Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
1 Corinthians 3: 1-9
Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country to spend a long time overseas. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, "Look, I'm going to leave. And while I'm gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I'm away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip." Everyone agrees.
He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess--weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the girl at the front desk is sleeping, loud music is coming from several offices, and two or three people are messing around in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, "What happened? Didn't you get my letters?"
You say, "Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We've even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have 'letter study' every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters." I think the president would then ask, "But what did you do about my instructions?" And, no doubt the employees would respond, "Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!"
There’s not much point in studying the Bible and going to church every Sunday if we aren’t going to do what God has instructed us to do. I can only imagine at how God shakes his head at us when we show up on Sundays wearing our Sunday best, but our hearts are filled with sinfulness. The Lord wants us to take an active part in our relationship with Him and to do that we must be more than church-goers. We must be church-doers.
In their own way, those people in that company were obedient to their boss. They stayed working at the company and they did read those letters of his, but they never quite understood what it was they were supposed to be doing. What are we working toward? Do we have a goal as Christians? Do we have a purpose here at Trinity church in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania? Does everyone know what the goal is and how we are working to achieve it?
George Harrison once said that, “If you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there.” As Christians we need to know where we are going. We need to know more about what Jesus Christ is up to in the world and there is one really good way to do that. It requires making the Christian way of life something more than a Sunday activity and instead make it an all week habit. If we are never thinking about God outside of church, how is it even possible to SEE God outside of this building?!
The best way to see God is to start speaking to Him. We all know we are supposed to pray, but did you know that some of the most faithful Christians in all of our history have been men and women who pray continually? Everything that happened in their day was spoken of with God. These men and women are now the pillars of our Christian faith because they knew what Jesus was up to in the world. They knew where they were going because they obeyed the Lord.
Too often we get caught up in the pettiness of life so God become obscured. Just like those early Christians, fighting over who they followed. I follow Paul, well I follow Apollos. And Paul writes back to them that neither Paul or Apollos are important at all. They were merely the instruments God used to bring those early Christians to Jesus Christ. What is important in the story is always “what is Jesus up to?” and then following Him.
That is where the people in the company went wrong. They knew exactly what their employer was up to, exactly what he wanted from them, but they did not follow him. The old adage of while the cat’s away the mice will play is perfect for these people. Honestly, it speaks the truth about all human beings. We do not have any sense of urgency when it comes to following Jesus Christ. Most of us go the whole day without worrying about following Jesus. We’re too busy putting out fires at work, fixing dinner at home, putting the kids to bed and running errands for our spouses to have time to worry about what Jesus is telling us to do.
You see, if we take the time to listen to Jesus he helps us build up defenses. He helps us to change those sinful parts of us into good and Godly parts. Jesus is trying to help us create a life and a world where we can always be happy and content. But we are too busy doing our own thing and traveling our own path to bother giving his way a chance. We say we are obedient and that we want to build a better world, but whenever we get the chance we don’t often take it.
This reminds me of a poem I once read about a man watching a building demolition. It went:
As I watched them tear a building down
A gang of men in a busy town
With a ho-heave-ho, and a lusty yell
They swung a beam and the side wall fell.
I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled,
And the men that you'd hire if you wanted to build?"
He gave a laugh and said, "No, indeed,
Just common labor is all I need."
"I can easily wreck in a day or two,
What builders have taken years to do."
And I thought to myself, as I went my way
Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by rule and square?
Am I shaping my work to a well-made plan
Patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks to town
Content with the labor of tearing down?
"O Lord let my life and my labors be
That which will build for eternity!"
The only way we can make our life and labors geared toward eternity is if we pay attention to what God is telling us. We need to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, we need to keep our eyes peeled for where Jesus is and we need to ask ourselves if we are doing this because of God or because of our self. But even more than knowing what Jesus is up to is actually following where he leads us.
Do we have a goal that we work toward, one with a carefully made plan? Are we patiently trying to do the best that we can or are we the kind of people that will tear down what others have worked so hard to create and never notice the damage we leave in our wake? Paul tells us that we are co-workers in God’s service, we have a place in God’s grand plan, but we have to be willing to do more than read the instruction manual – we have to be willing to follow. We have much to do!
Amen.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
A Secret Wisdom
Psalm 112: 1-10
1 Corinthians 2: 1-16
While studying the bible this week i discovered a secret about God and the commandments he has given us. I was learning of the first people to fill the earth and how quickly they turned wicked and violent. And then there was Noah who was pleasing in God’s eyes. Noah who walked with the Lord, Noah who saw God’s commands as life-giving rather than rules that would cage him in and take away his freedom. Noah understood that when God tells us to do something it is not because he wants to be a tyrant or dictator, but that there is a reason, a good reason behind the command. Noah understood that God was our loving parent and if we follow God’s ways there is freedom and life in the act of following.
