Fear and Love

Jer 1: 4-10
Hebrews 12: 18-29

The scripture we read today in Hebrews is a confusing text because it seems to be filled with contradictions. Like last week, we are met not with a loving God, but one that causes Moses to tremble with fear and who's voice shakes the heavens. And yet, in this passage we also see the God we have come to expect, the one full of forgiveness and love for God's wayward creation.

Which God is our God - the one that makes the mountains and heavens tremble in fear or the one that inspires reverence and awe for the promises that have been made and kept in Jesus' name?

God is all things. There is no choice here because the God that can make us tremble in fear is also the one that loves us beyond all imagining. Jesus understood that sometimes we needed to be fearful in order to respect the message he was trying to convey to us. It is why last week he talked about reigning fire down upon all of us when normally he is telling us to forgive 77 x 7 times.

There comes a moment in each of our lives when we need to shape up. There is something we are not doing well or deliberately not doing at all. Perhaps there is someone you dislike and so you avoid them day after day. Maybe it's even a family member or was a close friend until you had a disagreement. Perhaps you have been cutting corners at work and hoping no one would notice that things have not been going well for some time.

Perhaps you've been ignoring your spouse and have taken advantage of the idea that they'd always be there for you instead of appreciating them. Perhaps you have been working so much and such late hours that your children never see you and you never make it to any of their extracurricular activities. Perhaps you have been ignoring that ache in your chest or that pain in your hip or that your weight has been getting higher year after year.  

God reminds us in this passage that although we are blessed with the promise of life after death forged in the blood of Jesus Christ, that does not mean we should get lazy. Because it's not only in our personal life that we need to shape up. In the church we are called to act like a blessed people which means creating ways for others to be blessed by God. It means sharing our love for God with others. It means stepping out of these walls to make a difference in our town, our nation, and the world. God does not want a bunch of people that merely sing songs of love and forgiveness and generosity. Jesus calls us to BE all of those things as well.

Yes, God is the one that makes us tremble in fear as well as reverence. Jesus is our judge as well as our savior. We need him to be. We need to know that it's not okay to sit back and relax all the time. These passages in the last few weeks are a stick prodding us in the backside and telling us to get moving. It's time to act! It's time to make a change in the world!

This doesn't have to be some huge, momentous event. Some of the most amazing things have happened because a person started small. There was a young boy that wanted to make a difference in his community and so he began to shoot basketball hoops to raise money to help others. He'd ask for a donation for every three point shot he made and people sponsored him. Then one day, he got a friend to join him. And another joined. One day, the whole school decided to shoot hoops for charity. Now schools all over the nation do it. This kid just wanted to help others and so he looked at what he was good at and he used it to make a difference. He had no idea that he was going to begin something that would change a lot of lives. All he knew is that God had called him to help others and this was his way of helping.

Don't assume because of your age or gender or your set of skills that God isn't calling you to help others. In Jeremiah today we read about his call by God. Jeremiah tried to use excuses to get out of being God's prophet as well. "I'm too young! Too inexperienced!" and God responds with the most amazing words, "I knew you in the womb and have been calling you to this since that moment." God created you. God breathed life into you. If you think God does not know your skill set and what you can and can't do then you're kidding yourself. God knows you. God still wants you to do something to help others, and has been calling you to do so from the moment of your creation.

Whether it is icing cookies for the funeral today or setting up chairs for the spaghetti dinner this fall, or whether it is creating a program that will one day make the nation sit up and notice- Jesus wants you to help make the Kingdom of God a little more real to those who are hurting. That's our true calling as a church. We are here to remind the world that there is more to life than pain. There is a beautiful life full of peace, forgiveness, and love waiting for all of us. And the more we remind others of this gift of salvation, the more we are reassured as well.

We all need to remember that we're not alone in this world. We all need those connections that sharing the Gospel provides for us. We all need more of Jesus in our life and less of our own egos. Moses was one of the greatest people in the bible and he trembled in fear before the Lord. Today we should take a moment to be amazed by the God that moves mountains and who's voice shakes the heavens, and remember that our calling is not something we should be able to ignore.

Amen.