Sermon # 1034
March 27, 2011
Exodus 17:1-7
John 4:5-15
Dr. Ed Pettus
“A Thirst for Living Water”
Israel spent a lot of time in the proverbial middle of nowhere. Forty years in the wilderness following Moses – following God. The wilderness is a place of threat because the wilderness does not supply the needs for life. The wilderness has no food, no shelter, and in the case of Exodus 17, no water. No water means death to Israel. No water means they have risked everything following Moses out of Egypt. The wilderness is a place of trust where Israel learns to trust God for what they need, but Israel is slow in learning that trust and they question God.
Our text today comes to us during the season of Lent. Lent is a time to reflect on our own wilderness, a wilderness of sin, a wilderness of social and cultural change, a wilderness wherein we, like Israel, may learn to trust God for our life. God has given us water for life, water to sustain us physically and water that quenches all our thirsts in the wilderness of life. Our journey begins with baptism, a journey through the water, just as Israel’s journey began through the waters of the sea. Sometimes our journey leads us to places without water, without resources, without trust.
Our life text intersects with other texts. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at a well, a place to gather water for life, but Jesus offers her a new kind of water – one she desires so that she will never thirst again. Her thirst runs deep like that of the Israelites in the wilderness, but her thirst is for more than water from a well, but water from a Savior.
I. We thirst for the water God supplies, water for our physical and spiritual well-being.
Exodus 17 presents a story of lack. There is no water to drink and Israel complains: Where will they get water? They complain to Moses, “Give us water to drink.” I guess they thought Moses knew where a well was located. Perhaps they are asking Moses because he stands between them and God. Perhaps they are asking God for water. Moses asks them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”
It seems like a legitimate request. They are thirsty and they will die without water. Walter Brueggemann writes: “The focus is upon their deep need and upon the way is which the deepest question of faith is connected to the deepest material reality of life” (Inscribing the Text p.137). There is a connection between the material and the spiritual that cannot be severed. The lack of water to drink raises questions of God’s presence. Moses even names the places of Israel’s question of God. He names Massah meaning “test,” and Meribah meaning “find fault.” They lacked water to drink and so they asked: “Is God among us or not?” The absence of water triggered the question of God’s presence. They test God. They find fault with God. They question God’s presence.
Is not that the way it goes with us? I was thinking about the latest natural disaster and the problems of water shortage in Japan. There is always a shortage of water with a natural disaster whether it is drinking water or water to cool a nuclear reactor, water is a key element for life. On occasion we might have a water pipe break and we are told that we should boil our water, but imagine if the water just stopped and all the shelves at the grocery store were empty. When we lack what we need or even what we want, sometimes we question God. We know, as well as Israel knows, that our physical well-being is tied to God’s presence. Without God we will have nothing. With God, we have all we need.
So God tells Moses to take some elders with him and to strike a rock with his staff and water will come out so that the people will be able to drink. God provides them what they need to survive. God provides for us what we need even when the wilderness threatens us with thirst or even death.
II. We thirst for living water, the water Christ gives that enables us to never thirst again.
In another wilderness story Jesus meets a woman at a well and he asks her for water to drink. Jesus is thirsty. She is amazed that a Jew would speak to her, a Samaritan woman – no Jew would speak to the Samaritans because they believed them to be impure. Jesus quickly turns the conversation around and tells the woman - ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water’ (John 4:10).
Now the physical need for water is connected with the spiritual need for living water. Water becomes the metaphor for new life in Christ, as Jesus says, “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Good news has come in the living water, just as good news came for Israel when Moses struck the rock. Water for which we thirst has become the symbol for new life in Christ and the power of God’s Spirit. God’s provision for our thirst is now the sign of life with God in Christ. And the waters of baptism connect us with the God who gives us water for drinking and living water for new life. All our physical and spiritual needs are met and we will never thirst again.
III. We thirst for the living God, Psalm 42:1-2; 63:1-8.
Two other texts add to our word from the Lord: First is Psalm 42:1-2 – “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” The true thirst is not for a drink of water, but in the thirst of our soul. The promise is that God will give us the living water that quenches our thirst for God – living water that quenches our thirst. Israel thirsted for water but their thirst would never be satisfied until they tasted of God – trusted in God.
Another Psalm, Psalm 63:1-8 says, “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”
Our thirst for God is like thirsting in a dry and weary land, like a people wandering the wilderness in search of water and like the Samaritan woman who comes to well to get water that sustains life. Our souls are parched and the living water is the only water that can quench our thirst. We look elsewhere – to the world, to work, to entertainment, to riches, we look in all kinds of places to find satisfaction, but none will satisfy. Remember the Rolling Stones song, “I can’t get no satisfaction?” The reason the Rolling Stones could get no satisfaction was because they were looking in all the wrong places. All of our thirsts and hungers and yearnings and desires are, at root, a thirst for God! But we will go everywhere else, we will look to other sources to try and satisfy that thirst…until…until we trust in God. We will look in all the wrong places to quench our thirst until we come to see that God is truly with us and that God is truly giving us living water in Jesus Christ.
IV. Lent is a time to spend in the wilderness opening awareness of our thirsts.
The season of Lent is a perfect time for us to seek the One who satisfies. Through the waters of baptism we are called into the wilderness of Lent. Just as Jesus was called out of the Jordan after his baptism into the wilderness, so we are called from the waters to trust in God – to trust that God will give us abundant water to drink and abundant living water to satisfy.
But, we also hear these words from the prophet Isaiah: Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant…Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
This is the call for our practice of Lent – Come to the waters; come to the source; come drink and eat; come to God. Let us forsake wickedness and return to the Lord. Let us recognize that our thirst, even our thirst for water, is a thirst for God – a thirst for the living water of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Sermon
Sermon # 1033
March 20, 2011
1 Peter 3:18-22
Dr. Ed Pettus
“The New Reality in Our Baptism”
Lent is perhaps the most difficult of church seasons. Granted, there is no shopping to do, no gifts to purchase, no decorations, no cards, no family gatherings like Christmas brings, no big meals to prepare, so in one respect maybe it is not too hard on us. But Lent is difficult for those who take seriously the disciplines of self-reflection, self-examination, repentance and humility. No one gets festive about that!
