PASTOR dONNA'S sERMON oCTOBER 2, 2022 "rEKINDLE THE gIFT"
October 2, 2022
Series: Not Ashamed
Message: Rekindle the Gift
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, in the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, 12 and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard the deposit I have entrusted to him. 13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
This week we begin a new series called “Not Ashamed,” taken from Paul’s words to Timothy as he wrote, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me.” This might sound a little odd to us as we read or hear them, we don’t understand why Timothy would be ashamed of Paul, and we certainly don’t see any reason that he would be ashamed of the Lord.
To understand some of what Paul is getting at, we need to know the setting. Paul is writing this letter to Timothy from a Roman prison. He begins his letter with a beautiful greeting, acknowledging that he, Paul, is an apostle of the Lord Jesus through the grace and calling of God. He calls Timothy his “beloved child,” his adopted, spiritual son whom he has traveled with and mentored over the years, and he adds a blessing of “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Even though Paul is writing from prison, he opens this letter with such uplifting and positive words that we might forget what he is actually enduring, and what is about to come for him – death at the hands of the Romans.
Paul moves next into words of thanksgiving – he is grateful to God whom he worships just as his ancestors did, and he reminds Timothy that he also has been guided in his faith by both his mother and his grandmother. Most of us have come to faith through the encouragement and example of another Christian, some through family, some through friends, neighbors, or coworkers. Someone, at some time, in some place, has told us about Jesus, and somehow, we believed them and came to a saving faith in him for ourselves. Aren’t we also grateful for the witness of those folks, and don’t we give thanks to God for putting them in our lives and using them to bring us to himself?
By Paul reminding Timothy about the faith and the example of his mother and his grandmother, he is also reminding him that he is not alone on his faith journey. We don’t know if Lois and Eunice are still living at the time of this letter, but even if they are not, Timothy still has other believers who are his family, his support system, his brothers and sisters in Christ.
I confess that is one thing I love about being a Christian – knowing that I am connected through Jesus Christ with all other believers. That was a strong emphasis, too, of John Wesley for his people called Methodists, the connection we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ through the church that seeks to honor and serve him by showing his love to those who need it the most. We are a community of believers – those of us here in this church – and all of us who belong to the Church universal. We are a support system for one another, and I love that.
Sometimes we see the connections that make up our support system clearly, like Paul knowing he has learned to love and worship God through his ancestors, and Timothy, learning his faith through his mother and grandmother. Through our faith, we are always connected one to another.
After Paul pours out his thanksgiving for Timothy, for his ancestors, and for Timothy’s family, he begins to encourage Timothy in his own ministry. He starts where we started today – “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, and don’t be ashamed of me.”
Let’s start with Paul, the prisoner. How many of us know someone personally who have been in prison? How did that make us feel? Were we ashamed of them for what they had done to be put away, separated from society? That is our first instinct usually, our gut reaction. We may feel embarrassed that people will think less of us because of our association to the one in jail. We may feel a desire to distance ourselves from that person. See how easily we make it all about us – how we feel, how we appear to others, the shame we feel for what others have done and how that might affect us?
Paul knows this is how people feel and he didn’t want Timothy, or anyone else, really, to associate his imprisonment negatively with sharing the gospel. Paul wants Timothy, and us, to realize that the gospel did not put Paul in prison – people did, people who were products of this broken world in which we live, people who felt threatened by the good news that Paul was trying to give them. Paul was in prison, yes – but he hadn’t done anything wrong – he hadn’t done anything for which he was ashamed, nor anything for someone else to be ashamed of him.
Professor Sunggu Yang, from George Fox University’s School of Theology, teaches that that Paul considers pain and suffering to be the true mark of a faithful, grace-filled life lived in Christ, not an unfortunate result of some unattractive, forced, or illegitimate religious life. In other words, Paul wants us to regard suffering as a natural part of faithful living. That seems like a lot to ask, doesn’t it?
Hey, good news! If you are a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, you will encounter pain and suffering in your life – doesn’t that sound great? Ya’ll want to get signed up for this? But look at the other side of this – people who are not followers of Jesus also have pain and suffering in their life; no one is exempt. So, hear the good news, and yes, there is good news in this - since Christ has already overcome pain and suffering on every level, so can we, with his help!
Therefore, there is no shame in this way of living as a faithful disciple. Yes, Paul is in prison. Yes, prison is a terrible place where no one ever wants to be. No, there is no reason to be ashamed of Paul. He is in prison because he was doing exactly what God had called him to do – share the gospel wherever he went.
That brings us to the other point Paul is making that Timothy should not be ashamed of his witness to the world for Christ Jesus. What if the person who first told you about Jesus had never done so? What if we were to all become quiet about our faith so we didn’t offend someone. What if we never said Jesus’ name because we were ashamed of him and how he lived and died all those years ago? Where would we be? Where would any of us be? Would Christianity just die off, fade away? No.
Remember on Palm Sunday as Jesus rode into Jerusalem with the crowds shouting their Hosannahs? The religious leaders admonished Jesus to tell his followers to be quiet, and what was Jesus’ response? Hear the words from Luke 19:39-40: “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’”
Friends, I am telling you now, if we were to become so ashamed of the name of Jesus that we kept quiet, the stones on the ground would have to do the work that was meant for us to do – to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. One way or another, God’s will will be done – with us or without us, through us or through rocks. It is our choice. Paul knew this, now Timothy must know it, too. So should we.
I’ve heard it said that Christianity is always one generation away from becoming extinct. Sounds crazy, right? But if we don’t share the gospel with the next generation, how will they know about Jesus and all he has done for them? Through talking rocks? If we don’t teach them, then we are robbing them of the opportunity to share the gospel themselves. Just as we were unashamedly witnessed to by the ones who came before us, we are called to unashamedly be a witness to yet others after us, of the saving grace of our God through Jesus Christ.
Paul’s confidence in Christ is what makes him boldly share his faith, we see that confidence when he writes, “for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard the deposit I have entrusted to him.” When we put our trust in the one who has set us free from eternal death due to our sinful nature, the one who took on death for our sake, the one who never deserved to die at all yet did so willingly, we can banish any shame that the world wants to heap upon us for being Christian and we can boldly share our witness with that broken, hurting world.
Jesus warned his followers that they would not have an easy life. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Mark 9:23-26 says, “Then he said to them all, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
I don’t want to gain the world; I just want Jesus. How about you? I don’t want Jesus to be ashamed of me, even though he has many good reasons to be, and I don’t want anyone to think I am ashamed of Jesus, my Lord and Savior.
Paul told Timothy to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you,” and he reminded Timothy that “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” God gave us the gift of himself, and there is no better gift that anyone could hope to receive.
Paul is speaking the same message to us today. As a believer, we are gifted with the presence of God within us – the Holy Spirit. Being reminded of this, lest we had forgotten, let today be the day we rekindle that gift of the Holy Spirit. Let today be the day that we begin to boldly share the gospel with everyone we know. Let today be the day we declare that we are not ashamed of the Gospel and take a stand for Christ Jesus. AMEN.
PRAYER: Powerful, loving, giving God, make us bold for your sake. When we would remain silent, move us to speak up for you. When we are uncomfortable speaking of our faith, give us words that honor you and point others in your direction. Thank you for the gift that you have given us – the gift of yourself through Jesus Christ, and the indwelling of your Holy Spirit. Never let us turn our job over to the rocks, help us to share you with the next generation and they with the next one after, a never-ending cycle until the promised return of your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/not-ashamed
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-27-3/commentary-on-2-timothy-11-14-5
Series: Not Ashamed
Message: Rekindle the Gift
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, in the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, 12 and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard the deposit I have entrusted to him. 13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
This week we begin a new series called “Not Ashamed,” taken from Paul’s words to Timothy as he wrote, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me.” This might sound a little odd to us as we read or hear them, we don’t understand why Timothy would be ashamed of Paul, and we certainly don’t see any reason that he would be ashamed of the Lord.
To understand some of what Paul is getting at, we need to know the setting. Paul is writing this letter to Timothy from a Roman prison. He begins his letter with a beautiful greeting, acknowledging that he, Paul, is an apostle of the Lord Jesus through the grace and calling of God. He calls Timothy his “beloved child,” his adopted, spiritual son whom he has traveled with and mentored over the years, and he adds a blessing of “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Even though Paul is writing from prison, he opens this letter with such uplifting and positive words that we might forget what he is actually enduring, and what is about to come for him – death at the hands of the Romans.
Paul moves next into words of thanksgiving – he is grateful to God whom he worships just as his ancestors did, and he reminds Timothy that he also has been guided in his faith by both his mother and his grandmother. Most of us have come to faith through the encouragement and example of another Christian, some through family, some through friends, neighbors, or coworkers. Someone, at some time, in some place, has told us about Jesus, and somehow, we believed them and came to a saving faith in him for ourselves. Aren’t we also grateful for the witness of those folks, and don’t we give thanks to God for putting them in our lives and using them to bring us to himself?
By Paul reminding Timothy about the faith and the example of his mother and his grandmother, he is also reminding him that he is not alone on his faith journey. We don’t know if Lois and Eunice are still living at the time of this letter, but even if they are not, Timothy still has other believers who are his family, his support system, his brothers and sisters in Christ.
I confess that is one thing I love about being a Christian – knowing that I am connected through Jesus Christ with all other believers. That was a strong emphasis, too, of John Wesley for his people called Methodists, the connection we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ through the church that seeks to honor and serve him by showing his love to those who need it the most. We are a community of believers – those of us here in this church – and all of us who belong to the Church universal. We are a support system for one another, and I love that.
Sometimes we see the connections that make up our support system clearly, like Paul knowing he has learned to love and worship God through his ancestors, and Timothy, learning his faith through his mother and grandmother. Through our faith, we are always connected one to another.
After Paul pours out his thanksgiving for Timothy, for his ancestors, and for Timothy’s family, he begins to encourage Timothy in his own ministry. He starts where we started today – “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, and don’t be ashamed of me.”
Let’s start with Paul, the prisoner. How many of us know someone personally who have been in prison? How did that make us feel? Were we ashamed of them for what they had done to be put away, separated from society? That is our first instinct usually, our gut reaction. We may feel embarrassed that people will think less of us because of our association to the one in jail. We may feel a desire to distance ourselves from that person. See how easily we make it all about us – how we feel, how we appear to others, the shame we feel for what others have done and how that might affect us?
Paul knows this is how people feel and he didn’t want Timothy, or anyone else, really, to associate his imprisonment negatively with sharing the gospel. Paul wants Timothy, and us, to realize that the gospel did not put Paul in prison – people did, people who were products of this broken world in which we live, people who felt threatened by the good news that Paul was trying to give them. Paul was in prison, yes – but he hadn’t done anything wrong – he hadn’t done anything for which he was ashamed, nor anything for someone else to be ashamed of him.
Professor Sunggu Yang, from George Fox University’s School of Theology, teaches that that Paul considers pain and suffering to be the true mark of a faithful, grace-filled life lived in Christ, not an unfortunate result of some unattractive, forced, or illegitimate religious life. In other words, Paul wants us to regard suffering as a natural part of faithful living. That seems like a lot to ask, doesn’t it?
