A Broken Exchange

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 29, 2010.  The text for this week's message is Jeremiah 2:4-13.

As an avid baseball fan, I tend to pay close attention to what is going on in the baseball world right around July 31st each year.  July 31st is the last day that a team can trade a player without having to go through a difficult-to-understand waiver process.  There is usually a lot of rumors and action in the weeks leading up to that date.  But one thing that is never guaranteed in a trade is success.  There is rarely just one reason why a trade takes place, but typically, one team is looking to improve its roster and does so by giving up something in order to improve as a team.  However, this doesn’t always work out in the sports world.  I looked up some of the worst trades of all time this week.  So stay with me for a few minutes, and you’ll start to see how this applies to today’s reading.

Perhaps the first one that you would expect me to bring up came in 1964 when the Chicago Cubs traded a young outfielder by the name of Lou Brock and two others to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ernie Broglio and two other players.  Broglio ended up winning just 10 games in his 2.5 seasons with the Cubs while the trade kick-started Lou Brock’s Hall of Fame Career.

Now, to be fair to the Cub fans (see, I’m not completely unreasonable), how about 1992?  The White Sox traded Sammy Sosa and Ken Patterson to the Cubs for George Bell.  Bell, acquired for his power, only hit 38 home runs in two seasons for the White Sox, while Sosa went on to hit 545 of his career home runs with the Cubs.

Or, how about 1971?  The New York Mets traded pitcher Nolan Ryan and three other players to the California Angels for shortstop Jim Fregosi.  Nolan Ryan only had 5 of his 22 seasons under his belt at the time, and would go on to win 138 games for the Angels and become the all time strikeout leader.  Fregosi, a six-time All Star when the trade happened, never did anything worth noting for the rest of his career and only played 146 games for the Mets.

Finally, in what is widely considered to be the worse trade of all time, in 1920, a year after he set the single season home run mark at 29, the Boston Red Sox didn’t want to pay a man by the name of George Herman Ruth $20,000 for the 1921 season, so they traded him to the New York Yankees for $125,000.  George Ruth, better known as Babe, simply went on to establish himself as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.  Now, to the question that you’ve been pondering in your mind for the last couple of minutes – what in the world does this have to do with Jeremiah 2?

What we read today is one of the first messages that the Lord has for the people of Israel through the prophet Jeremiah.  The language that is used in this passage suggests that God is putting the people of Israel on trial.  It begins by recounting how the Lord has been faithful to the people of Israel, but then turns into an accusation with the heavens serving as a witness against the Israelites.

The oracle begins by the Lord speaking to the ancestors of the people.  He says, “What fault did your ancestors find with me that caused them to go far from me and seek after worthless things?”  The problem for the Israelites really began long before the current audience was ever even born.  The people of Israel sought after the idols of foreign nations.  These idols, or “worthless things,” drew their attention away from the Lord, who brought them out of centuries of slavery in Egypt and kept them safe during their 40-year journey in the wilderness.  The Lord reminds the people that their ancestors would have died in the wilderness without His provision, and that He was the one who brought them into a land of plenty.

And, yet, in spite of the safety and provision that they received from the Lord, the people of Israel defiled the land that was given to them.  How did they do that?  By chasing after these “worthless things.”  The Hebrew word translated as “worthless” here can also be used to signify a breath or vapor.  In other words, it is something with no substance whatsoever.  What is worse in all of this is that their desire to chase after these things that had no substance caused them to become worthless as well.

There are things in our lives that we chase after, but if we stop and really look at them, they are of no value whatsoever.  You hear about people who are so obsessed with consumption, but they are never satisfied.  They are always looking for the next best thing.  They are never happy with what they have.  We are those people at times in our lives.  We chase after things that don’t have any meaning, and wonder why we are not satisfied with our lives.  If we allow our lives to become an endless pursuit of worthless things, then our lives have indeed become worthless in comparison to the greater purposes that God has for us.

Do you ever stop to reflect on what it is that God has done in your life?  Do you ever stop to give thanks for what it is that He is doing?  Perhaps the best deterrent to leading a worthless life is to remember what it is that the Lord has done.  The people of Israel were supposed to celebrate the Passover on an annual basis.  The Passover was a festival to remind the people what God had done in bringing them up out of slavery in Egypt.  

It is entirely possible that the people of Israel failed to remember the Passover annually, as there is no real mention of it as we go through the historical books in the Old Testament.  We do know that during the reign of Josiah, the Book of the Law was found in the Temple, which can only mean that at some point it was lost.  The people simply forgot their purpose.  They forgot what it was that God had done for them, and as a result, they chased after things that had absolutely no chance to fulfill their spiritual needs.

The blame for this falling away from the Lord certainly falls on the leadership because they were the ones who were charged to lead the people in the ways of the Lord.  We certainly see that in verse 8.  The priests, the rulers, and even some of the self-proclaimed prophets failed in their task to lead the people in the worship of the one true God.  In fact, they led the people in the opposite direction, and here is where we come back to the worst trades of all time.

As a part of the accusation against the people of Israel, in verse 11, the Lords says, “Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?”  The very notion that the people of this time would exchange their gods for the gods of another country was simply ridiculous.  The Babylonians never decided to abandon their gods in favor of the gods of the Assyrians.  No nation would ever trade their gods for the gods of their neighbors.  

Now, in a polytheistic society, a society that worships multiple gods, adding to the gods that you already prayed to would not be unheard of, but to totally abandon your gods in favor of the gods of a neighboring nation would have been ridiculous.  But that is exactly what the people of Israel did.

