10-28-2012 Sermon by Rev. Larry Peters

 

TO GLORIFY GOD IN THIS WORLD

Rev. Larry Peters

October 28, 2012

Psalm 36:1-4

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

John 17:14-19

  What we hear in our Gospel lesson today is part of a prayer that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ prays to God for us.  Imagine the power of this prayer!  Think of the importance of this prayer and the need for our Lord Jesus to pray this prayer for us.

  What does the Lord say when he prays for us?  Let’s look at vv. 14-19 again.  The Lord says first of all that he has given us God’s message.  We have received the Word of God!  This, then, should make a difference in who we are; unless the message, God’s Word, has meant nothing at all to us.  Jesus is the Word that was made flesh and sent by God into the world to save us!  The Word is alive, and will bring life to all who are open to receive this gift in good faith.  God’s Word, we believe, contains everything necessary for our salvation.  God’s Word has the power to shape us into being God’s people!

  This is what God wants for us.  It is also what we should want; to be in this covenant relationship where God is our God, and we are God’s people!  We are set apart from all other creation in this regard.  To be set apart meant that there is a separation, a distinction between us and everything else in the world.

  The result of this is that the world hates us.  Our Lord Jesus himself says this in his prayer for us.  The world hates us; but it should come as no surprise to us, and we are comforted in the fact that Jesus knows how it feels.  Jesus says in John 15:18-19; “If the world hates you, just remember that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you as its own.  But I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it; that is why the world hates you.”  So this part of our Lord’s Prayer for us is about God’s claim upon us as the people of God; and how there are forces in this world that are in complete opposition to this.

  How do we respond to this?  It all matters on how you define Christian character.  Do you see the Christian sitting on one side of the fence allowing all things to happen in this world as if nothing can be done about it?  Or do you see the Christian standing on the other side, faithful, determined, and with courage and resolve to make a difference?  Will we run and hide, or will we stand our ground?  Jesus prays to God saying; “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but I do ask you to keep them safe from the Evil One.”  It sounds to me like our Lord Jesus wants us to stand and fight!  Our Lord, our Commander in Chief, knows that we are in a battle-but the battle is ours!  We will fight, we will win, we will have ultimate victory!

  This world is to be a different sort of place because we are in it!  We will not give in to the ways of the world!  We will work to make a difference for good and for God!  Our purpose, as the people of God, is to glorify God in this world!  Oh yeah, the world hates that!  The world hates God.  The world hates you and me; but Christians, are you ready to overcome this world’s hatred with the love of God?  Are you ready to overcome evil with good?  Are you willing to make a difference?  Are you able to be strong and firm in the face of adversity?  Be of good courage and confidence!  Our Lord and Savior prays for us!  Our God is with us wherever we go!  And we go as the people of God dedicated to loving and serving God in this world!  To God be the glory!

  This has the devil all worked up.  The apostle Peter gives a report saying that “like a roaring lion our enemy, the devil, prowls around looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).  We are given instruction to stand firm in our faith and resist him (v.9).  And know that we do not face this situation alone.  The apostle Peter reminds us that we have brothers and sisters in the faith throughout the world who are in the battle with us.

  And we are not alone because God is with us!  God promises to us again and again, as we hear in the Book of Acts, that “we will receive power when the Holy Spirit of God comes upon us; and we will be witnesses for God in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and throughout the world”.  Let’s be sure that we do our part right here in Meadville and the surrounding area!

  We’re coming up to one of my favorite times of the year.  It comes after the elections and after Halloween.  I don’t want to get into a discussion so much about politics today.  Certainly this election is an important one, as all are; but I don’t have time to fry that egg.  But I would like to put some heat on Halloween, or at least bring it to light so we can see it revealed for what it is.  I believe that it is a pastor’s duty to sound the alarm when the enemy approaches and to prepare the saints for spiritual warfare.

  I used to like Halloween, as I suppose every American kid does.  But as I’ve grown older and wiser, I’ve come to believe that Halloween is not something to kid around with or to kid ourselves about.  My mother has noticed my change in attitude, and reminds me of how I used to like Halloween and always looked forward to going “trick-or-treating.”

  Let’s pause here a moment to examine this one of many aspects of Halloween.  “Trick-or-Treat!”, what is that-some kind of threat?  It sounds like a person is saying; “If you don’t do something good for me, then I’ll do something bad to you.”  This can’t be a Christian attitude.  If you want to do more research on Halloween, I believe you’ll have revealed to you more evidence of why this can’t be a Christian holiday.

