Sermon March 1, 2020 Lent

Lectionary readings:

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

3:2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;

3:3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'”

3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die;

3:5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Romans 5:12-19

5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned-

5:13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.

5:14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

5:15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.

5:16 And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.

5:17 If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

5:18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.

5:19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Matthew 4:1-11

4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

4:2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

4:3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

4:4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,

4:6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'”

4:7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”

4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;

4:9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

4:10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'”

4:11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

_______________________________________________

SERMON

I could give you the bible in three words. Creation, devastation, restoration.

I don’t know about y’all but time seems to go faster and faster the older I get. Wasn’t Christmas just last week? We were putting up decorations and we were singing songs and telling stories about the birth of Jesus and now we are embarking on the road to the cross. Today’s texts give us some clues as to what we should be pondering. I love that word – ponder. Do you remember? In Luke 2:19 when the shepherds came to see the baby Jesus and told all that the angels had said to them, people were amazed “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”

Christmas is busy and noisy with bells and carols and kids. But as we walk into the season of Lent, we slow down and while the birth of Christ causes us to want to draw near, it’s human nature to want to avoid pain and it’s a little more difficult to examine our own sin than to sing Joy To the World. We don’t like being in the wilderness.

Maybe to see where we are, we need to look at where we were. We started in a perfect garden, created in God’s image, stewards over all creation. What that must have been like, walking with God, fully known, every need provided for. No crime, no poverty, no disease, no war. And then, we believed a lie . And no matter the words that the serpent used with Eve, the actual lie was that you can’t trust God. That God is withholding something good and desirable from us. In Eve’s case it was the temptation of the fruit of a tree they had been told not to eat. For us, it could be anything, but it will still come back to not trusting God. Not trusting that His plan is better than anything we can imagine. That His Word is trustworthy and true. Temptation is just an enticement to try to get you to do something that is not Gods’ will.

Adam and Eve do not take up much space in the bible. Their story is dramatic but short and their time in the garden ends. But the consequences of sin are woven throughout the rest of the bible and weigh on us to this day. A short time in creation, a shorter time in devastation, and the rest of the bible is our restoration story.

We started in a garden and ended up in a wilderness. We jump from the ending of Adam and Eve’s story in Genesis in the Old Testament and then in the New Testament and we read the story of the temptation of Jesus in the book of Matthew. In the middle of these readings, Paul takes us deeper into the meaning of how God has a plan to get us back to the garden – restoration.

Two temptation stories but with very different outcomes. One, the end of innocence, the second, the beginning of a ministry that brings salvation.

There is so much in the readings today and no way we can look closely at all of it so I would encourage you to read it again on your own. Read what comes before and after. because temptations come don’t they? 

I heard a young preacher say that if you are reading about Jesus interacting with other people look for three things: the context, the character, and the crazy. What is the context? Mark is writing to a community of Jewish Christians during a period of reconstruction after a revolt. It’s important to him to remind the people that Jesus is connected to but better than, David. Better than Abraham, and better than Moses. When Jesus quotes scripture, they would recognize the words. When they hear forty days, they will remember the rain fell for forty day and forty nights during the great flood. They will remember that Moses was up on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. Moses people that wandered for forty years and Now? Jesus has just been baptized. Who are the characters? Jesus and the enemy. What’s the crazy? In human terms, if we had super powers would we not choose to use them?

As we get older the temptations change and they may slow down as we mature in our faith, but they come. There are always choices and how we face those choices makes all the difference.

In Matthew we read that the same spirit that had just descended on Jesus  led him out into the wilderness. 

Wait…. I think I have seen this before…In Exodus 14, Moses takes the Israelites through the Red Sea. Pharaoh thought they were slaves but they were God’s people – God decides who we are – not the Pharaohs of the world. They were given their identity. And once they had come through the sea did they go immediately into the promised land? No! They wandered for forty years in the? Wilderness!

In John 1:23 it says of John the Baptist” I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'” And John baptized with…WATER!

I’m seeing a theme here.

When a baby is conceived, the child grows in the womb surrounded by …water. A doctor may do an ultrasound and often can already tell if the baby is a boy or a girl. They already have an identity. When a baby is born they usually cry….maybe because after all these months of being in a safe warm place, they have been rudely thrust into…the wilderness! The wilderness is life!

