Two days ago, I preached a sermon at Liberty from Song of Songs, part of a four part series on the Wisdom Literature in the Bible. Two things kept going through my mind as I prepared the sermon: 1) I need to be careful not to open too many cans in this that I'll have to go back and deal with later. With kids in the congregation, older adults who might feel uncomfortable, and visitors, I need to be careful. 2) There are many couples going through marital struggles, divorcing, thinking of divorce - how can I share a word of hope to them in the midst of that?
Interestingly, as I came to the end of the sermon, recent events make a perfect "case-in-point" - LeBron James. Here's what I said toward the end of my sermon:
"On Thursday night, Lebron James just broke up with his basketball bride of 7 years. He announced on national television, that he’s found a new love. He’s going to play for the Miami Heat, alongside two of his friends. Whatever you think of James, or the spectacle that has been his free agency experience, you can see the negative affects of love in the fan and ownership reaction to Lebron’s move. Fans loved him, but now they hate him. Their love was spurned, they got burned, and now they’re angry. If they didn’t love him, they wouldn’t have cared when he left. So, be careful when you love, be careful what, and who you love.
We could appropriate that final admonition in 2:7, like this:
“I charge you, by everything good and holy – be careful in love! Don’t seek it where it doesn’t belong. Don’t force it on another. Don’t use it out of context. It’s like fire, you will get burned, and you will burn others.”
In the end, when it comes to beauty, physical intimacy, eros love, we tend to either be Puritans, ignoring it entirely, or Hedonists, selfishly seeking it out of context. But we see in this Song that neither way is God’s wisdom. The Song of Songs, reminds us that passion and physical intimacy DOES have its place in our human experience and in the Christian life. It belongs in relationship – the covenant of marriage, and requires us to be extremely careful HOW we experience it. If we follow God’s wisdom, instead of being burned in love, our hearts might actually be strangely warmed and properly fulfilled."
I think it was a good sermon, but lives aren't changed by good sermons. Lives are changed by the power of God in the Holy Spirit. Here's hoping some lives are being changed right now, as people are dealing with the pain of "losing" love...
Showing posts with label sermon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sermon. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Jonah 2: Responding to the Word of God
One of my favourite movies is one starring Robert Duval, Michael Caine & Haley Joel Osment called Secondhand Lions. The movie centers around the young Osment, whose mother drops him off at the rural farm of his two uncles (Duval & Caine), who are curmudgeonly old men who initially don’t talk too much. As the movie progresses, the two take turns telling Osment the most outrageous stories of their earlier exploits as young men as world travelers, adventurers and eventually in love – Duval with the daughter of a very wealthy Sheik – whom they fought for years. Despite the fact that these stories are so fantastical that they couldn’t possibly be true, and the fact that Duval & Caine seem so far removed from the young men they claimed they once were, the young Osment learns many truths about the world and about himself, that eventually lead him to grow up to be a mature young man.
One of the reasons I love this movie, and the reason why I share it now, is that it’s the perfect example of how a story, or stories – no matter how absurd and unbelievable, can still be used to teach us. Today, we’re continuing our trek through our own pretty fantastical story – the prophet Jonah – and when we left him, he’d been swallowed by a giant fish, where he resided for three days. And I’d hazard a guess that there are some, maybe many out there that look at this story and can’t get past the absurdity of it. We read this tale, we chuckle and we put it back up on the shelf with Paul Bunyan the Giant Logger and Hercules the ancient hero. They’re nice stories to tell our children, but we can’t honestly be expected to believe them. And to that, I say no. There’s absolutely no need for you to sit here this morning and believe these four chapters concerning the prophet Jonah are literal history. Just like Haley Joel Osment, you are free to sit and listen, sifting through the historicity to find the nuggets of hidden wisdom within the text. I would propose that there is as much, if not more that we can learn from this story, as simply an inspired tale, than a historical rendering – but it requires us to listen. And last we left Jonah, he was in the belly of a great fish…
And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry Land.
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. (Jonah 2:10-3:3a)
Ok, here we find ourselves in many ways back to square one. God hits the reset button here. Last week, we were reminded that even despite our disobedience and our running from God’s call – God still comes after us, God still cares for us, God still saves us. In this case, God doesn’t simply swallow up Jonah, but he puts him back on dry land, ready for Jonah to respond to God’s Word. God hits the reset button, and we’re back to the prophetic formula. But this time, God’s arise, go and preach is followed by an obedient rising, going and… well, we have to wait to see if Jonah will be completely obedient.