I wish I could remember where I heard this, but a while back, I heard a report that claimed the Israelites were not really monotheists – that is, people who only worshipped one God.  And I couldn’t help but think about how ridiculous this report was.  Because isn’t that what the entire Old Testament is about?  The struggle of the people to remain faithful to the Lord?  Every time we read the prophets, we see the same message – put away your false idols and return to the Lord.  Stop worshipping the worthless images of your neighbors and turn your focus to Yahweh.  

Anybody that has taken the time to read the Old Testament knows that the people of Israel struggled in their attempts to focus all of their worship on the Lord, and not worship the idols of their neighbors.  The question is not “Were they polytheists?” but “How long will they continue to worship false idols?”  How long will they continue to chase after things that have no real purpose in this life?

In verse 11, God says that the people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.  The word for “glory” is the Hebrew word kabod.  In the Bible, kabod refers to the glory of God, an aura associated with God’s appearance that reveals His majesty to humanity.  The kabod of God is described as a “consuming fire.”  It is something that man cannot bear see and still live; it is too overwhelming for humanity.  It can be compared to a high-voltage electrical line.  When we come into contact with it, it is too much for our bodies to handle.

Yet, the people of Israel have exchanged the kabod of the Lord for something that does not profit.  In keeping with the electrical analogy, it would be like us exchanging a power grid for a dead battery.  It is inconceivable that we would give up something so incredible, and yet, we do it all the time.  In response to this, God speaks to the heavens and tells them to be appalled, be shocked by the actions of the people.

Why would the people of Israel give up something so magnificent for something so fleeting and empty?  Why do we?  Why do we enter into this journey of faith that we call the Christian life, only to turn our backs on it when we fail to open our eyes to what God is doing?  

When we stop reflecting on what God has done in our lives, we run the risk of doing exactly what the Israelites are accused of doing here in Jeremiah 2 – giving up on glory of God for the passing interests of this world.  It’s a bad trade, and here’s the difference between this trade and the baseball trades that I mentioned at the beginning of this morning’s message: in baseball, you don’t always know when something is a bad trade.  You don’t know what players have yet to peak in their careers.  You don’t know what players are past their prime and have nothing left to give.  But when it comes to the glory of God versus the vapors that this world has to offer, you know that it’s a bad trade.

At the end of the passage, God says that the people have committed two evils.  One, they’ve forsaken the living water, and two, they dug cisterns for themselves.  Now, that imagery may not mean as much to many of us in this day and age, but when you look at it in its original context, it is very significant.

In agricultural society of the day, water came from three sources.  First, it came from stream or some other source where the water was moving.  This was the best source of water.  The second option was a well where you could get ground water.  The final source would have been a cistern, which was a pit cut into rock and plastered to prevent seepage.  A cistern is the worst of all possible options.  You had to continually patch up the cracks, or the water would seep out and all you would have left is sludge and mosquito larvae that looked like dancing rice.

What God is saying is that the people have turned their backs on the living water, on the Lord, and have opted for sludge-filled cisterns.  It is a horrible trade.  The Red Sox losing Babe Ruth has nothing on this type of trade.  So, how do we live the Christian life?  One day at a time.  Always pushing forward towards the best that God has to offer.  Never turning away for the vapors, for the things that don’t last, for the things that will never satisfy.

There are pursuits in today’s world that pull us away from the Lord.  Pursuits of wealth, power, fame, pleasure.  These are cracked cisterns compared to what we have in Jesus Christ.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”  Jesus is the living water.  To follow him means that we will never thirst again.  We give him our faults, our failures and our emptiness and in return, we receive life eternal in the presence of the Almighty God.  Now, that is a good trade.

Called to Ministry

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 22, 2010.  The passage for this week's sermon is Jeremiah 4:1-10.

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at several passages that help us focus on the topic of living the Christian life.  What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ?  What should our lives look like in light of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus?  How are our lives different because of what God is doing?  These are the types of questions that we need to be asking so that we can grow closer to God in this journey of faith.

This week and next week, we are going to be looking at the prophet Jeremiah.  Today, we are going to be in the opening chapter of Jeremiah, and, more specifically, looking at his call into prophetic ministry.  Whether we want to be or not, and whether we think we are or not, when we decide to follow Jesus, we are responding to a call to ministry.  We are all called to ministry.  In Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul tells us that leaders in the church are called to “equip the saints for the work of ministry.”  When he is talking about “the saints,” he is talking about those who follow Christ.

Those who follow Christ are considered to be saints and are called to ministry.  Now, you may be thinking, “Well, I’m no saint.”  Maybe not in the way you’ve defined saint, but the Greek word for “saint” that is used in the New Testament is the same word that is used to describe something as “holy.”  Something is holy when it is consecrated, or set apart for a purpose.  Those who follow Christ are indeed saints because they have been set apart for a greater purpose.  In reality, the response that we have to our call to ministry may not be all that different from Jeremiah’s response.

Today’s passage begins with the word of the Lord coming to Jeremiah.  The word of the Lord is powerful.  If you read through the beginning of the Bible, the first book you come to is Genesis.  And in the opening chapters, God creates all the universe, and He does so using merely the spoken word.  The word of God has the power to create.  When God speaks, we should listen because His word is formative.  And He speaks to Jeremiah.

He says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  Before Jeremiah was ever even born, he was set apart for a particular ministry.  He had a purpose, a reason for being.  Jeremiah had a calling.

