Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon Matthew 21:1-11 Who Is This?
April 17, 2011
Our journey on the road from slavery to sin to promised blessing is almost at an end. We have hit potholes and fallen off cliffs along the way, but God has always been there with us. We have arrived at Jerusalem where the road leads us to a table where we will gather Thursday evening, and at the foot of a cross next Friday at noon. Today we will see that the road from slavery to promise has some unexpected surprises for us. Before we look at these let pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Matthew 21:1-11 NRS Matthew 21:1 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately. " 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5 "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" 10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" 11 The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."
One thing we all like about church is that it is familiar. It is the one thing in our culture that is slow to change. And we take comfort in that church is about the same as it was when we were 12. We don't want anything unexpected to happen.
But life is filled with things we just don’t expect. Last Wednesday evening I was with a group and we talked about those “ah ha” moments when we suddenly realize something we hadn’t realized before. We debated whether, when these moments occur, do they indicate the presence of angels or the presence of the Holy Spirit? But we realized that whenever we experience a change in our thinking God is present in a variety of ways.
Sometimes unexpected things happen to us that devastate our lives. On Thursday evening a group talked about a man who recently came home from work one Friday not feeling well. He went to the hospital on Saturday and one week later was dead from cancer totally unexpectedly. For the last couple of weeks we have been praying for a man whose shoulder was crushed in a farm accident. Unexpected things happen that turn lives, families, churches and communities upside down.
Last Friday I was leading a devotional from the Book of Proverbs for the 6am men’s group. As usual I outlined that passage and printed in out. I was prepared to talk about the benefits of receiving wisdom. Here is the passage from Proverbs
Proverbs 4:1-9 NRS Proverbs 4:1 Listen, children, to a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight; 2 for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching. 3 When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother's favorite, 4 he taught me, and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. 5 Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. 6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. 7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight. 8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. 9 She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."
As we read this passage I began to realize how truly unexpected the events of Holy Week were. By prizing wisdom we will be exalted, lifted up. But this image of being lifted up changes when someone is lifted up on a cross he has been nail to. And the image of a fair garland and beautiful crown is a image of imperial power and wealth. But this image of a crown changes when one is made out of thorns.
Something very unexpected happened one day in Jerusalem around the year 30AD. It started when a symbol of imperial power arrived in Jerusalem. Pontius Pilate had left his Mediterranean palace and traveled to Jerusalem. He rode a mighty war horse, a symbol of Roman authority and power, just as Alexander the Great had done nearly four hundred years before. Accompanying Pilate was the Roman Legion, the instrument of imperial power. Pilate wanted to make certain that nothing would adversely affect Roman interests during the Passover celebration. He wanted nothing to happen unexpectedly.
As Pilate entered the West gate leading into Jerusalem something unexpected did happen. A prophet from Galilee, riding a donkey and accompanied by a ragtag bunch entered Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives through the East Gate.
According the Matthew the city was in turmoil. Literally the earth the shaking, a 9.0 earthquake. Earthquakes are caused when two large plates of the earth’s crust collide with each other. This happens today, regularly, and is happening now in Japan. But the shaking in Jerusalem was not caused by geographic collisions, spiritual collisions were happening at the two gates. In Jerusalem that day something happened that no one expected. The Roman Empire collided with the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Kingdom of Heaven that rode in with Jesus on that Palm Sunday was not some future hope or something people are called to build. Rather it is a kingdom built by God and ruled by God where all of us submit to God’s will. The Kingdom of God is what society would be like if we all submitted to God’s authority. Listen to these words from Jesus: Mark 1:15 "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." Matthew 4:17 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Luke 4:43 "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose."
The Kingdom of Heaven is not something we build. God is the creator. We receive it. We inherit it. We wait for it. We proclaim it. God is creating a kingdom of justice and mercy. This gives us a great opportunity, but also subjects us to judgment. And it is happening right now.
The author John Dally in his book Choosing the Kingdom gave a small group of students a printout of every passage in scripture from a particular Biblical book that talks about the Kingdom of Heaven and asked them to respond to these intuitively.
Here are some of the results of the students from the Gospel of Mark: “The kingdom of God can be near or far. You can go into the kingdom. The kingdom is hard for some to go into and easy for others. The kingdom grows like magic. The kingdom can be pointed to. The kingdom is mysterious. The kingdom is for the innocent, the simple, and children. The kingdom is costly. The kingdom is a refuge or home. The kingdom puts you in conflict with the status quo. The kingdom is powerful. The kingdom is uncomfortable for the rich. The kingdom is expanding.
What we see in all of this is that the Kingdom of God is not some other place or some other time. It is here and now. It is offered to us. We may think that we live under the authority of the federal or state or local government. But in reality we have the choice to live under the authority of God.
As a exercise this week I would like for all of you to imagine what the Kingdom of Heaven would be like on earth. How would your life be different if you lived in the Kingdom of God? How would the church be different if we lived in the Kingdom of God? How would our community be different if it lived under the Kingdom of God? Think about these questions this week. Let your imaginations grow. And I ask that the Adult Christian Education teachers allocate some time for discussion about what the Kingdom of God would look like if it was here in Pocomoke.
In Jesus’ day the Empire of Rome had no desire to give up power. They wanted no part of a competing authority. That’s why Pilate showed up at the West Gate with the Legions behind. But he was soon confronted by the humble rabbi entering the East Gate on a donkey. The clash of these two kingdoms was like a earthquake that rattled the city for a week. The Roman kingdom would do whatever it took to defeat the kingdom of God. That great battle will take place this week in last supper and under a cross. And we will see who wins, the kingdom of the world or the Kingdom of God next Sunday.
So as we travel down that road from slavery to promise we run into something we never expected. We are in the middle of a clash of two kingdoms. We can’t remain neutral. We can’t be citizens of both. We have to choose one or another, either the kingdom of the world or the Kingdom of Heaven.
So on the holiest of weeks expect the unexpected. Expect to receive the Kingdom of God which has come near. Receive it into you lives. And experience for yourselves the unexpected blessings from God.
Lord Jesus, bless us this week as we travel with you toward the cross. Give us what we don't expect. Surprise us with your blessings. And lets us enter into the Kingdom of God. Amen.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sermon Ezekiel 37:1-14 What Will God Do?
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon Ezekiel 37:1-14 What Will God Do?
April 10, 2011
So far this Lent we have been on a journey from slavery to promise. We have seen that God is there with us whenever we hit the potholes along the way. We have also seen that if we honestly confess our sins and turn to God, God will forgive us and we will never lose God's love. Today we will see that sometimes there are deep chasms on the side of the road from slavery to sin to promised blessings, and we can literally lose our lives if we fall down one of these. But remarkably God will be there to put us back together again when we do fall. Let's pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Ezekiel 37:1-14 NRS Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD." 7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 11 Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."
A couple of years ago there was a major fire in the San Gabriel mountains just north of Los Angeles. Two experienced firefighters found themselves in a dangerous situation while battling the fire on a narrow mountain road. These mountains are a third higher then the Appalachians to our west. If you drive off one of these mountain road you would plunge thousands of feet. The firefighters took refuge in their truck and then attempted to back down one of these roads. In the smoke and confusion they drove off the road and plunged to their deaths.
This image of falling into a fiery place is the image we have of hell. This past week I have been thinking a lot about hell. This is something that I do not recommend. Thinking about hell is a terribly depressing thing to do. But I got thinking about hell while I was visiting some of our shut ins at a nursing home in Salisbury. I was walking out of a room when a woman from across the hall asked me if I was Luella's son. I said “no, I am her pastor.” And immediately she wanted to talk with me. It wasn't really a conversation. It was more like a warning. She asked me if I had ever read the book 23 Minutes in Hell. I admitted that I had not read it even though an elder had handed me a copy months ago and I just let it sit on the table all that time. I didn't really want to read about hell. She told me that I had too because it was important for my soul. So I went home and read it and began thinking about hell.
This book is a first hand account of an experience someone had of what he thought was hell. I have no doubt that he truly experienced this. It seems like a revelation from God warning us to repent. And God certainly could reveal hell to us in this way if God wanted too. But to see if it is of the Holy Spirit or not the test is always: How consistent is it with scripture? So, let's look at what the Bible says about hell.
The Hebrew of the Old Testament has a word that refers to the dark, mysterious place people
go to when they die. It means grave or pit. That word is “Sheol” or the Greek equivalent “Hades”. Jesus used another Hebrew word that people in the first century would have understood. That word is “Gehenna”. There was an actual Gehenna, or Henna Valley, near Jerusalem in Jesus' time. It was the garbage dump. Fires burned there continuously. Dead animals would be taken there. The poor people who could not afford a proper burial would be taken there. Anything you didn't want any more would go to Gehenna.
Remember that God created us, and God blesses us richly so that we can be a blessing for others. But the tragedy of humanity is that some of us choose to reject these blessings. God loves us dearly. But for those who turn their back on God it means to live an unblessed life which is like living in a place like Gehenna. Jesus warned us that disobedience of God's will shall lead us into this awful place.
Hell could be experienced on earth. We could live in our own Gehennas. It is the consequence of sinful behavior, our own or someone else's. We lose the blessings God has already given us. Think of people addicted to drugs and alcohol. Consider women who have been beaten and sexually abused by their fathers and husbands. And what must if be like to raise children with severe disabilities. Hell is a reality for many.
And what about those whose evil works go unpunished in their lifetime? What about the Hitler's of this world who died without ever receiving the punishment due. The church has always taught that God's justice requires that the evil done here on earth that goes unpunished must be punished in the afterlife. So we are all warned that disobedience today can lead to hell tomorrow.
