillwater, Minnesota. “The chaplain took me aside and said, “Don’t forget Bill. If Matthew 25…is right, you didn’t come to bring Jesus to these guys; you came to find him.”
Only faith in action exists. There is no such thing as faith without works.
Please understand that I am not contradicting the gospel I’ve preached for almost three years here. I’m not preaching a different gospel. Salvation is a free gift from God. It is not earned. However, we are recognized by others as Christians by our love and by Jesus at the end of time by the results of our faith.
Klyne Snodgrass puts it the best, “There is no tension between faith and works because, properly understood, faith encompasses works and necessitates productive living. Faith works, but it does not use its activity to prove to God or to people that the believer is righteous.
[An executive friend of mine] (My executive friend…) makes corporate decisions in keeping with his faith. That does not make him presentable to God or better than other people. That is just what faith does. It has a new agenda and seeks to work it out. A life of obedience is not something separated from faith; it grows out of the relationship with God that we have by faith. Works are made possible by faith.” 105
By faith, we are what Christ has made us – a new creation made for serving others.
Biblical faith demands that God run our lives, not us. If there’s no evidence in our lives that we’ve laid aside our interests and now respond based on God’s interests, maybe there is no faith in us.
Biblical faith demands all that we are – the intellect, the will, the emotions, and yes even our money and possessions. (Snodgrass, 98) Jesus asks us to use what we have for his kingdom of love and mercy.
He doesn’t say you have to give $1000 to feed the hungry to be saved. You have to do 100 visitations of the sick to be saved. But he does say we have to live the life he’s given us for the sake of others.
In this scene of eternal judgment, Jesus reveals that faith in action is the only faith that leads to life.
How are you responding internally to these words of Christ?
“Disciples who in good faith hear this “damnation of nothings” will fall on their knees in poverty of spirit to ask the Lord for another chance to be someone more helpful the rest of their lives.”
Pray.
This morning I emailed you a short story by Leo Tolstoy entitled, “Where Love Is, There God Is Also.” For those of you without an email address I’ve made copies for you. They’re on the tables in the fellowship hall. I want you to read it this week. It has everything to do with discovering Christ in those in need.
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