In his popular book, The Purpose Driven Life, Pastor Rick Warren begins with a completely counter-cultural statement.  His very first sentence is, “It’s not about you.”  He puts it in bold print just to make sure that we don’t miss what he is saying here.  He goes on in the opening paragraph to say that the purpose of our lives is not about personal fulfillment, our own peace of mind, or even our happiness.  If we want to know why we have been placed on this planet, then we have to start with God.  Warren says, “You were born by His purpose and for His purpose.”

What he is saying here is not all that different from what we see in Jeremiah 1, is it?  Before our birth, God knows us.  We may not come to know Him for a very long time, but we are not unknown to God, the one who created us.  We spend so much time in this life trying to figure out what it is that we are supposed to be doing, but all too often we forget that there is One who knows our purpose.

When God talks about knowing Jeremiah before he was formed in the womb, the language again points to God’s ability to create in the Genesis story.  There are two words that are important in this phrase, “form” and “know.”  The Hebrew word that is used for “to form” is the same word that is used in Genesis 2:7 when God forms man out of the dust.  In the creation story, humanity is the only thing that is created where we get the image of God getting down on his hands and knees to form it.  Then He breathes life into the form.  God’s creation of humanity reveals a level of care and concern that we don’t necessarily see with the rest of creation.

The second word, translated as “to know,” is the Hebrew word yada.  This word suggests an intimate type of knowledge.  It is the kind of knowledge that only those who are close to the individual are going to have.  It suggests knowing somebody down to the very core of their being.  God knows us better than any individual could ever know us.  Again, this deep knowledge comes from the fact that God created us, and this isn’t just a one time instance.  God’s knowledge of Jeremiah is the same kind of knowledge that He has for every person.

You can never come to God with more hidden in your life than you would like Him to know.  We cannot hide who we are from God.  A couple weeks ago, we talked a lot about what is going on in our hearts.  God knows what is going on in our hearts because He formed us and knows us down to the very core of our being.  What we see in this language of forming and knowing is that humanity has a special place, a special purpose in God’s plan.  For Jeremiah, that purpose is to be a prophet to the nations.

God tells Jeremiah that he has been consecrated, or set apart, to be a prophet to the nations.  This call that Jeremiah is getting from God is a very special type of calling.  Not everybody is called to be a prophet to the nations.  It is a difficult ministry that awaits Jeremiah.  He is going to speak out not just against his own people, but against the other nations as well.  He is not going to be a popular person.

Typically when we hear about the role of a prophet, we think of a person who tells the future.  But as we read about the prophets in the Old Testament, we see that speaking to the future is only a portion of their task.  The primary task of the prophet is to serve as the spokesman of God.  This does involve speaking of things to come, but it also involves a call to return to the Lord.  What we see in the prophets more than anything is a call to repent and return to the Lord.

We see messages that are designed specifically to warn the people of what will happen if they continue on their current path.  We see messages that are not given out of arrogance or a sense of superiority, but out of a sense of love.  I think there is a mistaken perception that in the Bible we get two different pictures of God.  In the Old Testament, there is a God of wrath and judgment.  In the New Testament, there is a God of love.  However, God doesn’t change as we read Scripture.  It’s not like He is hot-tempered in the beginning and, by the time the New Testament rolls around, He has chilled out a bit.  No, God’s judgment in the Old Testament comes as a result of the love that we see in the New Testament.  It was necessary correction for His people.

The people of Israel are called to be God’s people.  They are a chosen nation that is to be an example to the entire world, but they continually fail in that task.  As a result, because God’s name is soiled by their actions, judgment is brought upon them in order to get them back on the right track.  It was Jeremiah’s task, as a prophet, to let the people know what was going to happen if they didn’t return to the Lord.  This was not going to make him very popular amongst the people, but sometime following God’s call in life is not about popularity; it’s about doing what is right.  Doing what needs to be done can sometimes be difficult, and as a result, the first thing that we see from Jeremiah is an excuse.

In verse 6, Jeremiah says, “I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”  It is an excuse that is very similar to what Moses had to say at the burning bush.  To be sure, Moses was much more persistent in his objections, but both of them talked about their inability to speak for the Lord.  In Jeremiah’s case, his objection had a lot to do with his age.  Jeremiah was a young man at this point.  We don’t know exactly how young, but the Hebrew word for “youth” gives us the impression that he is still dependent on parental support.

In his culture, Jeremiah has yet to reach an age where the elders would take him seriously.  He would have been seen as just some kid who was speaking out of turn.  Yet, God still calls him, and doesn’t listen to his excuse.  Because, the simple fact of the matter is, when God calls us, God doesn’t make mistakes.  God calls us at just the right time.

When Jeremiah objected, God didn’t pause to double check His calendar.  He knew how old Jeremiah was.  He wasn’t surprised by that information.  We may feel unprepared for the task at hand, but that doesn’t mean we are unqualified for it.  God prepares those whom He sends, and He does just that for Jeremiah.

God overturns Jeremiah’s objection, and verse 9 tells us that the Lord put his hand on Jeremiah’s mouth and said, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.”  Jeremiah is not called to come up with clever messages that will change the hearts of the people.  He is simply called to relay the messages that God tells him to relay.

There seems to be a certain amount of fear involved when it comes to answering our call to ministry, and I think that fear just comes from the unknown.  We don’t know what God is going to ask us to do, and so we are afraid that He might ask us to move to Guam and live with the tribal people.  (Are there tribal people in Guam?  I don’t know; that’s not the point.)  Or, worse yet, He might ask us to completely change our lives and what it is that we have been doing with them up to this point.  And, some times, in some instances, God might ask you to move to Guam and be a missionary.  But more often than not, it’s going to be that second scenario.