So imagine my surprise when I read the Old Testament reading in my devotion the next day and it says in the very first verse, “Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands”. It sounds to me like God is trying to tell us something here. The wonderful thing about the Lord is that when he wants to get through to us, he’s not very subtle. He keeps hammering away at all of us until we get too exhausted to fight anymore. Isn’t that wonderful? God doesn’t give up on us – ever.
The next few verses in Psalm 112 tell us why we should fear the Lord and delight in his ways. It says that our children will be blessed and mighty, that they will know wealth and riches. It says that those who know God, will know even in the darkest of moments that the light (which is Jesus Christ) will be with them. Goodness comes to those who are generous and lend freely, and those who act with honor will be honored themselves. This is an amazing passage!
What is wonderful about the Old Testament is that it sets up many of the rules we are to follow. Not just the Ten Commandments or the laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. I’m talking about rules of the heart, rules of the Spirit. I’m talking about the secret Wisdom that comes straight from God’s heart to our own hearts. You see, it is not easy to live your whole life trying to be loving and kind and generous. Matter of fact, it can be downright exhausting to always try to have a smile on your face and kind words on your lips.
This is why so often we fail. We forget that all goodness and power and glory not just GO TO God, but COME FROM God. We try to do it on our own! Silly, silly, silly of us! And we all do it, we learn from an early age that we are to do things on our own. We teach our children to feed themselves, to walk without aid, to tie their shoes and put on clothes without our help. Then we teach them to do chores such as clean their room and mow the lawn. Then we teach them to drive and schools teach them how to think on their own. We teach them how to be completely independent and so when it comes to trying to be spiritually wise, we all try to do it on our own. Because that is what we have learned.
However, we cannot. We need God the Father’s help. We need Jesus Christ. We need the Holy Spirit. If we could be spiritually wise on our own, Adam and Eve never would have eaten the fruit. There is a reason why before beginning the sermon I ask that the Lord open our hearts and minds to His Word. I ask because if I do not ask for the Lord’s help, these words are just words.
They have no power or potency because they would merely be the words of one woman rather than God’s Holy Word that is filled with the power to change lives. And isn’t that what we proclaim? That because God is with us, there is holy power to be found in this sanctuary today. Ready and waiting for us to open our hearts, to free our minds from our human limitations where we think we are so wise – but we need to remember that we are no where near wise.
Without God, without God’s loving guidance, without the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and Jesus’ faithfulness we would be and are nothing. And once we understand this truth, once we wrap our minds around the fact that we need God – we become free. Isn’t that interesting? Everyone always taught us that to be free means to not need anything from anyone. But that is human wisdom, not Godly wisdom.
Freedom means accepting God’s dominion. It means fearing God’s magnificent power, it means respecting God’s wishes for us. Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, once we accept God the Father’s commands and the Holy Spirit’s guidance our life will change forever.
Freedom means letting go of doubt and fear. Freedom means accepting what comes to us as gifts from God and even the painful times in our life are no longer something to be feared. We learn from the pain, we grow and we change during stressful, hurtful times. It does not trivialize our pain, it does not make it less real or less painful. But it DOES makes it more than human anguish – we remember that the one who died for us, shares this agony with us and that we may lean upon His strength to get us through.
There is the freedom. When Carrie Underwood sang the song, “Jesus take the wheel”, this is exactly what we must do. Let Jesus take us where we are supposed to go. Let the Spirit soothe our anguished hearts, and we let ourselves accept that God is not a ruthless dictator who likes to see us squirm, but that God is an anxious parent, worried over His creation. Worried that even though he offers us life, we constantly choose death. Worried that even though he has given us everything he has to give, there are still those who will never accept Him. There are so many people that never really see God, not the way God is. Not like Noah saw God – as one that brings and gives life. Instead, many of us see God as stern and unbending, indifferent to our pain and suffering.
If you really want to make your head spin, consider this analogy for God. God is the wallflower sitting in the corner at the dance. The wallflower that is actually a wonderful, good and kind person, but no one ever sees that. No one ever notices the goodness and grace because they are too busy staring at what is flashy, shiny and appears perfect. God is the forgotten, unnoticed person in this room, the one you never think much about, but if you paid attention you would see that person has a wealth of love to give.
So my challenge to you this week is to find that wallflower. Find the person that goes unnoticed in your life and take the time to say a few words. Take the time to get to know that person you think is funny or strange or weird. It may just be Jesus Christ you have been ignoring. God often uses unexpected people and ways to reach out to us but we have to have eyes that see and ears that hear and hearts that are open to the wisdom of God's Spirit.
Amen.
1 Corinthians 2: 1-16
While studying the bible this week i discovered a secret about God and the commandments he has given us. I was learning of the first people to fill the earth and how quickly they turned wicked and violent. And then there was Noah who was pleasing in God’s eyes. Noah who walked with the Lord, Noah who saw God’s commands as life-giving rather than rules that would cage him in and take away his freedom. Noah understood that when God tells us to do something it is not because he wants to be a tyrant or dictator, but that there is a reason, a good reason behind the command. Noah understood that God was our loving parent and if we follow God’s ways there is freedom and life in the act of following.