Now Jesus is in the wilderness right after being in…the water!

God takes us from the water to the wilderness.

This reading in Matthew starts immediately after Jesus baptism which is a big deal. One clue that it’s a big deal is that when Jesus was baptized, the spirit descended upon Him and the voice of God spoke. This is the one time in the whole of the New Testament that the entire GodHead is present – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jesus was baptized not for his sins, he was sinless – but to show that He identifies with us (the ones He came to save) in our sin.

Jesus had fasted in the wilderness for forty days. He was probably weak and very hungry. The enemy watched and waited till the right moment. He didn’t offer riches. He suggested Jesus use his powers to feed himself. A basic and very important need. But Jesus had been preparing for forty days. The wilderness isn’’t so much the problem as who is waiting for us there! And this is not the first time hunger was used as a temptation. Remember the people wandering for forty years? Why did they grumble against Moses and Aaron? They said it would have been better for them to have stayed in slavery in Egypt…

Jesus had a plan and maybe there are some tools here, that we can use when we find ourselves in a wilderness of temptation.

Jesus was at the beginning of his ministry. Have you ever started a new thing, dreaming and planning and then just as you begin, all hell (literally) comes after you? The sun had barely had time to dry Jesus’ robe and He found himself in a wilderness, hungry and the enemy dangling the one thing he physically needed in front of him suggesting He take the easy way. Sometimes you have worked on something and you are almost there – your goal is in sight. And things or people fail you. Remember in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked His disciples to stay awake and keep watch while He prayed. Guess who napped?? 

Sometimes it is helpful to know where you are at. Genesis tells us that the serpent was craftier than all the other wild animals. I’ll come back to that but for now just think about how the serpent is crafty – the serpent waited and watched for the perfect moment. 

When are you most susceptible? 

Know where you are – spiritually. Jesus was physically hungry but made a choice and every decision He made was for your benefit and mine, rather than His own. The things we do today, determine the stories our lives will tell tomorrow. How we choose to live is for the next generation and the one after that. 

The serpent used scripture to attack. It is so easy and sometimes so attractive to make scripture say what we want it to say and often how we use scripture probably says more about where we are in our own journey, than what it actually means. I am repeatedly amazed at how a text that I read in the past, now has a completely different meaning for me than when I first read it. But notice that at the baptism of Jesus, the Word came down on Him and when He is tempted, The Word comes out of him. 

The Word of God is our defense but you can’t have something come out of you if you didn’t put it in, in the first place!

We talked about the text in Genesis at Monday Morning Lectionary bible study and I confess, in the past, I never caught it. The serpent was craftier than all the other wild animals – the serpent was created by God so who do you think is the boss here? Jesus said “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.”

Know where your help comes from! 

Wearing ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday and fasting for the forty days of Lent is not required of us. It doesn’t mean we are a part of an exclusive club and know the secret handshake. But maybe it gives us an opportunity to pause, to take a second look. At ourselves and how we fit into this path from creation to devastation and finally to restoration and to remember that as Jesus started His journey to the cross, he did it with all of us in mind. The power of sin entered the world through one man and because of that we all carry that burden but God’s power is greater and He will never allow us to be tempted without giving us an escape. And with Jesus, the power of sin and death will be defeated for ALL of us! THAT IS GOOD NEWS because whoever the son sets free is free indeed!

Maybe Lent is supposed to be a time when we, like Mary, treasure up all these things and ponder them in our hearts. Amen.

Sometimes when I walk in here I have this notion…that I should take off my shoes and socks. Don’t worry I’m not going to . I’m old and I have ugly feet and nobody needs to see that. But I feel like this is holy ground. 

Years ago some men got together and poured a foundation and put in place stuff for plumbing and electric and stacked one brick on top of another and made a building and slapped up a sign that said church and it was holy ground right? No! 

This has become holy ground for me because Jesus is here! Amen? So many stories about Jesus in the bible are about Him healing people and just a little side trip here. Have you ever noticed how in the healing stories – there is usually no name given to the person. Just their gender and their issue. The paralytic man, the woman with the blood issue, the lame man. Maybe that is intentional. How often do we label people not by their name, but by their issue? We see the issue. But Jesus? He sees their faith. He sees their need for forgiveness. 