When we are called to look at our selves, to reflect on our lives, we fear what we might see. It is easier to continue our self-deception than to engage in self-examination. But Lent calls us to examination. This is the message of Lent: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing” ~ Joel 2:12-13.
We return to God through examination, fasting, weeping, and mourning – because we see our sinfulness. Our hearts break. But what we come to realize more deeply is the power of God to forgive our sin and to cleanse us of that sin. It is the same power that we know through our baptism. In our baptism we have experienced the forgiveness of sin, the washing away of all that would break our hearts, and the new life and new reality we have in Christ.
The scripture readings for today relate to baptism. The Old Testament reading reminds us of the saving of Noah and those with him, through the waters of the flood. Noah and his family were saved through the waters just as the waters of baptism symbolized our salvation. The Epistle lesson, 1 Peter 3, is something of an odd passage, parts of which we are not sure how to interpret. The overall context of the passage deals with unjust suffering.
Verses 18-22 use Jesus Christ as an example of one who suffered. The passage links the sufferings of Christians to the suffering of Christ through our baptism. In our baptism we share in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. We are also, in our baptism, linked to Noah and the flood, in the gospels, to Jesus in the Jordan, and to Christians everywhere who suffer – because we have all passed through the waters.
Peter, I imagine, intended to comfort the suffering Christians of his day with these words that connect believers to Jesus. We are unfamiliar with the suffering they endured, with persecution and the threat of death. But what if we took this passage as a comfort in the discomfort of Lent, the discomfort of examining our hearts and having sin rear its ugly head? That may entail more suffering for some, but we won’t name names! This passage helps us participate in Lenten disciplines in two ways:
1. It reminds us that our hope lies in remembering the suffering servant, Jesus Christ,
2. It reminds us that in our baptism, we may know the will of God.
Let us look first at the suffering servant. Jesus died on the cross because of our sin. It was not his fault! Not his crime! Instead, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5.6). While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5.8)! But it does not end there! Secondly, Jesus is made alive in the spirit. That is, he is raised from the dead. Then, Peter says Jesus journeyed to the prisoners to preach, apparently to those who did not pay much attention to Noah when he gave warning that a flood was coming! This is the part of the text that scholars debate.
Peter draws a comparison between Jesus and Noah, between the past salvation of Noah and the present salvation in Christ. The link is with us, in our baptism. The analogy here is not just a comparison of water, the waters of the flood and the waters of baptism, it is seeing the comparison of salvation for Noah and his family and the salvation of Christians symbolized through baptism. The passage accentuates how baptism moves us from one reality into another.
Noah’s family moved from one world, stained with sin, to a new world that afforded Noah and his family a new beginning for humanity – from an old tired reality to a fresh new reality. Noah floated through the waters to a new life. So too do we move in our baptism from one world into another, from the sin filled world into a new creation given through the resurrection power of God. As one commentator says:
“Entering this new world through baptism alters the believer, for it applies the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection to us, which results in spiritual transformation. In other words, we see the world differently in baptism – with a clear conscience or to use a biblical metaphor, we regard the world with a transformed mind – because we have, in fact, entered a different world of which the church is the first emerging sign” (24, Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary).
Lent is a time to recognize that in our baptism we have entered into a new world and the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection result in our spiritual transformation. That is the good news of Lent, when we see the bad news of our sin we know that in our baptism we are washed clean. Lent, while it is a time to reflect on our lives and repent, is a time to also reflect on the reality of our baptism. Lent is a time to decide if we truly believe what our baptism means for us.
If you have seen the movie “The Matrix”, it is something of a science fiction thriller where the main character, Neo, begins to see that there are two realities in his reality. Neo is eventually faced with a decision. Is the reality he has known from birth his true reality or is it another reality he has just discovered? He must decide between "false reality" and "true reality." When he makes that decision, he is transformed and brought into a new community, a new reality.
The season of Lent may become a time for each of us to decide what reality is false and what reality is true. We certainly have options – the way of the world or the way of the kingdom, the way of death or the way of life. Our baptism calls us throughout our lives to make a decision. Do we believe the kingdom of God is at hand? Do we believe the kingdom of this world is our true reality?
In our baptism we are called to choose between life and death, between the ways of the world and the ways of God’s kingdom. In our baptism we celebrate a covenant faith. The covenant and the faith are gifts from God. The salvation we come to know through our baptism is not our own work, but the work of God in Jesus Christ. That is why Peter says that our baptism saves us “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” God brings us through the waters, just as God brought Noah through the waters. It is the will of God for us to know this salvation in Jesus Christ.
The power in our baptism is God’s power at work to bring us to understand the reality of Christ’s suffering for sins once and for all.
The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to show us the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection fleshed out in our dying and being raised to new life in Him.
The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to help us examine our lives and our hearts so that we may return to God “with all our heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; tear our hearts and not our clothing. Return to the Lord, our God.”
The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to reveal the good news revealed trough the prophet Joel, “for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”
The power in our baptism is God’s power at work to reveal that the kingdoms of this world, the ones we can see, are false realities. God’s kingdom is the only true reality.
The power in our baptism is coming alive to us throughout our lives.
Baptism is not revealed only once at the actual moment of baptism, but our baptism constantly calls us back to God to reveal its meaning for our lives. Whether we are baptized as infants or adults does not matter because what we know at the time is not the criteria for an effective baptism. What matters in our baptism is God’s power! Our baptism calls us to realize whose we are, like Woody in the movie “Toy Story”. Woody is a toy that belongs to Andy, a young boy with a room full of toys. Woody is always able to look on the bottom of his boot and see the name “Andy”. He knows to whom he belongs. We too have a name marked through our baptism that tells us to whom we belong. And the constant call in our lives, in Lent and any season is a call to discover and rediscover the meaning of our baptism.
We never stop learning about and growing into our baptism. I remember a conversation with someone who was baptized early in life and had just realized, in a significant way at age 40, what that baptism meant. It does not matter if we are baptized as infants or adults – we are always learning the significance of this sacrament.
During Lent, we are called to reflect on our sinful lives and to repent. We are also called to remember that we are a baptized people, forgiven, washed, being exposed to a new reality, the true reality in the kingdom of God. Let us open ourselves wherever we are in our journey, during this Lenten season, that we may see the power of God at work in us through our baptism and that we may see the new reality in Christ. Amen.