Hey, good news! If you are a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, you will encounter pain and suffering in your life – doesn’t that sound great? Ya’ll want to get signed up for this? But look at the other side of this – people who are not followers of Jesus also have pain and suffering in their life; no one is exempt. So, hear the good news, and yes, there is good news in this - since Christ has already overcome pain and suffering on every level, so can we, with his help!
Therefore, there is no shame in this way of living as a faithful disciple. Yes, Paul is in prison. Yes, prison is a terrible place where no one ever wants to be. No, there is no reason to be ashamed of Paul. He is in prison because he was doing exactly what God had called him to do – share the gospel wherever he went.
That brings us to the other point Paul is making that Timothy should not be ashamed of his witness to the world for Christ Jesus. What if the person who first told you about Jesus had never done so? What if we were to all become quiet about our faith so we didn’t offend someone. What if we never said Jesus’ name because we were ashamed of him and how he lived and died all those years ago? Where would we be? Where would any of us be? Would Christianity just die off, fade away? No.
Remember on Palm Sunday as Jesus rode into Jerusalem with the crowds shouting their Hosannahs? The religious leaders admonished Jesus to tell his followers to be quiet, and what was Jesus’ response? Hear the words from Luke 19:39-40: “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’”
Friends, I am telling you now, if we were to become so ashamed of the name of Jesus that we kept quiet, the stones on the ground would have to do the work that was meant for us to do – to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. One way or another, God’s will will be done – with us or without us, through us or through rocks. It is our choice. Paul knew this, now Timothy must know it, too. So should we.
I’ve heard it said that Christianity is always one generation away from becoming extinct. Sounds crazy, right? But if we don’t share the gospel with the next generation, how will they know about Jesus and all he has done for them? Through talking rocks? If we don’t teach them, then we are robbing them of the opportunity to share the gospel themselves. Just as we were unashamedly witnessed to by the ones who came before us, we are called to unashamedly be a witness to yet others after us, of the saving grace of our God through Jesus Christ.
Paul’s confidence in Christ is what makes him boldly share his faith, we see that confidence when he writes, “for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard the deposit I have entrusted to him.” When we put our trust in the one who has set us free from eternal death due to our sinful nature, the one who took on death for our sake, the one who never deserved to die at all yet did so willingly, we can banish any shame that the world wants to heap upon us for being Christian and we can boldly share our witness with that broken, hurting world.
Jesus warned his followers that they would not have an easy life. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Mark 9:23-26 says, “Then he said to them all, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
I don’t want to gain the world; I just want Jesus. How about you? I don’t want Jesus to be ashamed of me, even though he has many good reasons to be, and I don’t want anyone to think I am ashamed of Jesus, my Lord and Savior.
Paul told Timothy to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you,” and he reminded Timothy that “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” God gave us the gift of himself, and there is no better gift that anyone could hope to receive.
Paul is speaking the same message to us today. As a believer, we are gifted with the presence of God within us – the Holy Spirit. Being reminded of this, lest we had forgotten, let today be the day we rekindle that gift of the Holy Spirit. Let today be the day that we begin to boldly share the gospel with everyone we know. Let today be the day we declare that we are not ashamed of the Gospel and take a stand for Christ Jesus. AMEN.
PRAYER: Powerful, loving, giving God, make us bold for your sake. When we would remain silent, move us to speak up for you. When we are uncomfortable speaking of our faith, give us words that honor you and point others in your direction. Thank you for the gift that you have given us – the gift of yourself through Jesus Christ, and the indwelling of your Holy Spirit. Never let us turn our job over to the rocks, help us to share you with the next generation and they with the next one after, a never-ending cycle until the promised return of your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/not-ashamed
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-27-3/commentary-on-2-timothy-11-14-5
PASTOR DONNA'S SERMON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 "fINDING THE lOST"
September 11, 2022
Series: Having Words with Jesus
Message: Finding the Lost
Scripture: Luke 15:1-10
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
8 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Two quick weeks of hearing Jesus’ words – last week and this week. We heard him tell us last week to count the cost before we make a commitment to follow him because he wants us to be wholly ready and willing to give ourselves to him. He warned us that if we become his follower, we will need to pick up our cross daily because our lives will be difficult at times, maybe even in danger at times, and we must be prepared for those hard times that we might withstand the onslaught and come out the other side still a believer.
This week we get to talk about a lost sheep and a lost coin. We like these verses. They make us feel kind of warm and fuzzy – and not just from the sheep’s wool. We like knowing that we are sought after when we go astray, that God sees us and comes after us to bring us back into his fold. We like being reminded of the love that God has for us that he does that for even one, for every one of us.
How often, though, have we stopped to think about just how radical these stories are? We usually take them at face value, we see the shepherd looking for one lost sheep, finding it, and bringing it back to the others. We watch the woman methodically move her furniture, sweep every corner, every nook and cranny looking for that lost coin until she finally finds it. When the shepherd and the woman find what was lost, they celebrate, and we celebrate with them. “Yeah, good job! WooHoo!”
The reality is, though, that any shepherd worth his crook would never leave the flock of ninety-nine to go looking for one sheep who wandered off. The shepherd’s job is to protect the sheep, to help them find the best grass to eat and the freshest, safest water to drink. If the shepherd wanders off, the flock is in danger. They might scatter, they might see a tender tuft of grass on the edge of the cliff and fall off trying to reach it, they might see a rushing river of water and be carried away by the current trying to get a drink.
Then there is the possibility that a predator might attack while the sheep are left unprotected. A wolf, a bear, or a lion could come charging into the flock and carry off some of the best sheep – a loss that would be greater than that one silly sheep who wandered off and caused all this chaos and confusion.
No, the people who were listening to Jesus’ parable about the lost sheep would have wondered about a shepherd who left the ninety-nine to go find the one. Hearing this story, they might have wondered if Jesus even knew what he was talking about. The Pharisees were already miffed and grumbling about Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors, now he has given them reason to question his intelligence – at least about shepherding.
But Jesus goes on; he tells another parable about a woman who has lost a coin. She had ten, but one is lost and now she only has nine. She searches everywhere to find it. She checked her wallet, her kitchen table, her pockets, but no coin. So, she lights a lamp to bring brighter light into the house and sets to work on a thorough search for this coin. She gets out her broom and moving each piece of furniture out of the way, taking the lamp with her room-to-room, she begins to deep clean her house looking for the coin. Likely this was done after a long day of hard work, a time in which she would usually be sleeping, but this lost coin is too valuable to put off looking for until she has more time. It must be found right now – this very night.
Now, we might wonder, why all the fuss for one coin? She still has nine other coins, why is she so worried about one that she spends hours of her time and most of her energy looking for this one?
Let’s look at this from a slightly different perspective:
I read about a girl named Christina, who lived in a small village in Brazil. Christina dreamed of and longed for the excitement of the big city. She wanted to go to Rio, but her mother knew that she was not ready yet to live by herself so far from home, she knew the dangers that lurked in the city, so she begged her daughter not to go.
One morning, though, her mother woke up to see that Christina's room was empty; she was gone. Maria, her mother, immediately gathered all the money she had and went to the bus station to buy a ticket to Rio. On the way to the bus station, Maria stopped at a photo booth and got a bunch of pictures of herself. She used the time during the long bus ride to write on the back of every single picture.
When Maria got to Rio, she searched everywhere for Christina, but could not find her. As she went up and down the streets, she put those pictures of herself wherever she could, hoping that Christina would see them and know that her mother was looking for her.
Some time went by, Christina was staying at a hotel in the city of her dreams, but the excitement and the dreams that had brought her to the city were now long gone, destroyed by the reality of life in the city. She was exhausted and she wanted to go home, but she thought there was no way she could do that. She had run away, abandoned her family, and she was ashamed of what she had done to survive here, so far from home.
As she came to the lobby of the hotel, though, she suddenly saw a picture of her mother. Surprised, her eyes began to fill with tears. She pulled the picture down from the wall and, turning it over, Christina saw what her mother had written. "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become -- it does not matter. Please come home!"
That was all that Christina needed. She left Rio that day to go home to her family. I imagine they greeted her and celebrated her return in much the same way the shepherd rejoiced at finding the lost sheep and the woman at finding her lost coin.
We don’t know if Maria had other children but imagine if she did, imagine if she had ten children, including Christina. We wouldn’t question Maria leaving the other nine children to go find one child. Her love for Christina does not end simply because Christina left and there are still nine remaining. Of course, Maria would do whatever she had to do to find her daughter. Hearing this, we would nod our heads and think to ourselves, “We would do the same.”
Friends, Jesus’ parables today aren’t really about a lost sheep or a lost coin. They are about lost people. A shepherd wouldn’t really leave his whole flock to come find one lost sheep, but our Good Shepherd does that all the time. Every single person, all of whom are created in the image of God and loved by God, are also called by God to come to him. Some come willingly; some need to be pursued. Sadly, some do not want to be found. But it isn’t God who gives up – it is the one who is lost who continues to run from God, continues to hide from God, continues to harden his or her heart against God.
When a lost sheep is found, when the lost coin is found, what happened next? There was a party where everyone was invited to come and celebrate the good news.
Jesus heard the grumblings of the Pharisees and the scribes. He knew what they were saying against him, so he began his parables by asking, “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep, would not leave the ninety-nine to go find one that was lost?” Jesus knew the answer. He knew that none of them would do that. Jesus also knew that they were grumbling about how he ministered to the least, the lost, and the lonely, about how he ate with sinners and tax collectors. That these “lost sheep” were coming to know God through Jesus didn’t make the Pharisees want to celebrate, it made them angry.
The very next parable in Luke’s gospel is the story of the prodigal son. I think we can figure out who the Pharisees were in that story, but the story of the prodigal son, and the two that we have heard today, are warnings for us, too. We can easily become the older brother or the grumpy Pharisees, when we compare ourselves to others who come to Jesus.
We are good at welcoming people into our midst, but how often do we go searching for the lost? We are good at encouraging those whom we know and love, but when do we encourage the stranger? We are good at coming to church, but we must remember to BE the church. That is the message Jesus is conveying here, these are the words he wants us to hear from him. That is how we love our neighbor, no matter when they finally become found or how lost they may have been before – it is up to us to welcome them, love them, and celebrate their foundness with them.
On this day, the 21st anniversary of 9/11, I think it is fitting to end with a story of searching for the lost on that particularly fateful day.
We remember that when the World Trade Center crumbled to the ground on that dreadful day, more than 3000 people lost their lives. But there were a few who were buried beneath the rubble who miraculously survived. Two of these were Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, a pair of Port Authority employees. Will and John had responded to the attack and were on the bottom floor as the south tower fell. They were trapped in the rubble, breathing smoke filled air, and they knew they had little hope for survival.
While Will and John lay trapped under the tower of debris, David Karnes, an accountant, and a Marine veteran who served 23 years in active duty, was in Connecticut, watching the news footage on TV, like most of the rest of us did that day. But David decided to do something about it.
He went to his boss and told him he was leaving and wouldn’t be back for a while. He went home and put on his fatigues and then drove as quickly as he could to New York City. He reached ground zero by late afternoon. When he arrived, rescue workers were being called off the site, but Dave was able to stay, his uniform giving him the credentials he needed. He met another Marine, and the two decided to join forces, walking the pile of debris together, searching and seeking to save a life.