Now Nineveh was a very important city – a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.(Jonah 3:3b-6)
Ok, pause for a second. Turns out, Jonah is a way better preacher than anyone has given him credit for. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” – Billy Graham has nothing on this guy! In fact, in the Hebrew, there are only five words used here. Imagine, a five word sermon – hold on a second – come back to me. I’m not good enough to get the point across in only five words. You’re stuck with a few more from me. But maybe that’s the point. Jonah’s message actually lacks some of the more common components of a prophetic message. No, “thus says the LORD” no attestation of “declares the LORD” – nothing. So, it’s probably safe to assume that Jonah’s curt proclamation is not only, not the reason for the immediate response, but it’s probably not even the actual message given to him, at least not in its entirety. And yet the response of the Ninevites is both immediate and impressive. They believe¸they fast and they put on sackcloth. Faith, followed by penitence, followed by humility. But if that’s not amazing enough – it gets better:
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation to Nineveh:
‘By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’(Jonah 3:6-9)
Ok, lets back-track to get our bearings for a second. Jonah has run away from God’s call because he didn’t want to have to go to this bloodthirsty and wicked city of Nineveh – hated enemies of the Hebrew people. So he runs from God, which is a losing battle, and eventually ends up obediently responding to God’s prophetic call to go to Nineveh – but when he gets there, he barely gets into the city and proclaims only five words, and the response is so dramatic and so amazing that not only the people believe in God, fast & put on sackcloth, but the King makes a declaration that even the animals participate in this humiliating ritual. Is this really the wicked city that we were expecting? Is this really the reception that Jonah, that we were expecting for him? Probably not.
Jonah’s response to God, while obedient, doesn’t seem too enthusiastic – and yet what happens is amazing. We saw last week how even in Jonah’s disobedience, God was praised – by the sailors & captain on his ship. Should we expect anything less from Jonah’s obedience, even if it isn’t perfect? No way. Whether Nineveh is as wicked as we’re lead to believe or not, we can’t expect anything less than a total upheaval, a total 180 when they’re faced with God – even God truncated in the person of the prophet Jonah. Because once again, this story is not about Jonah, it’s not even about this great city of Nineveh – which takes 3 days to cross, and is even great in God’s eyes – this is a story about God. And when God gets involved, look out. We heard and saw last week what God was willing to do for one man, Jonah, who was disobedient and defiant and ran away – and we see this week what God’s willing to do for an entire city of people who are wicked. God turns their hearts. And I’ll bet we can guess God’s response here:
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:10)
Yeah, didn’t see that one coming did we… of course we did! We know this God. This God that cares for a disobedient runaway prophet – how much more does he care for an entire city of disobedient men and women. The king, in his declaration says something interesting – “Who knows? God may yet relent…” –As the king responds to God’s message through Jonah, he has no clue. He turns from his wickedness out of fear and out of hope. But as we read this story, we know the answer because we’ve already experienced it. We gather here today not out of blind fear, but out of a shared history, out of an experience of God’s grace that leads us into the future.
At one time, we too were probably in the King of Nineveh’s shoes. We too, came face to face with the fact that we weren’t perfect, that sin and death knelt at our door, waiting to consume us. And in desperation, we turned to God. We responded by turning over our lives to him. And in so doing – God responded with grace and compassion. So, as we read this, we know God’s response. Author, pastor, professor Barbara Brown Taylor says it this way, “our present trust is sustained by memory on the one hand and hope on the other.”
And so, we live our lives today in the same space inhabited by the King of Nineveh – with just a little more knowledge. Because we know what God has done and like him, we hope for what God will do. Not only for us, but for our entire city, for our entire world. We hope, that despite all we see, all we feel, all we hear – God will yet redeem it.
And our part? Respond. Respond to God’s word – turn to him. Respond to God’s call – live it out. And if we’re half as half-hearted as Jonah was, I’ll bet we’ll see some pretty amazing results. Because God will be at work, in our work.
And speaking of God being at work… There’s a great twist at the end of the movie Secondhand Lions – the grown Osment gets a call from the local Sheriff – his uncles have died – flying a WW1 bi-plane into their barn. As they survey the scene on the farm, out of nowhere, a helicopter descends. On the door, the name “Western Sahara Petroleum” – a man gets out, he introduces himself as the grandson of a wealthy Sheik, who was raised on stories of these two brave & valiant men – the greatest adversaries of the Sheik. And he wanted to come to pay his respects. And then, his young son jumps out of the helicopter, and is scooped up into his father’s arms. As this happens, the young boy looks at the scene around him and says “so, those two men from great grandfather’s stories, they really lived?”
Jonah being in the belly of a giant fish for 3 days, and his exploits in Nineveh may be the stuff of legend – or they may be as real as you and I – we’ll probably never know. But one thing we can be sure of. That story is first and foremost about God – a God who cares as much about us, as he does about the wicked people we want nothing to do with. And if we’ll just respond to God, we’ll see God do some pretty amazing things, because yes – he really lives!
One of the reasons I love this movie, and the reason why I share it now, is that it’s the perfect example of how a story, or stories – no matter how absurd and unbelievable, can still be used to teach us. Today, we’re continuing our trek through our own pretty fantastical story – the prophet Jonah – and when we left him, he’d been swallowed by a giant fish, where he resided for three days. And I’d hazard a guess that there are some, maybe many out there that look at this story and can’t get past the absurdity of it. We read this tale, we chuckle and we put it back up on the shelf with Paul Bunyan the Giant Logger and Hercules the ancient hero. They’re nice stories to tell our children, but we can’t honestly be expected to believe them. And to that, I say no. There’s absolutely no need for you to sit here this morning and believe these four chapters concerning the prophet Jonah are literal history. Just like Haley Joel Osment, you are free to sit and listen, sifting through the historicity to find the nuggets of hidden wisdom within the text. I would propose that there is as much, if not more that we can learn from this story, as simply an inspired tale, than a historical rendering – but it requires us to listen. And last we left Jonah, he was in the belly of a great fish…
And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry Land.