March 20, 2011
1 Peter 3:18-22
Dr. Ed Pettus
“The New Reality in Our Baptism”
Lent is perhaps the most difficult of church seasons. Granted, there is no shopping to do, no gifts to purchase, no decorations, no cards, no family gatherings like Christmas brings, no big meals to prepare, so in one respect maybe it is not too hard on us. But Lent is difficult for those who take seriously the disciplines of self-reflection, self-examination, repentance and humility. No one gets festive about that!
When we are called to look at our selves, to reflect on our lives, we fear what we might see. It is easier to continue our self-deception than to engage in self-examination. But Lent calls us to examination. This is the message of Lent: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing” ~ Joel 2:12-13.
We return to God through examination, fasting, weeping, and mourning – because we see our sinfulness. Our hearts break. But what we come to realize more deeply is the power of God to forgive our sin and to cleanse us of that sin. It is the same power that we know through our baptism. In our baptism we have experienced the forgiveness of sin, the washing away of all that would break our hearts, and the new life and new reality we have in Christ.
The scripture readings for today relate to baptism. The Old Testament reading reminds us of the saving of Noah and those with him, through the waters of the flood. Noah and his family were saved through the waters just as the waters of baptism symbolized our salvation. The Epistle lesson, 1 Peter 3, is something of an odd passage, parts of which we are not sure how to interpret. The overall context of the passage deals with unjust suffering.
Verses 18-22 use Jesus Christ as an example of one who suffered. The passage links the sufferings of Christians to the suffering of Christ through our baptism. In our baptism we share in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. We are also, in our baptism, linked to Noah and the flood, in the gospels, to Jesus in the Jordan, and to Christians everywhere who suffer – because we have all passed through the waters.
Peter, I imagine, intended to comfort the suffering Christians of his day with these words that connect believers to Jesus. We are unfamiliar with the suffering they endured, with persecution and the threat of death. But what if we took this passage as a comfort in the discomfort of Lent, the discomfort of examining our hearts and having sin rear its ugly head? That may entail more suffering for some, but we won’t name names! This passage helps us participate in Lenten disciplines in two ways:
1. It reminds us that our hope lies in remembering the suffering servant, Jesus Christ,
2. It reminds us that in our baptism, we may know the will of God.
Let us look first at the suffering servant. Jesus died on the cross because of our sin. It was not his fault! Not his crime! Instead, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5.6). While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5.8)! But it does not end there! Secondly, Jesus is made alive in the spirit. That is, he is raised from the dead. Then, Peter says Jesus journeyed to the prisoners to preach, apparently to those who did not pay much attention to Noah when he gave warning that a flood was coming! This is the part of the text that scholars debate.
Peter draws a comparison between Jesus and Noah, between the past salvation of Noah and the present salvation in Christ. The link is with us, in our baptism. The analogy here is not just a comparison of water, the waters of the flood and the waters of baptism, it is seeing the comparison of salvation for Noah and his family and the salvation of Christians symbolized through baptism. The passage accentuates how baptism moves us from one reality into another.
Noah’s family moved from one world, stained with sin, to a new world that afforded Noah and his family a new beginning for humanity – from an old tired reality to a fresh new reality. Noah floated through the waters to a new life. So too do we move in our baptism from one world into another, from the sin filled world into a new creation given through the resurrection power of God. As one commentator says:
“Entering this new world through baptism alters the believer, for it applies the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection to us, which results in spiritual transformation. In other words, we see the world differently in baptism – with a clear conscience or to use a biblical metaphor, we regard the world with a transformed mind – because we have, in fact, entered a different world of which the church is the first emerging sign” (24, Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary).
Lent is a time to recognize that in our baptism we have entered into a new world and the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection result in our spiritual transformation. That is the good news of Lent, when we see the bad news of our sin we know that in our baptism we are washed clean. Lent, while it is a time to reflect on our lives and repent, is a time to also reflect on the reality of our baptism. Lent is a time to decide if we truly believe what our baptism means for us.
If you have seen the movie “The Matrix”, it is something of a science fiction thriller where the main character, Neo, begins to see that there are two realities in his reality. Neo is eventually faced with a decision. Is the reality he has known from birth his true reality or is it another reality he has just discovered? He must decide between "false reality" and "true reality." When he makes that decision, he is transformed and brought into a new community, a new reality.
The season of Lent may become a time for each of us to decide what reality is false and what reality is true. We certainly have options – the way of the world or the way of the kingdom, the way of death or the way of life. Our baptism calls us throughout our lives to make a decision. Do we believe the kingdom of God is at hand? Do we believe the kingdom of this world is our true reality?
In our baptism we are called to choose between life and death, between the ways of the world and the ways of God’s kingdom. In our baptism we celebrate a covenant faith. The covenant and the faith are gifts from God. The salvation we come to know through our baptism is not our own work, but the work of God in Jesus Christ. That is why Peter says that our baptism saves us “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” God brings us through the waters, just as God brought Noah through the waters. It is the will of God for us to know this salvation in Jesus Christ.
The power in our baptism is God’s power at work to bring us to understand the reality of Christ’s suffering for sins once and for all.
The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to show us the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection fleshed out in our dying and being raised to new life in Him.
The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to help us examine our lives and our hearts so that we may return to God “with all our heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; tear our hearts and not our clothing. Return to the Lord, our God.”
The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to reveal the good news revealed trough the prophet Joel, “for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”
The power in our baptism is God’s power at work to reveal that the kingdoms of this world, the ones we can see, are false realities. God’s kingdom is the only true reality.
The power in our baptism is coming alive to us throughout our lives.
Baptism is not revealed only once at the actual moment of baptism, but our baptism constantly calls us back to God to reveal its meaning for our lives. Whether we are baptized as infants or adults does not matter because what we know at the time is not the criteria for an effective baptism. What matters in our baptism is God’s power! Our baptism calls us to realize whose we are, like Woody in the movie “Toy Story”. Woody is a toy that belongs to Andy, a young boy with a room full of toys. Woody is always able to look on the bottom of his boot and see the name “Andy”. He knows to whom he belongs. We too have a name marked through our baptism that tells us to whom we belong. And the constant call in our lives, in Lent and any season is a call to discover and rediscover the meaning of our baptism.