After an hour of searching, they heard a faint sound. It was someone tapping on metal pipes. It was Will and John, the two port authority men who had been trapped, by this time, for nine hours.
Just hours before, this former Marine had been wearing a suit, sitting at a desk, crunching numbers on a spreadsheet, but now he began to dig through the rocks, the dirt, the concrete, and the steel, working to free these two men whom he did not know.
There were twenty people who were eventually pulled out of the rubble to safety that day; Will and John were numbers 18 and 19. And it was all because Dave took off his suit, put on his rescue fatigues, (rolled up his sleeves) and stepped into the despair and darkness of Ground Zero. Imagine the celebration that Will’s and John’s families had when they were finally found after being lost for all those long, dark, dangerous hours.
Many might say Dave was crazy for risking his own life that day. He was safely in Connecticut, miles away from danger, yet he was compelled by his love for others to leave his home and go and do what he could to help.
It was a crazy plan that had Jesus leaving the comfort of heaven to come to earth and live as a human in a cold, dark world. It was an even crazier plan when it included him dying on a cross. We were like Will and John, buried with no hope of escape – only we were buried in sin instead of a tall tower. We had no way out, but God had a plan.
We once were lost, but now, having accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are found, and when we got found, there was a party in heaven. Friends, if there was a party for us, shouldn’t we be partying and celebrating for the others who come after us? Shouldn’t we celebrate whenever another lost soul is found and surrenders to the love of God through Christ Jesus? Let’s be the party-goers, not the big brother, let’s be a part of the celebration, not the grumpy Pharisees.
Let’s be seekers who invite in the lost so they can be found, and the celebration can continue without end until Jesus comes back again. And may we be cheering as loudly as we can. AMEN.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for seeking the lost. We are all, at one time or another, the one who strayed from the ninety-nine, and through your goodness and your love, you have come after us to bring us back to you. Help us to stay put, stay by your side, even as we in turn seek others to bring to you, to invite into your fold, to become one of your flock, that they, too, might become one of the found. And Lord, when that happens, help us to celebrate the goodness of your love as we strive to love others as you have taught us to do. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/having-words-with-jesus
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/84217/evangelism-by-tim-smith
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/81728/forgiveness-for-others-by-ken-henson
Series: Having Words with Jesus
Message: Finding the Lost
Scripture: Luke 15:1-10
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
8 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Two quick weeks of hearing Jesus’ words – last week and this week. We heard him tell us last week to count the cost before we make a commitment to follow him because he wants us to be wholly ready and willing to give ourselves to him. He warned us that if we become his follower, we will need to pick up our cross daily because our lives will be difficult at times, maybe even in danger at times, and we must be prepared for those hard times that we might withstand the onslaught and come out the other side still a believer.
This week we get to talk about a lost sheep and a lost coin. We like these verses. They make us feel kind of warm and fuzzy – and not just from the sheep’s wool. We like knowing that we are sought after when we go astray, that God sees us and comes after us to bring us back into his fold. We like being reminded of the love that God has for us that he does that for even one, for every one of us.
How often, though, have we stopped to think about just how radical these stories are? We usually take them at face value, we see the shepherd looking for one lost sheep, finding it, and bringing it back to the others. We watch the woman methodically move her furniture, sweep every corner, every nook and cranny looking for that lost coin until she finally finds it. When the shepherd and the woman find what was lost, they celebrate, and we celebrate with them. “Yeah, good job! WooHoo!”
The reality is, though, that any shepherd worth his crook would never leave the flock of ninety-nine to go looking for one sheep who wandered off. The shepherd’s job is to protect the sheep, to help them find the best grass to eat and the freshest, safest water to drink. If the shepherd wanders off, the flock is in danger. They might scatter, they might see a tender tuft of grass on the edge of the cliff and fall off trying to reach it, they might see a rushing river of water and be carried away by the current trying to get a drink.
Then there is the possibility that a predator might attack while the sheep are left unprotected. A wolf, a bear, or a lion could come charging into the flock and carry off some of the best sheep – a loss that would be greater than that one silly sheep who wandered off and caused all this chaos and confusion.
No, the people who were listening to Jesus’ parable about the lost sheep would have wondered about a shepherd who left the ninety-nine to go find the one. Hearing this story, they might have wondered if Jesus even knew what he was talking about. The Pharisees were already miffed and grumbling about Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors, now he has given them reason to question his intelligence – at least about shepherding.
But Jesus goes on; he tells another parable about a woman who has lost a coin. She had ten, but one is lost and now she only has nine. She searches everywhere to find it. She checked her wallet, her kitchen table, her pockets, but no coin. So, she lights a lamp to bring brighter light into the house and sets to work on a thorough search for this coin. She gets out her broom and moving each piece of furniture out of the way, taking the lamp with her room-to-room, she begins to deep clean her house looking for the coin. Likely this was done after a long day of hard work, a time in which she would usually be sleeping, but this lost coin is too valuable to put off looking for until she has more time. It must be found right now – this very night.
Now, we might wonder, why all the fuss for one coin? She still has nine other coins, why is she so worried about one that she spends hours of her time and most of her energy looking for this one?
Let’s look at this from a slightly different perspective:
I read about a girl named Christina, who lived in a small village in Brazil. Christina dreamed of and longed for the excitement of the big city. She wanted to go to Rio, but her mother knew that she was not ready yet to live by herself so far from home, she knew the dangers that lurked in the city, so she begged her daughter not to go.
One morning, though, her mother woke up to see that Christina's room was empty; she was gone. Maria, her mother, immediately gathered all the money she had and went to the bus station to buy a ticket to Rio. On the way to the bus station, Maria stopped at a photo booth and got a bunch of pictures of herself. She used the time during the long bus ride to write on the back of every single picture.
When Maria got to Rio, she searched everywhere for Christina, but could not find her. As she went up and down the streets, she put those pictures of herself wherever she could, hoping that Christina would see them and know that her mother was looking for her.
Some time went by, Christina was staying at a hotel in the city of her dreams, but the excitement and the dreams that had brought her to the city were now long gone, destroyed by the reality of life in the city. She was exhausted and she wanted to go home, but she thought there was no way she could do that. She had run away, abandoned her family, and she was ashamed of what she had done to survive here, so far from home.
As she came to the lobby of the hotel, though, she suddenly saw a picture of her mother. Surprised, her eyes began to fill with tears. She pulled the picture down from the wall and, turning it over, Christina saw what her mother had written. "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become -- it does not matter. Please come home!"
That was all that Christina needed. She left Rio that day to go home to her family. I imagine they greeted her and celebrated her return in much the same way the shepherd rejoiced at finding the lost sheep and the woman at finding her lost coin.
We don’t know if Maria had other children but imagine if she did, imagine if she had ten children, including Christina. We wouldn’t question Maria leaving the other nine children to go find one child. Her love for Christina does not end simply because Christina left and there are still nine remaining. Of course, Maria would do whatever she had to do to find her daughter. Hearing this, we would nod our heads and think to ourselves, “We would do the same.”
Friends, Jesus’ parables today aren’t really about a lost sheep or a lost coin. They are about lost people. A shepherd wouldn’t really leave his whole flock to come find one lost sheep, but our Good Shepherd does that all the time. Every single person, all of whom are created in the image of God and loved by God, are also called by God to come to him. Some come willingly; some need to be pursued. Sadly, some do not want to be found. But it isn’t God who gives up – it is the one who is lost who continues to run from God, continues to hide from God, continues to harden his or her heart against God.
When a lost sheep is found, when the lost coin is found, what happened next? There was a party where everyone was invited to come and celebrate the good news.
Jesus heard the grumblings of the Pharisees and the scribes. He knew what they were saying against him, so he began his parables by asking, “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep, would not leave the ninety-nine to go find one that was lost?” Jesus knew the answer. He knew that none of them would do that. Jesus also knew that they were grumbling about how he ministered to the least, the lost, and the lonely, about how he ate with sinners and tax collectors. That these “lost sheep” were coming to know God through Jesus didn’t make the Pharisees want to celebrate, it made them angry.
The very next parable in Luke’s gospel is the story of the prodigal son. I think we can figure out who the Pharisees were in that story, but the story of the prodigal son, and the two that we have heard today, are warnings for us, too. We can easily become the older brother or the grumpy Pharisees, when we compare ourselves to others who come to Jesus.
We are good at welcoming people into our midst, but how often do we go searching for the lost? We are good at encouraging those whom we know and love, but when do we encourage the stranger? We are good at coming to church, but we must remember to BE the church. That is the message Jesus is conveying here, these are the words he wants us to hear from him. That is how we love our neighbor, no matter when they finally become found or how lost they may have been before – it is up to us to welcome them, love them, and celebrate their foundness with them.
On this day, the 21st anniversary of 9/11, I think it is fitting to end with a story of searching for the lost on that particularly fateful day.
We remember that when the World Trade Center crumbled to the ground on that dreadful day, more than 3000 people lost their lives. But there were a few who were buried beneath the rubble who miraculously survived. Two of these were Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, a pair of Port Authority employees. Will and John had responded to the attack and were on the bottom floor as the south tower fell. They were trapped in the rubble, breathing smoke filled air, and they knew they had little hope for survival.
While Will and John lay trapped under the tower of debris, David Karnes, an accountant, and a Marine veteran who served 23 years in active duty, was in Connecticut, watching the news footage on TV, like most of the rest of us did that day. But David decided to do something about it.
He went to his boss and told him he was leaving and wouldn’t be back for a while. He went home and put on his fatigues and then drove as quickly as he could to New York City. He reached ground zero by late afternoon. When he arrived, rescue workers were being called off the site, but Dave was able to stay, his uniform giving him the credentials he needed. He met another Marine, and the two decided to join forces, walking the pile of debris together, searching and seeking to save a life.
After an hour of searching, they heard a faint sound. It was someone tapping on metal pipes. It was Will and John, the two port authority men who had been trapped, by this time, for nine hours.
Just hours before, this former Marine had been wearing a suit, sitting at a desk, crunching numbers on a spreadsheet, but now he began to dig through the rocks, the dirt, the concrete, and the steel, working to free these two men whom he did not know.
There were twenty people who were eventually pulled out of the rubble to safety that day; Will and John were numbers 18 and 19. And it was all because Dave took off his suit, put on his rescue fatigues, (rolled up his sleeves) and stepped into the despair and darkness of Ground Zero. Imagine the celebration that Will’s and John’s families had when they were finally found after being lost for all those long, dark, dangerous hours.
Many might say Dave was crazy for risking his own life that day. He was safely in Connecticut, miles away from danger, yet he was compelled by his love for others to leave his home and go and do what he could to help.
It was a crazy plan that had Jesus leaving the comfort of heaven to come to earth and live as a human in a cold, dark world. It was an even crazier plan when it included him dying on a cross. We were like Will and John, buried with no hope of escape – only we were buried in sin instead of a tall tower. We had no way out, but God had a plan.
We once were lost, but now, having accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are found, and when we got found, there was a party in heaven. Friends, if there was a party for us, shouldn’t we be partying and celebrating for the others who come after us? Shouldn’t we celebrate whenever another lost soul is found and surrenders to the love of God through Christ Jesus? Let’s be the party-goers, not the big brother, let’s be a part of the celebration, not the grumpy Pharisees.