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. (Jonah 2:10-3:3a)
Ok, here we find ourselves in many ways back to square one. God hits the reset button here. Last week, we were reminded that even despite our disobedience and our running from God’s call – God still comes after us, God still cares for us, God still saves us. In this case, God doesn’t simply swallow up Jonah, but he puts him back on dry land, ready for Jonah to respond to God’s Word. God hits the reset button, and we’re back to the prophetic formula. But this time, God’s arise, go and preach is followed by an obedient rising, going and… well, we have to wait to see if Jonah will be completely obedient.
Now Nineveh was a very important city – a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.(Jonah 3:3b-6)
Ok, pause for a second. Turns out, Jonah is a way better preacher than anyone has given him credit for. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” – Billy Graham has nothing on this guy! In fact, in the Hebrew, there are only five words used here. Imagine, a five word sermon – hold on a second – come back to me. I’m not good enough to get the point across in only five words. You’re stuck with a few more from me. But maybe that’s the point. Jonah’s message actually lacks some of the more common components of a prophetic message. No, “thus says the LORD” no attestation of “declares the LORD” – nothing. So, it’s probably safe to assume that Jonah’s curt proclamation is not only, not the reason for the immediate response, but it’s probably not even the actual message given to him, at least not in its entirety. And yet the response of the Ninevites is both immediate and impressive. They believe¸they fast and they put on sackcloth. Faith, followed by penitence, followed by humility. But if that’s not amazing enough – it gets better:
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation to Nineveh:
‘By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’(Jonah 3:6-9)
Ok, lets back-track to get our bearings for a second. Jonah has run away from God’s call because he didn’t want to have to go to this bloodthirsty and wicked city of Nineveh – hated enemies of the Hebrew people. So he runs from God, which is a losing battle, and eventually ends up obediently responding to God’s prophetic call to go to Nineveh – but when he gets there, he barely gets into the city and proclaims only five words, and the response is so dramatic and so amazing that not only the people believe in God, fast & put on sackcloth, but the King makes a declaration that even the animals participate in this humiliating ritual. Is this really the wicked city that we were expecting? Is this really the reception that Jonah, that we were expecting for him? Probably not.
Jonah’s response to God, while obedient, doesn’t seem too enthusiastic – and yet what happens is amazing. We saw last week how even in Jonah’s disobedience, God was praised – by the sailors & captain on his ship. Should we expect anything less from Jonah’s obedience, even if it isn’t perfect? No way. Whether Nineveh is as wicked as we’re lead to believe or not, we can’t expect anything less than a total upheaval, a total 180 when they’re faced with God – even God truncated in the person of the prophet Jonah. Because once again, this story is not about Jonah, it’s not even about this great city of Nineveh – which takes 3 days to cross, and is even great in God’s eyes – this is a story about God. And when God gets involved, look out. We heard and saw last week what God was willing to do for one man, Jonah, who was disobedient and defiant and ran away – and we see this week what God’s willing to do for an entire city of people who are wicked. God turns their hearts. And I’ll bet we can guess God’s response here:
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:10)
Yeah, didn’t see that one coming did we… of course we did! We know this God. This God that cares for a disobedient runaway prophet – how much more does he care for an entire city of disobedient men and women. The king, in his declaration says something interesting – “Who knows? God may yet relent…” –As the king responds to God’s message through Jonah, he has no clue. He turns from his wickedness out of fear and out of hope. But as we read this story, we know the answer because we’ve already experienced it. We gather here today not out of blind fear, but out of a shared history, out of an experience of God’s grace that leads us into the future.
At one time, we too were probably in the King of Nineveh’s shoes. We too, came face to face with the fact that we weren’t perfect, that sin and death knelt at our door, waiting to consume us. And in desperation, we turned to God. We responded by turning over our lives to him. And in so doing – God responded with grace and compassion. So, as we read this, we know God’s response. Author, pastor, professor Barbara Brown Taylor says it this way, “our present trust is sustained by memory on the one hand and hope on the other.”
And so, we live our lives today in the same space inhabited by the King of Nineveh – with just a little more knowledge. Because we know what God has done and like him, we hope for what God will do. Not only for us, but for our entire city, for our entire world. We hope, that despite all we see, all we feel, all we hear – God will yet redeem it.
And our part? Respond. Respond to God’s word – turn to him. Respond to God’s call – live it out. And if we’re half as half-hearted as Jonah was, I’ll bet we’ll see some pretty amazing results. Because God will be at work, in our work.