  Now back to when I was a kid.  I remember one particular Halloween when my friend and I decided to go trick-or-treating” together.  We had the idea to dress as stage coach robbers complete with holsters, toy guns, cowboy hat, and a bandana scarf pulled over our faces.  Our plan was to play the part.  We figured to score big that year on our haul of candy by “holding up” other trick-or-treaters.  Perhaps you’ve heard of the Frito Banditos from Saegertown.  No?  It must be because my mother overheard our plans and put a stop to it.  The bandits never rode out that night-or since.  Looking back, I think that we were saved by grace because certainly a posse would have come after us, and we would have been pounded by some of our intended victims.

  But I wasn’t done yet.  On another Halloween night, I had some firecrackers left over from the Fourth of July.  I thought that I would liven things up a bit by tossing them out from behind a bush at the feet of passing trick-or-treaters.  You didn’t know that I was such a bad boy.  I’m confessing some of my sins before you now, and it’s quite refreshing actually.  The point that I want to make is: however innocent and harmless our fun seems to be, Halloween tends to bring out the bad in us; and it needs to be seen that it is bad for us.

  Halloween originates from pre-Christian times.  Early rituals were celebrated among ancient European peoples.  Again, I encourage you to do some study on your own and become aware of what Halloween is actually about.  The truth will set you free!  I learned that when the Pilgrims came to America in search of religious freedom, they made sure to leave behind those unholy practices related to Halloween.  They in fact banned any such observances in this new land.  Remember to give thanks for that this Thanksgiving.  I was surprised to find out that Halloween was not celebrated in this country until the year 1845.  Unfortunately, Halloween eventually found its way over.

  It is shocking to see how the celebration of Halloween has permeated our society in a relatively short period of 167 years!  Let me read to you a brief portion of an article that was in The Meadville Tribune on Friday the 12^th of October, entitled “We’re Spending Billions on Halloween.”

“According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, Americans are expected to lay out $2.87 billion on Halloween costumes this year, spending more than $1.1 billion on children’s costumes, $1.4 billion on adult costumes and $370 million on pet costumes.”  (Even pets?  How far will this go?)

 

“The average person will spend $79.82 on Halloween candy, costumes and décor, bringing total spending to $8 billion – the most in the survey’s 10 year history.”

 

The numbers keep going up!  And keep in mind that all Americans have felt the impact of being in the midst of an historic economic downturn.  The article says; “Get the impression that we love this holiday?”

  But why?  Why do we love a holiday that is anti-Christian?  Why do we spend so much of our money on Halloween?  America’s churches, for the most part, are barely able to meet their annual budgets thus limiting their means to provide essential ministry.  And America’s schools are no longer permitted to allow for prayer or reading of Bibles in school; but the celebration of Halloween is big in our schools. 

  Part of the appeal of Halloween is that it is fun.  What’s the harm in having a little fun?  Well, I’m not against having fun.  But we do need to be careful.  Many a sin is fun, or we wouldn’t be so caught up in it!  Be aware!  Be informed!  Know the truth!  Know that as our enemy, the devil, is like a lion ready to devour us, he is also like a snake capable of deceiving us.  The devil has tricked people into believing that Halloween is harmless fun.  The devil has candy-coated Halloween to cover up the lies.  And the devil doesn’t care a hoot about us.  Why should we give the devil his due?

  Remember that our Lord Jesus Christ loves us and wants us to know the truth!  Recall again how he prays for us that we come to see and know the truth.  He is Truth!  Let us be people who know the truth and follow the truth!  We live in this world, but let us not be misled by anything in this world.  Let us be strong and faithful while living in the world, and dedicated to making a difference for good and for God.  We have a purpose in this world and right here where we live, work, play, go to school and go to church.  We are to glorify God in this world!

  The God of all grace will himself restore, support, strengthen and establish you.  To him be the power forever and ever.  Amen!

 

10-21-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

 

CHRISTIANITY 101: GOD, WHO DO YOU WANT US TO BE?

  It was 20^th century philosopher George Santayana who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  Last week we examined the history of the nations of Israel and Judah.  We noted that when those nations fell away from God, they fell altogether.  They were besieged and conquered by neighboring military powers.  We noted also that there is not a nation in the world today that could stand up to the military might of the United States of America.  But then we asked the question: “Is it possible for a nation to fall without a single shot being fired?”  Given the current state of our national debt, the level of depression and despair amongst the general populace, and the spiraling suicide rate in America today, I think we all agreed that it is.  It is possible for a nation to fall without a single shot being fired.

  Our own nation seems to be at an impasse, and political solutions are not entirely convincing.  What I proposed is that maybe what we have is not so much a political problem as it is a God problem.  Maybe the only One who can keep us from suffering the same fate that befell Israel and Judah is God.  Maybe the only One who can solve all the problems we seem to have is God.  Yet all the while – in ever-increasing numbers – Americans are turning their backs on God and trying to go it alone.