God is going to call us to be faithful right where we are.  He is going to call us to be a witness right where we have been placed.  Jeremiah wasn’t sent to Jerusalem from some far off place.  That’s where he lived.  That’s where he grew up.  His father was a priest, and Jeremiah probably grew up around that aspect of his culture, and that was where he was called to do his ministry.  Sometimes that is a little scarier, though, isn’t it?

It’s hard to minister in a place where people remember you as the kid who used to play kickball in the sanctuary.  That’s why I hope I’m never appointed to my home church!  I wasn’t an awful child, but there are a few people there who knew me prior to my more mature days.  Think about the people that knew you as you were growing up.  If you told them the difference that God has made in your life, would they say, “Yeah, that makes sense,” or would they just laugh at the thought of you going to church?  But when God calls you to ministry, and remember, all people who follow Christ are called to ministry in one way or another, you can’t worry about what other people are going to say.  God can and will transform our lives in such powerful ways that we can’t help but be a witness for Him wherever we are.

Jeremiah’s call to ministry was not going to be an easy one.  He had a rough life, but in the end, he was faithful to the call to ministry that God had for him.  And that’s what is really important.  He trusted in the Lord just enough to get him through to the next day.  God never said that Jeremiah was going to have it easy.  In fact, He says, in verse 8, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.”

Now, I have to be honest with you, if I was in Jeremiah’s shoes here, my first thought would have been, “Deliver me from what?  What are you getting me into, Lord?”  Jeremiah’s message wasn’t a popular one, and people lashed out against him because of it.  But he was assured from the very beginning that God was going to be with him and was going to deliver him.  That makes it a little easier to swallow, doesn’t it?  Because God is the same yesterday, today and forever, we can take a measure of comfort in the fact that God will be with us, even when He calls us to share His word in difficult circumstances.

In looking at Jeremiah’s call, we’ve been able to see a handful of things that are very important for us to remember as we try to live the Christian life.  First off, and this really comes from Paul, whether we think we are or not, we are saints who have been set apart for a special ministry.  Each person’s ministry is going to look a little different, but at its core is our trust and obedience to the one who calls us.

Secondly, when God calls us – when not if - He knows that we aren’t ready to fulfill that calling completely.  God knows us from before we were born, and God is not surprised by our inadequacies.  In fact, God thrives in our inadequacies.  God equips those whom He sends, and we are all sent to be His representatives – sometimes we may be called to go to distant places, but more often than not, we are called to be a witness right where we are.

Above all, it is important for us to remember that God doesn’t call us and leave us.  God is with us through even the most difficult parts of our ministries.  We are never alone.  God calls, equips and delivers.  It is up to us to stop making excuses and be faithful to that call.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 15, 2010.  The text for this week's message is Hebrews 11:29-12:2.

The last couple of weeks, we have looked at passages that help us to understand what it means to live the Christian life.  Two weeks ago we looked at some of the practical application portion of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, and we saw the importance of keeping our minds occupied with heavenly things.  Last week we looked at the opening chapter of the book of Isaiah.  It was a difficult message for us to hear, but I think that just makes it all the more important.

The people of Israel had gotten to the point where their sacrificial system became a way for them to sin, and not have to worry about it.  If they sinned against God or their neighbor, they knew that their sacrifice would atone for it.  It was no big deal.  They were just shrugging off their sin.  In speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God lets the people know, in no uncertain terms, that this is unacceptable.  They cannot simply go through the motions of their faith and assume that everything will be all right.  Living a life of faith is about what is going on in your heart.  It doesn’t matter what you do or what you say if your heart is not in the right place.

Today, we are going to go in a little different direction.  Today’s Scripture is not so much about what to do or what not to do when it comes to our life of faith, but, rather, it’s a way for us to stop and take a look around.  We are not in this alone.  Nobody becomes a Christian without somebody else coming alongside, and nobody can mature in their faith by doing everything alone.  We need to have people to help us grow.  Now, keep that in mind because we are going to come back to it in a minute, but to begin with this morning, I want to take just a couple of minutes to introduce Hebrews, the letter where we find ourselves this morning.

First off, while tradition tells us that the apostle Paul is the author of this letter, the truth is, we don’t really know.  Nowhere in the letter is the author identified, and some of the grammar doesn’t match-up with Paul’s other writing, so say people who study such things.  It appears as though the recipient of the letter is a group of Jewish believers, and we can see that through some of the content, but also in the first verse, the author talks about how God spoke to “our fathers” through the prophets.

Just as we are not exactly sure who the author or audience for this letter is, we do not know exactly when it was written.  It is a pretty safe bet to say that it was written prior to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D, but that only narrows it down to a 30-40 year window.

This letter is really more about encouraging believers to hold on to their faith in Jesus Christ.  The author spends quite a bit of time talking about how Jesus is greater than the angels, priests and the old covenantal system.  In Jesus, we see the fulfillment of all that God has been doing in history.  Instead of calling the people out of the old covenant, however, this letter encourages us to take the next step in faith and find true rest and peace in Jesus Christ.  In some sense, it is really about persevering in the faith no matter what obstacles may arise.