And speaking of God being at work… There’s a great twist at the end of the movie Secondhand Lions – the grown Osment gets a call from the local Sheriff – his uncles have died – flying a WW1 bi-plane into their barn. As they survey the scene on the farm, out of nowhere, a helicopter descends. On the door, the name “Western Sahara Petroleum” – a man gets out, he introduces himself as the grandson of a wealthy Sheik, who was raised on stories of these two brave & valiant men – the greatest adversaries of the Sheik. And he wanted to come to pay his respects. And then, his young son jumps out of the helicopter, and is scooped up into his father’s arms. As this happens, the young boy looks at the scene around him and says “so, those two men from great grandfather’s stories, they really lived?”
Jonah being in the belly of a giant fish for 3 days, and his exploits in Nineveh may be the stuff of legend – or they may be as real as you and I – we’ll probably never know. But one thing we can be sure of. That story is first and foremost about God – a God who cares as much about us, as he does about the wicked people we want nothing to do with. And if we’ll just respond to God, we’ll see God do some pretty amazing things, because yes – he really lives!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Jonah 1: Running from the Call of God
This is the first in my summer sermon series on Jonah. You can also hear the preached version Here thru iTunes or here, eventually on the church website.
One of the first things that I discovered I was good at was running. I don’t know that I’m particularly gifted at athletics, but it seems that nearly every sport involves running, so the fact that I was quick on my feet often made up for any other lack of athletic talent. Running has become quite an international phenomenon too. At one time, running was only for the crazy few, but now it’s become amazingly popular. During the warmer months, it’s hard not to find some kind of 5k or marathon happening somewhere nearby. I still remember when Bridgette called me up and said that she and two of our friends were going to train and compete in the LA Marathon together – 3 women who’d never run before in their lives, but all of the sudden, got the urge to run. Magazines and websites are dedicated to following running. Software programs for your mobile phones can track your route and your time. Nike – the sports apparel giant, began as a little shoe manufacturer in Oregon – making running shoes. I still remember shots of the former President, Bill Clinton, running around DC with his secret service detail. When the President is running – that seemed to solidify that running was on the map
This morning, we’re going to begin a 3 week trek through the Old Testament book of Jonah – one of the more well-known of the minor Prophets. His story, appropriately enough, begins with a little running too…
The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai...:
Our story begins this morning with two characters – God and Jonah. It begins with a fairly familiar set of phrasings – The word of the LORD came to X, go to Y and say Z. The normal follow-up to this would be that X, in this case Jonah, would go to Y, in this case Nineveh, and say Z, in this case, a warning and judgment on its wickedness. But right off the bat, this formula is thrown for a loop. The Word of the Lord comes to Jonah, and his response… is to run off in the opposite direction! The great Assyrian city of Ninevah is East, and Jonah hops a boat, on the West Coast, bound for a city even further West. Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? God asks you to do something – maybe not quite as grandiose as Jonah – maybe it’s give money to the homeless guy on the street, call a friend or family member you haven’t talk to in awhile, or simply smile and say hello to that awkward person you know… But instead of doing it, you put your head down and walk away. Instead of making the call, you fill your mind with other things and simply say “I’ll do it later.” At one time or another, I think we all have.
Then the LORD sent a great wind...
What’s interesting about the story as it continues, is the poetic imagery – Jonah, in running from God has gone down to Joppa and in comes through better in the Hebrew but he goes down into the ship – and despite the storm that rages outside, he’s in a deep sleep – which is similar to death. In running from God, Jonah has taken himself about as far as he could possibly go – down into the depths, on the verge of death to run away from God. And the irony, is that the captain goes down into the depths of the ship, to rouse Jonah, so that Jonah will pray to his God – the same God Jonah’s running from! Here we have this outsider captain, whose going down to nudge Jonah – hey, maybe you should talk to that God of yours. When we run from God – how many times are we faced with a person who invites us to return? How many times does God bring someone in our life who comes alongside and helps us to go home?
Then the sailors said...
Here we have quite an interesting exchange between Jonah and the sailors. You can almost feel the tension mount. The captain has gone below to rouse the one person not either praying to their god or helping keep the ship from sinking – and when he arrives, they throw dice to figure out who is responsible for the problem – and Jonah comes up with snake eyes. He’s outed. And they want to know who he is – who’s this guy who’s running away to Tarshish? Who are you that your god is causing this storm? What have you done? See, they know something Jonah didn’t know – it never pays to run from God.
See, Jonah thought he could get away. He thought he could get on a boat, and sail to the far side of the sea. He thought he could descend to the depths of a ship and cut himself off from the call God had given him – the mission God had entrusted him with. But all it did was put him in peril – even more, it put everyone around him in peril. Here he was, on a ship in the middle of the sea, running away from God, and every single one of them was in danger of drowning – all because Jonah wouldn’t accept the call – all because Jonah ran way – all because Jonah wouldn’t obey. Running from God’s call isn’t a great idea.
The Sea was getting rougher...