  We noted that when change swirls and anxiety looms, our temptation is to look for easy answers and cry out to God, “God, what are we supposed to do?”  But maybe that’s the wrong question.  Perhaps the real question is: “God, who do you want us to be?”  That’s where we left off last week.  Call it an unfinished sermon.  Today we’ll try to take it the rest of the way as we wrestle with the question, “God, who do you want us to be?”

  On Tuesday, September 11^th, 2001, nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four American passenger jets.  Two of those jets were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York City.  One was flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia…and one crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  It was the most atrocious act of terrorism ever carried out on American soil.

  In the aftermath, many questioned the providence of God.  “How could God have allowed such a thing to happen?” they cried. Two days after the events of nine-eleven, Jane Clayson interviewed Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, on The Early Show.  According to a transcript of the broadcast, Clayson asked, “I’ve heard people say – those who are religious and those who are not – if God is good, how could God let this happen?  To that, you say?”

  Lotz replied, “I say God is angry when he sees something like this.  I would also say that for several years now, Americans – in a sense – have shaken their fist at God and said, ‘God, we want you out of our schools, out of our government, and out of our business.  We want you out of our marketplace.  And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life – our public life – removing his hand of blessing and protection.  We need to turn to God, first of all, and say, ‘God we’re sorry we have treated you this way, and we invite you now to come into our national life.  We put our trust in you.’  We have our trust in God on our coins.  We need to practice it.”

  In the aftermath of the events of nine-eleven, America experienced a religious revival.  I was serving a church in Salem, Ohio at the time.  On Sunday, September 16^th, 2001, my church was packed to the rafters.  We had an Easter Sunday crowd in the middle of September!  Yet by Sunday, September 23^rd, everything returned to normal.  Our religious revival lasted only about a week.

  Let me tell you about another religious revival that occurred in the nation of Judah in 622 B.C.  Yet before we get to that, I think we need to set the scene a little bit.  The nation of Israel was led out of Egypt by Moses around 1300 B.C.  High atop Mount Sinai, Moses received the Ten Commandments.  There God promised to be their God as long as they remained faithful to God’s law.  Three hundred years later, when David was king over Israel, they were the most powerful nation in the world.  And because of David’s faithfulness, God blessed them and promised to bless them forever.  The nation of Israel came to align itself more with the blessing David received than it did with the covenant Moses received.  In other words, they saw themselves as chosen and blessed by God, but they came to neglect their part of the bargain.  Do you see the problem here?

  The nation of Israel – and later, the nation of Judah – believed they were the chosen people of God.  They believed they were blessed by God, but they no longer abided by the Ten Commandments.  In time, the Law of Moses was lost….literally.  Thus, there came to be little difference between the chosen people of God and the rest of the world…save for the fact that they still believed they were the chosen people of God.

  Enter King Josiah.  Josiah became king over the nation of Judah in the year 640 B.C.  Josiah tried to reverse the policies of some of Judah’s previous not-so-godly kings.  Among the things Josiah attempted to do was to restore the Temple in Jerusalem.  While the Temple was being repaired in the year 622 B.C., a priest named Hilkiah found an old book.  That old book contained the lost Law of Moses.  Scholars today believe it was, in fact, the book of Deuteronomy.  When Josiah heard the words of the book, he tore his clothes.  You see, he realized how far the nation of Judah had fallen away from the ways of God.  He also realized that its curses could fall upon Judah if she remained unfaithful. 

  Thus began Josiah’s Reform.  He removed idols and pagan priests from the Temple in Jerusalem.  He destroyed the houses of religious prostitutes, put an end to child sacrifice, centralized worship in Jerusalem, and reinstituted the celebration of the Feast of the Passover.  Now you would think that the nation of Judah was well on its way to a national revival.  It all came to a screeching halt, however, when Josiah was killed in battle a mere thirteen years later.  The nation of Judah itself fell to the Babylonians twenty two years after that.

  Why did Josiah’s Reform fail?  As the biblical record makes clear, the reform was largely a matter of externals.  In other words, the people were only going through the motions of following the laws of God, while their hearts remained unchanged.  Why, it was almost as if they realized that their nation was at an impasse, and they cried out to God, “God, what are we supposed to do?”  But like I said before, maybe that was the wrong question.  Perhaps the question they should have been asking is this: “God, who do you want us to be?”