We never stop learning about and growing into our baptism. I remember a conversation with someone who was baptized early in life and had just realized, in a significant way at age 40, what that baptism meant. It does not matter if we are baptized as infants or adults – we are always learning the significance of this sacrament.
During Lent, we are called to reflect on our sinful lives and to repent. We are also called to remember that we are a baptized people, forgiven, washed, being exposed to a new reality, the true reality in the kingdom of God. Let us open ourselves wherever we are in our journey, during this Lenten season, that we may see the power of God at work in us through our baptism and that we may see the new reality in Christ. Amen.
Sermon
Sermon # 1032
March 13, 2011
Matthew 4:1-11
James 1:17-27
Dr. Ed Pettus
“Living by the Word”
When Jesus was lead into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, Matthew says it was the Spirit who lead him. It seems amazing to me that the leading factor to Jesus’ temptation story is the Spirit. It reminds me a little of Job’s experience when God allows Satan to have his way with all the Job had, and yet could not touch Job himself. For me, it begs the question of why. Why does Jesus need to be lead into the wilderness to face temptation? It is the question the story of Job seeks to answer – not specifically about Jesus or course, but the “why” question of: why things happen the way they do? Why me? Why do the innocent seem to suffer? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does an earthquake and resulting tsunami happen and bring so much loss of life and destruction?
We have not received answers that satisfy. We leave it up to God knows best or some things are too high for us to know. Mystery is our answer and the only way we can live with such mystery is by faith. As Paul says it: “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). If there is a verse of scripture that has the most modern feel to it, I think it is that we walk by faith and not by sight. Modern life is so oriented to what can been seen.
Jesus was lead into the wilderness. For forty days and nights he fasted. Then, the devil comes to tempt him. Jesus turns away every temptation with a quote from scripture: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Deut. 6:16). “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Deut. 6:13). The first temptation reminds us that we live not by bread alone, not just by the food we eat, but we live by the word of God. Not only does Jesus quote a verse from Deuteronomy that says we live by the word, but he demonstrates that very point by using the word to resist temptation. Jesus puts into practice what it means to live by the word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
What helps us live in the mysteries of life? God’s word. What enables us to walk without answers? God’s word. What sustains us in the face of natural disaster or war or sickness or death? God’s word.
By the word everything was created. God said, “Let there be light.” In this speech creation began. In Romans Paul writes that it is God who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (4:17). The call into existence is by the word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We live and we are alive by the word. It is no small matter that our name is spoken when we are baptized, for in this symbolic act and speaking of our name, a new creation is beginning. In one way we are spoken into existence at our baptism as a new creation.
We proclaim in creation theology that God created everything by speech, a series of words. “Let there be light.” “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters.” When a prophet said, “Thus says the Lord,” everyone knew to listen and listen well. Speech making is extremely important in biblical writings, for it is in speeches that we see much of the action and the density of a passage. Not just in words, but in actions, actions that in essence speak a word. Jesus hanging on the cross is a kind of speech that reveals more than words can say. And, of course, speeches are words, words of encouragement or judgment, hope or despair, promise or threat, and so on.
Speeches usually intend to bring some kind of response or action or new thought to the hearer (and the speaker). The epistle of James, a speech given to believers in exile, is a speech that seeks to get people into action. James does not want a Church that just listens to a word, but a church that responds with actions that speak out those words and even speak louder than words.
James 1:22 – But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
ABC news once did a special on religion in America and told the story of a man who had recently converted to the faith. He read the Bible for the first time in his life and he visited a local church for several weeks and nothing seemed to be going on like he expected. So one Sunday he asked an elder of the church, “when do you do the stuff?”
“The stuff?”
“Yes, the stuff.”
The elder was kind of puzzled, “What stuff?”
“You know, the stuff of the Bible. When do you care for the orphans, fed the hungry, make the blind to see, and multiply the bread? When do you do that stuff?”
The elder responded, “Oh, that, we don’t do that anymore, we just talk about it.”
This new believer raises the question, what ever happened to doing the stuff of the Bible? James seems to be saying we ought to be about doing “the stuff.” Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
Fred Craddock tells the story of a time when he was serving as dean at Phillips Seminary. It was for fifteen months. The secretary said, “There’s someone here to see you.” A woman asked me to come out to the parking lot and to her car. She opened the back door, and slumped in the back seat was her brother. He had been a senior at the University of Oklahoma. He had been in a bad car wreck and in a coma eight months. She had quit her job as a schoolteacher to take care of him. All of their resources were gone. She opened the door and said, “I’d like for you to heal him.”
Fred said, “I can pray for him, and I can pray with you. But I do not have the gift of healing.”
She got behind the wheel and said to him, “Then what in the world do you do?” And she drove off.
Fred says, “What I did that afternoon was study, stare at my books, and try to forget what she had said.”*
Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
James may seem hard after hearing stories that seem to call us to do more than we believe capable. But what we do says a great deal. If we just read the speeches, hear the words, see biblical wonders and do nothing in response, James says we are deceiving ourselves. And we are very, very good at deceiving ourselves. Isn’t it odd how angry we will get when someone else deceives us and yet we so easily overlook our own self-deception? Perhaps that’s because a good deceiver never lets you in on the deception, which is why it works so well, and we, in deceiving ourselves, don’t even realize we are being deceptive, because we are so good at it. So how do we come to know that we are deceiving ourselves when the art of the deception is to never let the deceived in on the deception? Sounds too much like a complex psychological problem.
It is easy to deceive ourselves. James looks at it like a person looking in the mirror and on going away, immediately forgets what he or she looks like.
23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
We look into a mirror like we look into ourselves; we want to forget what we see. We invite the deception because we dare not look within and find the very deception we so comfortably live with. If we cannot help but be deceived by looking into a mirror, or by looking into the mirror of our soul, where shall we look for the truth? James writes,
25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-- they will be blessed in their doing.
“But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, the law that gives freedom…” God’s word gives us freedom from the self-deception, freedom from forgetting what we see in the mirror on the wall or in the mirror of our life. It is a question of where we look. Do we look to ourselves for the truth? Do we look to human tradition like the Pharisees did in Mark 7? Do we look to our television screens? Do we look to the psychic hotline? Do we look to planets and stars? Do we look to Twitter?
No, we look to the perfect law, perfect because it does not deceive. The word of God stimulates us to look with honesty at ourselves and to act upon what we see and hear in the perfect law. The perfect law reminds us of what we so easily forget, that is, who we are and what we are to do and reminds us that we do not live by bread alone.