So who goes to hell? Wouldn't we all like to know. What we do know it that our souls: our thoughts and dreams, our beliefs and memories, our talents and skills are all preserved by God until the day of resurrection when our souls will be reunited with our bodies in God's new creation. Some believe that our souls will sleep through this intermediate stage not conscious of what is happening around them. Others believe that God loves us so much that all of our souls will enjoy the bliss of heaven. But most believe that our souls will be conscious during this time experiencing the reality around them, and God's love is such that some must endure the fires of hell as a refining fire.
Rob Bell, the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids Michigan has written a controversial book about who goes to hell. He criticizes churches that tell people that God will send them to hell if they don't believe what that church believes. Picture this conversation. A couple of Christians have entered the home of a non-believer. They tell this person about a loving God who created all there is. They talk about God's blessings. But then they say something like this: “If you don't believe as we do and ten minutes from now you die then our God will torment you in hell for eternity.” What would you think about a God like that? Does God really save just the few who happen to join the right church and have the right beliefs and then condemn all the others to hell? That's what many churches believe. But Bell criticizes this because it distorts our view of a loving and compassionate God who blesses us richly and wants, really wants, all of us in heaven.
Commenting on Bell's book, Dr Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary, talked about something he calls “generous orthodoxy”. He said that this is where we ask the question: “Is God stingy or generous concerning entrance into heaven?” To answer this question Mouw suggests that we apply two principles from our Reformed tradition. The first Reformed principle is that people who disagree with each other about theology can both go to heaven. So if I believe that infants should be baptized, and the Baptist pastor down the street believes that only mature believers should be baptized, even though we disagree with each other we can both go to heaven. So just because we disagree with how someone else believes in Jesus that is not a reason to conclude that that other person is going to hell. The second Reformed principle is that there will be a significant amount of mystery concerning who gets into heaven and who goes to hell. We have to remember that God's blessings are not necessarily shut off for those we think should lose them. We don't really know who God allows in heaven and who goes to hell. So we must reserve judgment about who is or is not going to hell and let God decide.
So how does God deal with those who go to hell. We know that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah certainly went to hell. Sin was rampant in those cities and God's punishment was warranted. Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as examples for thousands of years to show people that God will act swiftly and decisively. But listen to what the Prophet Ezekiel heard from God concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. “I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters” (Ezekiel 16:53), and “ As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state (Ezekiel 16:55). So we see that our God does not punish us forever. Forgiveness is always offered through salvation in Jesus Christ.
And this brings us to today's scripture from Ezekiel. In it we see the true end of humanity. Yes when we dies our bodies with go back to dust and our souls will experience an intermediate state of either heaven or hell. Eventually our souls will be reunited with our resurrected bodies in God's new creation here on earth. Resurrection, not hell, is what we celebrate at Easter. Listen to these words of God spoken to the prophet Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 36:22-28 2 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. 28 Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon Ezekiel 37:1-14 What Will God Do?
April 10, 2011
So far this Lent we have been on a journey from slavery to promise. We have seen that God is there with us whenever we hit the potholes along the way. We have also seen that if we honestly confess our sins and turn to God, God will forgive us and we will never lose God's love. Today we will see that sometimes there are deep chasms on the side of the road from slavery to sin to promised blessings, and we can literally lose our lives if we fall down one of these. But remarkably God will be there to put us back together again when we do fall. Let's pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Ezekiel 37:1-14 NRS Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD." 7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 11 Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."
A couple of years ago there was a major fire in the San Gabriel mountains just north of Los Angeles. Two experienced firefighters found themselves in a dangerous situation while battling the fire on a narrow mountain road. These mountains are a third higher then the Appalachians to our west. If you drive off one of these mountain road you would plunge thousands of feet. The firefighters took refuge in their truck and then attempted to back down one of these roads. In the smoke and confusion they drove off the road and plunged to their deaths.
This image of falling into a fiery place is the image we have of hell. This past week I have been thinking a lot about hell. This is something that I do not recommend. Thinking about hell is a terribly depressing thing to do. But I got thinking about hell while I was visiting some of our shut ins at a nursing home in Salisbury. I was walking out of a room when a woman from across the hall asked me if I was Luella's son. I said “no, I am her pastor.” And immediately she wanted to talk with me. It wasn't really a conversation. It was more like a warning. She asked me if I had ever read the book 23 Minutes in Hell. I admitted that I had not read it even though an elder had handed me a copy months ago and I just let it sit on the table all that time. I didn't really want to read about hell. She told me that I had too because it was important for my soul. So I went home and read it and began thinking about hell.
This book is a first hand account of an experience someone had of what he thought was hell. I have no doubt that he truly experienced this. It seems like a revelation from God warning us to repent. And God certainly could reveal hell to us in this way if God wanted too. But to see if it is of the Holy Spirit or not the test is always: How consistent is it with scripture? So, let's look at what the Bible says about hell.
The Hebrew of the Old Testament has a word that refers to the dark, mysterious place people
go to when they die. It means grave or pit. That word is “Sheol” or the Greek equivalent “Hades”. Jesus used another Hebrew word that people in the first century would have understood. That word is “Gehenna”. There was an actual Gehenna, or Henna Valley, near Jerusalem in Jesus' time. It was the garbage dump. Fires burned there continuously. Dead animals would be taken there. The poor people who could not afford a proper burial would be taken there. Anything you didn't want any more would go to Gehenna.
Remember that God created us, and God blesses us richly so that we can be a blessing for others. But the tragedy of humanity is that some of us choose to reject these blessings. God loves us dearly. But for those who turn their back on God it means to live an unblessed life which is like living in a place like Gehenna. Jesus warned us that disobedience of God's will shall lead us into this awful place.
Hell could be experienced on earth. We could live in our own Gehennas. It is the consequence of sinful behavior, our own or someone else's. We lose the blessings God has already given us. Think of people addicted to drugs and alcohol. Consider women who have been beaten and sexually abused by their fathers and husbands. And what must if be like to raise children with severe disabilities. Hell is a reality for many.
And what about those whose evil works go unpunished in their lifetime? What about the Hitler's of this world who died without ever receiving the punishment due. The church has always taught that God's justice requires that the evil done here on earth that goes unpunished must be punished in the afterlife. So we are all warned that disobedience today can lead to hell tomorrow.
So who goes to hell? Wouldn't we all like to know. What we do know it that our souls: our thoughts and dreams, our beliefs and memories, our talents and skills are all preserved by God until the day of resurrection when our souls will be reunited with our bodies in God's new creation. Some believe that our souls will sleep through this intermediate stage not conscious of what is happening around them. Others believe that God loves us so much that all of our souls will enjoy the bliss of heaven. But most believe that our souls will be conscious during this time experiencing the reality around them, and God's love is such that some must endure the fires of hell as a refining fire.
Rob Bell, the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids Michigan has written a controversial book about who goes to hell. He criticizes churches that tell people that God will send them to hell if they don't believe what that church believes. Picture this conversation. A couple of Christians have entered the home of a non-believer. They tell this person about a loving God who created all there is. They talk about God's blessings. But then they say something like this: “If you don't believe as we do and ten minutes from now you die then our God will torment you in hell for eternity.” What would you think about a God like that? Does God really save just the few who happen to join the right church and have the right beliefs and then condemn all the others to hell? That's what many churches believe. But Bell criticizes this because it distorts our view of a loving and compassionate God who blesses us richly and wants, really wants, all of us in heaven.
Commenting on Bell's book, Dr Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary, talked about something he calls “generous orthodoxy”. He said that this is where we ask the question: “Is God stingy or generous concerning entrance into heaven?” To answer this question Mouw suggests that we apply two principles from our Reformed tradition. The first Reformed principle is that people who disagree with each other about theology can both go to heaven. So if I believe that infants should be baptized, and the Baptist pastor down the street believes that only mature believers should be baptized, even though we disagree with each other we can both go to heaven. So just because we disagree with how someone else believes in Jesus that is not a reason to conclude that that other person is going to hell. The second Reformed principle is that there will be a significant amount of mystery concerning who gets into heaven and who goes to hell. We have to remember that God's blessings are not necessarily shut off for those we think should lose them. We don't really know who God allows in heaven and who goes to hell. So we must reserve judgment about who is or is not going to hell and let God decide.
So how does God deal with those who go to hell. We know that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah certainly went to hell. Sin was rampant in those cities and God's punishment was warranted. Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as examples for thousands of years to show people that God will act swiftly and decisively. But listen to what the Prophet Ezekiel heard from God concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. “I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters” (Ezekiel 16:53), and “ As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state (Ezekiel 16:55). So we see that our God does not punish us forever. Forgiveness is always offered through salvation in Jesus Christ.
And this brings us to today's scripture from Ezekiel. In it we see the true end of humanity. Yes when we dies our bodies with go back to dust and our souls will experience an intermediate state of either heaven or hell. Eventually our souls will be reunited with our resurrected bodies in God's new creation here on earth. Resurrection, not hell, is what we celebrate at Easter. Listen to these words of God spoken to the prophet Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 36:22-28 2 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. 28 Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Sermon 1 Samuel 16:1-13 Who is God Using?
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon 1 Samuel 16:1-13 Who is God Using?
April 3, 2011
Our Lenten journey continues. So far we have found that God has given us limited freedom and we throw all of our blessings away by lusting after things we shouldn’t have. So God has made a great promise to us that in spite of our disobedience God will bless us in abundance so that we will be blessing for other. But on the road from sin to promise there will be potholes. And we can be assured that God will be right there with us no matter what happens. Today we will see the importance of our confession as we pursue God’s promised blessings. But first let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
1 Samuel 16:1-13 NRS 1 Samuel 16:1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons." 2 Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you." 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" 5 He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed is now before the LORD." 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen any of these." 11 Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." 12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
In this scripture we see four important Old Testament figures. Three of them were kings, Saul, David and, of course, God. One was a prophet, Samuel. God had rejected Saul as king over Israel and wanted to replace him with David. Both Saul and David were kings of Israel. Both had been chosen by God. Both were capable of uniting the nation and defeating their enemies. And both Saul and David were sinners. Both had been richly blessed by God, but both had lusted after things that were prohibited. Saul lost his kingdom as a result, but David continued to receive God’s blessings. What was the difference?