Now, this is where the story gets pretty amazing. First, it’s important to recognize that to the first hearers of this story, the Hebrew people, Jonah represents an insider, he represents them – and the sailors – they represent everyone else – all of the unclean, unholy, unchosen people they believed God wasn’t concerned about. They were just as bad as those wicked Ninevites – and yet when Jonah tells them to throw him overboard, when Jonah finally fesses up and admits that he’s been wrongly running from God, these outsiders, these heathens, do everything in their power to save him. They’ve already thrown cargo overboard, now they start rowing for shore – because they don’t want to kill Jonah. They’re not bloodthirsty men, unredeemable wretches – they’re humane and decent men who care about the welfare of others. Actually, they come off more caring and compassionate than Jonah – and in doing so, they call into question the whole idea that us insiders are good and those outsiders are bad.
And second, Jonah seems hardly the kind of guy who’s going to give a striking portrait of the great LORD God. Yet even in the midst of his running, even in the midst of his disobedience, God still ends up being introduced and being worshipped by these outsider, heathen sailors. Despite all that Jonah has done to run from God’s call, we still end up with a boat load of men, who’d never heard of this Lord of heaven who made the sea and the land, worshipping him, praising him and making vows to him. Jonah, who had grown up with God from birth, was steeped in the saving grace of God in the Exodus, immersed in the blessings of God to his ancestors – Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, living under the law of Moses as a covenanted son of God – while this Jonah disobeyed, turned tail and ran – his life, even his disobedience, spoke to these sailors – and God used it for his glory. That’s pretty amazing.
When it’s us running from God – never doubt that God is still at work. Never doubt that God cannot use even our disobedience, even our stubborn rejection of Him, for his glory. God is not above using our flat-out denial of his call to speak to others around us. And even more, even in our running, God doesn’t give up on us…
But the LORD provided...
After all this running Jonah has been doing, all this dodging of God’s call – you’d think that God might have given up on him. Or better yet, God was seeking his revenge on Jonah. “Oh yeah, think you can run from me? I’ll show you – take that – bam!” But God’s not like that is he? God’s not capricious or malicious. God doesn’t strike out at us in order to enact some kind of punishment. God doesn’t chase us down only to smack us upside the head. See, when God calls us to do something, it’s for a reason. And even if he’s got to go to the far side of the world, to the depths of the sea – even into death itself, God will do that to reach us, to save us, to give us life and the opportunity to live into the call he gives us.
Jonah did everything he could to get away from God’s call, to run away – but it didn’t matter. You can’t run from God. And when all seemed lost, God didn’t abandon him either. God rescued him – maybe a little unorthodox – but he rescued him nonetheless. Because the last word is never our rejection of God, our running away from our call. The last word belongs to God – it’s a word of love and grace and salvation. So next time you’re tempted to run away from God – remember Jonah and remember – it’s simply not worth it...
One of the first things that I discovered I was good at was running. I don’t know that I’m particularly gifted at athletics, but it seems that nearly every sport involves running, so the fact that I was quick on my feet often made up for any other lack of athletic talent. Running has become quite an international phenomenon too. At one time, running was only for the crazy few, but now it’s become amazingly popular. During the warmer months, it’s hard not to find some kind of 5k or marathon happening somewhere nearby. I still remember when Bridgette called me up and said that she and two of our friends were going to train and compete in the LA Marathon together – 3 women who’d never run before in their lives, but all of the sudden, got the urge to run. Magazines and websites are dedicated to following running. Software programs for your mobile phones can track your route and your time. Nike – the sports apparel giant, began as a little shoe manufacturer in Oregon – making running shoes. I still remember shots of the former President, Bill Clinton, running around DC with his secret service detail. When the President is running – that seemed to solidify that running was on the map
This morning, we’re going to begin a 3 week trek through the Old Testament book of Jonah – one of the more well-known of the minor Prophets. His story, appropriately enough, begins with a little running too…
The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai...:
Our story begins this morning with two characters – God and Jonah. It begins with a fairly familiar set of phrasings – The word of the LORD came to X, go to Y and say Z. The normal follow-up to this would be that X, in this case Jonah, would go to Y, in this case Nineveh, and say Z, in this case, a warning and judgment on its wickedness. But right off the bat, this formula is thrown for a loop. The Word of the Lord comes to Jonah, and his response… is to run off in the opposite direction! The great Assyrian city of Ninevah is East, and Jonah hops a boat, on the West Coast, bound for a city even further West. Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? God asks you to do something – maybe not quite as grandiose as Jonah – maybe it’s give money to the homeless guy on the street, call a friend or family member you haven’t talk to in awhile, or simply smile and say hello to that awkward person you know… But instead of doing it, you put your head down and walk away. Instead of making the call, you fill your mind with other things and simply say “I’ll do it later.” At one time or another, I think we all have.
Then the LORD sent a great wind...
What’s interesting about the story as it continues, is the poetic imagery – Jonah, in running from God has gone down to Joppa and in comes through better in the Hebrew but he goes down into the ship – and despite the storm that rages outside, he’s in a deep sleep – which is similar to death. In running from God, Jonah has taken himself about as far as he could possibly go – down into the depths, on the verge of death to run away from God. And the irony, is that the captain goes down into the depths of the ship, to rouse Jonah, so that Jonah will pray to his God – the same God Jonah’s running from! Here we have this outsider captain, whose going down to nudge Jonah – hey, maybe you should talk to that God of yours. When we run from God – how many times are we faced with a person who invites us to return? How many times does God bring someone in our life who comes alongside and helps us to go home?