Let’s be seekers who invite in the lost so they can be found, and the celebration can continue without end until Jesus comes back again. And may we be cheering as loudly as we can. AMEN.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for seeking the lost. We are all, at one time or another, the one who strayed from the ninety-nine, and through your goodness and your love, you have come after us to bring us back to you. Help us to stay put, stay by your side, even as we in turn seek others to bring to you, to invite into your fold, to become one of your flock, that they, too, might become one of the found. And Lord, when that happens, help us to celebrate the goodness of your love as we strive to love others as you have taught us to do. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/having-words-with-jesus
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/84217/evangelism-by-tim-smith
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/81728/forgiveness-for-others-by-ken-henson
September 4, 2022 PASTOR DONNA'S SERMON "cOUNTING THE cOST"
September 4, 2022
Series: Having Words with Jesus
Message: Counting the Cost
Scripture: Luke 14:25-33
Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
Have you ever built a house? Or taken on a major remodeling project? Or planned a dream vacation? Or made the decision to change careers or decided to go back to school? What is one of the deciding factors in making these kinds of decisions, as well as a myriad of others? Probably one of the first things we think about, worry about, ask ourselves, is “Can I afford this? Can WE afford this?”
This week and next, our Sermon Series is titled, “Having Words with Jesus,” but what we are really doing is listening and learning from Jesus. Today’s scripture is probably not one that many of us like to hear. Jesus is being followed by a large crowd of people and suddenly he turns to them and says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
These words don’t sound like the Jesus we know. Where is the love we usually associate with Jesus and his teachings? What happened to “Love the Lord your God, love your neighbor, love yourself, and love your enemies? Now he wants us to hate? That’s an awfully strong word. That’s a word we teach our children not to say, but here is Jesus telling us that if we want to be a disciple, be one of his followers, we have to hate our family, even hate our life?
Our first instinct is to stop right there and close the book. “I’m out,” we say, “I can’t do that. That is just asking too much.” But wait, maybe we shouldn’t be too hasty. Let’s open the book back up and look at the words Jesus says once more. Is Jesus really telling us to hate others? Really?
No, of course not. But let’s look at the scene. Jesus is being followed by great crowds of people wherever he goes. Why do they follow him? What do they want? They have seen, or at least heard of, Jesus’ healing ministry. He has healed a leper, a paralytic, a man’s withered hand, a Centurion’s slave, a demoniac, a twelve-year-old girl, a demon-possessed boy, a bleeding woman, a bent-over woman, and a man who suffered from swelling. He has raised a widow’s son from the dead and fed a crowd of over five thousand with only five loaves of bread and two fish.
Who wouldn’t want to follow this man? For someone to have performed even one of these miracles would be astounding, but this man, this Jesus, has done ALL OF THIS! The people see him, see what he has done, and decide to follow him. But Jesus knows there is more to being a disciple than the miracles. And Jesus knows that when the hard times come, many will decide to “nope right out.”
To be a follower of Jesus, a real disciple, requires a commitment, not just a curiosity. A disciple isn’t someone who comes along for the good times only, but who also knows there will be hard times, even dangerous times ahead. Jesus’ call for his followers to hate their family and their lives isn’t a call to hate at all – but it is a call to love him more than anything, and anyone, else, because only a love that puts Jesus first, a love that centers a life around Jesus himself, is a love that will stand life’s tests.
We often talk about “what this world is coming to,” and it often feels like we are speeding downhill towards utter disaster, but that has pretty much been the feeling of every generation from the time Adam and Eve left the garden. Jesus knew what was to come. He knew that some would die proclaiming his name, some of those who were present with him in that moment, and many, many more to come over the years, decades, centuries.
Jesus is telling the people, “Don’t follow me for only the good times, but realize there will be troubling times, too. Are you prepared for those times as well? Will you be willing to follow me daily, willing to pick up your cross, your burdens, your issues, even when others tell you to drop them and run? That is what it takes to be a disciple.”
Then, to make himself clear, Jesus uses an analogy they can all understand. He asks them, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’”
I asked at the beginning, “Have you ever built a house? Or taken on a major remodeling project? Or planned a dream vacation? Or made the decision to change careers or go back to school?” These are the kinds of things for which we count the cost before beginning. What good would it do to sit down with a builder and present him the plans for a new home, but have no money to build it? Why would we show up at the airport to get on an airplane, ready to fly to a tropical destination, without first knowing how much it would cost for the ticket, the hotel, and for food?
“Know what you are getting into before you make the commitment,” Jesus is warning the crowds. “There is a battle looming on the horizon, a kingdom that needs built. Are you in or out? It won’t be easy, it’s not a stroll on the beach. This is a battle for your soul, for yours and everyone else’s. This is a commitment to living a transformed life so others can see me through you. This battle will mean you are giving me your all, one hundred percent of yourself, your very own blood, sweat, and tears. Can you do it? Will you do it?”
Many will be quick to agree. Some will make a good beginning. Few will weather the hardships because they didn’t count the cost. They didn’t take the time to think about what they were getting into. They didn’t expect the going to get so tough so fast, to stumble and fall more often than not, or for tragedy to strike so close to home.
Jesus wants to be upfront about what he is asking of us. “Give up everything for me, every single thing that might hold you back, every single person you think you love so much, even your own life, give it up for my sake, because in the end, you are really giving it all up for your own sake.”
“What does he mean by that?” we ask. When we are followers of Jesus, when we are willing to give him everything, and I mean everything, without holding anything or anyone back, we have taken off the chains that keep us from experiencing the purest, truest form of love – the love of Jesus himself. And when we have experienced his love, then we can start to learn how to love others in the way Jesus calls us to love them. Not selfishly, not sporadically, not conditionally, but fully, completely, and whole-heartedly, just as Jesus loves us.
In “The Imitation of Christ,” Thomas a Kempis writes, “Jesus has many who love His Kingdom in Heaven, but few who bear His Cross (Luke 14:27). He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for His sake. Many follow Jesus to the Breaking of Bread, but few to the drinking of the Cup of His Passion. Many admire His miracles, but few follow Him in the humiliation of His Cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them. Many praise and bless Him, as long as they are receiving comfort from Him. But if Jesus withdraw Himself, they fall to complaining and utter dejection.”
“Count the cost,” Jesus says, “Pick up your cross and follow me. Make me your priority, give me your whole self.” Jesus could ask this because he knew he was on his way to giving his whole self for everyone to whom he was speaking that day. He had counted the cost long ago, long before he ever agreed to step across the stars, leave his heavenly dwelling place, and come to earth as a baby who would be the Savior of the world. It was a message that he meant for all of us, too, not just for those long-ago crowds.
Jesus’ invitation still stands today. He invites us to pick up our own cross, to weigh the pros and the cons, to make a decision, and to put him in the center of our lives, make him priority number one, but he does so because he wants us to know what real love is like. My friends, it is only by accepting his invitation that we can really know what it is like to really love ourselves, love our neighbor, love our enemies, and love our God. The road we take to follow Jesus may be hard, but when we count the cost, we will find that in the end, it is worth it at any price. Won’t you accept his invitation today?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, like the crowds in today’s scripture, we find ourselves drawn to you because of the good things, the miracles, the good deeds that you have done. Lord, we confess that we often forget the cost associated with being your disciple. We want the good times, the easy times, but we try to hide from the hard times, the stormy times. Help us, Lord, to see that without you, the hard times are harder to bear, help us to make a whole-hearted commitment to follow you wherever you lead us, and to help others to do the same. Help us to give up all that we have in exchange for you, that we might know your love, and that you might teach us to love others as you would have us love them.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being willing to go to the cross for us, for saving us, for loving us beyond any capacity we can measure or understand. May we bring you honor as we strive to glorify your name in the way we live and in the way we follow you, each and every day. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/having-words-with-jesus
Series: Having Words with Jesus
Message: Counting the Cost
Scripture: Luke 14:25-33
Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
Have you ever built a house? Or taken on a major remodeling project? Or planned a dream vacation? Or made the decision to change careers or decided to go back to school? What is one of the deciding factors in making these kinds of decisions, as well as a myriad of others? Probably one of the first things we think about, worry about, ask ourselves, is “Can I afford this? Can WE afford this?”
This week and next, our Sermon Series is titled, “Having Words with Jesus,” but what we are really doing is listening and learning from Jesus. Today’s scripture is probably not one that many of us like to hear. Jesus is being followed by a large crowd of people and suddenly he turns to them and says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
These words don’t sound like the Jesus we know. Where is the love we usually associate with Jesus and his teachings? What happened to “Love the Lord your God, love your neighbor, love yourself, and love your enemies? Now he wants us to hate? That’s an awfully strong word. That’s a word we teach our children not to say, but here is Jesus telling us that if we want to be a disciple, be one of his followers, we have to hate our family, even hate our life?
Our first instinct is to stop right there and close the book. “I’m out,” we say, “I can’t do that. That is just asking too much.” But wait, maybe we shouldn’t be too hasty. Let’s open the book back up and look at the words Jesus says once more. Is Jesus really telling us to hate others? Really?
No, of course not. But let’s look at the scene. Jesus is being followed by great crowds of people wherever he goes. Why do they follow him? What do they want? They have seen, or at least heard of, Jesus’ healing ministry. He has healed a leper, a paralytic, a man’s withered hand, a Centurion’s slave, a demoniac, a twelve-year-old girl, a demon-possessed boy, a bleeding woman, a bent-over woman, and a man who suffered from swelling. He has raised a widow’s son from the dead and fed a crowd of over five thousand with only five loaves of bread and two fish.
Who wouldn’t want to follow this man? For someone to have performed even one of these miracles would be astounding, but this man, this Jesus, has done ALL OF THIS! The people see him, see what he has done, and decide to follow him. But Jesus knows there is more to being a disciple than the miracles. And Jesus knows that when the hard times come, many will decide to “nope right out.”
To be a follower of Jesus, a real disciple, requires a commitment, not just a curiosity. A disciple isn’t someone who comes along for the good times only, but who also knows there will be hard times, even dangerous times ahead. Jesus’ call for his followers to hate their family and their lives isn’t a call to hate at all – but it is a call to love him more than anything, and anyone, else, because only a love that puts Jesus first, a love that centers a life around Jesus himself, is a love that will stand life’s tests.
We often talk about “what this world is coming to,” and it often feels like we are speeding downhill towards utter disaster, but that has pretty much been the feeling of every generation from the time Adam and Eve left the garden. Jesus knew what was to come. He knew that some would die proclaiming his name, some of those who were present with him in that moment, and many, many more to come over the years, decades, centuries.
Jesus is telling the people, “Don’t follow me for only the good times, but realize there will be troubling times, too. Are you prepared for those times as well? Will you be willing to follow me daily, willing to pick up your cross, your burdens, your issues, even when others tell you to drop them and run? That is what it takes to be a disciple.”
Then, to make himself clear, Jesus uses an analogy they can all understand. He asks them, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’”
I asked at the beginning, “Have you ever built a house? Or taken on a major remodeling project? Or planned a dream vacation? Or made the decision to change careers or go back to school?” These are the kinds of things for which we count the cost before beginning. What good would it do to sit down with a builder and present him the plans for a new home, but have no money to build it? Why would we show up at the airport to get on an airplane, ready to fly to a tropical destination, without first knowing how much it would cost for the ticket, the hotel, and for food?