Hebrews 11 begins by giving us a definition of faith.  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  When we come to today’s reading, we are coming to a part in the letter that points to the history of the people of Israel.  This is a section that would have brought to mind a ton of different stories of people that we can find in the Old Testament; stories that really meant something to the Jewish people.

Throughout the portion of the chapter that we didn’t read this morning, the writer talks about the stories of Cain & Abel, of Abraham and of Moses; stories that are rich and deep in significance.  We opened today’s reading with more great stories and figures for the people of Israel – the exodus from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea and the fall of Jericho.  Stories of great people of faith in their history – Rahab, a woman who wasn’t even an Israelite, but still displayed an amazing amount of faith; the judges, the kings, the prophets – all people who were far from perfect, but still were examples of faith for the Jewish people.

I find this passage to be really inspiring because it is a call to remember those who have gone before us in the faith.  And at the end of the section, the writer says that all of these people, these giants of the faith that had gone before us, though they were certainly commended for their faith, they never saw the fulfillment of God’s promises.  Their stories are stories that should inspire us to greatness in our faith, and yet, even they could not see what has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ.  As great as they were, there was still something more.

The writer then goes on to give us this great image.  He says that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.  One of the highlights of my life, apart from the obvious things, has to be taking a trip to Cooperstown to see the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  I know that sounds like a weird statement to make, but stick with me for a minute on this one.

Cooperstown is just an unassuming town.  I think it’s fair to say that it’s not all that much bigger than Covington.  It is a small town tucked away in middle-of-nowhere New York state.  And yet, in this town, there is a place that is inspiring.  You walk into the Hall of Fame, and you are greeted by those who have gone before.  You see the exhibits; you remember the stories of the past; maybe you even learn a few more stories along the way.  Being a Cardinal fan, obviously some things were going to stick out more – Musial’s locker, Brock’s cleats, the World Series rings.  But I also remember seeing a tribute to Jackie Robinson, and other greats of the game.

After you go through all the exhibits, and you remember those stories, you go downstairs to the hallway where all the plaques are located.  And it is awesome.  It is pretty quiet, and you are surrounded by the likeness and stories of the greatest players of the game of baseball.  As a baseball fan, there is no place quite like it.  And when I read this passage of Hebrews, I get that same feeling.

I get the feeling that the author is taking us on a tour.  We are going through the museum of our faith, and we are seeing and hearing and experiencing these stories as if for the first time.  We should be in awe of what is happening all around us.  We should be inspired to a greater faith, and that is what we see in this passage.  We see a call to live our lives in a way that is consistent with the greatness that has been laid down before us.

And here’s the thing, we aren’t just walking through a museum where we can see the great feats that others have done.  We have to realize that we are a part of something greater than just ourselves.  We are a part of a community of faith.  Take a look around you.  You are not on this faith journey alone.  Not only are there people who have gone before us, but there are people all around us who are on that same journey.

I don’t know of a single person that has ever gone through their entire life of faith all by themselves.  You are here this morning because somebody influenced you life in a powerful way, and you decided to check out what God was doing.  Maybe this happened recently; maybe this happened decades ago.  Nobody does it alone.  The community of faith is just that - a community.  It is a gathering of people seeking after God.  Nobody has got it all so right that they don’t need others to take the journey with them.

As a response to this reality, because we are surrounded by so great a community of faith, we are called to press onward.  We are called to put away the things in our lives that hold us back from our relationship with God.  I like the language that the author uses here.  He tells us to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely.”

Have you ever thought of your sin as something that weighs you down?  Have you ever thought of your sin as something that clings closely to you?  Those are great analogies for the things in our lives that do us no good.  It is difficult enough to go through this life, but when we try to do it with things weighing us down, it is even more difficult.  

I remember going camping once with a friend and a handful of middle school boys.  We went on a hike, and it was a pretty hot day.  So, we brought a backpack full of granola bars and bottles of water to give us the energy to do this hike.  And guess who got to carry the backpack.  This hike was going to be hard enough as it was, but to add an additional 20-30 pounds in the backpack made it even more difficult.  And while I was tired and worn out by the end of the hike, do you know what made it a little easier?  The fact that the backpack weighed significantly less as we drank the water and ate the snacks.

Life is a lot like that.  As we continue in our journey, and we begin to release more and more of the sin that is weighing us down, it becomes a little easier.  I’m not saying that giving your life to Christ means that you are suddenly going to have smooth sailing, but it does become less of a burden when we hand over our sins to the Lord.  Our sins weigh us down, and over time, they wear us down.  They cling to us.  They make life difficult.  But because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is possible for us to be rid of our sins once and for all.

The call in this passage is for us to look at the example of Jesus Christ and be encouraged by it.  We are called to press on.  Let go of the sins that are clinging to you and follow the example set forth by Jesus.  Living the Christian life has a lot to do with perseverance and endurance.  It is not always going to be easy.  We are going to need to stick to it, even when it is difficult, and the reason why we can is by faith, by looking at those who have gone before us, and even by turning to those who are walking alongside us right now.

Heart Check

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 8, 2010.  The text for this week's sermon is Isaiah 1:1, 10-20.


Over the next few weeks, we are going to be looking at several passages that explore what it means to live a Christian life.  Last week, in Colossians, we hit the practical application portion of the letter, and saw that we need to focus our minds on things that are worthy of the kingdom of God.  If we fill our lives with junk, then we are going to have a very empty spiritual life, but if we focus on the heavenly things, we can have a more fulfilling spiritual life.