Then the sailors said...
Here we have quite an interesting exchange between Jonah and the sailors. You can almost feel the tension mount. The captain has gone below to rouse the one person not either praying to their god or helping keep the ship from sinking – and when he arrives, they throw dice to figure out who is responsible for the problem – and Jonah comes up with snake eyes. He’s outed. And they want to know who he is – who’s this guy who’s running away to Tarshish? Who are you that your god is causing this storm? What have you done? See, they know something Jonah didn’t know – it never pays to run from God.
See, Jonah thought he could get away. He thought he could get on a boat, and sail to the far side of the sea. He thought he could descend to the depths of a ship and cut himself off from the call God had given him – the mission God had entrusted him with. But all it did was put him in peril – even more, it put everyone around him in peril. Here he was, on a ship in the middle of the sea, running away from God, and every single one of them was in danger of drowning – all because Jonah wouldn’t accept the call – all because Jonah ran way – all because Jonah wouldn’t obey. Running from God’s call isn’t a great idea.
The Sea was getting rougher...
Now, this is where the story gets pretty amazing. First, it’s important to recognize that to the first hearers of this story, the Hebrew people, Jonah represents an insider, he represents them – and the sailors – they represent everyone else – all of the unclean, unholy, unchosen people they believed God wasn’t concerned about. They were just as bad as those wicked Ninevites – and yet when Jonah tells them to throw him overboard, when Jonah finally fesses up and admits that he’s been wrongly running from God, these outsiders, these heathens, do everything in their power to save him. They’ve already thrown cargo overboard, now they start rowing for shore – because they don’t want to kill Jonah. They’re not bloodthirsty men, unredeemable wretches – they’re humane and decent men who care about the welfare of others. Actually, they come off more caring and compassionate than Jonah – and in doing so, they call into question the whole idea that us insiders are good and those outsiders are bad.
And second, Jonah seems hardly the kind of guy who’s going to give a striking portrait of the great LORD God. Yet even in the midst of his running, even in the midst of his disobedience, God still ends up being introduced and being worshipped by these outsider, heathen sailors. Despite all that Jonah has done to run from God’s call, we still end up with a boat load of men, who’d never heard of this Lord of heaven who made the sea and the land, worshipping him, praising him and making vows to him. Jonah, who had grown up with God from birth, was steeped in the saving grace of God in the Exodus, immersed in the blessings of God to his ancestors – Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, living under the law of Moses as a covenanted son of God – while this Jonah disobeyed, turned tail and ran – his life, even his disobedience, spoke to these sailors – and God used it for his glory. That’s pretty amazing.
When it’s us running from God – never doubt that God is still at work. Never doubt that God cannot use even our disobedience, even our stubborn rejection of Him, for his glory. God is not above using our flat-out denial of his call to speak to others around us. And even more, even in our running, God doesn’t give up on us…
But the LORD provided...
After all this running Jonah has been doing, all this dodging of God’s call – you’d think that God might have given up on him. Or better yet, God was seeking his revenge on Jonah. “Oh yeah, think you can run from me? I’ll show you – take that – bam!” But God’s not like that is he? God’s not capricious or malicious. God doesn’t strike out at us in order to enact some kind of punishment. God doesn’t chase us down only to smack us upside the head. See, when God calls us to do something, it’s for a reason. And even if he’s got to go to the far side of the world, to the depths of the sea – even into death itself, God will do that to reach us, to save us, to give us life and the opportunity to live into the call he gives us.
Jonah did everything he could to get away from God’s call, to run away – but it didn’t matter. You can’t run from God. And when all seemed lost, God didn’t abandon him either. God rescued him – maybe a little unorthodox – but he rescued him nonetheless. Because the last word is never our rejection of God, our running away from our call. The last word belongs to God – it’s a word of love and grace and salvation. So next time you’re tempted to run away from God – remember Jonah and remember – it’s simply not worth it...
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Where's the Wheat?
Here's part of the sermon I preached today, all about God's Kingdom, which doesn't come about with Power & Purity, at least not the way we might thing.
Digging in the Dirt
So, as part of Jesus’ mission on earth, he’s proclaiming the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven – and one of the ways he does this is to share stories, to tell parables of what the Kingdom of God, or Kingdom of Heaven is like. Now it’s important to note that the concept of Kingdom is something very important to the Jewish people. The establishment of a Kingdom and the blessing of a king goes back to David – God promised that if he remained faithful, God would remain faithful and a member of his family would rule forever. This is where the promise of God’s chosen comes from, the promised Messiah, who will return the people to God, who will reunite the divided fragments of the kingdom of Israel and once again rule a free people, who worship God in Jerusalem.