So how does that healing happen? Jesus always always goes where the pain is! So you got pain tonight? Jesus is here. Worship happens here. Praise happens here. Healing happens here. We become a community! In the breaking bread, in our conversations, our praying for each other and listening to each other, in our laughter and our singing to Jesus together we become a family! We worry and encourage when one falls and we celebrate when one overcomes because we don’t just see their issue. We see them and in them we see ourselves. Jesus is here. The Holy Spirit is here. That makes this holy ground! 

So how did we get here? Let’s go all the way back to creation. We’re gonna be here for awhile…

It all began with a family. A Father and a Son, the Holy Spirit… and man, created in their image. Oh, How it must have been, walking with the Lord in the garden. Every single need provided for and no space – an intimacy between us and God. Knowing God and being fully known.

And then what happened? I think Eve must have been different from us. I mean, NO woman I know would ever even get close enough to listen to a snake. (Except Emily if she is here. If you are here Emily I apologize…this analogy won’t work for you..I know emily loves critters) But here we are, maybe Eve had gotten herself isolated. Maybe it had been awhile since she took a walk in the garden with God and she had been living in her own head too much. That happens to me all the time and I need to come here. I need to be around my Jesus family and get reminded of how much I need that community, I need accountability partners. maybe that was Eve – she needed an accountability partner! 

I did hear a story that said If Adam and Eve had been Cajun they would have eaten the snake instead of the Apple and saved us all a lot of trouble…

Maybe she was jealous of the relationship between God and Adam. I don’t know. But we have to be careful about who we spend time with don’t we? When we keep ourselves with family – actual family, church family, I don’t care what it looks like for you – it’s who YOU consider family, those who love us and have our best interests at heart, we are stronger. But when we isolate ourselves, man, we tend to listen to the first snaky voice that comes along. So maybe the trouble started because of a separation from family or community. 

Then what does the snake say to Eve? Genesis 3 I love to imagine bible stories unfolding like a movie. Just picture it.

He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,  but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

 â€œYou will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now keeping this in context, In Genesis 2:9 it says ⁹ The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. 

All the trees. It wasn’t like all the trees but one were spindly little trees with nothing but dried up wrinkled up fruit.  No. All of them. God wasn’t holding something back from them. He was protecting them. They had never known evil.

So this conversation with the snake -here is a sign of trouble. A lie! She was created in God’s image.  If Eve had been connected to her family, if she had remembered who she was and WHO’S she was, she might have responded “I already am like God because He created me in His image, thank you very much – and grabbed a hoe, chopped off his head and kept walking. But she believed the lie and rather than go to God and walk and talk and ask Him her questions, she went with her own thinking and decided the fruit was good to eat and for gaining wisdom. Then she shared it with Adam maybe because when we sin it doesn’t look or feel so bad if we hang out with others that are doing the same thing right?  (I can hear my mama saying “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?) And then what happened next? 

Adam and Eve realized they were naked and made themselves coverings – they had shame. Then fear –  (and this is actually funny) they heard the sound of the Lord and they hid. Seriously? You can’t hide from God! I mean…he’s God! 

So when God questions Adam, Adam says Eve gave him the fruit and Eve says the snake tempted her and now? Now we have blame. 

So we have isolation from community, a lie, shame, fear, and blame and now no one can own their stuff. They can’t fix the problem. They don’t even acknowledge that they have a problem! Adam and Eve – the first example of denial!

 And now we spend all our time trying to find things to fill that isolation hole that we have dug for ourselves. 

It was a series of small steps that took us from the garden. We piled on layer upon layer of stuff. 

There is a quote from Thomas Aquinas that says “no one intentionally does evil, you always choose an apparent good” Which is just a fancy way of saying we tell ourselves that the dumb choice we make is ok and then we look for reasons to support it. It’s like we have Jesus talking right in our ear – right to our heart and we switch the channel and now all we can hear is the snake.

We are stuck in the snaky domain.

But what does God say about that snake?

“Cursed are you above all livestock

    and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

    and you will eat dust

    all the days of your life.