This week, we are jumping to the Old Testament and the opening chapter of Isaiah.  Isaiah was a prophet who lived in the 8th century B.C.  The book opens up by letting us know that Isaiah’s ministry took place during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.  Tradition tells us that Isaiah’s ministry extended into the time of Hezekiah’s son Manasseh.  Many believe that the writer of Hebrews is referencing Isaiah’s death at the hands of Manasseh in Hebrews 11:37.

Besides being told the timeframe of his ministry, we are also told that Isaiah is the son of Amoz.  We don’t really know who Amoz is; he is not mentioned in Scripture.  I think this is an important point for us to reflect on for just a minute.  Isaiah, one of the most well known Old Testament prophets comes from an obscure background.  Isaiah is quoted numerous times in the New Testament, and the writings found in this book of Scripture cover a lot of very important topics, and yet, we know relatively little about his personal life.

So, what’s the lesson here?  God doesn’t need us to be famous, or to come from an influential background, in order to accomplish His will through us.  We don’t know where Isaiah came from, but that’s not important when it comes to being faithful to God’s call.  God equips those whom he sends.  We have to be willing to answer God’s call, and God will take care of the rest.  This is definitely the case when it comes to the difficult things that we have to do, and when we come to the opening chapter of Isaiah, we see that Isaiah’s ministry was going to be one that would be filled with difficult times.

The opening speech of Isaiah’s book is scathing towards the people of Israel.  In verses 2-9, Isaiah refers to the people of Israel as a people who have rebelled against the Lord.  He calls them a “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly.”  Can you imagine hearing this for the first time?  Being the target audience?  The people of Israel were probably pretty happy with the way that things were going at the time, and along comes this hot-shot prophet, calling them out for the sins that had become so normal in their lives.  And he continues this scathing word in today’s reading.

He refers to them as rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah.  If you don’t know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, I want to invite to you take a look at Genesis 19 when you get home.  To give you the quick summary of what happens there, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were filled with wicked people.  In fact, the people there were so bad, that God decided to bring judgment upon them, and both towns were laid to waste.

Here, in the opening chapter of his book, Isaiah is basically saying that the people of Judah and Jerusalem are just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah – far from being the best of the best, as the chosen people of God should be, they were being compared to the worst of the worst.  It was only by God’s grace that these people did not suffer the same fate as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
But here’s the sad thing: the people of Judah and Jerusalem thought that they were doing all right.  They brought their sacrifices to the Temple.  They performed the rituals that they were supposed to perform.  By the external measures, they were doing all right.  And yet, their sacrifices were meaningless.  Their rituals were empty.  Why?  Because they didn’t back it up with their hearts.  It’s pretty easy to say all the things that we are supposed to say.  We can go through the motions and say and do the right things; however, in the end, it all comes down to the question: where is your heart?

In verse 11, God speaks through the prophet, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?”  Did God really need the sacrificial system?  When we read through the Old Testament, and get to the part that starts talking about the sacrificial system, we tend to gloss over it.  We don’t think it matters.  We think it is outrageously boring.  The truth is, we just don’t understand it.  We’ve never seen the sacrificial system that is described in the Old Testament in practice.  It is weird to us, and so, we don’t pay attention to it, but the sacrificial system was put in place so that the people would know the severity of their sins.

If you sin against your neighbor, or if you sin against God, it’s costly.  It’s costly not just because of the expense of purchasing or losing an animal for the sacrifice.  It’s costly because something had to shed its blood to cover that sin.  But eventually, the people lost sight of that.  Sacrifices became ways to make up for the wrongdoing in one’s life.  That is a significantly different perspective, isn’t it?

It reminds me of what happened in the Christian Church prior to the Reformation.  The Reformation was a time when people were tired of a corrupt leadership in the Church.  At this point in history, if you were a Christian, you were either Catholic or Eastern Orthodox; those two had split ways hundreds of years before over a political and theological dispute.  There was no such thing as a Protestant Church at the time.

In the early 16th century, a man named Tetzel was very aggressive in selling what was known as indulgences.  Without getting into too much detail, an indulgence in Catholic theology is a pardon for sin.  People were purchasing indulgences for family members who had passed away and were spending time in Purgatory, another aspect of Catholic theology in which one “works off” the sins they committed during their lifetime.  Others purchased indulgences for themselves, so that they could be forgiven of the sins that they had committed.  And you can see the downward spiral.

Some people began purchasing indulgences for sins that they would commit in the future.  In one of my classes in college, we were talking about indulgences, and the professor told us a story of a guy who approached a priest selling indulgences, and he asked, “If I purchase an indulgence, will my sin be absolved?”  To which the priest replied, “Yes.  This will absolve your sins.”  “Well, what about sins, I’ve yet to commit?”  “Yes, it will do that as well.”  So the man purchased an indulgence from the priest, and then robbed the priest knowing that his sin would be absolved.

Originally, this is not at all what indulgences were supposed to be, but it became a system by which a person could do whatever they wanted, as long as they sought forgiveness for their sins.  The same happened in the sacrificial system.  Eventually, the sacrificial system became a way to work around certain sins in one’s life.  It no longer was seen as a teaching tool to let us know about the serious nature of sin.  It became a Get Out of Jail Free card – not at all what it was supposed to be.