Unfortunately, we try to live by whatever best suits our ways, whatever suits our self-deception. Sometimes we live by our wits. Other times we live by our common sense. We might say we live by what our grandpa always said. Or another might live by a particular philosophy of life. But we are deceived if we think that anything outside of God and God’s word will bring us life and blessing.
To use James’ metaphor of the mirror, it is not easy to look into the mirror of God’s word. It is a mirror that reveals the truth about who we are and what we are like. We try to mask ourselves and put on happy faces even when pain grinds away at us. But unlike the mirrors of our homes where we put on our make-up or shave away our rough edges, the mirror of God’s law reveals all our faults.
But that is not all it does. It also reveals that our faces of deceit can be unmasked so that we may be both hearers and doers of God’s word. The Law reveals the forgiveness, the love, the mercy, the faithfulness of God. The word is the power of God to unmask our idolatries and reveal our self-deception.
The life that is open to Truth is one that looks to God’s law, the perfect law that reflects, like a mirror, our life, that reflects God, and self, and hope, and love. This word reflects all Truth.
We may indeed not be able to heal a man in the back seat of a car, or do the “stuff” of miracle, but we can do the word in ways that make those times of miracle possible. For only God can do the “stuff.” James calls us to do the word and God will do the stuff through us.
Do not be deceived by the speeches of this world or by the masks by which we deceive ourselves, but look to God’s word; it is the only way to live in the fullness of life God intends. Amen.
*Story from Craddock Stories, p. 21.
March 13, 2011
Matthew 4:1-11
James 1:17-27
Dr. Ed Pettus
“Living by the Word”
When Jesus was lead into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, Matthew says it was the Spirit who lead him. It seems amazing to me that the leading factor to Jesus’ temptation story is the Spirit. It reminds me a little of Job’s experience when God allows Satan to have his way with all the Job had, and yet could not touch Job himself. For me, it begs the question of why. Why does Jesus need to be lead into the wilderness to face temptation? It is the question the story of Job seeks to answer – not specifically about Jesus or course, but the “why” question of: why things happen the way they do? Why me? Why do the innocent seem to suffer? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does an earthquake and resulting tsunami happen and bring so much loss of life and destruction?
We have not received answers that satisfy. We leave it up to God knows best or some things are too high for us to know. Mystery is our answer and the only way we can live with such mystery is by faith. As Paul says it: “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). If there is a verse of scripture that has the most modern feel to it, I think it is that we walk by faith and not by sight. Modern life is so oriented to what can been seen.
Jesus was lead into the wilderness. For forty days and nights he fasted. Then, the devil comes to tempt him. Jesus turns away every temptation with a quote from scripture: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Deut. 6:16). “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Deut. 6:13). The first temptation reminds us that we live not by bread alone, not just by the food we eat, but we live by the word of God. Not only does Jesus quote a verse from Deuteronomy that says we live by the word, but he demonstrates that very point by using the word to resist temptation. Jesus puts into practice what it means to live by the word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
What helps us live in the mysteries of life? God’s word. What enables us to walk without answers? God’s word. What sustains us in the face of natural disaster or war or sickness or death? God’s word.
By the word everything was created. God said, “Let there be light.” In this speech creation began. In Romans Paul writes that it is God who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (4:17). The call into existence is by the word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We live and we are alive by the word. It is no small matter that our name is spoken when we are baptized, for in this symbolic act and speaking of our name, a new creation is beginning. In one way we are spoken into existence at our baptism as a new creation.
We proclaim in creation theology that God created everything by speech, a series of words. “Let there be light.” “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters.” When a prophet said, “Thus says the Lord,” everyone knew to listen and listen well. Speech making is extremely important in biblical writings, for it is in speeches that we see much of the action and the density of a passage. Not just in words, but in actions, actions that in essence speak a word. Jesus hanging on the cross is a kind of speech that reveals more than words can say. And, of course, speeches are words, words of encouragement or judgment, hope or despair, promise or threat, and so on.
Speeches usually intend to bring some kind of response or action or new thought to the hearer (and the speaker). The epistle of James, a speech given to believers in exile, is a speech that seeks to get people into action. James does not want a Church that just listens to a word, but a church that responds with actions that speak out those words and even speak louder than words.
James 1:22 – But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
ABC news once did a special on religion in America and told the story of a man who had recently converted to the faith. He read the Bible for the first time in his life and he visited a local church for several weeks and nothing seemed to be going on like he expected. So one Sunday he asked an elder of the church, “when do you do the stuff?”
“The stuff?”
“Yes, the stuff.”
The elder was kind of puzzled, “What stuff?”
“You know, the stuff of the Bible. When do you care for the orphans, fed the hungry, make the blind to see, and multiply the bread? When do you do that stuff?”
The elder responded, “Oh, that, we don’t do that anymore, we just talk about it.”
This new believer raises the question, what ever happened to doing the stuff of the Bible? James seems to be saying we ought to be about doing “the stuff.” Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
Fred Craddock tells the story of a time when he was serving as dean at Phillips Seminary. It was for fifteen months. The secretary said, “There’s someone here to see you.” A woman asked me to come out to the parking lot and to her car. She opened the back door, and slumped in the back seat was her brother. He had been a senior at the University of Oklahoma. He had been in a bad car wreck and in a coma eight months. She had quit her job as a schoolteacher to take care of him. All of their resources were gone. She opened the door and said, “I’d like for you to heal him.”
Fred said, “I can pray for him, and I can pray with you. But I do not have the gift of healing.”
She got behind the wheel and said to him, “Then what in the world do you do?” And she drove off.
Fred says, “What I did that afternoon was study, stare at my books, and try to forget what she had said.”*
Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
James may seem hard after hearing stories that seem to call us to do more than we believe capable. But what we do says a great deal. If we just read the speeches, hear the words, see biblical wonders and do nothing in response, James says we are deceiving ourselves. And we are very, very good at deceiving ourselves. Isn’t it odd how angry we will get when someone else deceives us and yet we so easily overlook our own self-deception? Perhaps that’s because a good deceiver never lets you in on the deception, which is why it works so well, and we, in deceiving ourselves, don’t even realize we are being deceptive, because we are so good at it. So how do we come to know that we are deceiving ourselves when the art of the deception is to never let the deceived in on the deception? Sounds too much like a complex psychological problem.