So imagine my surprise when I read the Old Testament reading in my devotion the next day and it says in the very first verse, “Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands”. It sounds to me like God is trying to tell us something here. The wonderful thing about the Lord is that when he wants to get through to us, he’s not very subtle. He keeps hammering away at all of us until we get too exhausted to fight anymore. Isn’t that wonderful? God doesn’t give up on us – ever.
The next few verses in Psalm 112 tell us why we should fear the Lord and delight in his ways. It says that our children will be blessed and mighty, that they will know wealth and riches. It says that those who know God, will know even in the darkest of moments that the light (which is Jesus Christ) will be with them. Goodness comes to those who are generous and lend freely, and those who act with honor will be honored themselves. This is an amazing passage!
What is wonderful about the Old Testament is that it sets up many of the rules we are to follow. Not just the Ten Commandments or the laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. I’m talking about rules of the heart, rules of the Spirit. I’m talking about the secret Wisdom that comes straight from God’s heart to our own hearts. You see, it is not easy to live your whole life trying to be loving and kind and generous. Matter of fact, it can be downright exhausting to always try to have a smile on your face and kind words on your lips.
This is why so often we fail. We forget that all goodness and power and glory not just GO TO God, but COME FROM God. We try to do it on our own! Silly, silly, silly of us! And we all do it, we learn from an early age that we are to do things on our own. We teach our children to feed themselves, to walk without aid, to tie their shoes and put on clothes without our help. Then we teach them to do chores such as clean their room and mow the lawn. Then we teach them to drive and schools teach them how to think on their own. We teach them how to be completely independent and so when it comes to trying to be spiritually wise, we all try to do it on our own. Because that is what we have learned.
However, we cannot. We need God the Father’s help. We need Jesus Christ. We need the Holy Spirit. If we could be spiritually wise on our own, Adam and Eve never would have eaten the fruit. There is a reason why before beginning the sermon I ask that the Lord open our hearts and minds to His Word. I ask because if I do not ask for the Lord’s help, these words are just words.
They have no power or potency because they would merely be the words of one woman rather than God’s Holy Word that is filled with the power to change lives. And isn’t that what we proclaim? That because God is with us, there is holy power to be found in this sanctuary today. Ready and waiting for us to open our hearts, to free our minds from our human limitations where we think we are so wise – but we need to remember that we are no where near wise.
Without God, without God’s loving guidance, without the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and Jesus’ faithfulness we would be and are nothing. And once we understand this truth, once we wrap our minds around the fact that we need God – we become free. Isn’t that interesting? Everyone always taught us that to be free means to not need anything from anyone. But that is human wisdom, not Godly wisdom.
Freedom means accepting God’s dominion. It means fearing God’s magnificent power, it means respecting God’s wishes for us. Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, once we accept God the Father’s commands and the Holy Spirit’s guidance our life will change forever.
Freedom means letting go of doubt and fear. Freedom means accepting what comes to us as gifts from God and even the painful times in our life are no longer something to be feared. We learn from the pain, we grow and we change during stressful, hurtful times. It does not trivialize our pain, it does not make it less real or less painful. But it DOES makes it more than human anguish – we remember that the one who died for us, shares this agony with us and that we may lean upon His strength to get us through.
There is the freedom. When Carrie Underwood sang the song, “Jesus take the wheel”, this is exactly what we must do. Let Jesus take us where we are supposed to go. Let the Spirit soothe our anguished hearts, and we let ourselves accept that God is not a ruthless dictator who likes to see us squirm, but that God is an anxious parent, worried over His creation. Worried that even though he offers us life, we constantly choose death. Worried that even though he has given us everything he has to give, there are still those who will never accept Him. There are so many people that never really see God, not the way God is. Not like Noah saw God – as one that brings and gives life. Instead, many of us see God as stern and unbending, indifferent to our pain and suffering.
If you really want to make your head spin, consider this analogy for God. God is the wallflower sitting in the corner at the dance. The wallflower that is actually a wonderful, good and kind person, but no one ever sees that. No one ever notices the goodness and grace because they are too busy staring at what is flashy, shiny and appears perfect. God is the forgotten, unnoticed person in this room, the one you never think much about, but if you paid attention you would see that person has a wealth of love to give.
So my challenge to you this week is to find that wallflower. Find the person that goes unnoticed in your life and take the time to say a few words. Take the time to get to know that person you think is funny or strange or weird. It may just be Jesus Christ you have been ignoring. God often uses unexpected people and ways to reach out to us but we have to have eyes that see and ears that hear and hearts that are open to the wisdom of God's Spirit.
Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