  Who does God want us to be?  As San Francisco Theological Seminary professor Howard Rice put it in his book, Reformed Spirituality, “Except for attendance at church on Sunday mornings, it is often impossible to tell Christians apart from the rest of society by any external standard.”  Perhaps it should be.  Perhaps it should be possible to tell Christians apart from the rest of society.  And the only way that is ever going to happen is if we become disciples of Jesus Christ.  There tends to be a small problem with that, however.  After all, for many in America today, success is defined as having what you want.  Thus, for many, the Christian life simply becomes a matter of trusting in Jesus Christ in order to have everything work out the way they desire.  Yet truth be told, in spite of our wish that it might be otherwise, even devout Christians are not exempt from the suffering, the perplexity, and the doubt that are common to all.  Sadly, the Christian faith does not exempt anyone from the tragedies of existence.

  Consider the passage we read from the gospel according to Mark.  There Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.”  In other words, what matters most is not what I want.  What matters most is what God wants.  It kind of reminds me of one of my favorite sayings.  That saying is: “If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans!”  Along those lines, I recently came across an essay that is believed to have been written by an unknown Confederate soldier.  Listen closely to the words:

            I asked God for strength that I might achieve.

            I was made weak that I might learn to humbly obey.

            I asked God for health that I might do great things.

            I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

                        I asked God for riches that I might be happy.

                        I was given poverty that I might be wise.

                        I asked God for power that I might have the praise of men.

                        I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God.

            I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.   

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

            I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

  Perhaps that simple essay by an unknown Confederate soldier gets at what Jesus was trying to say in the passage we read from the gospel according to Mark.  The discipline of the cross contrasts our love of worldly things with our love of godly things.  Thus, while success may be defined as having what you want, perhaps happiness is defined as…wanting what you have.  Ladies and gentlemen, there is a difference.

  So how do we get there?  How do we achieve the discipline of the cross?  I think we achieve the discipline of the cross through the use of what we call the means of grace.  The means of grace are the distinct disciplines God has given us that we might draw closer to God.  Thus, our use of the means of grace is not for the purpose of satisfying God.  Our use of the means of grace is for the purpose of drawing closer to God. 

  What are the means of grace?  I can think of no better list of the means of grace than the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ that form the mission statement of this church.  They are:

I.                   Worship regularly.  Worship is integral to the life of faith.  It was Jesus’ custom to worship and it should be ours as well.  Communal worship is the primary way Christians connect with God and with each other.  We Begin By: Worshipping with a congregation on a weekly basis.  We Aspire To: Worship God in every moment of life, and join with God’s people as often as possible.

 

II.                Pray daily.  Prayer is communication with God.  It ushers us into communion with God.  We Begin By: Setting aside at least one time period each day when we will communicate with God.  We Aspire To: Live lives guided by God through continual prayer.

 

III.             Study diligently.  We study Scripture in an attempt to shape our minds to become more attuned to the will of God.  We Begin By: Setting aside a small block of time each day to read the Bible and participating in at least one group learning experience each week.  We Aspire To: Spend a significant amount of time in Christian study every day, and take part in two or three learning experiences each week.

 

IV.             Live faithfully.  Our lives should be lived with integrity and holiness.  We strive to live in harmony with the will of God.  We Begin By: Taking to heart that which we read in Scripture, comprehend in worship, and sense in prayer.  We Aspire To: Live lives reflecting the faith we profess, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

 

V.                Serve joyously.  Each of us is called to ministry.  We seek the field of ministry most closely aligned with the call of God on our lives that hauntingly stirs our deepest passion.  We Begin By: Engaging in some form of ministry with others.  We Aspire To: Create ministries in which we engage others as partners in ministry with us.

 

VI.             Give generously.  The way we give of ourselves and our resources should reflect the self-giving love of God in Christ.  We Begin By: Committing to giving a set proportion of our time, talent and financial resources to God.  We Aspire To: Live lives in which our giving is sacrificial.

 

VII.          Witness boldly.  In his Great Commission, Christ challenged his disciples to make disciples of all nations.  To make disciples of all nations, one must spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We Begin By: Sharing our faith and values with family, friends and neighbors.  We Aspire To: Fearlessly encounter situations where we have the courage to speak, and our Christian witness can truly make a difference.

  Such are the means of grace.  They enable us to move our faith out of our heads and into our hearts and lives.  Like I said, we use the means of grace not for the purpose of satisfying God.  We use the means of grace for the purpose of shutting out the clamor of culture, and drawing closer to God.  That’s how we take up a cross.  That’s how we transcend the curse of superficial faith.  That’s how we become disciples.  And that’s how we answer the question, “God, who do you want us to be?”  Amen.

 

10-14-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

 

CHRISTIANITY 101: WHY DOES IT MATTER?