It is easy to deceive ourselves. James looks at it like a person looking in the mirror and on going away, immediately forgets what he or she looks like.
23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
We look into a mirror like we look into ourselves; we want to forget what we see. We invite the deception because we dare not look within and find the very deception we so comfortably live with. If we cannot help but be deceived by looking into a mirror, or by looking into the mirror of our soul, where shall we look for the truth? James writes,
25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-- they will be blessed in their doing.
“But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, the law that gives freedom…” God’s word gives us freedom from the self-deception, freedom from forgetting what we see in the mirror on the wall or in the mirror of our life. It is a question of where we look. Do we look to ourselves for the truth? Do we look to human tradition like the Pharisees did in Mark 7? Do we look to our television screens? Do we look to the psychic hotline? Do we look to planets and stars? Do we look to Twitter?
No, we look to the perfect law, perfect because it does not deceive. The word of God stimulates us to look with honesty at ourselves and to act upon what we see and hear in the perfect law. The perfect law reminds us of what we so easily forget, that is, who we are and what we are to do and reminds us that we do not live by bread alone.
Unfortunately, we try to live by whatever best suits our ways, whatever suits our self-deception. Sometimes we live by our wits. Other times we live by our common sense. We might say we live by what our grandpa always said. Or another might live by a particular philosophy of life. But we are deceived if we think that anything outside of God and God’s word will bring us life and blessing.
To use James’ metaphor of the mirror, it is not easy to look into the mirror of God’s word. It is a mirror that reveals the truth about who we are and what we are like. We try to mask ourselves and put on happy faces even when pain grinds away at us. But unlike the mirrors of our homes where we put on our make-up or shave away our rough edges, the mirror of God’s law reveals all our faults.
But that is not all it does. It also reveals that our faces of deceit can be unmasked so that we may be both hearers and doers of God’s word. The Law reveals the forgiveness, the love, the mercy, the faithfulness of God. The word is the power of God to unmask our idolatries and reveal our self-deception.
The life that is open to Truth is one that looks to God’s law, the perfect law that reflects, like a mirror, our life, that reflects God, and self, and hope, and love. This word reflects all Truth.
We may indeed not be able to heal a man in the back seat of a car, or do the “stuff” of miracle, but we can do the word in ways that make those times of miracle possible. For only God can do the “stuff.” James calls us to do the word and God will do the stuff through us.
Do not be deceived by the speeches of this world or by the masks by which we deceive ourselves, but look to God’s word; it is the only way to live in the fullness of life God intends. Amen.
*Story from Craddock Stories, p. 21.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Sermon
Sermon # 1030
March 6, 2011
Hebrews 13:1-8
Dr. Ed Pettus
"No Fear"
Hebrews is a unique book in the New Testament. It is not like the gospels or Acts which tell the story of Christ and the early church, nor is it like the letters that make up the rest of the New Testament that characteristically deal with church issues. Hebrews is more like a sermon filled with exposition and exhortation. The exposition of Hebrews is that of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial life. Hebrews forms a persuasive argument for who Christ is and what Christ has done in order to build a foundational theology which in turn exhorts Christians on how we are to live and what we are to do. Hebrews 13 is the last chapter of the book and a final "to do list" of exhortations; the final exhortations that seem to be tossed in at the last minute to insure various aspects of the Christian life are included: love, hospitality, remembering people in bondage, marriage, contentment with possessions, Christ’s presence, confidence, leadership, and Christ’s constancy.
This morning’s reading concludes at verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." The entire sermon to the Hebrews has laid out the work of Jesus Christ as priest and sacrifice. As the same Jesus Christ of yesterday, Jesus continues to work today as high priest. As the same Jesus Christ of yesterday and today, Jesus will continue to work as high priest forever. Jesus is the constant One who has spoken the words: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Because of that – we are able to say, “I will not be afraid.” No fear. Imagine a life with no fear because we have such confidence in the abiding presence of Jesus Christ our Lord. No fear.
The injunction of verse 8 seems a bit out of place, but this is the subject of the sermon – Jesus Christ himself and his work and how it affects the Christian life. That means that whatever else is said in this sermon to the Hebrews, it is said because of Christ…because the work and word of Jesus Christ has come, all of life is different. We now relate to one another through love. Marriages are held in honor. We seek contentment with what we have and we can be free from the love of money, but all of these things are not because of something we can do, only because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us.
Sometimes people affect us in special ways in different areas of our lives. Teachers influence our intellectual development and our desire to learn. Sometimes that may carry over into how we work or how we relate to others. A friend might influence us by talking us into things we would not normally do, but the person of Jesus Christ does more than influence our actions. Jesus makes us different, creates us anew, reshapes, remolds who we are and therefore what we do and how we understand life.
Only Jesus can keep a promise of never leaving or forsaking us. Life does not afford us the ability to keep such promises because anything can happen to us. But Jesus, because he has overcome death, is able to stay with us through anything as Paul tells us: "Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ" (Romans 8:39).
Because we are changed from within, our conduct is affected, our relationships are viewed in new ways, and our allegiances change. The power of God enables new things to happen to our lives and in our lives. We can ask ourselves, "Are we confident and faithful enough to be able to say, 'The Lord is our helper, we will not be afraid?'" Are there times when fear runs our lives rather than the Spirit of God guiding us?
We can pray for God to help our unbelief, to help our lack of faith, to give us more and more confidence so that we CAN say:
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"
Not only can we say that, but we can live with the confidence of that statement affecting what we think, and say, and do. We will not be afraid to love, to show hospitality, to honor marriage, and so forth.
Only in Christ are we able to let mutual love continue. God is love and without God we could not continue in love. Only in Christ are we able to show hospitality to strangers. In New Testament times, when Christians traveled they sought out Christians homes where they could rest. We are still called to show hospitality to others as our Christian conduct. Only in Christ could we remember prisoners. The Hebrews exhortation especially includes those who were imprisoned for their faith. We also shall remember those who suffer injustice and bondage of any kind because of faithfulness and for the sake of justice.
The most beautiful marriages are those rooted in Christ, held in honor, without abusive conduct. Only in Christ can we begin to keep free from the love of money and be content with what we have. You can begin to see what Christ means in our lives. The conduct we practice in every area of life is shaped and molded by Christ and his work on the cross and in the resurrection.