And I will put enmity

    between you and the woman,

    and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

    and you will strike his heel.”

It might not seem like it at first glance, but this is a picture of such compassion and love. Eve (the woman) will carry the promise of rescue through her offspring  and evil will bruise the heel of that offspring – Jesus who will be crucified but that crucifixion and His resurrection will defeat evil once and for all and make a way for us to go back to the garden – back in to relationship with God. But first Jesus will have to be born – He will be the promise through offspring of Eve. You think God can’t use you? The person through whom sin entered the world is the person through whom God will work to achieve our salvation!

And just think about this. God didn’t wait. He didn’t have to think about it or hesitate. Weigh the pros and cons….No. He immediately made a solution. Just like that. God is good yall! As soon as you sin. As soon as you relapse. As soon as you do that thing you think is unredeemable, God already has a way back in place for you to walk in. And that plan at the beginning? It was wild! It happened with a family. A father – Joseph, a mother – Mary, and a baby. Community. 

Now I’m not saying being alone is bad. Solitude is needed sometimes. Even Jesus needed to go off and be alone with God sometimes. But then He would come back to people. Jesus will always lead us back to people. He is not afraid of our stuff, of our messes, of our pain. He’s not. He’s just not. And he knows that all of this life is just a process of us being undone. All the layers. The lie, the shame, the blame, the separation. We have to be willing to be messy and vulnerable with God in order to see the grace. 

The promise is not at the end. The promise is IN the process.

I think about every time Bobby stands up here and he says to trust the process.  I think about listening to Toby talk about relapse. I think about Melba asking the question in step study – What is your way forward?. Yall that was like the clouds opened…I mean, I am the worst about getting stuck on something in my head…We all have all these layers of stuff we need to work on and we need space and grace to work on them. This world is so loud sometimes and the road can be so long and so full of potholes. So we need our family, our Jesus family, to remind us that we are so loved! Every single person is powerless. Every one. It’s just that in here? We wear it on the outside where it is visible.

But here is what my heart tells me. That visibility, that being known, those moments when I see the love of Jesus in your eyes, where I hear one of you say something and the Holy Spirit convicts me. When one of us trips and falls in one of those potholes and they climb out with all the muck and yuck on them and we say here, take one of these blue chips – Let’s get you cleaned up. Here is some grace… and the steadfast love of God is lived out in front of me….THAT feeds my spirit. None of us will be completely undone until we stand face to face with the father. Life IS the process. God isn’t worried about the outcome. He has that all under control. He wants our yeses. Every single little yes to God helps to undo another layer, breaks another chain, erases another lie, and brings us closer to who we were created to be. We were created to be part of an unbroken circle, not stuck in a cycle of brokenness.

If we ask Him to heal us and we say yes to one thing at a time? He will heal us. I believe that. But I also believe that He has so much more for us. He wants to transform us back to who we were in His image. And when we worship?  Oh….We remember the garden, the intimacy. We reconnect. We return. What does God do? He refreshes our spirits! He restores our relationship with Him and with others! 

I want to take another little side trip here. In the New Testament there is a scripture I want to share with you. Listen to the Word from

John 5:1-18 

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.  Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.  Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.  One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  

38 years ya’ll! If you have been in a mess for what seems like a long time? This guy laid on his mat in the middle of his problem for 38 years. Laid. On. His. Mat. In 38 years he never even rolled or scooted or scooched? I mean in all that time? 

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

Jesus didn’t ask the man what was wrong with him. Jesus didn’t say hey I’ll sit here with you on your mat. I’ll be a friend and love on you right here the way you are. There is a difference between sympathy and compassion. Jesus had compassion. Now watch what the man answered!

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

After 38 years he didn’t say yes! That just astounds me! But no, he launched into an explanation of why he was not able to get to the pool that would heal him.

So?

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,  and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Now two things you can notice here. One is who took him to the pool? Did he live there all the time? Did he have family or friends that picked him up and carried him to the pool every single day for 38 years? If so, why didn’t they hang around and make sure he got to the pool? And the church leaders? Did they praise God that something miraculous had happened when he was no longer lame? No. No one helped him to the pool and no one was celebrating his good fortune with him. Check your circle. Do they want you whole? Or are they fine with you laying on that mat? If so, you need to find you some shove through the crowd, tote you to the roof, cut a whole and lower you to Jesus kind of friends!