I once heard a story about boy who brought home a D on his report card. When his father asked about the D the boy said that it was “that old teacher’s fault”. “She gave me the D”, he said. “That’s her handwriting”. But the wise father pointed out that the D was his. He earned it. The teacher had simply recorded her evaluation of what the son had done.
We love to blame our sins on someone else. Remember, it started with Adam who blamed his disobedience on his wife. We still do it. Blaming others for what we do makes us look like victims. And victims receive a lot of sympathy. But blaming others is not what God wants from us. God prefers a honest confession and a contrite heart. Let’s take a look at King Saul.
King Saul was told by God through the prophet Samuel to attack the Amalekites. God was using Saul’s army to punish them. God ordered that the King of the Amalekites, all the people and all the ox, sheep, cattle and donkeys should be killed. Saul attacked the Amalekites and killed all of them just as God had instructed. But, Saul captured their king, Agag, alive and he took their ox, sheep, cattle and donkeys as booty. When the prophet Samuel confronted the king with his disobedience, Saul lied about what he had done and then tried to justify his actions by blaming them on others. Even though Saul was the king, he blamed his disobedience on the people of his nation. He said they made him do it; they wanted the loot. He said that he was afraid of his own people. All of this was a lie. As a result God removed from Saul his blessings and his kingdom. In God’s eyes he was no longer a suitable king. And Saul died on the battlefield as his kingdom was taken away. Saul sinned by disobeying God. Others have sinned as well, but in much uglier ways. Let’s take a look at King David.
We all know the story of David and Uriah. David slept with Uriah’s wife, tried to cover it up with an elaborate lie, and then had Uriah murdered. This might work for some of the dictators around the world today, but we can’t imagine that God would approve of three violations of the Ten Commandments. So God dispatched the prophet Nathan to confront the king. David’s response was not to lie about what he had done, or try to justify himself, or blame it on others. David simply confessed his sin. As a result of David’s sin he lost the blessings of peace. His kingdom was at war. His son conspired to overthrow him. And his newborn baby died. But because he had freely confessed his sin, David lost neither his kingdom nor God’s love.
What we learn from this is that whenever we lust after that which is prohibited we will lose the blessings we already have. That’s the way it is. But if we confess our sins and truly repent God will forgive us and will continue to bless us richly. The choice is ours. We can try to hide our sins from God like Adam, Eve and King Saul. We can blame our sins on others. We can try to justify ourselves. Or we can honestly confess our sins and continue to receive God’s promised blessings.
King David later wrote about his confession and the forgiveness that he had received from God. In Psalm 51, he asked God for a clean heart filled with the Holy Spirit of God. He asked God not only for forgiveness but also for a willing spirit that would help him to obey God. David promised to publically declare the salvation he had received in his teaching and singing so that others would also confess their sins honestly.
This is what we are called to do as forgiven sinners. We are to honestly confess our sins to God without blaming others for what we have done. We are to ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit so that we might become able and willing to obey God in the future. Then we are to tell others, our families, our coworkers, and our friends about the salvation we have received from God urging them to seek God with contrite hearts with the promise of blessing and forgiveness. This is the good news that we are called to proclaim as the ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Let us pray.
From Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; in your great compassion blot out my offenses.
Wash me through and through from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
And so you are justified when you speak and upright in your judgment.
Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, a sinner from my mother's womb.
For behold, you look for truth deep within me,
and will make me understand wisdom secretly.
Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.
Make me hear of joy and gladness, that the body you have broken may rejoice.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God,
you will not despise. Amen.
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon 1 Samuel 16:1-13 Who is God Using?
April 3, 2011
Our Lenten journey continues. So far we have found that God has given us limited freedom and we throw all of our blessings away by lusting after things we shouldn’t have. So God has made a great promise to us that in spite of our disobedience God will bless us in abundance so that we will be blessing for other. But on the road from sin to promise there will be potholes. And we can be assured that God will be right there with us no matter what happens. Today we will see the importance of our confession as we pursue God’s promised blessings. But first let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
1 Samuel 16:1-13 NRS 1 Samuel 16:1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons." 2 Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you." 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" 5 He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed is now before the LORD." 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen any of these." 11 Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." 12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
In this scripture we see four important Old Testament figures. Three of them were kings, Saul, David and, of course, God. One was a prophet, Samuel. God had rejected Saul as king over Israel and wanted to replace him with David. Both Saul and David were kings of Israel. Both had been chosen by God. Both were capable of uniting the nation and defeating their enemies. And both Saul and David were sinners. Both had been richly blessed by God, but both had lusted after things that were prohibited. Saul lost his kingdom as a result, but David continued to receive God’s blessings. What was the difference?
I once heard a story about boy who brought home a D on his report card. When his father asked about the D the boy said that it was “that old teacher’s fault”. “She gave me the D”, he said. “That’s her handwriting”. But the wise father pointed out that the D was his. He earned it. The teacher had simply recorded her evaluation of what the son had done.
We love to blame our sins on someone else. Remember, it started with Adam who blamed his disobedience on his wife. We still do it. Blaming others for what we do makes us look like victims. And victims receive a lot of sympathy. But blaming others is not what God wants from us. God prefers a honest confession and a contrite heart. Let’s take a look at King Saul.
King Saul was told by God through the prophet Samuel to attack the Amalekites. God was using Saul’s army to punish them. God ordered that the King of the Amalekites, all the people and all the ox, sheep, cattle and donkeys should be killed. Saul attacked the Amalekites and killed all of them just as God had instructed. But, Saul captured their king, Agag, alive and he took their ox, sheep, cattle and donkeys as booty. When the prophet Samuel confronted the king with his disobedience, Saul lied about what he had done and then tried to justify his actions by blaming them on others. Even though Saul was the king, he blamed his disobedience on the people of his nation. He said they made him do it; they wanted the loot. He said that he was afraid of his own people. All of this was a lie. As a result God removed from Saul his blessings and his kingdom. In God’s eyes he was no longer a suitable king. And Saul died on the battlefield as his kingdom was taken away. Saul sinned by disobeying God. Others have sinned as well, but in much uglier ways. Let’s take a look at King David.
We all know the story of David and Uriah. David slept with Uriah’s wife, tried to cover it up with an elaborate lie, and then had Uriah murdered. This might work for some of the dictators around the world today, but we can’t imagine that God would approve of three violations of the Ten Commandments. So God dispatched the prophet Nathan to confront the king. David’s response was not to lie about what he had done, or try to justify himself, or blame it on others. David simply confessed his sin. As a result of David’s sin he lost the blessings of peace. His kingdom was at war. His son conspired to overthrow him. And his newborn baby died. But because he had freely confessed his sin, David lost neither his kingdom nor God’s love.
What we learn from this is that whenever we lust after that which is prohibited we will lose the blessings we already have. That’s the way it is. But if we confess our sins and truly repent God will forgive us and will continue to bless us richly. The choice is ours. We can try to hide our sins from God like Adam, Eve and King Saul. We can blame our sins on others. We can try to justify ourselves. Or we can honestly confess our sins and continue to receive God’s promised blessings.
King David later wrote about his confession and the forgiveness that he had received from God. In Psalm 51, he asked God for a clean heart filled with the Holy Spirit of God. He asked God not only for forgiveness but also for a willing spirit that would help him to obey God. David promised to publically declare the salvation he had received in his teaching and singing so that others would also confess their sins honestly.
This is what we are called to do as forgiven sinners. We are to honestly confess our sins to God without blaming others for what we have done. We are to ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit so that we might become able and willing to obey God in the future. Then we are to tell others, our families, our coworkers, and our friends about the salvation we have received from God urging them to seek God with contrite hearts with the promise of blessing and forgiveness. This is the good news that we are called to proclaim as the ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Let us pray.
From Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; in your great compassion blot out my offenses.
Wash me through and through from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
And so you are justified when you speak and upright in your judgment.
Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, a sinner from my mother's womb.
For behold, you look for truth deep within me,
and will make me understand wisdom secretly.
Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.
Make me hear of joy and gladness, that the body you have broken may rejoice.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God,
you will not despise. Amen.
Sermon What is God Doing? Ex. 17: 1-7
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon What is God Doing? Ex. 17: 1-7
March 27, 2011
We are continuing to look at our questions about God. Two weeks ago we started by asking “What did God say?” We found that God has given us limited freedom and asks that we obey his commands. But we follow our lusts and desire what is prohibited causing us to lose the blessings that we already had. Then last week we asked about God’s plan to deal with this problem and found that God has decided to bless us richly so that we can be blessings for others and that all the families of the world will be blessed. So we are on a journey from slavery to our lusts and desires and on our way to the promises of God. But as we will soon see there are potholes on the road from Slavery to Promised Land. Before we hit one let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Ex. 17: 1-7
1From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages,
as the LORD commanded.
They camped at Rephidim,
but there was no water for the people to drink.
2The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses said to them,
“Why do you quarrel with me?
Why do you test the LORD?”
3But the people thirsted there for water;
and the people complained against Moses and said,
“Why did you bring us out of Egypt,
to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
4So Moses cried out to the LORD,
“What shall I do with this people?
They are almost ready to stone me.”
5The LORD said to Moses,
“Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you;
take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
6I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.
Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.”
Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7He called the place Massah and Meribah,
because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD,
saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
I usually do not talk about baseball from this pulpit. But with Spring Training almost over and the Major League season about to start I just can’t resist. You see I was a Washington Senators fan while growing up, and suffered a broken heart when they left in 1971. For thirty-four years I prayed for a team to return and was overjoyed when the Nationals came to DC in 2005. I listened to their games on the internet in California and now I can watch them on TV.