  “Protestant churches are losing young adults in sobering numbers,” a recent survey declared.  An organization called LifeWay Research found that seven in ten young people between the ages of 24 and 30 – who went to church regularly in high school – dropped out of the church by the age of 23.  Another research outfit called The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently declared that for the first time in American history, Protestant Christians make up a minority of the U.S. population.  As recently as the 1990s, Protestants represented 60% of the population.  Today, they represent 48% of the population.  One could make that statement that America seems to be losing her faith.  And of that statement, perhaps we should ask: Why does it matter?  Why does it matter that a nation loses its faith?  Keep that thought in mind as we move on. 

  Insanity is euphemistically defined as doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.  For example, a woman named Donna was talking to her therapist about her boyfriend’s compulsive overspending.  Donna said on more than one occasion, “I tell him all the time that if he doesn’t stop his overspending, I’m going to quit bailing him out.  But does he listen to me?  No!  He just keeps spending and spending, and I have to keep giving him more and more money all the time just so he can pay his bills.”

  Donna and her boyfriend were caught in a vicious cycle of his overspending and her bailing him out.  Was she insane?  Probably not, but she was definitely doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.  In an effort to help this poor woman, her therapist read her a poem by Portia Nelson entitled, “There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk.”  The poem is divided into five chapters, and it goes like this:

Chapter One:

I walk down the sidewalk.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in.

I am lost…I am helpless.

It isn’t my fault.

It takes forever to find my way out.

 

Chapter Two:

I walk down the same street.

There’s a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend I don’t see it.

I fall in again.

I can’t believe I am in the same place.

But it isn’t my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

 

Chapter Three:

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there.

I still fall in…it’s a habit now.

My eyes are open.

I know where I am.

It is my fault…I get out immediately.

 

Chapter Four:

I walk down the same street.

There is a big hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

 

Chapter Five:

I walk down another street.

  After she heard the poem, Donna smiled and said, “I see what you mean.  I keep falling into the very same hole.  Maybe I need to walk down another street.”  Experience can be a wonderful teacher.  We need to learn from our past mistakes so we can avoid them in the future.  In the words of 20^th century philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

  Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  Those words were certainly applicable to the nations of Israel and Judah in Old Testament times.  Allow me to give you a brief history lesson.  God made a covenant with Abraham around 2000 B.C.  He was to become the father of a great nation.  His son Isaac became the father of twin boys named Jacob and Esau.  Jacob’s name was later changed to Israel, then he had twelve sons, and that’s how the history of the twelve tribes of Israel began.

  In a time of famine, the twelve tribes of Israel were forced to enter the land of Egypt.  They were ultimately enslaved, then led out of Egypt by Moses around 1300 B.C.  That’s when they received the Ten Commandments, and God promised to be their God as long as they remained faithful to God’s law.  They became a nation governed by judges until they decided they wanted a king.  Against his better judgment, God sent Samuel to anoint Saul as the first king over Israel.  When David succeeded Saul around 1000 B.C., they were the most powerful nation in the world.  Because of David’s faithfulness, God blessed them and promised to bless them forever.

  In 922 B.C., however, Israel became a divided nation.  Israel was to the north with its capital in a town called Samaria.  Judah was to the south with its capital in a town called Jerusalem.  Each nation had its own king, and many of them led their people away from the ways of God.  That’s what seemed to get them into trouble.

  In 732 B.C., a man named Hoshea became king over Israel.  As it says in the second book of Kings: “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  While the king himself was not terribly godly, the Bible essentially holds him accountable for the bad things that were occurring in the nation, as well.  What bad things were occurring in the nation?  As Professor A.B. Rhodes put it in his book, The Mighty Acts of God:

A class of wealthy traders emerged, many of whom were unscrupulous in their business practices.  There was a great gap between the rich and the poor, and the poor were at the mercy of the rich.  It was a time of flagrant idolatry, greedy luxury, idleness, immorality, and lawlessness.  It was a time not unlike the twentieth century A.D.  

  Then the king of Assyria invaded the nation of Israel, and in the year 721 B.C., the nation fell.  As it says in II Kings, “This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God.”  In other words, the people of Israel turned from the ways of God, and God removed his protective hand.  Now you would think that the people of the nation of Judah would have been paying attention.  You would think they would have taken note of what had occurred just to the north of them, and clung to God for all they were worth…but they didn’t.  Ah, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

  In the year 597 B.C., a man named Zedekiah became king over Judah.  As it says in the second book of Chronicles, “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  Are you starting to pick up a theme here?  Later in the second book of Chronicles our author writes, “The Lord sent prophets to them because he had compassion on his people…but they kept mocking the messengers of God – despising his words, scoffing at his prophets – until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.”  Then in the year 587 B.C., the nation of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians.

  The Old Testament attributes the collapse of Israel and Judah to the wrath of God.  The Apostle Paul explains what the wrath of God is in the first chapter of the book of Romans.  In chapter 1, he writes: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and wickedness of those who – by their wickedness – suppress the truth.  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator.” 