The action of Christ permeates the Christian life. Nothing is left untouched by God. There is no area of life where faith is separated. There are no parts of life where God is absent or where God is to be omitted. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever in that he is constantly with us, Emmanuel. Jesus is constant in faithfulness, loyalty, and love.
Therefore our lives of love and honor and faith are shaped and reshaped as we grow and learn more about Christ and his consistency. Our lives become lives of praise to God through right living as described in Hebrews. Our lives become lives of worship through the Christian conduct shaped in Christ. Our lives become sacrifices of praise and glory to the one who makes us his own.
Central to the reading this morning is the promise and confession: "I will never leave you”, resulting in our faithful response: "The Lord is our helper, we will not be afraid." Words have power to shape us. When I was about 12 years old, a coach told me that I would never make it as a quarterback – I didn't have the ability. His words hurt me but also gave me the determination to try my best to prove him wrong. (No, he wasn’t using reverse psychology!)
When someone who loves you tells you you look nice, or complements your efforts, or says anything that makes you feel better about yourself, you tend to gain confidence and feel good about yourself. The words that are spoken to us and by us help to give shape to who we are and how we respond to life. Sticks and stones will break our bones…and words can hurt as well, or they can build us up, building our confidence and trust.
That is why it is so important for us to study the scriptures and to worship. It is here that we say the words of promise and confession. It is here that our lives are reshaped in the image God intended so that we can let mutual love continue or be content with what we have. Without these words of promise we would have little hope for the future. Without these words of confession, we would be at the mercy of the words of the world.
Life comes from the promises of God and from these confessions of faith that we make and that we live by. I do not believe that the author of Hebrews accidentally placed promise and confession in the middle of exhortation. I believe it was intended to show us something about its power for life. Out of the word the world was created and out of the word Jesus brought healing and life and the word is still filled with power for life and healing.
A concern is that our confidence falls short and our fears overcome us. I struggled this past week with what text to preach for today. Hebrews 13 was not a part of the lectionary but I brought it to the Bible study group searching for a message. Part of my struggle has been my concern over the direction of the Presbyterian Church USA in recent years over things like divestment from Israel to this past Tuesday as our Presbytery voted on proposed changes to our constitution. I recognize in myself that fear is one concern, my fear of what will happen, my fears of what it will mean for me personally, but also for our church and for the larger church in general. Change is always difficult for us. We fear the unknown, we fear the unfamiliar, we fear opening our lives and our thoughts to others. I found in this passage from Hebrews a word of encouragement, confidence, and comfort. The Lord may be our helper through this passage in Hebrews. The Lord shows us that we have no need to fear.
As the Bible study group was studying this passage on Wednesday we spoke of the first line, let mutual love continue and how very important we grow in love for God and for one another. But we also noted how fear often prevents us from loving one another and even loving God as we could. The same could be said for showing hospitality, how we fear people, especially in this day and age – so our hospitality suffers due to fear. Or take the issue of money as another example, our culture is obsessed with the love of money. We pine for games like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I read part of an article about the Texas lottery and the author joked that the slogan could be: “the family that plays together can claim together”, no doubt mimicking “the family that prays together stays together”. Fear drives us to love money, to hold back our love, and to fail to show hospitality among other things.
I began to look for texts of fear and the Bible has much to say, but one thing the Bible constantly says is “do not fear”.
In Mark 5 Jairus, a synagogue leader, came to Jesus to plead for his daughter who was deathly ill. “While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’” In this instance the counter to fear is belief, trust in Jesus.
When Gabriel appeared before Mary, the angel said: “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). Fear is set aside with the good news that God has shown her grace.
When Israel was in distress, the Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name” (43:1).
We are very familiar with the words of Psalm 23 – “even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me.”
The antidote for fear is God’s presence, God’s word of encouragement, trust in the Lord, redemption. The word in Hebrews is the promise of constant companionship which gives us confidence to declare that the Lord is our help, we will not be afraid.
Fear is not easy to overcome. It takes prayer, experience, confidence, trust. I have fears over the future of the PCUSA, fears about getting my girls through college, fear that holds love back, fear that I do not know God deeply enough and yet fear to get to God more deeply. I fear publically telling you that I have fears! Such fears will only dissipate through confidence in Christ. I pray that we can gain more and more confidence in Christ our helper who promises to never leave us or forsake us, for in that trust I will not be afraid. In that confidence, we will not be afraid. Amen.
March 6, 2011
Hebrews 13:1-8
Dr. Ed Pettus
"No Fear"
Hebrews is a unique book in the New Testament. It is not like the gospels or Acts which tell the story of Christ and the early church, nor is it like the letters that make up the rest of the New Testament that characteristically deal with church issues. Hebrews is more like a sermon filled with exposition and exhortation. The exposition of Hebrews is that of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial life. Hebrews forms a persuasive argument for who Christ is and what Christ has done in order to build a foundational theology which in turn exhorts Christians on how we are to live and what we are to do. Hebrews 13 is the last chapter of the book and a final "to do list" of exhortations; the final exhortations that seem to be tossed in at the last minute to insure various aspects of the Christian life are included: love, hospitality, remembering people in bondage, marriage, contentment with possessions, Christ’s presence, confidence, leadership, and Christ’s constancy.
This morning’s reading concludes at verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." The entire sermon to the Hebrews has laid out the work of Jesus Christ as priest and sacrifice. As the same Jesus Christ of yesterday, Jesus continues to work today as high priest. As the same Jesus Christ of yesterday and today, Jesus will continue to work as high priest forever. Jesus is the constant One who has spoken the words: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Because of that – we are able to say, “I will not be afraid.” No fear. Imagine a life with no fear because we have such confidence in the abiding presence of Jesus Christ our Lord. No fear.
The injunction of verse 8 seems a bit out of place, but this is the subject of the sermon – Jesus Christ himself and his work and how it affects the Christian life. That means that whatever else is said in this sermon to the Hebrews, it is said because of Christ…because the work and word of Jesus Christ has come, all of life is different. We now relate to one another through love. Marriages are held in honor. We seek contentment with what we have and we can be free from the love of money, but all of these things are not because of something we can do, only because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us.