“Know what you are getting into before you make the commitment,” Jesus is warning the crowds. “There is a battle looming on the horizon, a kingdom that needs built. Are you in or out? It won’t be easy, it’s not a stroll on the beach. This is a battle for your soul, for yours and everyone else’s. This is a commitment to living a transformed life so others can see me through you. This battle will mean you are giving me your all, one hundred percent of yourself, your very own blood, sweat, and tears. Can you do it? Will you do it?”
Many will be quick to agree. Some will make a good beginning. Few will weather the hardships because they didn’t count the cost. They didn’t take the time to think about what they were getting into. They didn’t expect the going to get so tough so fast, to stumble and fall more often than not, or for tragedy to strike so close to home.
Jesus wants to be upfront about what he is asking of us. “Give up everything for me, every single thing that might hold you back, every single person you think you love so much, even your own life, give it up for my sake, because in the end, you are really giving it all up for your own sake.”
“What does he mean by that?” we ask. When we are followers of Jesus, when we are willing to give him everything, and I mean everything, without holding anything or anyone back, we have taken off the chains that keep us from experiencing the purest, truest form of love – the love of Jesus himself. And when we have experienced his love, then we can start to learn how to love others in the way Jesus calls us to love them. Not selfishly, not sporadically, not conditionally, but fully, completely, and whole-heartedly, just as Jesus loves us.
In “The Imitation of Christ,” Thomas a Kempis writes, “Jesus has many who love His Kingdom in Heaven, but few who bear His Cross (Luke 14:27). He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for His sake. Many follow Jesus to the Breaking of Bread, but few to the drinking of the Cup of His Passion. Many admire His miracles, but few follow Him in the humiliation of His Cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them. Many praise and bless Him, as long as they are receiving comfort from Him. But if Jesus withdraw Himself, they fall to complaining and utter dejection.”
“Count the cost,” Jesus says, “Pick up your cross and follow me. Make me your priority, give me your whole self.” Jesus could ask this because he knew he was on his way to giving his whole self for everyone to whom he was speaking that day. He had counted the cost long ago, long before he ever agreed to step across the stars, leave his heavenly dwelling place, and come to earth as a baby who would be the Savior of the world. It was a message that he meant for all of us, too, not just for those long-ago crowds.
Jesus’ invitation still stands today. He invites us to pick up our own cross, to weigh the pros and the cons, to make a decision, and to put him in the center of our lives, make him priority number one, but he does so because he wants us to know what real love is like. My friends, it is only by accepting his invitation that we can really know what it is like to really love ourselves, love our neighbor, love our enemies, and love our God. The road we take to follow Jesus may be hard, but when we count the cost, we will find that in the end, it is worth it at any price. Won’t you accept his invitation today?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, like the crowds in today’s scripture, we find ourselves drawn to you because of the good things, the miracles, the good deeds that you have done. Lord, we confess that we often forget the cost associated with being your disciple. We want the good times, the easy times, but we try to hide from the hard times, the stormy times. Help us, Lord, to see that without you, the hard times are harder to bear, help us to make a whole-hearted commitment to follow you wherever you lead us, and to help others to do the same. Help us to give up all that we have in exchange for you, that we might know your love, and that you might teach us to love others as you would have us love them.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being willing to go to the cross for us, for saving us, for loving us beyond any capacity we can measure or understand. May we bring you honor as we strive to glorify your name in the way we live and in the way we follow you, each and every day. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/having-words-with-jesus
AUGUST 28, 2022 PASTOR dONNA'S SERMON "CRACKED CISTERNS".
August 28, 2022
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Cracked Cisterns
Scripture: Jeremiah 2:4-13
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord:
What wrong did your ancestors find in me
that they went far from me
and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?
6 They did not say, “Where is the Lord,
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
in a land that no one passes through,
where no one lives?”
7 I brought you into a plentiful land
to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land
and made my heritage an abomination.
8 The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal
and went after things that do not profit.
9 Therefore once more I accuse you,
says the Lord,
and I accuse your children’s children.
10 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look;
send to Kedar and examine with care;
see if there has ever been such a thing.
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked; be utterly desolate,
says the Lord,
13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that can hold no water.
One day a man was driving down the road with his little boy in his car seat in the back. As the father glanced in his rearview mirror, he saw his son had unbuckled himself and was standing up on the seat. Sternly, his father warned him to sit back down and buckle up or he would be in a heap of trouble. The son obeyed, but after refastening his seat belt, he said to his dad, “My body is sitting now, but in my head, I am still standing.”
As a parent, I can relate to that story. The child was following orders on the outside, but he was still rebelling on the inside. That is the story of the Israelites in today’s scripture.
This is our last week of visiting with the old prophets – at least for a while. Summer is coming to a close and our visits are coming to an end. Next week we will do some time traveling as we move several hundred years forward and hear some words from Jesus.
Last week, we witnessed Jeremiah’s call to the ministry of being a prophet. We heard God tell Jeremiah that he was known before he was formed, he was consecrated before he was born, and he was appointed by God to be a prophet to God’s people. Now Jeremiah has accepted God’s call and is giving his first message to the people of Jerusalem.
The second chapter begins with God telling the people he remembers how it used to be, saying, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest.”
As we hear these words, we remember how God called his people out of Egyptian slavery and led them through the desert. In all their time of wandering, they depended on God to provide for their every need. They never had to worry about their clothes or their sandals wearing out, they were fed quail for meat and manna from heaven, and they were given water which gushed forth from a solid rock when there was no other source of water to be found. For forty years, these people followed God, depended on God, worshiped God. If only they had remained in that wilderness, perhaps they would have remained faithful.
Eventually, they crossed the Jordan River and took possession of the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land where crops were already planted and the harvest was easy, a land where new crops would grow abundantly, where vineyards and olive trees gave wine and oil, a land where hunting was plentiful, and food was easily acquired. And when life got easy, the people began to forget who brought them to the place where they were and who had provided for them and protected them along the way.
There were periods when times got tough, and the people would remember who God was and what he meant to them, and they would turn back, but when the crises had passed, and a new generation came along, they would once again fall away and turn their backs on God. Oh, they might still follow the Law – at least on the outside – at least some parts of it – but in their hearts and in their minds, they were effectively standing up on the back seat as their car went down the road.
Here is the difference, though, between the Israelites and that defiant little boy – the dad would not have known that the child was still “standing up in his mind” if the child hadn’t admitted it, but God knew exactly what the Israelites were thinking. He knew that any outward show of devotion for most of them was just that – an outward show that did not involve the heart because they were not truly devoted.
So, God asks, “What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me
and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?” “What did I do,” God asks, “to make these people turn away from me?” We know the answer is “nothing.”
God did nothing wrong, of course. It is the people who have chosen to worship worthless, false gods instead of the Living God, and in doing so, they have become worthless and false themselves. They had become so enamored of these lifeless stone and wood idols that they didn’t even think to ask themselves, “Where is the Lord, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?”
It never occurred to them to ask, “Where is this God who has given us everything, who has loved us when we were not lovable, who has provided for us, grew us, strengthened us, protected us, guided us, and fought for us?” Instead, they chopped down a tree and used its wood to build a bench, to start a fire, and with what was left, to carve an idol and worship it as a god.
They turned away from their true source of life and love and turned toward nothing. Who does that? Who gives up something beautiful for something ugly, something valuable for something worthless? Hear the lament of God, “Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked; be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”
We are used to having water whenever we want it. Clean water, good for drinking and cooking is ours with the turn of a faucet. Do we really ever think about where it comes from? For many people, water comes from a well that was dug when their house was built. A deep hole in the ground which reached a reliable, potable water source. Then pipe is laid, and a pump is installed, and water comes into the house.
I remember one house where we lived when I was younger, though where we had a cistern instead of a well. For those who may not know, a cistern is a receptacle for holding water, especially in a place where a well cannot be dug or if the water that is in the ground is not viable for consumption. Cisterns are different from wells in that water must be put into them – either through a system of catching rainwater, or by being hauled in by a water truck and filled up as needed.
Because the water is held in the cistern until it is ready to be used, the cistern must be waterproofed in some way so that the water doesn’t leak out and be wasted, and so that contaminates don’t leak in and ruin the water.
God says the Israelites have turned their noses up on the gift of living water and instead have chosen to dig for themselves a cistern to use as their spiritual water source – and a cracked one at that, one that will not hold water, or anything else they might keep keep filling it with.
“Who in their right mind would do that?” we ask. And yet, do we not do the same thing today? When life is easy and times are good, do we not go about our business as though we are in control and have brought about such times by our own doing? Then, when life hits us in the gut and takes all the air out of us, we scramble to try to fix it, to figure it out and get back on track. When we finally realize that that isn’t working, out of desperation, we call out to God and ask for his help.
How often have we had a choice to make and chosen the easy path instead of the one that might require more work, more effort, and more faith? What have we forfeited by doing do? Where have we, as the Israelites did, chosen to dig our own cisterns instead of accepting the gift of living water offered to us by the One who wants nothing but the best for us?
When have we forgotten to be grateful for all we have because we let our gratitude leak out and go to waste? What will we do about it?
The first thing we need to do is to admit our ingratitude and ask God’s forgiveness. Next, we have to find a way to seek God in all we do – not just in the desperate times, but in the good times, and in the so-so times. We need to go to the source of this living water and give thanks for its sustaining power.
The practice of spiritual disciplines can help us with this. What are some of the spiritual disciplines? There are the inward, personal disciplines such as praying, fasting, and meditating on God’s word. There are outward disciplines that may be personal or practiced in community, such as service, confession, and worship.
Worship, both in community and privately is a great place to start – you are here so you’re already practicing that one. Reading and studying God’s word, prayer, and practicing the presence of God are spiritual disciplines which we can, and should, do intentionally, regularly, joyfully, and gratefully. Those may look different for different people.
Some may find that getting up early in the morning is the best time of day to read scripture and sit in the presence of God. Others may be better suited to waiting until evening. Some may find themselves feeling closer to God while they are outside, walking through the neighborhood, hiking a nature trail, or working in the garden. Others may find that sitting in a quiet room with the light of a candle helps them to focus on God. We all need to find what works best for us so we will do it.
It's okay to try something for awhile and see if it works for you. If it does – great – keep doing it, but if not, then try something else. It took me several years and several tries before I really found myself reading daily scripture. I cannot tell you how many times a new year would roll around and I would vow to read the Bible every day. I would start out well, but then I would get off track and eventually give up.
Finally, I discovered a Bible app that has reading plans. I tried it and it worked better for me. I have been able to read through the Bible every year now for the last several years and I find that I look forward to doing so each day. For me, that time is in the evening and because I know how easy it is to get busy and forget, I have set an alarm on my phone. Now, if my alarm goes off, I know I haven’t taken time to read God’s word that day, I have neglected to intentionally spend time in his presence, and I am reminded to do it now – not because I have to – but because I want to.
Find what works for you and just do it. Start with a few minutes if necessary and build up as you get used to it. I promise, you will be glad you did. God will be glad, too. This is what he wants from us – to come to him, to want to come to him, daily, at all times and in all situations, both good times and bad times, and even in the in-between times. But do it because you want to, because here’s the thing, we may sit down and buckle our seatbelt while we are in the car, but God knows if we are still standing up in our mind. AMEN.