What God is saying here is, “Look, I don’t need your sacrifices.  I don’t need your empty rituals.  I need your hearts to be in the right place.”  God didn’t depend on the sacrifices of the people in order to live.  Earlier this year, a remake of the 1981 movie Clash of the Titans was released in theaters.  I enjoyed it, but let’s be honest, it doesn’t take a whole lot for me to enjoy a movie; put in a lot of action, and I’m in good shape.  Near the beginning of the movie, the Greek gods are getting weaker because humanity is no longer praying to them.  Their strength came from the adoration and prayers of humanity, which is fine for a movie, which is fine for Greek mythology.  But, as we read Scripture, we are not reading mythology.  We are reading about God, Yahweh, the Creator of the universe, the Almighty Lord, and God is not dependent on humanity.  God is self-sustaining and eternal.  God is not in need or want of anything.

Empty, worthless sacrifices don’t do anything for God.  In fact, they don’t do anything at all but reveal what is truly in our hearts.  Let’s put it in today’s context.  Coming to church on Sunday morning doesn’t mean anything unless you are coming with a heart that is open to God.  If you aren’t here to take in the Word of God, if you aren’t here to worship God, then why are you here?  Empty actions do nothing for our spiritual lives.  We can fake it all we want, but we will never fool God, who knows what is in our hearts.

Now, does this mean that non-Christians have no place in the Church?  Absolutely not!  A non-Christian has the potential to be more open to what God is doing than somebody who has been attending church for decades.  A non-Christian may not be in a right relationship with God, but that doesn’t mean that their heart isn’t moving in the right direction.  Look again at what God is saying through the prophet Isaiah.

In verses 16-17, He says, “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”  He’s saying that it’s important for us to not just go through the motions.  In Leviticus 11, God doesn’t say, “Act holy for I am holy.”  He says, “Be holy, for I am holy.”  The actions are nice, but if the heart is not behind it, then they are empty and pointless.

In the closing verses, God says, “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword.”  God doesn’t want our empty and pointless actions.  God wants us to be obedient.  If we think that we can do whatever we want in this life and get away with it because all we have to do is ask for forgiveness, then we are going to find out that we are sorely mistaken.

God will not grant us forgiveness if we are not serious about it.  God will not just shrug off our sin.  Again, the point of the sacrificial system was to show the people that sin costs dearly.  In the end, sin can cost our lives.  On the flip side, even though our sins are as red as blood, they will whiter than snow because of God’s forgiveness.  When we come to God with our hearts in the right place, our sins are wiped away.

Do you ever wonder why there is no sacrificial system any more?  There is no sacrificial system because the ultimate sacrifice was made in Jesus Christ.  Sin is still costly.  In fact, it is so costly, that it takes the blood of God’s only Son to atone for it.  When we come asking for forgiveness, we are able to do it because of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross.

If we think that we can just take that forgiveness for granted, then we are no better than the people of Judah and Jerusalem to whom Isaiah is addressing in this passage.  They were no better than the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and their sacrificial system was built around doves, sheep and bulls.  How much worse off are we who take advantage of a sacrificial system built around the only Son of God?

The call that we hear from the opening chapter of Isaiah this morning is difficult.  It is a call for us to examine our hearts in light of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that is made available because of it.    The Christian life is not about going through the motions.  It is about living with your heart in the right place.

The New Self

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, August 1, 2010.  The Scripture for this week's message is Colossians 3:1-11.


We are jumping out of Luke’s gospel this week, and turning to one of the letters of the Apostle Paul.  Paul’s letter to the Colossians is considered to be one of his Prison Epistles because it was most likely written from prison, around the same time that he also wrote Ephesians and Philemon.  This particular letter is split pretty evenly between theological exposition and practical application.  Where we find ourselves today is at the beginning of the second half of the letter where the practical application really begins to take over.  So, let’s dig into it and see what it is that we can walk away with this morning.

Paul begins by saying, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”  When it comes to the Greek text, there are four different ways to approach an “if” clause.  In the construction that is used in this phrase, Paul assumes the statement found in the “if” part of the statement to be true.  In other words, we could translate this verse as, “Since you have been raised with Christ, and I assume that you have been, consequently, seek the things that are above.”

Paul is writing to a group of believers in this letter.  His instructions here are not for those who do not believe in Christ.  Earlier in the letter, in Colossians 2:12, Paul says that those who have been buried with Christ will be raised with Christ.  Those who have put their faith in Jesus, through their baptism, have been buried and raised with Christ.  They have died to their old self and have been given new life because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And now, in this section of the letter, Paul begins to describe what such a life should look like.

If you sit here this morning and can say that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life and that by his blood you have been redeemed from all that separates you from God, then, guess what, Paul is talking to you this morning.  If that doesn’t describe you, then you can take the morning off if you’d like, but I’d suggest listening in anyway.

The first thing that Paul tells us is to “seek the things that are above,” and he follows it up in the next verse by saying, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”  This instruction really has to do with where our minds are going.  At the end of his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  The focus here is to keep our minds occupied with things that are worthy of occupying our minds.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of things in this world that are not worth our time.  Movies, television shows, music on the radio – do they add to our spiritual life, or do they detract from it?  Now, I want to make sure I’m very clear here.  I’m not suggesting that we totally close ourselves off from the world and be oblivious to what is going on around us.  But we also want to make sure that we don’t totally close off ourselves to the spiritual world and become oblivious to the things with which we surround ourselves.  We have to be intentional about what we let into our lives.

I want to give you an example that may be a little odd at first, but I think it makes sense.  When I was in seminary, I worked at the Sears in Fayette Mall in Lexington, Kentucky.  I tried to work it out so that I would have classes on two days a week and I would work four days.  I usually worked a full day, and sometimes, okay, most of the time, I wouldn’t bring anything for lunch, so I’d have to go down to the Food Court to get my lunch.