Sometimes people affect us in special ways in different areas of our lives. Teachers influence our intellectual development and our desire to learn. Sometimes that may carry over into how we work or how we relate to others. A friend might influence us by talking us into things we would not normally do, but the person of Jesus Christ does more than influence our actions. Jesus makes us different, creates us anew, reshapes, remolds who we are and therefore what we do and how we understand life.
Only Jesus can keep a promise of never leaving or forsaking us. Life does not afford us the ability to keep such promises because anything can happen to us. But Jesus, because he has overcome death, is able to stay with us through anything as Paul tells us: "Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ" (Romans 8:39).
Because we are changed from within, our conduct is affected, our relationships are viewed in new ways, and our allegiances change. The power of God enables new things to happen to our lives and in our lives. We can ask ourselves, "Are we confident and faithful enough to be able to say, 'The Lord is our helper, we will not be afraid?'" Are there times when fear runs our lives rather than the Spirit of God guiding us?
We can pray for God to help our unbelief, to help our lack of faith, to give us more and more confidence so that we CAN say:
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"
Not only can we say that, but we can live with the confidence of that statement affecting what we think, and say, and do. We will not be afraid to love, to show hospitality, to honor marriage, and so forth.
Only in Christ are we able to let mutual love continue. God is love and without God we could not continue in love. Only in Christ are we able to show hospitality to strangers. In New Testament times, when Christians traveled they sought out Christians homes where they could rest. We are still called to show hospitality to others as our Christian conduct. Only in Christ could we remember prisoners. The Hebrews exhortation especially includes those who were imprisoned for their faith. We also shall remember those who suffer injustice and bondage of any kind because of faithfulness and for the sake of justice.
The most beautiful marriages are those rooted in Christ, held in honor, without abusive conduct. Only in Christ can we begin to keep free from the love of money and be content with what we have. You can begin to see what Christ means in our lives. The conduct we practice in every area of life is shaped and molded by Christ and his work on the cross and in the resurrection.
The action of Christ permeates the Christian life. Nothing is left untouched by God. There is no area of life where faith is separated. There are no parts of life where God is absent or where God is to be omitted. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever in that he is constantly with us, Emmanuel. Jesus is constant in faithfulness, loyalty, and love.
Therefore our lives of love and honor and faith are shaped and reshaped as we grow and learn more about Christ and his consistency. Our lives become lives of praise to God through right living as described in Hebrews. Our lives become lives of worship through the Christian conduct shaped in Christ. Our lives become sacrifices of praise and glory to the one who makes us his own.
Central to the reading this morning is the promise and confession: "I will never leave you”, resulting in our faithful response: "The Lord is our helper, we will not be afraid." Words have power to shape us. When I was about 12 years old, a coach told me that I would never make it as a quarterback – I didn't have the ability. His words hurt me but also gave me the determination to try my best to prove him wrong. (No, he wasn’t using reverse psychology!)
When someone who loves you tells you you look nice, or complements your efforts, or says anything that makes you feel better about yourself, you tend to gain confidence and feel good about yourself. The words that are spoken to us and by us help to give shape to who we are and how we respond to life. Sticks and stones will break our bones…and words can hurt as well, or they can build us up, building our confidence and trust.
That is why it is so important for us to study the scriptures and to worship. It is here that we say the words of promise and confession. It is here that our lives are reshaped in the image God intended so that we can let mutual love continue or be content with what we have. Without these words of promise we would have little hope for the future. Without these words of confession, we would be at the mercy of the words of the world.
Life comes from the promises of God and from these confessions of faith that we make and that we live by. I do not believe that the author of Hebrews accidentally placed promise and confession in the middle of exhortation. I believe it was intended to show us something about its power for life. Out of the word the world was created and out of the word Jesus brought healing and life and the word is still filled with power for life and healing.
A concern is that our confidence falls short and our fears overcome us. I struggled this past week with what text to preach for today. Hebrews 13 was not a part of the lectionary but I brought it to the Bible study group searching for a message. Part of my struggle has been my concern over the direction of the Presbyterian Church USA in recent years over things like divestment from Israel to this past Tuesday as our Presbytery voted on proposed changes to our constitution. I recognize in myself that fear is one concern, my fear of what will happen, my fears of what it will mean for me personally, but also for our church and for the larger church in general. Change is always difficult for us. We fear the unknown, we fear the unfamiliar, we fear opening our lives and our thoughts to others. I found in this passage from Hebrews a word of encouragement, confidence, and comfort. The Lord may be our helper through this passage in Hebrews. The Lord shows us that we have no need to fear.
As the Bible study group was studying this passage on Wednesday we spoke of the first line, let mutual love continue and how very important we grow in love for God and for one another. But we also noted how fear often prevents us from loving one another and even loving God as we could. The same could be said for showing hospitality, how we fear people, especially in this day and age – so our hospitality suffers due to fear. Or take the issue of money as another example, our culture is obsessed with the love of money. We pine for games like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I read part of an article about the Texas lottery and the author joked that the slogan could be: “the family that plays together can claim together”, no doubt mimicking “the family that prays together stays together”. Fear drives us to love money, to hold back our love, and to fail to show hospitality among other things.
I began to look for texts of fear and the Bible has much to say, but one thing the Bible constantly says is “do not fear”.
In Mark 5 Jairus, a synagogue leader, came to Jesus to plead for his daughter who was deathly ill. “While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’” In this instance the counter to fear is belief, trust in Jesus.
When Gabriel appeared before Mary, the angel said: “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). Fear is set aside with the good news that God has shown her grace.
When Israel was in distress, the Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name” (43:1).
We are very familiar with the words of Psalm 23 – “even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me.”
The antidote for fear is God’s presence, God’s word of encouragement, trust in the Lord, redemption. The word in Hebrews is the promise of constant companionship which gives us confidence to declare that the Lord is our help, we will not be afraid.
Fear is not easy to overcome. It takes prayer, experience, confidence, trust. I have fears over the future of the PCUSA, fears about getting my girls through college, fear that holds love back, fear that I do not know God deeply enough and yet fear to get to God more deeply. I fear publically telling you that I have fears! Such fears will only dissipate through confidence in Christ. I pray that we can gain more and more confidence in Christ our helper who promises to never leave us or forsake us, for in that trust I will not be afraid. In that confidence, we will not be afraid. Amen.
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