PRAYER: Gracious God, we know you are the source of living water, the one who pours out grace on us like rain on fertile fields, and yet, we sometimes forget to thank you for your blessings. We forget that all good things come from you. We get caught up in our ways and our busyness, and we neglect our spiritual lives; we neglect you. Help us, Lord, as we seek to find ways to show our gratitude for all you do. Guide us as we order our daily routines to include you more. Forgive us when we falter, lead us to try again, that we might draw closer to you on this journey of faith. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Cracked Cisterns
Scripture: Jeremiah 2:4-13
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord:
What wrong did your ancestors find in me
that they went far from me
and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?
6 They did not say, “Where is the Lord,
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
in a land that no one passes through,
where no one lives?”
7 I brought you into a plentiful land
to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land
and made my heritage an abomination.
8 The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal
and went after things that do not profit.
9 Therefore once more I accuse you,
says the Lord,
and I accuse your children’s children.
10 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look;
send to Kedar and examine with care;
see if there has ever been such a thing.
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked; be utterly desolate,
says the Lord,
13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that can hold no water.
One day a man was driving down the road with his little boy in his car seat in the back. As the father glanced in his rearview mirror, he saw his son had unbuckled himself and was standing up on the seat. Sternly, his father warned him to sit back down and buckle up or he would be in a heap of trouble. The son obeyed, but after refastening his seat belt, he said to his dad, “My body is sitting now, but in my head, I am still standing.”
As a parent, I can relate to that story. The child was following orders on the outside, but he was still rebelling on the inside. That is the story of the Israelites in today’s scripture.
This is our last week of visiting with the old prophets – at least for a while. Summer is coming to a close and our visits are coming to an end. Next week we will do some time traveling as we move several hundred years forward and hear some words from Jesus.
Last week, we witnessed Jeremiah’s call to the ministry of being a prophet. We heard God tell Jeremiah that he was known before he was formed, he was consecrated before he was born, and he was appointed by God to be a prophet to God’s people. Now Jeremiah has accepted God’s call and is giving his first message to the people of Jerusalem.
The second chapter begins with God telling the people he remembers how it used to be, saying, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest.”
As we hear these words, we remember how God called his people out of Egyptian slavery and led them through the desert. In all their time of wandering, they depended on God to provide for their every need. They never had to worry about their clothes or their sandals wearing out, they were fed quail for meat and manna from heaven, and they were given water which gushed forth from a solid rock when there was no other source of water to be found. For forty years, these people followed God, depended on God, worshiped God. If only they had remained in that wilderness, perhaps they would have remained faithful.
Eventually, they crossed the Jordan River and took possession of the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land where crops were already planted and the harvest was easy, a land where new crops would grow abundantly, where vineyards and olive trees gave wine and oil, a land where hunting was plentiful, and food was easily acquired. And when life got easy, the people began to forget who brought them to the place where they were and who had provided for them and protected them along the way.
There were periods when times got tough, and the people would remember who God was and what he meant to them, and they would turn back, but when the crises had passed, and a new generation came along, they would once again fall away and turn their backs on God. Oh, they might still follow the Law – at least on the outside – at least some parts of it – but in their hearts and in their minds, they were effectively standing up on the back seat as their car went down the road.
Here is the difference, though, between the Israelites and that defiant little boy – the dad would not have known that the child was still “standing up in his mind” if the child hadn’t admitted it, but God knew exactly what the Israelites were thinking. He knew that any outward show of devotion for most of them was just that – an outward show that did not involve the heart because they were not truly devoted.
So, God asks, “What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me
and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?” “What did I do,” God asks, “to make these people turn away from me?” We know the answer is “nothing.”
God did nothing wrong, of course. It is the people who have chosen to worship worthless, false gods instead of the Living God, and in doing so, they have become worthless and false themselves. They had become so enamored of these lifeless stone and wood idols that they didn’t even think to ask themselves, “Where is the Lord, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?”
It never occurred to them to ask, “Where is this God who has given us everything, who has loved us when we were not lovable, who has provided for us, grew us, strengthened us, protected us, guided us, and fought for us?” Instead, they chopped down a tree and used its wood to build a bench, to start a fire, and with what was left, to carve an idol and worship it as a god.
They turned away from their true source of life and love and turned toward nothing. Who does that? Who gives up something beautiful for something ugly, something valuable for something worthless? Hear the lament of God, “Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked; be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”
We are used to having water whenever we want it. Clean water, good for drinking and cooking is ours with the turn of a faucet. Do we really ever think about where it comes from? For many people, water comes from a well that was dug when their house was built. A deep hole in the ground which reached a reliable, potable water source. Then pipe is laid, and a pump is installed, and water comes into the house.
I remember one house where we lived when I was younger, though where we had a cistern instead of a well. For those who may not know, a cistern is a receptacle for holding water, especially in a place where a well cannot be dug or if the water that is in the ground is not viable for consumption. Cisterns are different from wells in that water must be put into them – either through a system of catching rainwater, or by being hauled in by a water truck and filled up as needed.
Because the water is held in the cistern until it is ready to be used, the cistern must be waterproofed in some way so that the water doesn’t leak out and be wasted, and so that contaminates don’t leak in and ruin the water.
God says the Israelites have turned their noses up on the gift of living water and instead have chosen to dig for themselves a cistern to use as their spiritual water source – and a cracked one at that, one that will not hold water, or anything else they might keep keep filling it with.
“Who in their right mind would do that?” we ask. And yet, do we not do the same thing today? When life is easy and times are good, do we not go about our business as though we are in control and have brought about such times by our own doing? Then, when life hits us in the gut and takes all the air out of us, we scramble to try to fix it, to figure it out and get back on track. When we finally realize that that isn’t working, out of desperation, we call out to God and ask for his help.
How often have we had a choice to make and chosen the easy path instead of the one that might require more work, more effort, and more faith? What have we forfeited by doing do? Where have we, as the Israelites did, chosen to dig our own cisterns instead of accepting the gift of living water offered to us by the One who wants nothing but the best for us?
When have we forgotten to be grateful for all we have because we let our gratitude leak out and go to waste? What will we do about it?
The first thing we need to do is to admit our ingratitude and ask God’s forgiveness. Next, we have to find a way to seek God in all we do – not just in the desperate times, but in the good times, and in the so-so times. We need to go to the source of this living water and give thanks for its sustaining power.
The practice of spiritual disciplines can help us with this. What are some of the spiritual disciplines? There are the inward, personal disciplines such as praying, fasting, and meditating on God’s word. There are outward disciplines that may be personal or practiced in community, such as service, confession, and worship.
Worship, both in community and privately is a great place to start – you are here so you’re already practicing that one. Reading and studying God’s word, prayer, and practicing the presence of God are spiritual disciplines which we can, and should, do intentionally, regularly, joyfully, and gratefully. Those may look different for different people.
Some may find that getting up early in the morning is the best time of day to read scripture and sit in the presence of God. Others may be better suited to waiting until evening. Some may find themselves feeling closer to God while they are outside, walking through the neighborhood, hiking a nature trail, or working in the garden. Others may find that sitting in a quiet room with the light of a candle helps them to focus on God. We all need to find what works best for us so we will do it.
It's okay to try something for awhile and see if it works for you. If it does – great – keep doing it, but if not, then try something else. It took me several years and several tries before I really found myself reading daily scripture. I cannot tell you how many times a new year would roll around and I would vow to read the Bible every day. I would start out well, but then I would get off track and eventually give up.
Finally, I discovered a Bible app that has reading plans. I tried it and it worked better for me. I have been able to read through the Bible every year now for the last several years and I find that I look forward to doing so each day. For me, that time is in the evening and because I know how easy it is to get busy and forget, I have set an alarm on my phone. Now, if my alarm goes off, I know I haven’t taken time to read God’s word that day, I have neglected to intentionally spend time in his presence, and I am reminded to do it now – not because I have to – but because I want to.
Find what works for you and just do it. Start with a few minutes if necessary and build up as you get used to it. I promise, you will be glad you did. God will be glad, too. This is what he wants from us – to come to him, to want to come to him, daily, at all times and in all situations, both good times and bad times, and even in the in-between times. But do it because you want to, because here’s the thing, we may sit down and buckle our seatbelt while we are in the car, but God knows if we are still standing up in our mind. AMEN.
PRAYER: Gracious God, we know you are the source of living water, the one who pours out grace on us like rain on fertile fields, and yet, we sometimes forget to thank you for your blessings. We forget that all good things come from you. We get caught up in our ways and our busyness, and we neglect our spiritual lives; we neglect you. Help us, Lord, as we seek to find ways to show our gratitude for all you do. Guide us as we order our daily routines to include you more. Forgive us when we falter, lead us to try again, that we might draw closer to you on this journey of faith. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
AUGUST 21, 2022, PASTOR DONNA'S SERMON "I KNEW YOU"
August 21, 2022
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: I Knew You
Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” 7 But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy,’
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the Lord.”
9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,
“Now I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
Some weeks, when I sit down to write the sermon, I sit and ponder what to write. I ask, “What is God saying here that we need to know? What is he asking me to relay for him this week?” It might take awhile to put it all together. Honestly, sometimes, it can be a real struggle.
This week was not one of those weeks. In fact, this week was just the opposite. From the first few words, I felt like this passage was assaulting me with all the possibilities and thoughts that began rattling around in my head. How is it possible to read these words and think of about six other things all at the same time? I have no idea, but that is what it felt like. Some of those thoughts made it into today’s message so bear with me while I try to pull it all together.
We have arrived for our visit with Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, called by God to be a prophet to his people. God’s call to Jeremiah was pretty direct, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
In these words of introduction to Jeremiah, I hear the echoes of King David’s words in Psalm 139, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”
We don’t have to look far today to find the hope and the comfort in our scripture. It’s right there at the beginning. God told Jeremiah right away that he was known before he was born, the God had consecrated him for the purpose of being a prophet, of relaying God’s messages to God’s people.
What did Jeremiah think of all of this? His response: “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” Why is it, when God calls, the first reaction is usually to make an excuse as to why the call cannot be answered? God says, “Jeremiah, I know who you are, I have known you since before you were formed and born, and I have a job that only you can do.” Jeremiah immediately says, “Sorry, I’m too young. You must want someone else.”
Moses may have been the best one to make excuses and arguments when God called him. God shows up one day in a burning bush, which catches Moses’ attention really fast. Then God tells Moses that he is sending him to Egypt to speak to Pharoah about letting the Israelites go free. Moses’ first excuse, “Who am I that I should go?” God says, “It’s okay because I will go with you.”
Moses’ next excuse, “They might not believe that I am working for you. What is your name?’ “I AM WHO I AM,” was the reply. Moses was still not convinced, “Listen, those people still might not believe me. What then?” So, God turned Moses’ staff into a snake and then back into a staff. Then God caused a skin disease on Moses’ hand and then cured it. “There,” God said, “if they won’t believe your words, show them these signs.”
Still, Moses was not convinced. “You may not know this about me, Lord, but I don’t speak too well. My words get mixed up sometimes and I speak too slow.” Once again, God had and answer. Once again, Moses wasn’t budging. “Lord, can’t you just send someone else, anyone else but me?”
If you are counting, that was five times Moses said no to God. We read that and think, “Whoa! How can someone say no to God?” But it happens. God calls; we make excuses. Jeremiah’s excuse of being too young didn’t change God’s mind any more than any of Moses’ excuses did in that time long before.