In 2005 one of my most favorite players was a pitcher named Chad Cordero. Chad had a strong arm and could throw a baseball 95 miles an hour. He was the closer, and would enter in the ninth inning to preserve a lead. But Chad suffered the fate of many young pitchers. He hurt his shoulder and underwent surgery the type that pitchers rarely return from. Chad was never the same and was released by the Nationals. He has bounced around several teams and this year is trying to catch on with Toronto.
Shortly after leaving the Nationals Chad married his college sweetheart, Jamie, and they have had two children. One day they dropped the kids, eighteen month old Riley and the eleven week old baby Tehya, at the Grandparent’s house for a much needed parent’s night out. Grandma put the sleeping baby on the bed and checked her from time to time. Everything was fine,. The baby was sleeping normally. And then baby died. Tehya, just 11 weeks old was dead. The doctors had no idea what happened. The baby was not sick. The Grandmother did nothing wrong. The autopsy was inconclusive. When there is no explanation doctors call this Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, SIDS. This was last December. The Corderos experienced inconsolable grief. They blamed themselves for what happened. And somehow they had to get ready for Christmas. (Adapted from Barry Svrluga, The Washington Post, 3/21/2011)
At a time like this all we can do is ask God why. Why did this happen? Why, God, did you allow this? We complain about these potholes in the road from slavery to promise. At the root of these questions is our fear that maybe God is not around anymore. Maybe God has left us, abandoned us. Maybe God is dead.
The Israelites experienced this feeling. They were on the journey from slavery to Promised Land. They had seen the great miracles of God who had freed them from slavery in Egypt and was leading them to the promise God had made to Abram. But suddenly they faced a crisis, a pothole in the road. Their water ran out. They feared that they would die. They should have had great confidence in Moses. After all he had tended his father-in-laws sheep in this very desert for 40 years. Surely he knew every watering hole. There was no need to fear about water. But underlying all of this was their fear that God had left them, disappeared.
Even Jesus experienced this feeling. In the incarnation Jesus needed to feel all of our emotions. He needed to experience the potholes on the road from slavery to promise. On the cross he felt the absence of God and cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
So when times get tough, when we lose a child, or lose a job, or lose our health we feel that we have been abandoned by God. And this we fear more than anything else because we were created to be with our creator. God’s absence scares us to death. Of course the Bible teaches us that God is always with us. When the Corderos lost their child, God was there. When the Israelites ran out of water, God was there. When Jesus cried out from the cross, God was there. Remember the promise, Jesus Christ is Emmanuel. In Christ, God is always with us.
Whenever we fear the God is far from us there are three things that scripture teaches us to do. So lets take a look at each of these.
The first thing to do when God seems to be missing is to pray. Moses cried out to God. He used the prayer most pastors have spoken at one time or another, “Oh God, they are about to stone me.” But seriously, whenever God seems absent the first thing we have to do is to call out. God will hear our prayers and will respond. Prayer is the only way we can be assured that God is with us and we not alone. We when are overwhelmed with fear, experience an indescribable loss, feel abandoned and alone we need to first turn to God in prayer and rest in his loving arms.
The second thing we must do whenever we experience the absence of God is to get together with other believers. Moses called together the elders. As a group they faced the problem together. So too with us, when God seems distant we need to be with others in prayer and worship. It temping, when tragedy strikes, to stay away from church. But church is exactly where you need to be. Remember that whenever a group of two or three believers join together and pray, God will be in their midst. So when you experience the absence of God always get together with other believers and pray.
And the third thing we must do whenever it seems that we can’t find God is to remember all the blessings God has given us in the past. Moses picked up his staff reminding the people that God was with them in Egypt when the sea was parted and they were freed from slavery. That staff reminded the people of God great providence. And the water coming from the rock assured then that God was
still with them. So whenever God seems distant count you blessings, remember how God has so richly blessed you and your family and then you will begin to feel God’s presence.
Sadly the Corderos seem to be approaching their grief the way many people do, with hard work. Chad is trying to reenter baseball and has been in camp with the Toronto Blue Jays. He hoped that baseball would be his savior. But it has been reported that he hides in the bathroom stall, crying. There is only one savior who can save us from the potholes on the journey from slavery to promise, only one savior who hears our prayers, only one savior who had experienced the feeling of being abandoned by God, and only savior who sits at God's right hand. That savior is the one we worship today, Jesus Christ.
The Israelites did not die of thirst. Moses struck the rock with the rod that had freed the Israelites from slavery. The people realized that through Moses’ prayer and through faithfulness of the elders that God was with them. They had never been abandoned. They had never been alone. They realized that God was faithful and would never stop loving them in spite of all the potholes from on the road from slavery to promise. After learning this lesson the Israelites were ready for their next blessing from God. They were at the foot of Mt. Horeb where God was just about to give them instructions and laws, which if followed would lead to a blessed life. Moses was just about to ascend the Mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. So we see that as we travel on the road from slavery to promise we are blessed along the way with God's word.
One the blessing that we have been promised by God is the blessing to be satisfied whenever God seems to be missing. Jesus taught us that all who hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God will be filled. This is a great blessing we have received because our God loves us so much.
Everlasting Father, we thank you for your steadfast love. We thank you for always being right there with us, especially when we need you the most. Amen.
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon What is God Doing? Ex. 17: 1-7
March 27, 2011
We are continuing to look at our questions about God. Two weeks ago we started by asking “What did God say?” We found that God has given us limited freedom and asks that we obey his commands. But we follow our lusts and desire what is prohibited causing us to lose the blessings that we already had. Then last week we asked about God’s plan to deal with this problem and found that God has decided to bless us richly so that we can be blessings for others and that all the families of the world will be blessed. So we are on a journey from slavery to our lusts and desires and on our way to the promises of God. But as we will soon see there are potholes on the road from Slavery to Promised Land. Before we hit one let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Ex. 17: 1-7
1From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages,
as the LORD commanded.
They camped at Rephidim,
but there was no water for the people to drink.
2The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses said to them,
“Why do you quarrel with me?
Why do you test the LORD?”
3But the people thirsted there for water;
and the people complained against Moses and said,
“Why did you bring us out of Egypt,
to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
4So Moses cried out to the LORD,
“What shall I do with this people?
They are almost ready to stone me.”
5The LORD said to Moses,
“Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you;
take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
6I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.
Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.”
Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7He called the place Massah and Meribah,
because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD,
saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
I usually do not talk about baseball from this pulpit. But with Spring Training almost over and the Major League season about to start I just can’t resist. You see I was a Washington Senators fan while growing up, and suffered a broken heart when they left in 1971. For thirty-four years I prayed for a team to return and was overjoyed when the Nationals came to DC in 2005. I listened to their games on the internet in California and now I can watch them on TV.
In 2005 one of my most favorite players was a pitcher named Chad Cordero. Chad had a strong arm and could throw a baseball 95 miles an hour. He was the closer, and would enter in the ninth inning to preserve a lead. But Chad suffered the fate of many young pitchers. He hurt his shoulder and underwent surgery the type that pitchers rarely return from. Chad was never the same and was released by the Nationals. He has bounced around several teams and this year is trying to catch on with Toronto.
Shortly after leaving the Nationals Chad married his college sweetheart, Jamie, and they have had two children. One day they dropped the kids, eighteen month old Riley and the eleven week old baby Tehya, at the Grandparent’s house for a much needed parent’s night out. Grandma put the sleeping baby on the bed and checked her from time to time. Everything was fine,. The baby was sleeping normally. And then baby died. Tehya, just 11 weeks old was dead. The doctors had no idea what happened. The baby was not sick. The Grandmother did nothing wrong. The autopsy was inconclusive. When there is no explanation doctors call this Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, SIDS. This was last December. The Corderos experienced inconsolable grief. They blamed themselves for what happened. And somehow they had to get ready for Christmas. (Adapted from Barry Svrluga, The Washington Post, 3/21/2011)
At a time like this all we can do is ask God why. Why did this happen? Why, God, did you allow this? We complain about these potholes in the road from slavery to promise. At the root of these questions is our fear that maybe God is not around anymore. Maybe God has left us, abandoned us. Maybe God is dead.
The Israelites experienced this feeling. They were on the journey from slavery to Promised Land. They had seen the great miracles of God who had freed them from slavery in Egypt and was leading them to the promise God had made to Abram. But suddenly they faced a crisis, a pothole in the road. Their water ran out. They feared that they would die. They should have had great confidence in Moses. After all he had tended his father-in-laws sheep in this very desert for 40 years. Surely he knew every watering hole. There was no need to fear about water. But underlying all of this was their fear that God had left them, disappeared.
Even Jesus experienced this feeling. In the incarnation Jesus needed to feel all of our emotions. He needed to experience the potholes on the road from slavery to promise. On the cross he felt the absence of God and cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
So when times get tough, when we lose a child, or lose a job, or lose our health we feel that we have been abandoned by God. And this we fear more than anything else because we were created to be with our creator. God’s absence scares us to death. Of course the Bible teaches us that God is always with us. When the Corderos lost their child, God was there. When the Israelites ran out of water, God was there. When Jesus cried out from the cross, God was there. Remember the promise, Jesus Christ is Emmanuel. In Christ, God is always with us.
Whenever we fear the God is far from us there are three things that scripture teaches us to do. So lets take a look at each of these.
The first thing to do when God seems to be missing is to pray. Moses cried out to God. He used the prayer most pastors have spoken at one time or another, “Oh God, they are about to stone me.” But seriously, whenever God seems absent the first thing we have to do is to call out. God will hear our prayers and will respond. Prayer is the only way we can be assured that God is with us and we not alone. We when are overwhelmed with fear, experience an indescribable loss, feel abandoned and alone we need to first turn to God in prayer and rest in his loving arms.
The second thing we must do whenever we experience the absence of God is to get together with other believers. Moses called together the elders. As a group they faced the problem together. So too with us, when God seems distant we need to be with others in prayer and worship. It temping, when tragedy strikes, to stay away from church. But church is exactly where you need to be. Remember that whenever a group of two or three believers join together and pray, God will be in their midst. So when you experience the absence of God always get together with other believers and pray.