  The Greek words translated “wrath of God” here are orge theou.  This refers not to some irrational vengeance God plans to take out on his people, but rather, the wrath of God implies that God simply gives people over to the folly of their sin.  Perhaps C.S. Lewis put it best in his book, The Screwtape Letters.  He wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’”  So the wrath of God isn’t God lashing out at his people in vengeance.  The wrath of God is simply God leaving people to their own devices.  And that is exactly what the nations of Israel and Judah found in the end.

  So what has this got to do with us?  There is not a nation on earth that could withstand the military might of the United States of America.  We could probably hold our own if the rest of the world turned against us.  Besides, our organist Kevin Dill – who is himself Canadian – has assured me that no matter what…Canada’s got our back.  Thus, in spite of our ever-more godless society; in spite of our mocking the words of the prophets; in spite of our worshipping the creature rather than the Creator; we have nothing to fear from the wrath of God…or do we?

  Is it possible for a nation to fall without a single shot being fired?  At the time of this writing, our national debt stood at $16,168,966,510,703.00.  Each taxpayer’s portion comes to $141,208.00.  Total U.S. debt stands at $58,497,462,733,899.00.  Total debt per family comes to $701,180.00.  I ask you again: Is it possible for a nation to fall without a single shot being fired? 

  And all the while, our nation is engaged in political gridlock as both sides propose what they believe to be viable solutions.  Mind you, my goal here is not to be political; my goal here is to be prophetic.  Thus, without mentioning any political party by name, allow me to tell you a couple of intriguing stories.  Listen closely.

  An urban legend speaks of an economics professor at Texas Tech who tells the story of how he once failed an entire class.  The class insisted that socialism worked – that no one would be poor, and no one would be rich.  It was the perfect equalizer.  So the professor conducted an experiment in the class on socialism.  All the test scores would be averaged so that everyone would receive the same grade.

  After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.  The students who hadn’t studied were elated, but the students who had studied were not.  Thus, when the second test rolled around, the students who had studied little studied even less, and the students who had studied hard decided that they wanted a free ride, too.  The average score for the second test was a D.

  By the time the third test came, no one was studying and the class average was an F.  No one would study for anyone else.  Bickering, blaming and name-calling emerged.  The experiment in socialism failed because when the reward was taken away, no one was willing to try to succeed. So much for socialism as a remedy to our economic woes.

  On the other hand, I have a friend who runs a tool shop.  He recently interviewed a man for a job.  He said to the man, “You seem to be perfect for the job.  When can you start?”  To which the man replied, “Well, my unemployment doesn’t run out for another six months, so…I’d kind of like to wait until then.”  Ah some people are simply conditioned to not want to work, even when jobs “trickle down.”  But when such government benefits are taken away, a friend of mine with forty years of experience in the probation office assures me…crime greatly increases.

  Our nation seems to be at an impasse and political solutions are not entirely convincing.  Add to that the fact that David Myers, a professor of psychology at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, believes that we as a nation are growing more and more unhappy and depressed.  He writes, “Today’s youth and young adults have grown up with much more affluence, slightly less overall happiness, much greater risk of depression, and a tripled teen suicide rate.  Never before has a culture experienced such physical comfort combined with such psychological misery.  Never before have we been so free or had our prisons so overstuffed.  Never before have we been so sophisticated about pleasure…or so likely to suffer broken relationships.” 

  Maybe what we have is not so much a political problem as it is a God problem.  Maybe the only one who can keep us from suffering the same fate that befell Israel and Judah is God.  Maybe the only one who can solve all the problems we seem to have…is God.  Yet all the while – in ever-increasing numbers – Americans are turning their backs on God and trying to go it alone.  When will we learn to remember the past that we not repeat it?

  When change swirls and anxiety looms, our temptation is to look for an assuring path and simply ask God, “God, what are we supposed to do?”  But maybe that’s the wrong question.  Perhaps the question should really be, “God, who do you want us to be?”  Because in the end, history reveals that our faith in God matters.  It matters a great deal.  Amen.

 

10-07-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

 

CHRISTIANITY 101: WHAT DOES GOD WANT FROM US?

  My wife’s niece, Kim, and her husband, Brock, are raising their family in a little town called Morning Sun, Iowa.  I believe their daughter Kassidy is a seventh grader this year.  Their daughter Kylie is a fourth grader, and their son Blake is in kindergarten.  Blake is a little towhead blonde and let me tell you…he is a handful.  At night, Blake will lie in bed until he thinks everyone else is asleep.  Then he’ll sneak out of his room and play video games until all hours of the morning.  His mother finally caught on to him when she found him asleep on the couch one morning with the television still blaring.  Now she has to hide the remote controls before she goes to bed. 