“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy,’ for you shall go to all to whom I will send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.” God is reassuring Jeremiah that he will not be sent out alone. God will go with him. God will tell him where to go. God will give him the words to say. God will protect him. All Jeremiah needs to do is follow God.
And that is the lesson for today. All we need to do is follow God. But do we? Think about a time when God called you. How did you respond? Did you ignore the message? Make an excuse? Answer and obey?
I read a story this week about a guy who was walking down the street in a large city and as he approached an intersection, he saw a police officer directing traffic. Just then, he felt God telling him to go over to the officer and tell him that God loves him. The man ignored the call and kept walking. But after taking several steps on down the street, the man was overcome by the weight of his disobedience, and he turned around and walked back to the police office. Feeling a little foolish, he walked up to the officer and said, “Excuse me, officer, but God just told me to tell you that he loves you.”
The officer turned to look at the man with tears in his eyes and he spoke, “Last night, I prayed to God for the first time in many years, and I told him that if he were real, the least he could do was send someone to tell me that he was here for me.” The officer then called for a back up officer to take over for him, and he and the man talked for a bit. Then, that police officer prayed, right then and there, to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior.
A call was made, an excuse was given, but in the end, obedience won. Think about it, if that man had not turned around and walked back to that intersection, that police officer just may have never gotten the answer he was looking for. He may have never come to a saving faith in Jesus. He may have been a lost soul for all of eternity.
But, answering God’s call is hard, isn’t it? I’ll say. I had my own struggle with that for awhile myself. For those who do not know, I lost my husband seventeen years ago. My son was grown, and I was feeling restless and without a purpose. I began to pray to God, and I told him that I was willing to give myself to him in whatever capacity he wanted, and I really meant it. Then I waited to hear what that might be. And I waited. And I waited. And I kept praying. And I kept offering. And I kept waiting.
I kept myself busy enough. I was working, I was getting my undergrad degree, and I was active in my church. I taught Sunday school, I was a youth leader, I served on committees. Whenever our pastor would be out of the pulpit, I took my turn giving the message as a Lay Speaker. But I was waiting to see what God “really wanted me to do with my life.”
Then we got an interim pastor. She never heard me preach, but almost right away she made it a point to tell me she thought I was being called into the ministry. I laughed and said, no, not me. She just smiled and gave me a book to read when I had time. Then we got our next pastor. He never heard me preach, but almost right away he made it a point to tell me he thought I was being called into the ministry. I laughed again, but not quite as long this time.
Finally, I read the book. I began to wonder. But I was still waiting to hear something from God. I was still offering, I was still waiting, but God was silent. Or so I thought. Several conversations and a few months later, I was lamenting to my pastor that I thought I might actually be being called to ministry, but I wasn’t sure because I had not heard God speaking to me to tell me that’s what he wanted from me.
I will never forget what he said to me: “Sometimes God uses other people to tell you what you are not hearing him say.” Oh. You see, I had been making excuses without realizing it. I was waiting to hear God’s voice in the way that Jeremiah heard God, in the way Moses heard God, in the way so many others have heard God. I was expecting an audible voice telling me what to do.
What my pastor reminded me was that God can speak to us in any way he pleases, and sometimes his voice sounds a lot like the people around us. Sometime his voice sounds like two of my pastors, sometimes he sounds just like my mom, and sometimes he sounds like so many of my church family who had been encouraging me to pursue ministry for years. But, because I didn’t hear God in the way that I expected to hear him, I used the excuse that maybe this isn’t really what he wants me to do.
We are all quick to have excuses when God calls us. Oh, you thought God only called people like me who stand in the pulpit, or people who travel to other places and countries to teach others his word? Wrong. God calls ALL of us, each in our own way, each to our own purpose in his kingdom. That is why we are all here today. God called and we answered. But coming to church is not the extent of our call. It is just the beginning. Jesus outlined if for us in Matthew 28, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” That wasn’t just for the disciples who were with him that day. That directive was for all Christians in all times and places.
That doesn’t mean that we all have to pack our bags and hit the road, though. “Go, therefore,” means as you go along, as you follow your routine, as you go to work and school and the doctor’s office, and the dentist’s office, everywhere you go, make sure you are listening for God’s call. You never know when you may have to tell someone that God loves them. But when you get that call, and when you answer that call, a life may be changed and that just might have everlasting consequences.
I finally stopped making excuses and became obedient to God’s calling me to pastoral ministry. The moment I made the decision and made the phone call to my DS to start the process, I felt like a great weight had been lifted off me that I didn’t even realize I had. I bet Moses and Jeremiah and all the others felt the same way when they stopped making excuses, too. I bet you will, too.
Oh, and one more thing. Remember God’s promise to Jeremiah that he would go with him wherever he went, and he would give him the words to say? Yeah, that is still God’s promise to those whom he calls, even today. We heard him say it to Jeremiah and we are reminded again of that promise in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus is with his disciples, and he is warning them that being one of his followers won’t always be easy. But Jesus reassures them, “When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
What is the number one reason people don’t tell others about Jesus? Because they are afraid they won’t know what to say. Talking to people about Jesus doesn’t require a lengthy speech or a deep theological knowledge. Sometimes it is as simple as saying, “God loves you. Would you like to know how much?” Don’t worry about the rest. If they say yes, God will be with you and will give you the words. He knows you and has called you. Now, no more excuses. AMEN.
PRAYER: Gracious, loving God, how amazing to realize that you knew us before we were formed. You knew us and loved us from the very beginning. You have called us to come and follow you and to tell others about you, and you have promised to be with us and give us the words. Lord, help us to put aside our excuses and become obedient to your call, that we might share your story with others and help them come to know you through the saving grace of your son, Jesus. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/84360/evangelism-by-tim-smith
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: I Knew You
Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” 7 But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy,’
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the Lord.”
9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,
“Now I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
Some weeks, when I sit down to write the sermon, I sit and ponder what to write. I ask, “What is God saying here that we need to know? What is he asking me to relay for him this week?” It might take awhile to put it all together. Honestly, sometimes, it can be a real struggle.
This week was not one of those weeks. In fact, this week was just the opposite. From the first few words, I felt like this passage was assaulting me with all the possibilities and thoughts that began rattling around in my head. How is it possible to read these words and think of about six other things all at the same time? I have no idea, but that is what it felt like. Some of those thoughts made it into today’s message so bear with me while I try to pull it all together.
We have arrived for our visit with Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, called by God to be a prophet to his people. God’s call to Jeremiah was pretty direct, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
In these words of introduction to Jeremiah, I hear the echoes of King David’s words in Psalm 139, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”
We don’t have to look far today to find the hope and the comfort in our scripture. It’s right there at the beginning. God told Jeremiah right away that he was known before he was born, the God had consecrated him for the purpose of being a prophet, of relaying God’s messages to God’s people.
What did Jeremiah think of all of this? His response: “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” Why is it, when God calls, the first reaction is usually to make an excuse as to why the call cannot be answered? God says, “Jeremiah, I know who you are, I have known you since before you were formed and born, and I have a job that only you can do.” Jeremiah immediately says, “Sorry, I’m too young. You must want someone else.”
Moses may have been the best one to make excuses and arguments when God called him. God shows up one day in a burning bush, which catches Moses’ attention really fast. Then God tells Moses that he is sending him to Egypt to speak to Pharoah about letting the Israelites go free. Moses’ first excuse, “Who am I that I should go?” God says, “It’s okay because I will go with you.”
Moses’ next excuse, “They might not believe that I am working for you. What is your name?’ “I AM WHO I AM,” was the reply. Moses was still not convinced, “Listen, those people still might not believe me. What then?” So, God turned Moses’ staff into a snake and then back into a staff. Then God caused a skin disease on Moses’ hand and then cured it. “There,” God said, “if they won’t believe your words, show them these signs.”
Still, Moses was not convinced. “You may not know this about me, Lord, but I don’t speak too well. My words get mixed up sometimes and I speak too slow.” Once again, God had and answer. Once again, Moses wasn’t budging. “Lord, can’t you just send someone else, anyone else but me?”
If you are counting, that was five times Moses said no to God. We read that and think, “Whoa! How can someone say no to God?” But it happens. God calls; we make excuses. Jeremiah’s excuse of being too young didn’t change God’s mind any more than any of Moses’ excuses did in that time long before.
“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy,’ for you shall go to all to whom I will send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.” God is reassuring Jeremiah that he will not be sent out alone. God will go with him. God will tell him where to go. God will give him the words to say. God will protect him. All Jeremiah needs to do is follow God.
And that is the lesson for today. All we need to do is follow God. But do we? Think about a time when God called you. How did you respond? Did you ignore the message? Make an excuse? Answer and obey?
I read a story this week about a guy who was walking down the street in a large city and as he approached an intersection, he saw a police officer directing traffic. Just then, he felt God telling him to go over to the officer and tell him that God loves him. The man ignored the call and kept walking. But after taking several steps on down the street, the man was overcome by the weight of his disobedience, and he turned around and walked back to the police office. Feeling a little foolish, he walked up to the officer and said, “Excuse me, officer, but God just told me to tell you that he loves you.”
The officer turned to look at the man with tears in his eyes and he spoke, “Last night, I prayed to God for the first time in many years, and I told him that if he were real, the least he could do was send someone to tell me that he was here for me.” The officer then called for a back up officer to take over for him, and he and the man talked for a bit. Then, that police officer prayed, right then and there, to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior.
A call was made, an excuse was given, but in the end, obedience won. Think about it, if that man had not turned around and walked back to that intersection, that police officer just may have never gotten the answer he was looking for. He may have never come to a saving faith in Jesus. He may have been a lost soul for all of eternity.
But, answering God’s call is hard, isn’t it? I’ll say. I had my own struggle with that for awhile myself. For those who do not know, I lost my husband seventeen years ago. My son was grown, and I was feeling restless and without a purpose. I began to pray to God, and I told him that I was willing to give myself to him in whatever capacity he wanted, and I really meant it. Then I waited to hear what that might be. And I waited. And I waited. And I kept praying. And I kept offering. And I kept waiting.
I kept myself busy enough. I was working, I was getting my undergrad degree, and I was active in my church. I taught Sunday school, I was a youth leader, I served on committees. Whenever our pastor would be out of the pulpit, I took my turn giving the message as a Lay Speaker. But I was waiting to see what God “really wanted me to do with my life.”
Then we got an interim pastor. She never heard me preach, but almost right away she made it a point to tell me she thought I was being called into the ministry. I laughed and said, no, not me. She just smiled and gave me a book to read when I had time. Then we got our next pastor. He never heard me preach, but almost right away he made it a point to tell me he thought I was being called into the ministry. I laughed again, but not quite as long this time.
Finally, I read the book. I began to wonder. But I was still waiting to hear something from God. I was still offering, I was still waiting, but God was silent. Or so I thought. Several conversations and a few months later, I was lamenting to my pastor that I thought I might actually be being called to ministry, but I wasn’t sure because I had not heard God speaking to me to tell me that’s what he wanted from me.
I will never forget what he said to me: “Sometimes God uses other people to tell you what you are not hearing him say.” Oh. You see, I had been making excuses without realizing it. I was waiting to hear God’s voice in the way that Jeremiah heard God, in the way Moses heard God, in the way so many others have heard God. I was expecting an audible voice telling me what to do.