Jesus met the man in the temple. Jesus is in the transformation business. This man who laid on a mat for 38 years waiting for someone else to fix his problem is now worshipping in the temple and he is able to rejoin society. But it required him DOING something. He had to get up, pick up his mat, and walk. The healing was there. He had to get up. I don’t know about you but if I had spent 38 years laying on a mat and all of a sudden I could walk, I would have been dancing and jumping around the room like crazy. But Jesus told him to pick up his mat. He was still carrying it when he walked into the temple. Maybe he was supposed to carry that mat so he wouldn’t forget how lame he was before Jesus. 

And ya’ll? We walked in the door here. I may not be in the pool yet. Maybe I just rolled a little bit. Maybe some of us have already met Jesus and we are being healed. But the point is – we moved. We did something! We are all already ahead of the poor guy on the mat!

When we are healed, transformed by Jesus Christ the saviour of the world we begin to live a life that responds with gratitude. I once was…but now I’m…

I once listened to a snake, but now I’m a possibility in God’s kingdom. I once was stuck on a mat, but now I’m carrying my mat and walking with Jesus. I once was a grouchy fisherman named Peter but because of Jesus I got to walk on water and Jesus built His church on me! I once thought I was unredeemable and was trying to do it all by myself but now, I’m part of a family that reminds me I am worth everything to Jesus. 

We are all a mess and we are all on our way back home to the garden and we need Jesus to get there and Jesus shows us that we also need each other. Amen.

February 2, 2020 4th Sunday after Epiphany year A

Scripture Readings 

Old Testament Reading 

Micah 6:1-8

6:1 Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

6:2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

6:3 “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

6:4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

6:5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Acacia to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.”

6:6 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Epistle Reading

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

1:20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.

1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,

1:23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

1:24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

1:25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

1:26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,

1:29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

1:31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Gospel Reading 

Matthew 5:1-12

5:1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

5:2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

5:11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

5:12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Who Do We Think We Are

All the texts this Sunday, come together to warn the people of God that the world may try to confuse you and that the things society values will look good on the outside but they are not what God desires.

Micah gives us a picture of God outlining a Court case between Himself and Israel. He gives a list of all that He has done for the Israelites. The Israelites only answer is a list of questions that shows they clearly have missed the point. Should they bow before Him? Sacrifice animals? Children? What do you want from us God?

The case ends with a clear list of what God requires.

DO justice

Love mercy

Walk humbly with God

The Israelites had drifted away from God. They were going through the motions, They were going to church but they were also looking around and seeing what society said they should do and since some of the folks were doing well for themselves (which looks a lot  like blessings) they stuck a few idols around and listened to some very charismatic speakers and they thought they had it all together.

So next we jump to the new testament and see that years later, people were not much different. They still missed the mark. 

Ist Corinthians 1:18 

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

At first reading, this seems obvious doesn’t it? We all come to church, serve on committees, help with service projects. Most of us have been coming to church since we were itty bitty. We have heard all the stories many times. But personally, I have been guilty at times of “phoning it in.” Occupying a pew, paying half attention to a sermon, singing a few hymns and then going out to lunch and heading home for a nap or to watch a football game. I’m doing pretty good right? Aren’t I doing what God asks? 

Here is where a pastor might say – no! You need to do more! 

I can bow down to the Lord. I don’t have any animals to sacrifice and my kids are grown…

Maybe familiarity with bible stories and sermons breeds a kind of faith laziness. I think sometimes for me it does. And I look around at the world and I think wow, at least my church is not like that. We believe in treating people fairly. We do food pantry, we pray for each other. We partner with other churches to do Celebrate Recovery. We mentor at the school and support not only the students but the teachers. 

Thank goodness we are working to love our little corner of the world. 

But the world has problems. And I have come to think that they are not moral, or political. They are problems of faith. We have to stop, well let me rephrase that. I have to stop phoning it in. 

We live in a world that has all the answers to all the questions only as far away as our cell phones. We can understand everything if we know how to search. The world has tons of understanding. But…how is that working out for the world? 

How is that working out for any of us?