At Jesus’ time, there are several different ideas of how this Kingdom would come about, and most of them focus on two things – Purity and Power. Some believed that God would simply bless those who were willing to rise up and violently overthrow the Roman oppressors. All they needed to do was seize power by force and God would bless them and the Kingdom would come. The Zealots, akin to present-day terrorists, were the people who exemplified this belief. Others believed that it was impossible to force God’s kingdom into existence by power, and instead believed that God’s kingdom would only be real when it was completely pure – and so they removed themselves from the world and formed small, tight knit communities who would observe the law without influence from their sinful surroundings. These Essene communities pocketed the dessert landscape at that time. And some others believed that if they could just remove enough of the sin, if they could remove enough of the sinful people, if they could just get everyone to keep Moses’ commandments and the laws, by force or by shame – then God would finally redeem Israel, send the Messiah, and remove the oppressive Roman rulers from their promised land. The Pharisees represented this strand of thought.
It is in the face of these and other concepts of the Kingdom of God and how it would come about, that Jesus shares this story, amid others. It doesn’t capture everything about the Kingdom – but it does deal very specifically with two things: Purity and Power.
The story begins with the man planting good seed – which Jesus, a few verses later, explains is the Son of Man, sowing good seeds in the world, who are literally, “sons of the kingdom.” But then his enemy, while everyone is sleeping, plants weeds. No one sees them, no one understands where they came from or how they ended up in the middle of the good seeds, but they’re there, mixed in.
Jesus continues the story with the servants or slaves of the man, as the wheat begins to grow and so too the weeds, recognize that there are weeds among the good seed. They recognize that the planned field of wheat, is not pure, it’s not perfectly good. And they raise the alarm, they tell the farmer, and they ask if he wants them to weed the garden. But, the farmer knows about the weeds. He knows that they’re there, he knows how they got there, and he is unconcerned. He’s not distraught, he knows that the field is not perfectly pure, and his instructions to his servants are wise beyond belief – “while you’re picking the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them – leave them… let them grow, don’t worry. I’ve got it taken care of.” What’s more, “it’s not your job”
Interestingly enough, the plan for the wheat and the weeds has nothing to do with the servants who recognize the problem. In Jesus’ description and decoding in verses 36-44, Jesus has no role for the servants. It is the harvesters, the angels he says, that will harvest the wheat and the weeds. It’s not the servants. Implicitly understood is this: the job of the servant is to help everything grow – because it’s possible that the servants cannot distinguish between the weeds and the wheat. Maybe, what looks like a weed is actually an immature seed of wheat? It’s not the job of the servant to determine the work of the harvester. It is simply not their job to judge. And that’s what Purity and Power are all about isn’t it? Judging?
And judging comes so easy to us, doesn’t it? It’s so easy for me to judge a poor driver (there are tons of them around). It’s easy for us to judge a poorly cooked steak. It’s also easy for us to judge each other. Oh he’s a jerk, she’s a snob. Oh yeah and that person, they’re just plain evil! I don’t want to have anything to do with them. But maybe the next time we’re judging, we can ask ourselves this question – is it possible, they’re not as bad as I think – maybe they’re just not fully matured. Maybe it would be better if I didn’t dig in their dirt.
In this parable about God’s Kingdom, Jesus makes it very clear – Purity and Power are not the concerns of the servants, they’re not our concerns at all. The world will not become God’s Kingdom by the force of our hands – forcefully weeding out the impure from the pure. Our community, the local church, will not become the Kingdom of God by our powerful exertion, by our judging and removing those that are not pure enough from our midst. What is more, we cannot even make the Kingdom come in our own lives by forcibly creating a pure life of our own. The weeds remain, amidst the wheat, the good remains amidst the bad. There’s simply no use digging in the dirt – no use digging in the dirt in the world, no use digging in the dirt of our community, no use digging in the dirt of our own lives. That’s not our job.
This parable doesn’t end in the dirt, doesn’t end with the work of the servants or even with the angels themselves who will complete that final harvest. It ends with the good news of the gathering of all that is good into the barn. It ends with the good work of God coming to completion, the reminder that God is unwilling to let evil win, unwilling to let the bad remain, God is unwilling to allow anything but the good to live on in constant communion with him. Thomas Long, in his Biblical commentary on the book of Matthew, regarding this passage, puts it this way:
“the promise of this parable is that God will finally not tolerate anything that deadens humanity or corrupts God’s world. Whatever is in the world, or in us, that poisons our humanity and breaks our relationship with God will, thank the Lord, be burned up in the fires of God’s everlasting love.”(Thomas Long)
Despite the fact that we’re good at it, despite the fact that we’ve got a long history of being excellent judges of others and ourselves. It’s time we reconceived what God’s kingdom looks like. It’s high time to get out of the power and purity game, stop digging in the dirt, and start reveling in the goodness of God’s grace – until he welcomes us into his great Barn!
Digging in the Dirt
So, as part of Jesus’ mission on earth, he’s proclaiming the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven – and one of the ways he does this is to share stories, to tell parables of what the Kingdom of God, or Kingdom of Heaven is like. Now it’s important to note that the concept of Kingdom is something very important to the Jewish people. The establishment of a Kingdom and the blessing of a king goes back to David – God promised that if he remained faithful, God would remain faithful and a member of his family would rule forever. This is where the promise of God’s chosen comes from, the promised Messiah, who will return the people to God, who will reunite the divided fragments of the kingdom of Israel and once again rule a free people, who worship God in Jerusalem.