  Just the other day, Blake managed to lose his coat.  His sister Kylie – trying to be helpful – said, “Maybe you left your coat in your locker.”  Blake snorted and said, “We don’t have lockers.  We have hookers!”  I think he meant to say hooks.  At least, I hope he meant to say hooks.

  Late last summer, Blake was out riding his bicycle.  Morning Sun is the kind of town where it’s still safe for a child to ride a bicycle around the neighborhood.  In any case, it was suppertime and his mother called for him.  No answer.  She called for him a few minutes later, and still got no answer.  So she began driving around Morning Sun, frantically looking for her son.  She finally found him at the home of a boy Blake deemed to be his new friend.  Kim immediately lit into him.  “I’ve been looking all over for you!” she cried.  “I was just about ready to call the police!”  To which Blake replied, “Mommy, if I had a cell phone...the police could just text me!” 

  Where does a six-year-old get the idea that he needs a cell phone?  I’m guessing that he has six-year-old friends who have cell phones.  That’s what our consumer-oriented culture does to us.  It convinces us that we’ve got to have what everyone else has.

  Call it what you will – culture, peer pressure, or keeping up with the Joneses – this phenomenon is undoubtedly one of the biggest problems we have in society today.  We’ve got to have what everyone else has; we’ve got to do what everyone else does; we’ve got to be what everyone else is.  This is why young men drink like fish, because that’s what their buddies are doing.  This is why young women dress so seductively, because that’s what the girls in the magazine ads are doing.  This is why we’ve got to have the most up-to-date cell phone, or the fastest computer, or the biggest house, or the fanciest car.  Culture seems to dictate both who we are and what we think we need to be…and regardless of who or what we are, it’s never quite good enough.  We tend to want to do things simply because everyone else is doing them.

  Let me tell you a little story about what happens when one creature does what everyone else is doing.  According to the Aksam newspaper of Istanbul, Turkey, in July of 2005, a group of shepherds was eating breakfast just outside of a town called Gevas, Turkey.  They were startled to see a solitary sheep jump off a nearby cliff and fall to its death.  Then they watched in stunned silence as the entire flock of nearly 1500 sheep…leaped off the very same cliff.  Some of the sheep survived because about half way through the flock, the pile of sheep already on the ground was so deep that it padded their fall.  Yet in the end, 450 sheep died.

  The estimated loss to the people of that town topped $100,000.00.  That’s a pretty hefty sum when you consider that the average family there only earns about $2,700.00 a year.  Doing something just because everyone else is doing it is not necessarily a good idea.  The moral of the story is: Sheep make lousy shepherds. 

  Now with that in mind, we might be a little insulted to discover that the Bible often refers to us as sheep.  Sheep are not the brightest of animals.  As we saw in the aforementioned story, they tend to follow the crowd, whether it’s a good idea or not.  Yet if we’re brutally honest with ourselves, don’t we see a bit of a parallel here?  We humans tend to follow the crowd, as well… whether it’s a good idea or not. 

  In the passage we read from the gospel according to John, Jesus is addressing a group of Pharisees.  He says to them, “I am the good shepherd.”  The contextual implication here is that they had not been good shepherds.  They had not been good leaders of God’s people.  At this point in time, however, I don’t want to get into all that.  Instead, I want to consider the concept of the shepherd himself.  Why is it that sheep follow a shepherd?

  In a word…it’s trust.  The sheep follow the shepherd because the sheep trust the shepherd.  Why do they trust the shepherd?  They trust the shepherd because the shepherd has taken the time to build a kind of relationship with them.  They know that they can trust him by way of experience.  They can count on him to lead them to green pastures and to protect them from that which might do them harm.  And that, my friends, is how Jesus Christ serves as the good shepherd to us.  He aims to lead us to green pastures and to protect us from that which might do us harm.

  That’s why Jesus said things like, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.  And, you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.”  He showed us how to love, he taught us how to pray, and he revealed the true meaning of sacrifice.  Jesus was trying to lead us to green pastures and to protect us from that which might do us harm.  And all that far too many people seem to be able make of what he gave his life to teach us is to feel that he has somehow constricted our freedom.  There seems to be something missing here.  Perhaps the question now is, “What does God want from us?” 

  Back in 1985, a group of 150 biblical scholars came together to form what they called The Jesus Seminar.  Their goal was to determine the historicity of the deeds and sayings of Jesus.  In other words, they sought to uncover in the Bible what were the real deeds and sayings of Jesus, and what they believed were essentially first-century church editorials.  Now let me say right off the bat that I have a hard time with such an endeavor.  I just think that the people who composed the Scriptures in the first place were much closer to the actual events.  What right do we have to question what they – inspired by the Holy Spirit – so painstakingly scribed, in spite of our sophisticated, modern scholarship?  That said, allow me to continue.