What does the bible tell us? 

2nd Corinthians 5:7 says “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Galations 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, and Romans 1:17 ALL say “The righteous will live by faith.”

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

If we wait for understanding we might NEVER step out in faith.

Faith comes from trust – NOT understanding. 

I would like understanding. I really would. I go to scripture with one question and leave with three more. But..that keeps me going back. Did you ever have a teacher in school who when you asked them a question, they answered with a question? I never liked that. They wanted you to look deeper, read more, figure it out for yourself so it would become etched in your mind. 

Maybe I’m supposed to keep coming back to scripture, so it will become etched in my heart? 

We don’t need a God of easy answers. We have google. We have books. We have friends smarter than we are. We don’t need a God who can do what we can do. 

We need the God from Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,  to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

There is a greek word – Thaumazo that means to marvel or wonder at. The term is used often in the bible, but there are only two times in the bible where Jesus marvels. 

The first is in Matthew 8:5-13

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

The second is Mark 6:1-6

6 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?  Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.  He was amazed at their lack of faith.

In the first text Jesus marvelled at how much faith a Roman soldier – a non-Jew had. In the second, He marvelled at how little faith his own Jewish people had!

Both times Jesus marvelled, it had to do with faith. If God looks at our church I wonder, will He be surprised at how MUCH faith we have? Or by how little?

We are crucified with Christ and we live by faith, trusting in God. If you were not a believer and follower of Jesus Christ you might say “Well, Dee, that is impossible!” 

I would say I know! 

It is! 

A mere girl carried a baby without having had a physical relationship and that baby would grow up to be a Jewish guy that would be arrested and nailed to a cross and die and be buried and then rise again. That’s what I am going to put all my trust in? Impossible! Yes! It is! That is a foolish thing to believe! Yes!

Think about it. Here I am up here speaking and I can look out and see that well, everyone in the pews is wiser, kinder, more Godly than I am. How can God use me? I don’t know! 

If you tell me I have faults that should keep me from being up here speaking about God, I would say you don’t know half of it! 

Matthew 5:1-12 Jesus calls his Disciples to him and begins teaching them. Even for the disciples, there always seems to be a disconnect between how people think things should work and how God actually relates to us. 

The Beatitudes are very familiar to us.To be poor in spirit means that we realize we are nothing compared to God. What a paradox. Society values self-sufficiency. God values our need for Him. It seems appropriate that this would be the first teaching because this is how we open the door to let Him in to begin teaching us.The desire to have a relationship with our creator. The humbling realization that in ourselves, the best we can do is less than nothing compared to who we are in Him.

To live in this world means to constantly hold in tension, the balance between how the world functions and the way the Kingdom of God is supposed to work. We or at least I, have to remain teachable.

Every time I think I understand, I do something I shouldn’t do or I don’t do something I should. 

But from Genesis to Revelation God only used ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. 

How foolish Noah must have looked. His friends would have said hey Noah, what are you doing? 

Building an ark.

What’s an ark? 

A boat.

Why are you building a boat? 

Rain is coming.

They must have laughed like crazy. A boat. In the desert. 

Moses had the Red sea in front of him, the Egyptian army behind him and a bunch of Israelites all saying Moses! What are we gonna do. I don’t know. I have this staff…

Sarah was knitting baby booties. Her friends might have asked “Sarah, what are you doing?” “Knitting for my baby!” Ummm Sarah? That ship has sailed, honey.

How foolish did the Israelites look as they marched around Jericho. Togas and sandals. No guns or bombs. Marching. 1234.

How foolish did David look – nine foot giant and itty bitty slingshot?

How foolish did Esther look going to the king unsummoned?

 It could have cost her her life!

What about Mary? Joseph, I promise! I promise! It was an angel!

How foolish did the wisemen look following a star?

How foolish did Peter look stepping out of the boat?

How foolish did the Roman centurion look – just say the word, you don’t even have to come in and my servant will be healed?

How foolish did the woman with the blood issue look – just grabbing the hem of Jesus garment?

How foolish did Paul and Silas look singing It Is Well With My Soul in a prison cell?

How foolish did the little boy look – five loaves, 2 fish, 5000 people, on the mountainside.