At Jesus’ time, there are several different ideas of how this Kingdom would come about, and most of them focus on two things – Purity and Power. Some believed that God would simply bless those who were willing to rise up and violently overthrow the Roman oppressors. All they needed to do was seize power by force and God would bless them and the Kingdom would come. The Zealots, akin to present-day terrorists, were the people who exemplified this belief. Others believed that it was impossible to force God’s kingdom into existence by power, and instead believed that God’s kingdom would only be real when it was completely pure – and so they removed themselves from the world and formed small, tight knit communities who would observe the law without influence from their sinful surroundings. These Essene communities pocketed the dessert landscape at that time. And some others believed that if they could just remove enough of the sin, if they could remove enough of the sinful people, if they could just get everyone to keep Moses’ commandments and the laws, by force or by shame – then God would finally redeem Israel, send the Messiah, and remove the oppressive Roman rulers from their promised land. The Pharisees represented this strand of thought.
It is in the face of these and other concepts of the Kingdom of God and how it would come about, that Jesus shares this story, amid others. It doesn’t capture everything about the Kingdom – but it does deal very specifically with two things: Purity and Power.
The story begins with the man planting good seed – which Jesus, a few verses later, explains is the Son of Man, sowing good seeds in the world, who are literally, “sons of the kingdom.” But then his enemy, while everyone is sleeping, plants weeds. No one sees them, no one understands where they came from or how they ended up in the middle of the good seeds, but they’re there, mixed in.
Jesus continues the story with the servants or slaves of the man, as the wheat begins to grow and so too the weeds, recognize that there are weeds among the good seed. They recognize that the planned field of wheat, is not pure, it’s not perfectly good. And they raise the alarm, they tell the farmer, and they ask if he wants them to weed the garden. But, the farmer knows about the weeds. He knows that they’re there, he knows how they got there, and he is unconcerned. He’s not distraught, he knows that the field is not perfectly pure, and his instructions to his servants are wise beyond belief – “while you’re picking the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them – leave them… let them grow, don’t worry. I’ve got it taken care of.” What’s more, “it’s not your job”
Interestingly enough, the plan for the wheat and the weeds has nothing to do with the servants who recognize the problem. In Jesus’ description and decoding in verses 36-44, Jesus has no role for the servants. It is the harvesters, the angels he says, that will harvest the wheat and the weeds. It’s not the servants. Implicitly understood is this: the job of the servant is to help everything grow – because it’s possible that the servants cannot distinguish between the weeds and the wheat. Maybe, what looks like a weed is actually an immature seed of wheat? It’s not the job of the servant to determine the work of the harvester. It is simply not their job to judge. And that’s what Purity and Power are all about isn’t it? Judging?
And judging comes so easy to us, doesn’t it? It’s so easy for me to judge a poor driver (there are tons of them around). It’s easy for us to judge a poorly cooked steak. It’s also easy for us to judge each other. Oh he’s a jerk, she’s a snob. Oh yeah and that person, they’re just plain evil! I don’t want to have anything to do with them. But maybe the next time we’re judging, we can ask ourselves this question – is it possible, they’re not as bad as I think – maybe they’re just not fully matured. Maybe it would be better if I didn’t dig in their dirt.
In this parable about God’s Kingdom, Jesus makes it very clear – Purity and Power are not the concerns of the servants, they’re not our concerns at all. The world will not become God’s Kingdom by the force of our hands – forcefully weeding out the impure from the pure. Our community, the local church, will not become the Kingdom of God by our powerful exertion, by our judging and removing those that are not pure enough from our midst. What is more, we cannot even make the Kingdom come in our own lives by forcibly creating a pure life of our own. The weeds remain, amidst the wheat, the good remains amidst the bad. There’s simply no use digging in the dirt – no use digging in the dirt in the world, no use digging in the dirt of our community, no use digging in the dirt of our own lives. That’s not our job.
This parable doesn’t end in the dirt, doesn’t end with the work of the servants or even with the angels themselves who will complete that final harvest. It ends with the good news of the gathering of all that is good into the barn. It ends with the good work of God coming to completion, the reminder that God is unwilling to let evil win, unwilling to let the bad remain, God is unwilling to allow anything but the good to live on in constant communion with him. Thomas Long, in his Biblical commentary on the book of Matthew, regarding this passage, puts it this way:
“the promise of this parable is that God will finally not tolerate anything that deadens humanity or corrupts God’s world. Whatever is in the world, or in us, that poisons our humanity and breaks our relationship with God will, thank the Lord, be burned up in the fires of God’s everlasting love.”(Thomas Long)
Despite the fact that we’re good at it, despite the fact that we’ve got a long history of being excellent judges of others and ourselves. It’s time we reconceived what God’s kingdom looks like. It’s high time to get out of the power and purity game, stop digging in the dirt, and start reveling in the goodness of God’s grace – until he welcomes us into his great Barn!
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