And the third thing we must do whenever it seems that we can’t find God is to remember all the blessings God has given us in the past. Moses picked up his staff reminding the people that God was with them in Egypt when the sea was parted and they were freed from slavery. That staff reminded the people of God great providence. And the water coming from the rock assured then that God was
still with them. So whenever God seems distant count you blessings, remember how God has so richly blessed you and your family and then you will begin to feel God’s presence.
Sadly the Corderos seem to be approaching their grief the way many people do, with hard work. Chad is trying to reenter baseball and has been in camp with the Toronto Blue Jays. He hoped that baseball would be his savior. But it has been reported that he hides in the bathroom stall, crying. There is only one savior who can save us from the potholes on the journey from slavery to promise, only one savior who hears our prayers, only one savior who had experienced the feeling of being abandoned by God, and only savior who sits at God's right hand. That savior is the one we worship today, Jesus Christ.
The Israelites did not die of thirst. Moses struck the rock with the rod that had freed the Israelites from slavery. The people realized that through Moses’ prayer and through faithfulness of the elders that God was with them. They had never been abandoned. They had never been alone. They realized that God was faithful and would never stop loving them in spite of all the potholes from on the road from slavery to promise. After learning this lesson the Israelites were ready for their next blessing from God. They were at the foot of Mt. Horeb where God was just about to give them instructions and laws, which if followed would lead to a blessed life. Moses was just about to ascend the Mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. So we see that as we travel on the road from slavery to promise we are blessed along the way with God's word.
One the blessing that we have been promised by God is the blessing to be satisfied whenever God seems to be missing. Jesus taught us that all who hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God will be filled. This is a great blessing we have received because our God loves us so much.
Everlasting Father, we thank you for your steadfast love. We thank you for always being right there with us, especially when we need you the most. Amen.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sermon “What is God's Plan” - Genesis 12:1-3
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “What is God's Plan” - Genesis 12:1-3
March 13, 2011
This morning we are continuing our Lenten Study on questions we have about God. Last week we asked with Adam and Eve about how we are to live our lives as God's creatures following what God tells us to do. We found out that we have been placed in a garden where all of our needs are met. But we lust for more, for those things which are prohibited. And this lust causes us to lose the blessing we had already received. Today we will ask God about God's plan for dealing with this situation we have put ourselves into. But first lets pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Our Old Testament reading for today comes from the familiar words of the twelfth chapter of the Book of Genesis. Genesis 12:1-9
12Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.
When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Seven years ago I felt that something was missing in my life. I was active in church and civic clubs. I had friends. I was making money and could afford to do almost anything I wanted to do. But I had no wife, no children, and found myself lonely and wanting more. I had followed my own desires all my life but it still didn't seem to be enough. I thought it was a time to change my life and go in a new direction. I was a Bible teacher at church and I knew that what I needed to do was to follow the Lord. So I began to ask questions of my family and my pastor to try to discern where God was calling me. I finally decided that God was calling me into ministry of some kind. The Bible study I was teaching at the time was called the Bethel Bible Series, a two year look at scripture. The key text in this study was from the verses I just read, “we are blessed to be a blessing”. I realized that God had richly blessed me in many ways, and now God was calling me to be blessing for others.
Abram was facing similar challenges. Abram had a tough life. His wife, Sarai, was barren and he had no children, no one to inherit his land and no one to carry on his name. His brother had children. One of his nephews, Lot, came over to help him out, but it wasn't the same. Abram and Sarai had no children. Life for Abram must have been unbearable. So his father took the extraordinary step of emigrating to a new land. He told Abram, Sarai and Lot to pack up and get ready to move to a new home in Canaan.
This is often what we do when we feel something is missing. We just pack up and go away. We hope that life will be better in the next town, or the next job, or the next relationship. We figure that Florida would be warmer. We move on hoping to start over, hoping to have a new life.
Abram and his family only got as far as Haran when his father got sick and died, and Abram, Sarai and Lot were forced to start new lives without land or the support of friends and family. They were isolated and alone.
This is what happens when you try to deal with your problems by running away. Problems seem to catch up with you and you have a host of new problems to deal with too. You just can't leave the problems behind and run away.
One problem that Abram had was that he did not believe in God. Scripture tells us that Abram came from a family that worshiped other gods. So Abram was not familiar with the God who loves us and redeems us. All Abram had was a barren wife, a nephew and a lot of problems to deal with. What Abram needed was faith. He needed to know the creator God. He needed to be redeemed from all of his problems. He needed a cure for his unbelief.
A pharisee in the first century AD faced his own problems. He too lacked the comfort of knowing God and suffered from unbelief. His name was Nicodemus. Late one evening he came to see Jesus. It was dark. In John's gospel darkness is always a symbol of unbelief. Nicodemus did not believe. But he wanted to know more about Jesus and what Jesus doing. So one evening Nicodemus emerged from the darkness of unbelief and entered into the light of the world in Jesus Christ.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. In his typical fashion, Jesus said this in a way that causes us the think. His language was ambiguous. What Jesus said could mean either “born again” or “born from above”. Of course this confused Nicodemus. How could anyone reenter his mother's womb and be born again? But Jesus meant that to have a relationship with the creator God you must be born from above; you must be born of the Spirit. This means that faith is a gift. God dispatches the Holy Spirit to plant within you the gift of faith. You are born from above by the Holy Spirit and believe that Jesus is Lord.
This is what happened to Abram. The Holy Spirit came upon him giving him faith in his creator. And the creator God told him to leave this place of loneliness and despair and go to a place of rich blessing. But first Abram had to act on his faith. God refused to tell him where he was going. Abram had to take the first step by faith alone. And that is exactly what Abram did. He left Haran and traveled to the place where God led him. And he found himself in Canaan, the very place where his father had wanted him to go. And there Abram was blessed with more than he had ever imagined. Sarai would give birth and his descendants would number more than all the stars in heaven, more than all the grains of sand on the beach.
This is the promise made to us. If we stop following our own lusts and begin following God we too will be richly blessed, more than we could ever imagine.
After talking with my parents, friends and pastors I decided to follow God and see to where it might leave. I left my home, church and friends and drove to California to study at Fuller Seminary. There I found my calling as a Presbyterian pastor and met my wife, Grace.
After his encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus continued to question his faith. He wasn't sure what he was called to do. But God had a most important mission for him. On the day that Jesus died someone needed to help Joseph of Arimathea to remove Jesus' dead body from cross and place it in the tomb. At the risk of great sacrifice for himself and his family Nicodemus was there outside the gate caring for Jesus body after his death.
What Abram and Nicodemus both discovered was that once you receive the gift of faith and all the blessings of God you now have the responsibility to be a blessing for others. That is your true vocation as the adopted children of God. You are blessed by God to be blessings for others. We usually think of ministry as something that happens here in the church. I am a minister so I must do ministry. And all the groups we have on Sunday mornings and afternoons, Wednesday evenings, choir practice, early morning prayers and board meetings are all ways of doing ministry. But in our Reformed tradition we believe that ministry does not stop at the church door. Rather ministry continues throughout the week wherever believers are present. You see you are all missionaries of Jesus Christ. You may be the only Christian missionary that the people in your office, or those in your civic group, or people you meet at school will see this week. So it is important to remember that you have been given the gift of faith and you have received blessings from God and now as a missionary in your home, or school or office, or club, you are called to be a blessing for others. So bless the people you meet this week with the good news that you have heard in church and invite them to join with us in questioning God about our faith and growing together as God's people.
Our ministries extend far beyond the eastern shore. As God told Abram we have been blessed to be a blessing and in us all the families of the world will be blessed. On Palm Sunday we will have the opportunity with Presbyterian churches across the country to bless families around the world with our One Great Hour of Sharing. Your contributions will bless poor families in America with the Self Development of People program. Your contributions will bless hungry families to become self sufficient with the Presbyterian Hunger Program. And your contributions will bless families that have been struck by disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis through the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program. As we go though Lent you will hear more about the One Great Hour of Sharing. Remember that God said in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for all the blessings we have received. Show us how we can use these blessings to bless others. Amen.
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “What is God's Plan” - Genesis 12:1-3
March 13, 2011
This morning we are continuing our Lenten Study on questions we have about God. Last week we asked with Adam and Eve about how we are to live our lives as God's creatures following what God tells us to do. We found out that we have been placed in a garden where all of our needs are met. But we lust for more, for those things which are prohibited. And this lust causes us to lose the blessing we had already received. Today we will ask God about God's plan for dealing with this situation we have put ourselves into. But first lets pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Our Old Testament reading for today comes from the familiar words of the twelfth chapter of the Book of Genesis. Genesis 12:1-9
12Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.
When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Seven years ago I felt that something was missing in my life. I was active in church and civic clubs. I had friends. I was making money and could afford to do almost anything I wanted to do. But I had no wife, no children, and found myself lonely and wanting more. I had followed my own desires all my life but it still didn't seem to be enough. I thought it was a time to change my life and go in a new direction. I was a Bible teacher at church and I knew that what I needed to do was to follow the Lord. So I began to ask questions of my family and my pastor to try to discern where God was calling me. I finally decided that God was calling me into ministry of some kind. The Bible study I was teaching at the time was called the Bethel Bible Series, a two year look at scripture. The key text in this study was from the verses I just read, “we are blessed to be a blessing”. I realized that God had richly blessed me in many ways, and now God was calling me to be blessing for others.
Abram was facing similar challenges. Abram had a tough life. His wife, Sarai, was barren and he had no children, no one to inherit his land and no one to carry on his name. His brother had children. One of his nephews, Lot, came over to help him out, but it wasn't the same. Abram and Sarai had no children. Life for Abram must have been unbearable. So his father took the extraordinary step of emigrating to a new land. He told Abram, Sarai and Lot to pack up and get ready to move to a new home in Canaan.