I’m in a little country town in Texas. I don’t have anything to offer that God could use. Maybe I’m just grasping at the hem of His garment.

Jesus certainly looked foolish – hanging naked on a cross with people saying THAT’S him? 

People are still saying “That’s him? That’s who you are gonna put it all on the line for?”

But guess what? Because ordinary people decided to say yes – that they would trust God and they would live by faith even when it seemed to make no sense and they did not understand….because they decided it was okay to look foolish in the eyes of men….

what happened? 

Noah’s family was saved from the flood 

Moses did see the Red Sea part and Sarah did give birth to Isaac 

The Israelites did see the wall of Jericho come down and David did defeat the giant and Esther stopped the Jewish genocide. Mary gave birth to Jesus. 

The wisemen found the Messiah, Peter walked on water, the Centurion’s servant was healed, the woman with the issue of blood – she was healed, Paul and Silas got out of that prison. 

That little boy fed 5000 –  

and Jesus Christ?  He got off that cross and he defeated hell and he defeated death and he holds the keys to hell and death and the same spirit that lives on the inside of him lives on the inside of you and lives on the inside of me so we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us! 

The church in Corinth had problems. The church today has problems. Paul didn’t argue about who was right and who was wrong. He reminded the church of Corinth who they were and whose they were. He redirected their focus back to what and WHO is important and everything else paled in comparison.

1st Corinthians 1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

What does God require?

Do Justice

Love Mercy

Walk humbly with God

I don’t have much To offer you Lord. A couple of loaves and a few fish. My heart and my words. My trust. My faith.

Amen.

All Saints Sunday 

Quote: Be the things you loved most about the people who are gone

Luke 19:1 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Maybe how we look at this story depends on how we answer a question. It’s just a detail but it could change our perspective. When Zacchaeus speaks about his financial decisions is it a promise of what he WILL do in response to his encounter with Jesus? Or is he saying what he is doing right now?

Jesus is nearing the end of his journey to Jerusalem. He is passing through the border town of Jericho where Zachaeus lives. His face is “set towards Jerusalem” (Luke 9:53) but he is not so preoccupied with his own fate that He doesn’t take time to notice others. 

The name “Zacchaeus” comes from the Greek “zakchaios,” which means “pure” or “righteous.” Zacchaeus is not just a tax collector, he is a chief tax collector so he is very rich. The meaning of his name seems ironic and maybe some in the crowd notice this. 

So let’s take this well known little story apart. 

One detail is that sight is important. 

We need to take a little side trip to see how this fits together.

Luke 19:1-10 As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.  When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him,  “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.

Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”  Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

Luke pairs two stories that both take place in Jericho. When we look at them together they compliment each other. One is about a disabled man who is poor and blind but though blind, he is able to see things others do not including his own desperate condition and the power of Jesus Christ. He cries out for Jesus to have mercy on him.  Zacchaeus is rich and not disabled, just small, He has heard of this Jesus and climbs a tree to see him over the crowd but he is silent when Jesus approaches.

Another detail is wealth. In the previous chapter in Luke, a rich ruler sadly chooses his wealth over following Jesus. In contrast, Zacchaeus receives Jesus with joy and promises to give half his wealth to the poor and to restore fourfold the money he defrauded people out of and Jesus announces salvation has come to this house.

A third detail is that Zacchaeus is short, physically – but also, as far as his community is concerned he is short on morals. Partly because of his stature and now because of his profession, Zacchaeus has been looked down on all his life. The crowd reaction when Jesus singled him out was to grumble. This is not the first time that bystanders have been angry about Jesus’ behavior. Back in Luke 7:39 when a woman who was known to live a sinful life washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and her hair at a dinner he was having with the pharisees, Jesus responded to the grumbling of the pharisees with the parable of forgiven debt and told the woman she was forgiven. Just last week we heard the story of two men praying – a tax collector and a Pharisee where it was the tax collector who went home justified.

So what does all this mean with the question of whether Zacchaeus has done or is doing something with his money?

The easiest interpretation would be to say that it is describing future behavior. Zacchaeus has this encounter with Jesus which causes him to change his behavior which Jesus acknowledges. It fits with how we understand things to work.. We repent, then we are forgiven. That when Jesus shows up, the impossible happens. That repentance should include everything in our lives including our finances as well as our heart change. AND..All those things are true. 