Like most food courts, there isn’t much in terms of healthy selections at the Fayette Mall.  I would usually end up at Arby’s, and I began to notice that every time I would eat at Arby’s, I would just feel “bleh” all afternoon.  I wasn’t sick.  I didn’t have an upset stomach; I just felt sluggish, tired and “bleh” for the rest of the day.  I realized something else.  Whenever I ate their curly fries, I felt like this.

Now, before you get offended that I’m talking about your favorite fries in the world, I love Arby’s curly fries.  I think they are fantastic.  But I also know that if I ever eat them, I’m just going to feel like “bleh” for the rest of the day.  What we put into our bodies has a profound effect in how we feel and how we carry ourselves for the rest of the day.  A balanced diet is important for us physically because it can affect how well our bodies work.  The same is true for our spiritual lives.

If we just allow the junk into our spiritual lives, we can end up feeling like “bleh” for quite some time.  We may dabble in spiritual junk from time to time because a part of us really likes it still, but if we allow ourselves to continually be taken in by the things that this world produces which are of no value to the kingdom of God, then our spiritual lives will suffer for it – just like how our physical lives suffer when we take in bad food all the time.  But if we have a more holistic approach to our spiritual lives, if we start to have a balanced spiritual diet, then we will find ourselves in a much better spiritual position, and having a more balanced spiritual diet begins with where we set our minds.

Making a lifestyle change is one of the hardest things that we can do, especially if we have been doing things a certain way for such a long time.  It helps to have a reason to make the change.  You have probably heard stories about people having a heart attack and it gives them a new perspective on life, so they start eating better and taking better care of themselves.  You may be one of those people.  Something like a heart attack gives one a compelling reason to make a change.  Likewise, when it comes time to make a change in our spiritual life, we don’t just change to make a change.  We change because there is a reason to change.  Paul gives us such a reason.

He says in verse 3, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  What is our compelling reason to make such a significant spiritual change in our lives?  Because our lives aren’t about us any more.  Again, if you can sit here this morning and say that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life and that by his life, death and resurrection you have been redeemed into a new relationship with God, then, you’re life is no longer about you.  Our lives are no longer about what we want and what we desire, but our lives are about what is best for the kingdom of God.

When our lives our hidden with Christ in God, we have an obligation to look at our lives in a different way.  As we talked about last week, praying that God’s will be done is one of the most radical things that we can pray.  It’s radical because it means that we are praying for God’s will even when it goes in direct conflict with our will.  We have a tendency to lean towards comfort and the status quo in our lives when we make decisions, but sometimes, the will of God causes us to go outside of our comfort zone.

When God calls us to do something that is uncomfortable or different, do we hold back in hesitation, or do we go forward, knowing that God is in control?  Again, our natural inclination is to hold back because we like the comfortable nature of the world that we have constructed around us.  But we can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.  Einstein says that is the very definition of insanity.

If I keep going to Arby’s and I keep getting the curly fries, I need to realize that I’m going to have a lot of bad afternoons unless I make the conscious decision to change that habit.  In the same way, if we keep filling our spiritual lives with things that are comfortable, but not productive, then we need to know that we are going to have a lot of bad days spiritually.  But when we realize that our lives are not our own, then we can start making some significant changes.

In verses 5-10, Paul gives us a pretty sizable list of things in our lives that need to be changed if we really consider ourselves to be followers of Jesus Christ.  I’m not going to ask you to raise you hand as we go through the list, but think about how your life is affected by these things: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk and lying.  That’s a big list, and the truth is, some of the things on that list are things that we have been taught are acceptable by society.

Watch television for an evening.  Take a look at the movie listings when you get home.  Carefully listen to the radio on the way home.  Many of the things on Paul’s list are not only featured on movies, television and music, but in many cases, they are glorified.  We have to be able to draw the boundaries.  Again, I’m definitely not saying that we should cut ourselves off from the non-Christian world, but we need to be discerning about what we let into our lives.  If we can’t relate to the world around us, we are going to have a hard time winning people to Christ.  But if we get so caught up in buying what culture is selling, and people can’t see the light of Christ in us, then what difference has Christ made in our lives?

We need to be able to show that there has been a change in our lives.  Paul uses the language of taking off the old self and putting on the new self.  The language that he is using is a lot like changing clothes.  The old self, the “us” before we have new life in Christ, is a lot like a dirty shirt.  Not just the shirt that I’ve been wearing all day, but the shirt that I’ve been wearing while mowing the grass, running the trimmer, working in the garden and then mucking out the stalls.  It’s nasty, filthy, sweaty, and you may just have to grab a pair of scissors in order to get it off.  That’s the old self.  That is the “us” without Christ.

Paul tells us to put on the new self.  The new self is that clean shirt that just came out of the dryer.  It is in pristine condition.  Paul says that the new self is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.  In other words, the new self is the “us” that is continually being conformed to the image of Christ.  It is the “us” that follows God’s call.  It is the “us” that we have been created to be.

Paul gives us some very practical things to think about here as we strive to live our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.  We are certainly challenged by what our culture has told, but we have to remember that we no longer live for ourselves, but we live for Christ.  Our old self has died.  We are to seek the heavenly things, and we are to do so in the midst of a world that tries to distract us from those things.  It is not easy, being a follower of Jesus Christ, but when we remember that our life is no longer our own, then we put ourselves in a much better position to be faithful to the call that God has for each one of us.