This is often what we do when we feel something is missing. We just pack up and go away. We hope that life will be better in the next town, or the next job, or the next relationship. We figure that Florida would be warmer. We move on hoping to start over, hoping to have a new life.
Abram and his family only got as far as Haran when his father got sick and died, and Abram, Sarai and Lot were forced to start new lives without land or the support of friends and family. They were isolated and alone.
This is what happens when you try to deal with your problems by running away. Problems seem to catch up with you and you have a host of new problems to deal with too. You just can't leave the problems behind and run away.
One problem that Abram had was that he did not believe in God. Scripture tells us that Abram came from a family that worshiped other gods. So Abram was not familiar with the God who loves us and redeems us. All Abram had was a barren wife, a nephew and a lot of problems to deal with. What Abram needed was faith. He needed to know the creator God. He needed to be redeemed from all of his problems. He needed a cure for his unbelief.
A pharisee in the first century AD faced his own problems. He too lacked the comfort of knowing God and suffered from unbelief. His name was Nicodemus. Late one evening he came to see Jesus. It was dark. In John's gospel darkness is always a symbol of unbelief. Nicodemus did not believe. But he wanted to know more about Jesus and what Jesus doing. So one evening Nicodemus emerged from the darkness of unbelief and entered into the light of the world in Jesus Christ.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. In his typical fashion, Jesus said this in a way that causes us the think. His language was ambiguous. What Jesus said could mean either “born again” or “born from above”. Of course this confused Nicodemus. How could anyone reenter his mother's womb and be born again? But Jesus meant that to have a relationship with the creator God you must be born from above; you must be born of the Spirit. This means that faith is a gift. God dispatches the Holy Spirit to plant within you the gift of faith. You are born from above by the Holy Spirit and believe that Jesus is Lord.
This is what happened to Abram. The Holy Spirit came upon him giving him faith in his creator. And the creator God told him to leave this place of loneliness and despair and go to a place of rich blessing. But first Abram had to act on his faith. God refused to tell him where he was going. Abram had to take the first step by faith alone. And that is exactly what Abram did. He left Haran and traveled to the place where God led him. And he found himself in Canaan, the very place where his father had wanted him to go. And there Abram was blessed with more than he had ever imagined. Sarai would give birth and his descendants would number more than all the stars in heaven, more than all the grains of sand on the beach.
This is the promise made to us. If we stop following our own lusts and begin following God we too will be richly blessed, more than we could ever imagine.
After talking with my parents, friends and pastors I decided to follow God and see to where it might leave. I left my home, church and friends and drove to California to study at Fuller Seminary. There I found my calling as a Presbyterian pastor and met my wife, Grace.
After his encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus continued to question his faith. He wasn't sure what he was called to do. But God had a most important mission for him. On the day that Jesus died someone needed to help Joseph of Arimathea to remove Jesus' dead body from cross and place it in the tomb. At the risk of great sacrifice for himself and his family Nicodemus was there outside the gate caring for Jesus body after his death.
What Abram and Nicodemus both discovered was that once you receive the gift of faith and all the blessings of God you now have the responsibility to be a blessing for others. That is your true vocation as the adopted children of God. You are blessed by God to be blessings for others. We usually think of ministry as something that happens here in the church. I am a minister so I must do ministry. And all the groups we have on Sunday mornings and afternoons, Wednesday evenings, choir practice, early morning prayers and board meetings are all ways of doing ministry. But in our Reformed tradition we believe that ministry does not stop at the church door. Rather ministry continues throughout the week wherever believers are present. You see you are all missionaries of Jesus Christ. You may be the only Christian missionary that the people in your office, or those in your civic group, or people you meet at school will see this week. So it is important to remember that you have been given the gift of faith and you have received blessings from God and now as a missionary in your home, or school or office, or club, you are called to be a blessing for others. So bless the people you meet this week with the good news that you have heard in church and invite them to join with us in questioning God about our faith and growing together as God's people.
Our ministries extend far beyond the eastern shore. As God told Abram we have been blessed to be a blessing and in us all the families of the world will be blessed. On Palm Sunday we will have the opportunity with Presbyterian churches across the country to bless families around the world with our One Great Hour of Sharing. Your contributions will bless poor families in America with the Self Development of People program. Your contributions will bless hungry families to become self sufficient with the Presbyterian Hunger Program. And your contributions will bless families that have been struck by disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis through the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program. As we go though Lent you will hear more about the One Great Hour of Sharing. Remember that God said in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for all the blessings we have received. Show us how we can use these blessings to bless others. Amen.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Sermon “What Did God Say” - Genesis 2 and 3
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “What Did God Say” - Genesis 2 and 3
March 13, 2011
We have arrived at the first Sunday of Lent. “The season of Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and self-examination in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord at Easter. It is a period of 40 days — like the flood of Genesis, Moses’ sojourn at Mount Sinai, Elijah’s journey to Mount Horeb, Jonah’s call to Ninevah to repent and Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness. (The Sundays in Lent are not counted in this reckoning of the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, as every Lord’s Day is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.) In the early church, Lent was a time of preparation for the celebration of baptism at the Easter Vigil. In many communities of faith it remains a time to equip and nurture candidates for baptism and confirmation and to reflect deeply on the theme of baptismal discipleship.” (http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/theologyandworship/worship-resources-lent/) Let us pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Our scripture this morning is the familiar text from Genesis chapters two and three which I will be reading from a new translation by Robert Alter.
The story you just heard is a parable. It is similar to the parables that Jesus told. It is a simple story that is very easy to remember, but also has a powerful point. This story was originally meant to be humorous. There are literary elements in it that the original audience would have found quite funny. There are a couple of puns in it. A pun is a wordplay where two words sound alike but have different meanings are put together to make a rhetorical point or to make people laugh. In Genesis 2 there is a pun on the words for soil and man. Soil is the adamah. Man is the adam. So the adam is made from the adamah. You get it. There is another pun in Genesis 3. The serpent is called crafty, arum. Adam and Eve are naked, arumim. The the arum (crafty) is trying to trick the arumim (naked). A Hebrew speaker would pick up on the puns immediately, but they are lost in our English translations.
Another literary device that the author uses to make this humorous is satire. Satire is a literary genre that is used to ridicule vises, bad practices, or abuse. The biblical author uses satire to poke fun at a group of people. These people had it made. They were blessed with everything you could ever want. They lived is a garden with plenty of delicious food to eat. And their vocation was to care for that garden so that the fruit and vegetables would grow in abundance. But these people wanted more. They weren't satisfied with what they had. They lusted for things that had been prohibited. And so they threw away all the blessings they had in order have what they thought they wanted. And in doing so lost everything they had. How stupid can you get? Ha Ha Ha
This story would be really funny to us except that we realize that we are the butt of the joke. We are the stupid ones who are never satisfied with the blessings we have received from God. We want more and more. We lust after what is prohibited, and find that we lose all the treasures we had whenever we reach for more. We are the ones the angels and all of heaven are laughing at.
When we read Genesis 2 and 3 we hear not a joke but a tragedy. We are the tragic figures. Rather than thanking God for all the blessings we have received we complain and complain about what we don't have. We lust after that which is not permitted. We desire that which is not beneficial. And this leads us to lose the blessings we already had. We lust after a new relationship and find ourselves divorced and no happier than before. We lust after more money, or power or prestige so we get a new academic degree, or change jobs, or move to a new location and find that the golden ring is still elusive. No matter what we do, and we try over and over again, we can never satisfy our lusts and we lose the treasures we once had. The more we try the worse it gets. We fall into a vicious cycle with no way out. This is what we call depravity. We are so consumed by sin that we are unable to stop sinning and return to God.
Recently, I saw a story on television about a man who had been walking on a seashore in New England. It was wintertime after a heavy snow. The beach was covered with a large mound of snow and ice. As he walked he began to realize the danger he was in. He could fall through the ice. So he turned around to head home. But suddenly the ice broke and he fell through a hole into a large ice cavern. He realized that he had to get out of the icy water immediately or he would quickly die. So he pulled himself up on a ledge of ice. As he look around he realized that there was no way out. There was no way he could crawl back to safety. He would die in this icy tomb unless someone came to save him. So he started to scream as loud as he could hoping that someone would hear him and come to save him.
This is the situation in which we find ourselves. Because of our sin, our disobedience to God, we have fallen into a hole and cannot get out. We try to save ourselves. We go to church. We read our Bibles. We pray every day. But no matter how hard we try save ourselves from sin we just fall deeper and deeper into the hole. The harder we try the more we fall. And we are drowning in a sea of sin.
Our only hope is that someone will hear our cries and save us. Someone heard the cries of the man who had fallen through the ice and came to rescue him. We too need a savior who will rescue us from the hole of sin that we have fallen into.
Adam and Eve tried their best. They sewed together some fig leaves and hid in the bushes. But it wasn't enough to deal with the downward spiral they had started. They were ashamed and fearful of God. They needed someone to come and restore the relationship they had with their creator. They needed a savior.
Eventually God arrived and looked for his creatures. He realized that the man and woman he had created had chosen to satisfy their own lusts rather than obey his commands. He knew that they were ashamed and fearful So what did God do? Did he open a hole in the ground to swallow up his evil creation? No. Did a flood cover the face of the earth? No. Did fire destroy the garden? No. What God did was to get out the sewing machine and make his beloved creatures new clothes to wear. You see, no matter how far we have fallen, no matter how deep a hole of sin we're in, no matter how much we are separated from God, God still loves us, cares for us and wants the best for us.
So when we find ourselves lusting for the things we are not suppose to have and when we have acted on those lusts, you will lose many of the blessings you had received from God. That's just the way it is. But you will never lose God's love.