  Marcus Borg, a professor of religious studies at Oregon State University, was one of those biblical scholars.  In the aftermath of his work on The Jesus Seminar, he wrote a book entitled, Jesus: A New Vision.  One of the questions with which he wrestled was this: “Why did God send his Son, Jesus Christ, in the first place?”  Borg determined that the primary reason God sent his Son was so that we might have a relationship with God.  Aside from all the other things Jesus Christ accomplished, the primary reason God sent his Son…was to enable us to have a relationship with God.  He noticed that apart from Jesus Christ, we do not have a relationship with God.

  Ladies and gentlemen, with that…I believe we have just stumbled upon the answer to the question we asked a moment ago.  The question was, “What does God want from us?”  I think the answer is, “God wants to have a relationship with us.”  Like a sheep to its shepherd, God wants to have a relationship with us.

  Perhaps the question now is, “How do we get there?”  How do we form a relationship with God?  When it comes right down to it, I think the answer is this: We form a relationship with God… through prayer.  We form a relationship with God through prayer.

  In spite of our contemporary intellectual achievements, we have not outgrown our need for prayer as an attempt to change the way things are.  Sometimes we just need to change the direction life seems to be heading, and we can’t help but turn to God to make it so.  This kind of prayer is a part of who we are as human beings, and any approach to prayer that does not take it seriously is simply unrealistic.  We offer up to God those needs which we feel most deeply.  Thus, perhaps our most genuine and sincere prayer begins with our own sense of need.

  Now most scholars will tell you that there are three basic answers to prayer.  Those three basic answers are: Yes, No, and Wait.  Yet a number of years ago, someone in this church informed me that there are actually four basic answers to prayer.  Those four basic answers are: Yes, No, Wait, and…You’ve got to be kidding!  Suffice it to say that there are only a few basic answers to prayer.  We tend to be happy with God when the answer to our prayer is, “Yes.”  We tend not to be happy with God when the answer to our prayer is, “No,” or “Wait.”  So what do we do?

  Because we live in an age in which results seem to be the measure of success for any venture, it thus becomes tempting to view prayer as being successful only when it encounters the desired results.  The fear that God will not give us what we want tends to hover over all our prayers.  This seed of doubt may even keep people from praying.  They simply do not want to take the risk of having God let them down.  Emily Herman, author of a book called Creative Prayer, calls this a state of “arrested development” in prayer.  The trick is to get beyond our state of arrested development in prayer.  The question now is, “How?”

  Once upon a time, a minister was on an airline flight after a long and tedious church conference.  The first hint of an approaching problem came when the sign above his seat flashed: “Fasten Your Seat Belt.”  A few minutes later the flight attendant announced on the PA system, “We will not be serving beverages at this time as we are expecting a little turbulence.  Please be sure your seat belt is fastened.”

  As the minister looked around the aircraft, it became apparent that many of the passengers were getting nervous.  Then, the flight attendant got on the PA system again and announced, “We will not be serving the meal at this time, either.  The turbulence is still ahead of us.”  And then the storm broke.

  Ominous cracks of thunder could be heard even above the roar of the engines.  Lightning lit up the dark skies all around them.  Pretty soon that great big jet was being tossed about the skies like a cork on the ocean.  One moment the plane pitched upward; the next moment it seemed to be heading straight to the ground.  The minister later confessed that he shared the trepidation of all those around him.

  He said, “As I looked around the plane, I could see that all the passengers were quite disturbed.  Some were even praying.  The future seemed ominous and many were wondering if they’d make it through the storm.  Then I noticed a little girl across the aisle.  Apparently the storm meant nothing to her.  She had her feet tucked beneath her as she sat on her seat.  She was reading a book and everything in her world seemed so calm and serene.  When the plane was being buffeted by the terrible storm – when it lurched this way and that, as it rose and fell with frightening severity, when all the adults were scared half to death – that little girl was completely composed and unafraid.”  The minister could hardly believe his eyes.

  When the plane finally reached its destination, everyone scrambled to get off of the plane. The minister, however, hung back to talk to the little girl.  Having commented about the storm and the jerking about of the plane, he asked her why she had not been afraid.  The little girl looked right at him and said, “Because my daddy’s the pilot, and he’s taking me home.”

  Trust comes by way of experience.  Her daddy had been faithful to her in the past, so she was convinced that he’d be faithful to her in the future, as well.  That’s the beauty of relationships.  Maybe that’s why God wants to have a relationship with us, as well.  Amen.