But sometimes it seems like the bible says one thing on the surface and yet allows for us to slow down and wander and wonder a bit and maybe challenge the assumptions we make when we first read a text.

So let’s look at the text a little closer. Zacchaeus does not make a confession of sin. He does not repent. He does not ask for mercy. We can make the assumption that since he is pledging his money that he repents but unlike the praying tax collector who asked God to have mercy on him, a sinner,  Zacchaeus’ repentance remains an assumption WE make. Jesus merely pronounces a blessing based not on anything Zacchaeus has done, but simply because he is an Israelite just like the people around him who are grumbling. Zacchaeus doesn’t seem to offer to pay everyone back or give his money to the poor because of anything Jesus said. In fact it almost seems like more of a response to the crowd. Maybe it’s a response to the presence of Jesus. Again, it is left to us to make the assumption.

So at first reading this is the perfect conversion story. But what if it is also the story of all the possibilities that exist in the presence of Jesus. So much of the story seems impossible. That a chief tax collector would want to see Jesus. That Jesus would want to stay at his home. That this sinner Zacchaeus would go above and beyond the law with his generosity. That Jesus would say that not just Zacchaeus but his whole household had salvation. 

Maybe Zacchaeus represents the first and most important start for all disciples of Jesus – a persistent desire to see Him and a transformational joy when we are in His presence! Rather than a formula of steps of repentance and forgiveness the story takes the miracle of salvation and shows it as a promise that anyone who truly wants to see Jesus will – even if they have to go to all kinds of lengths to do so. More than just seeing Jesus, they will be seen by Jesus and THAT is joy.

If we read the story of Zacchaeus as a story of the desire to see and be seen by Jesus, then we can then look around us and ask ourselves who both in our church and everywhere else we go as we live out our lives, has been left out, too short to see over the heads of the crowd, too different in the way they live, who might just want to see Jesus and who might surprise us by their generosity and faith… and if we allow ourselves to ask these questions, we might see Jesus and Zacchaeus and ourselves in a completely different way. Maybe like the blind man, we will be able to see things with more than our eyes. 

What would it mean to us if Jesus spoke to us while we were up a tree? 

What would it be like to be looked down on all your life and then have Jesus look up at you and see you for the creation you are, made in God’s image? 

What would it have been like for Zacchaeus to have Jesus look up and speak his name showing that Jesus knows HIM inside and out and he can’t pretend to be anything but who he is and Jesus doesn’t  just see him and speak his name but treats him as a friend! 

A little detail in this text, Jesus says He MUST stay at Zacchaeus’ house. That implies that God planned this encounter – that it wasn’t an accident. 

In the passage about the blind man who received his sight from Jesus. a physical healing took place. In the story of Zacchaeus, since we have to make so many assumptions anyway, what if we make one more. 

Maybe Zacchaeus who has always been looked down on because he is a small man, became hardened and that was part of the reason he chose his profession. Suppose he felt little compassion for all those who had treated him as less because of his height, something he had no control over. Suppose when Jesus looked up at this man who had climbed a tree to see him, he saw someone with a deep wound that was invisible because it was a wound of the spirit but a wound that was disabling none the less.

So if we look at two stories – the story of a blind beggar and the story of Zacchaeus, we see two very different people, two very different healings, and in both cases, the men received salvation but it looked very different outwardly.

In the first, a beggar who’s eyes didn’t work and yet was able to recognize the power of Jesus Christ, was physically healed and now able to join society as a productive member and he and those who witnessed the healing, glorified God. In the second, a spiritual healing took place and a rich man pledged his wealth to the poor and to make amends for everyone he had taken advantage of, and because of that, his entire household received salvation.

If we can take these stories that we have heard all of our lives and look beyond the obvious we can find layers of hope for healing, for salvation, for seeing and being seen by Jesus no matter who we are or where we are in life. 

These stories of all those who have gone before us, facing struggles, disabilities, unfair treatment, who encountered Christ and were forever changed strengthen our own faith that we too can see and be seen by Jesus.

Maybe these stories are all about the impossible possibilities that exist when Jesus shows up.