Heavenly Father, on this first Sunday in Lent we have gather to confess our sins to you. We have been following our own way for far too long. We desire to have a better relationship with you. So help us to amend our lives and faithfully trust in your love. Amen.
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “What Did God Say” - Genesis 2 and 3
March 13, 2011
We have arrived at the first Sunday of Lent. “The season of Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and self-examination in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord at Easter. It is a period of 40 days — like the flood of Genesis, Moses’ sojourn at Mount Sinai, Elijah’s journey to Mount Horeb, Jonah’s call to Ninevah to repent and Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness. (The Sundays in Lent are not counted in this reckoning of the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, as every Lord’s Day is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.) In the early church, Lent was a time of preparation for the celebration of baptism at the Easter Vigil. In many communities of faith it remains a time to equip and nurture candidates for baptism and confirmation and to reflect deeply on the theme of baptismal discipleship.” (http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/theologyandworship/worship-resources-lent/) Let us pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Our scripture this morning is the familiar text from Genesis chapters two and three which I will be reading from a new translation by Robert Alter.
The story you just heard is a parable. It is similar to the parables that Jesus told. It is a simple story that is very easy to remember, but also has a powerful point. This story was originally meant to be humorous. There are literary elements in it that the original audience would have found quite funny. There are a couple of puns in it. A pun is a wordplay where two words sound alike but have different meanings are put together to make a rhetorical point or to make people laugh. In Genesis 2 there is a pun on the words for soil and man. Soil is the adamah. Man is the adam. So the adam is made from the adamah. You get it. There is another pun in Genesis 3. The serpent is called crafty, arum. Adam and Eve are naked, arumim. The the arum (crafty) is trying to trick the arumim (naked). A Hebrew speaker would pick up on the puns immediately, but they are lost in our English translations.
Another literary device that the author uses to make this humorous is satire. Satire is a literary genre that is used to ridicule vises, bad practices, or abuse. The biblical author uses satire to poke fun at a group of people. These people had it made. They were blessed with everything you could ever want. They lived is a garden with plenty of delicious food to eat. And their vocation was to care for that garden so that the fruit and vegetables would grow in abundance. But these people wanted more. They weren't satisfied with what they had. They lusted for things that had been prohibited. And so they threw away all the blessings they had in order have what they thought they wanted. And in doing so lost everything they had. How stupid can you get? Ha Ha Ha
This story would be really funny to us except that we realize that we are the butt of the joke. We are the stupid ones who are never satisfied with the blessings we have received from God. We want more and more. We lust after what is prohibited, and find that we lose all the treasures we had whenever we reach for more. We are the ones the angels and all of heaven are laughing at.
When we read Genesis 2 and 3 we hear not a joke but a tragedy. We are the tragic figures. Rather than thanking God for all the blessings we have received we complain and complain about what we don't have. We lust after that which is not permitted. We desire that which is not beneficial. And this leads us to lose the blessings we already had. We lust after a new relationship and find ourselves divorced and no happier than before. We lust after more money, or power or prestige so we get a new academic degree, or change jobs, or move to a new location and find that the golden ring is still elusive. No matter what we do, and we try over and over again, we can never satisfy our lusts and we lose the treasures we once had. The more we try the worse it gets. We fall into a vicious cycle with no way out. This is what we call depravity. We are so consumed by sin that we are unable to stop sinning and return to God.
Recently, I saw a story on television about a man who had been walking on a seashore in New England. It was wintertime after a heavy snow. The beach was covered with a large mound of snow and ice. As he walked he began to realize the danger he was in. He could fall through the ice. So he turned around to head home. But suddenly the ice broke and he fell through a hole into a large ice cavern. He realized that he had to get out of the icy water immediately or he would quickly die. So he pulled himself up on a ledge of ice. As he look around he realized that there was no way out. There was no way he could crawl back to safety. He would die in this icy tomb unless someone came to save him. So he started to scream as loud as he could hoping that someone would hear him and come to save him.
This is the situation in which we find ourselves. Because of our sin, our disobedience to God, we have fallen into a hole and cannot get out. We try to save ourselves. We go to church. We read our Bibles. We pray every day. But no matter how hard we try save ourselves from sin we just fall deeper and deeper into the hole. The harder we try the more we fall. And we are drowning in a sea of sin.
Our only hope is that someone will hear our cries and save us. Someone heard the cries of the man who had fallen through the ice and came to rescue him. We too need a savior who will rescue us from the hole of sin that we have fallen into.
Adam and Eve tried their best. They sewed together some fig leaves and hid in the bushes. But it wasn't enough to deal with the downward spiral they had started. They were ashamed and fearful of God. They needed someone to come and restore the relationship they had with their creator. They needed a savior.
Eventually God arrived and looked for his creatures. He realized that the man and woman he had created had chosen to satisfy their own lusts rather than obey his commands. He knew that they were ashamed and fearful So what did God do? Did he open a hole in the ground to swallow up his evil creation? No. Did a flood cover the face of the earth? No. Did fire destroy the garden? No. What God did was to get out the sewing machine and make his beloved creatures new clothes to wear. You see, no matter how far we have fallen, no matter how deep a hole of sin we're in, no matter how much we are separated from God, God still loves us, cares for us and wants the best for us.
So when we find ourselves lusting for the things we are not suppose to have and when we have acted on those lusts, you will lose many of the blessings you had received from God. That's just the way it is. But you will never lose God's love.
Heavenly Father, on this first Sunday in Lent we have gather to confess our sins to you. We have been following our own way for far too long. We desire to have a better relationship with you. So help us to amend our lives and faithfully trust in your love. Amen.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Sermon “Coping With Our Critics” - 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “Coping With Our Critics” - 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Adapted from: Lewis Smedes, http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/smedes_4508.htm
March 6, 2011
Today, I will be concluding my series of sermons drawn from the first four chapters of the book of First Corinthians. We have seen that Paul loves these churches very much and wants to help them overcome their difficulties resulting from the fact that they have been served by several different preachers. Paul wants them to focus on Jesus Christ crucified as a way of uniting. I urge you to continue to read First Corinthians on your own and see how Paul helps the churches of Corinth deal with problems of person ethics and practices in worship. Today we will look at how Paul teaches them to deal with the underlying problem they have: they are judging one another. But first lets pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
I am going to talk with you about how to cope with people who set themselves up as your critics. We all have critics; I have had a fair share of them in my time. All of us have people around us who tell us whether we dress right, talk right, think right, or do right. Critics can make us feel guilty, or ashamed, or just plain incompetent—if we let them. So one of the most important lessons about life that I, for one, am still learning, and maybe you are too is this: How to cope with our critics?
There are two mistakes people often make when they are trying to cope with their critics. One mistake is to ignore them. But the trouble with ignoring our critics is that we may discover that they were right and that we would have been better off if we had listened to them. So it is a mistake to ignore our critics. On the other hand, it is an even bigger mistake to take them too seriously—to let them have the last word, as if they were our judges and were always right. The trick, then, is to listen to our critics, but never, never let our critics be our judges. Here is the key. A critic is one thing. A judge is another. Critics give us their own opinion, and it is up to us to take it or leave it. But judges are different; when they deliver their judgment, we have no choice, we simply have to take it. This is why I say: listen to your critics, but never let them be your judges.
The Apostle Paul had his share of critics and what he said to his critics has always been helpful to me. Our scripture reading for today is 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
You will notice that he had three kinds of critics: first, other people, second, himself, and, third, the Lord. Three critics. We have the very same ones: other people, our own selves, and the Lord.
Let’s first talk about our human critics: Our friends. People who go to our church. Our mothers. Even our own children. They can criticize us for just about everything. The apostle’s critics, for instance, were carping at him for the way he carried on his missionary work. How did he respond? He simply said: "I am listening. I hear what you are saying. What you say matters to me. But when the chips are down, and you have had your say, your words are never the last word for me. You are not my judges."
When we let our critics become our judges, we let them decide whether we are good enough or beautiful enough to be loved and accepted. I knew a woman once who had just about everything a beautiful woman, fifty-ish, could want: besides being good looking, she was well educated, and wealthy, and on top of that she was a very good, generous human being. But with all her fine qualities, she was miserable. Deeply depressed, she sometimes thought of taking her own life. How did she get in that terribly sad state of mind? I will tell you. She got into that sad state of mind by letting her critics become her judges. She had lived her whole life to win their approval. She lived in fear that if she did not measure up to their judgments, she would not be good enough for anyone, especially God, to love her. What happened to this wonderful woman? I am happy to say that she finally learned how to deal with her critics. She found the courage to say to them all: "I respect your criticism, but from now on, I will not let you be my judge."
Very often we have the hardest time when our critics are the very people we love and admire. When I was in college, I had a wonderful teacher whom I greatly admired. And I wanted his approval above almost every thing else. And if I did not have his approval I would be crushed. In short I was letting my professor and critic be my judge. It took me a long time to say to myself: " I want him to be my critic, I will always take his opinion seriously. But I will not let him be my judge." I can tell you that the day I decided that my college idol would not be my judge, I found a new freedom to follow my own path without worrying about what he thought of what I was doing.
Critics are a blessing. We can all profit from them. But they can be a curse if we let them be our judges. Our second critic is our own self. God has made us with the ability to examine our own lives, to take stock of ourselves and be our own critics. The only way we will ever improve our lives is by being critical of ourselves. But, oh, we make a huge mistake if we become our own judges. The apostle Paul knew this, so when he refused to let his critics be his judges, he added these words: I do not even judge myself.
It is important here to recall the difference between a critic and a judge: a critic gives you his or her opinion and you can accept it or your can reject it. But when a judge pronounces his or her judgment, you are stuck with it.
The apostle was his own toughest critic. He took the measure of his own life and criticized himself very honestly. He said: "I find that I often do the very things that—in my deepest spirit—I do not really want to do. And I often fail to do the very things that, deep in my spirit, I really want to do." Yes, the apostle was his own toughest critic. And he urged us to examine ourselves and be critical of what we see in ourselves. But be our own judges? Not on your life.
We are simply not competent to judge ourselves. When we take stock of ourselves, we tend to see what we want to see. When we are feeling good about ourselves we want to see only the good things about ourselves. When we get down on ourselves we actually look for bad things in ourselves. How we see ourselves is always blurred by the mood we are in. When we feel good about ourselves, we are too easy on ourselves. When we feel down, depressed, we are too hard on ourselves. The Bible says that all our hearts are deceitful, and they never deceive us so badly as when we are trying to examine our own selves.
Besides, we are too complicated for us to understand ourselves—even when we are honest with ourselves. The smartest psychiatrist in the world can spend five years with a patient and never really unravel the mystery of his patient’s spirit. Look inside yourself, and you will find shadow and light, evil and goodness, ugliness and beauty, hate and love, all mixed up together like a tossed salad.
I worry about people who, when they look inside themselves, always come up feeling smug, and thoroughly pleased with themselves. I also worry about people who look inside themselves and come up feeling as if their souls were cesspools. Neither of them has seen themselves for what they really are.
Their mistake is not that they criticize themselves. Their mistake is that they judge themselves. I know good people who are going through life judging themselves to be flawed and blemished and hopeless persons. Yes, I worry about good people who judge themselves and always find themselves wanting. On the other hand, I have known people who made a living by lying and cheating and stealing who convinced themselves that they were really models of good character. Yes, I worry about people who judge themselves and always find themselves innocent. No wonder the apostle Paul said to his critics: I not only refuse to let you be my judges, I do not judge myself. I criticize myself, but I do not judge myself.
Which leaves just one more critic: The Lord himself. The apostle not only refused to let his human critics be his judges, he would not let himself be his own judge. But now comes the clincher. It was not as if he refused to be judged by anyone. He had a judge and told his critics who his judge was. He said: "My judge is the Lord." Think for a moment. God is qualified to be our judge because he knows us right down to the core, knows everything there is to know about us, good, bad, and indifferent. How can we live with the one critic who really has the competence to be our judge?
For myself, I have found that the way to live with my divine critic is to know that whenever he judges me, he also loves me, forgives me, and accepts me. Nothing I have ever done or ever will do can persuade God to reject me.
Jesus himself had critics who judged him to be deserving of the death penalty. But what his judges did not know, was that when they condemned Jesus to death, God himself was in Jesus bearing their judgment. And since that moment when God was judged, he is the God who forgives.
One last word. We all have to live with critics. That’s life. But the only critic who is qualified to be our judge is the Lord himself. And the good news about our divine judge is that he refuses to condemn us. Let me put it in the apostle’s own words: there is therefore no condemnation. No condemnation. No condemnation at all. There is only forgiveness. There is only love.
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “Coping With Our Critics” - 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Adapted from: Lewis Smedes, http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/smedes_4508.htm
March 6, 2011
Today, I will be concluding my series of sermons drawn from the first four chapters of the book of First Corinthians. We have seen that Paul loves these churches very much and wants to help them overcome their difficulties resulting from the fact that they have been served by several different preachers. Paul wants them to focus on Jesus Christ crucified as a way of uniting. I urge you to continue to read First Corinthians on your own and see how Paul helps the churches of Corinth deal with problems of person ethics and practices in worship. Today we will look at how Paul teaches them to deal with the underlying problem they have: they are judging one another. But first lets pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
I am going to talk with you about how to cope with people who set themselves up as your critics. We all have critics; I have had a fair share of them in my time. All of us have people around us who tell us whether we dress right, talk right, think right, or do right. Critics can make us feel guilty, or ashamed, or just plain incompetent—if we let them. So one of the most important lessons about life that I, for one, am still learning, and maybe you are too is this: How to cope with our critics?
There are two mistakes people often make when they are trying to cope with their critics. One mistake is to ignore them. But the trouble with ignoring our critics is that we may discover that they were right and that we would have been better off if we had listened to them. So it is a mistake to ignore our critics. On the other hand, it is an even bigger mistake to take them too seriously—to let them have the last word, as if they were our judges and were always right. The trick, then, is to listen to our critics, but never, never let our critics be our judges. Here is the key. A critic is one thing. A judge is another. Critics give us their own opinion, and it is up to us to take it or leave it. But judges are different; when they deliver their judgment, we have no choice, we simply have to take it. This is why I say: listen to your critics, but never let them be your judges.
The Apostle Paul had his share of critics and what he said to his critics has always been helpful to me. Our scripture reading for today is 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
You will notice that he had three kinds of critics: first, other people, second, himself, and, third, the Lord. Three critics. We have the very same ones: other people, our own selves, and the Lord.
Let’s first talk about our human critics: Our friends. People who go to our church. Our mothers. Even our own children. They can criticize us for just about everything. The apostle’s critics, for instance, were carping at him for the way he carried on his missionary work. How did he respond? He simply said: "I am listening. I hear what you are saying. What you say matters to me. But when the chips are down, and you have had your say, your words are never the last word for me. You are not my judges."
When we let our critics become our judges, we let them decide whether we are good enough or beautiful enough to be loved and accepted. I knew a woman once who had just about everything a beautiful woman, fifty-ish, could want: besides being good looking, she was well educated, and wealthy, and on top of that she was a very good, generous human being. But with all her fine qualities, she was miserable. Deeply depressed, she sometimes thought of taking her own life. How did she get in that terribly sad state of mind? I will tell you. She got into that sad state of mind by letting her critics become her judges. She had lived her whole life to win their approval. She lived in fear that if she did not measure up to their judgments, she would not be good enough for anyone, especially God, to love her. What happened to this wonderful woman? I am happy to say that she finally learned how to deal with her critics. She found the courage to say to them all: "I respect your criticism, but from now on, I will not let you be my judge."
Very often we have the hardest time when our critics are the very people we love and admire. When I was in college, I had a wonderful teacher whom I greatly admired. And I wanted his approval above almost every thing else. And if I did not have his approval I would be crushed. In short I was letting my professor and critic be my judge. It took me a long time to say to myself: " I want him to be my critic, I will always take his opinion seriously. But I will not let him be my judge." I can tell you that the day I decided that my college idol would not be my judge, I found a new freedom to follow my own path without worrying about what he thought of what I was doing.
Critics are a blessing. We can all profit from them. But they can be a curse if we let them be our judges. Our second critic is our own self. God has made us with the ability to examine our own lives, to take stock of ourselves and be our own critics. The only way we will ever improve our lives is by being critical of ourselves. But, oh, we make a huge mistake if we become our own judges. The apostle Paul knew this, so when he refused to let his critics be his judges, he added these words: I do not even judge myself.
It is important here to recall the difference between a critic and a judge: a critic gives you his or her opinion and you can accept it or your can reject it. But when a judge pronounces his or her judgment, you are stuck with it.
The apostle was his own toughest critic. He took the measure of his own life and criticized himself very honestly. He said: "I find that I often do the very things that—in my deepest spirit—I do not really want to do. And I often fail to do the very things that, deep in my spirit, I really want to do." Yes, the apostle was his own toughest critic. And he urged us to examine ourselves and be critical of what we see in ourselves. But be our own judges? Not on your life.
We are simply not competent to judge ourselves. When we take stock of ourselves, we tend to see what we want to see. When we are feeling good about ourselves we want to see only the good things about ourselves. When we get down on ourselves we actually look for bad things in ourselves. How we see ourselves is always blurred by the mood we are in. When we feel good about ourselves, we are too easy on ourselves. When we feel down, depressed, we are too hard on ourselves. The Bible says that all our hearts are deceitful, and they never deceive us so badly as when we are trying to examine our own selves.
Besides, we are too complicated for us to understand ourselves—even when we are honest with ourselves. The smartest psychiatrist in the world can spend five years with a patient and never really unravel the mystery of his patient’s spirit. Look inside yourself, and you will find shadow and light, evil and goodness, ugliness and beauty, hate and love, all mixed up together like a tossed salad.
I worry about people who, when they look inside themselves, always come up feeling smug, and thoroughly pleased with themselves. I also worry about people who look inside themselves and come up feeling as if their souls were cesspools. Neither of them has seen themselves for what they really are.
Their mistake is not that they criticize themselves. Their mistake is that they judge themselves. I know good people who are going through life judging themselves to be flawed and blemished and hopeless persons. Yes, I worry about good people who judge themselves and always find themselves wanting. On the other hand, I have known people who made a living by lying and cheating and stealing who convinced themselves that they were really models of good character. Yes, I worry about people who judge themselves and always find themselves innocent. No wonder the apostle Paul said to his critics: I not only refuse to let you be my judges, I do not judge myself. I criticize myself, but I do not judge myself.
Which leaves just one more critic: The Lord himself. The apostle not only refused to let his human critics be his judges, he would not let himself be his own judge. But now comes the clincher. It was not as if he refused to be judged by anyone. He had a judge and told his critics who his judge was. He said: "My judge is the Lord." Think for a moment. God is qualified to be our judge because he knows us right down to the core, knows everything there is to know about us, good, bad, and indifferent. How can we live with the one critic who really has the competence to be our judge?
For myself, I have found that the way to live with my divine critic is to know that whenever he judges me, he also loves me, forgives me, and accepts me. Nothing I have ever done or ever will do can persuade God to reject me.
Jesus himself had critics who judged him to be deserving of the death penalty. But what his judges did not know, was that when they condemned Jesus to death, God himself was in Jesus bearing their judgment. And since that moment when God was judged, he is the God who forgives.
One last word. We all have to live with critics. That’s life. But the only critic who is qualified to be our judge is the Lord himself. And the good news about our divine judge is that he refuses to condemn us. Let me put it in the apostle’s own words: there is therefore no condemnation. No condemnation. No condemnation at all. There is only forgiveness. There is only love.
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