What my pastor reminded me was that God can speak to us in any way he pleases, and sometimes his voice sounds a lot like the people around us. Sometime his voice sounds like two of my pastors, sometimes he sounds just like my mom, and sometimes he sounds like so many of my church family who had been encouraging me to pursue ministry for years. But, because I didn’t hear God in the way that I expected to hear him, I used the excuse that maybe this isn’t really what he wants me to do.
We are all quick to have excuses when God calls us. Oh, you thought God only called people like me who stand in the pulpit, or people who travel to other places and countries to teach others his word? Wrong. God calls ALL of us, each in our own way, each to our own purpose in his kingdom. That is why we are all here today. God called and we answered. But coming to church is not the extent of our call. It is just the beginning. Jesus outlined if for us in Matthew 28, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” That wasn’t just for the disciples who were with him that day. That directive was for all Christians in all times and places.
That doesn’t mean that we all have to pack our bags and hit the road, though. “Go, therefore,” means as you go along, as you follow your routine, as you go to work and school and the doctor’s office, and the dentist’s office, everywhere you go, make sure you are listening for God’s call. You never know when you may have to tell someone that God loves them. But when you get that call, and when you answer that call, a life may be changed and that just might have everlasting consequences.
I finally stopped making excuses and became obedient to God’s calling me to pastoral ministry. The moment I made the decision and made the phone call to my DS to start the process, I felt like a great weight had been lifted off me that I didn’t even realize I had. I bet Moses and Jeremiah and all the others felt the same way when they stopped making excuses, too. I bet you will, too.
Oh, and one more thing. Remember God’s promise to Jeremiah that he would go with him wherever he went, and he would give him the words to say? Yeah, that is still God’s promise to those whom he calls, even today. We heard him say it to Jeremiah and we are reminded again of that promise in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus is with his disciples, and he is warning them that being one of his followers won’t always be easy. But Jesus reassures them, “When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
What is the number one reason people don’t tell others about Jesus? Because they are afraid they won’t know what to say. Talking to people about Jesus doesn’t require a lengthy speech or a deep theological knowledge. Sometimes it is as simple as saying, “God loves you. Would you like to know how much?” Don’t worry about the rest. If they say yes, God will be with you and will give you the words. He knows you and has called you. Now, no more excuses. AMEN.
PRAYER: Gracious, loving God, how amazing to realize that you knew us before we were formed. You knew us and loved us from the very beginning. You have called us to come and follow you and to tell others about you, and you have promised to be with us and give us the words. Lord, help us to put aside our excuses and become obedient to your call, that we might share your story with others and help them come to know you through the saving grace of your son, Jesus. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/84360/evangelism-by-tim-smith
august 14, 2022, pastor donna's sermon "yielding wild grapes"
August 14, 2022
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Yielding Wild Grapes
Scripture: Isaiah 5:1-7
I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes?
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!
2
Oh, Isaiah, our hearts break for you for the weight of the message you have been tapped to
deliver to a wild and rebellious people. This is another week where the words are hard to hear
and we hope they aren’t intended for us, but only for those to whom Isaiah was speaking so long,
long ago.
The passage today starts off well. “I will sing for my beloved my love song concerning his
vineyard.” We anticipate soft words, a lyrical tune. We expect to hear whispered words of love, a
song of happiness. And we do – at first.
“My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it
with choice vines.” There was a lot of thought and planning that went into the preparation of this
vineyard. The perfect spot was chosen; a hill that would receive lots of sunshine, would accept
the needed rain but allow the excess to drain off so as not to rot the roots. The land had to be
cleared of rocks and stones so the ground could be tilled and worked to prepare it to accept the
cuttings, and even the selection of those cuttings was given much thought and consideration;
only the best varieties of plants were purchased, ones that would grow large, sweet grapes that
would yield an abundant harvest.
Building this vineyard really was a labor of love for the gardener. To protect the vineyard, he
built a watchtower in the center of the vineyard and hewed out a wine vat within the watchtower.
Now, I confess, I don’t know a lot about growing grapes, so I wondered what a watchtower was
3
for. I pictured a tall structure for someone to go up and look around to survey that year’s grape
crop, but that isn’t the only thing it is for.
The watchtower was a structure that was built in the middle of the vineyard and constructed of
thick stone with a lower and an upper floor. The lower floor was usually built of untreated stone
and due to the thickness of the stone, it remained cooler there than outside. This made it an ideal
place to store the grapes after the harvest. The cooler temperature ensured that the grapes didn’t
begin to ferment right away.
The upper floor was above ground, and it provided a place for the workers, and sometimes their
families, to stay during the harvest so they didn’t have to travel back and forth. Staying in the
vineyard during the harvest not only saved travel time, but it allowed the workers to keep a close
eye on the vineyard at a crucial time of the grape-growing season.
We can see how the one who built this vineyard that Isaiah is singing of has done so as an act of
love. He took the time to do it right, ensuring that the conditions were perfectly suited to reap an
abundant harvest of grapes. He had done the planning, he had done the planting, the watering,
the nurturing, and now he was ready to receive the reward. “He expected it to yield grapes, but it
yielded rotten grapes.”
4
This is where the love song ends, with this abrupt and unexpected downturn. As we might say,
this is where things went south. The singer’s voice is silenced in grief and now, another voice is
now heard, and we recognize this voice as that of the vineyard planter – the voice of God.
God is speaking directly to the people of Judah, especially those in Jerusalem, and by his words
we realize that they are the vineyard. The vineyard is used as a parable to capture their attention,
to help them understand what God is trying to say to them, what he is trying to teach them. I read
somewhere that parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings, and that is certainly true of
this one today
“What more could I have done for you?” God asks. “Since I did everything required, and did it
with much care and nurturing, who is to blame for the rotten fruit that has come from these
vines?” In essence, God is pointing out to his people that he has done his part, he has kept every
promise he has made to them. God is the one who rescued them from slavery in Egypt. God is
the one who provided for them for forty years of wandering in the wilderness. God is the one
who fought for them in battles where their small army defeated greater forces. It is God who has
remained faithful when his people have not.
The people who should be faithful and thankful for all they have and from where it came, instead
have chosen to pretend they don’t need God. They have chosen their fake idols over true love,
they have chosen their rebellious, wild ways over living the abundant life that is God’s plan for
5
them. Frustrated by their attitude, heart broken by their resistance, God speaks directly to his
people and lays out the consequences of their actions.
“I will remover the hedges that protect this vineyard and it will be destroyed; I will break down
the wall and it will be trampled.” The hedge of protection that God has put around his people
will be removed, leaving them open and vulnerable to attack from outsiders. When that happens,
then the land will become a wasteland. The vines will no longer be pruned, the ground will no
longer be hoed, the vines will become overgrown and entangled with briers. The grapes will be
wild grapes instead of cultivated grapes.
We may ask ourselves why it matters what kind of grapes they become. Grapes are grapes, right?
Yes and no. Yes, grapes are grapes to some extent, but wild grapes are much different from their
cultivated cousins. Wild grapevines can become invasive and detrimental to their surroundings.
These vines grow up trees and become so thick that their leaves block the sunshine from
reaching the leaves of the host tree, resulting in stunted growth for the tree.
In winter, snow can cling heavily to the vines which adds weight to the tree branches and the
extra weight can sometimes cause the branches to break off, leaving the tree exposed to the
elements and further hurting the tree. Then there are the grapes themselves. Wild grapes are
smaller and typically less sweet than cultivated grapes which makes them less appealing. They
are not what the gardener is looking for when he or she goes to collect the harvest.
6
God’s people have become like the wild grapes, unappealing to the gardener. They will be left to
go their own way, do their own thing, but they will have to pay the price for their stubbornness.
Unlike some of the parables we find in the Bible, the meaning of this parable is not hidden. We
do not need to ponder its significance or wonder at its message. We plainly see it in the closing
lines. “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his
cherished garden; he expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry!”
Will God’s people see themselves in this parable and change their ways? That is the hope that we
find in Isaiah’s words. All is not yet lost if they do, but the choice is theirs. God has done his part
– above and beyond. He is a patient and loving God, but there comes a time when bad behavior
can no longer be tolerated.
Remember when the prophet Nathan went to King David and told him about the wealthy
landowner who took the only lamb of a poor farmer for his sacrifice? David was angry at the
injustice that was being done to the poor farmer. That was exactly the reaction that Nathan
wanted from David. He wanted him to see the injustice, and in his anger want to make it right.
Then, Nathan explained that David himself was the wealthy landowner and Uriah, the husband
of Bathsheba was the poor farmer.
7
If Nathan had simply confronted David about his sin, David may well have hardened his heart
against Nathan. He may have refused to listen to him, he may have given many excuses and
continued to be blinded about his own responsibility in the situation. The story that Nathan told
David helped Davis see his sin, admit it, and ultimately repent to God for it.
This is Isaiah’s objective here today. To get the people to see the vineyard and the gardener as
one of their own. They would have understood the work and the care that went into the building
and nurturing of this vineyard, and they would have agreed with the gardener’s plans to let it be
destroyed when it failed to produce a fruitful harvest after all that the gardener had done. Then,
when they understood that they were the vineyard and came to see their actions were the cause of
the destruction, Isaiah hoped they might do as David did, see their sin, admit their sin, repent,
and turn back to God.
I’ve heard it said that the Old Testament was not written to us, as Christians, but it was written
for us, nonetheless. If Israel was the vineyard in this story when it was first told by Isaiah, I
believe the Church is the vineyard today, making this passage as relevant to us as it was to the
people in Jerusalem.
We belong to God. He had adopted us into his family through the atoning blood of his son Jesus,
the one who died for our sins. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are given the privilege of
being called a Child of God. But then what? What does that mean for us? Do we just go on living
our lives as though nothing has changed? No, absolutely not. If we did that, we would be nothing
8
more than wild grapes when God wants us to be cultivated grapes whose fruit is sweet and
abundant.
The message is the same as we have been hearing throughout this series. We are to live a life that
is pleasing to God and that proves our transformation in Christ by the fruit we produce. We are
doing our best here to produce good fruit. There is evidence in the life of this church, which is
her people, but we can never rest on what we have done before. We must keep focusing on what
we are currently doing while also staying open for future opportunities to faithfully follow God
and serve his people. We must keep our eyes and ears and our hearts open to the suffering of
God’s people. We must continue to share Jesus with others so they, too, can become a child of
God living a transformed life, which is the only path to true freedom in this life, and in the next.
We can do this – together we can – with God we can. AMEN.
PRAYER: Father God, thank you for making a way to allow us to be a part of your family.
Thank you for sending Jesus to us and for us. May we live a life, as a follower of Jesus, and as
his Church, that is pleasing to you; a life that bears good fruit for your kingdom, today,
tomorrow, and forever. AMEN.
9
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchtower_(agricultural)#:~:text=The%20temperature%20inside
%20the%20structure,to%20their%20home%20each%20day.
Https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20-
3/commentary-on-isaiah-51-7-10
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Yielding Wild Grapes
Scripture: Isaiah 5:1-7
I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes?
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!
2
Oh, Isaiah, our hearts break for you for the weight of the message you have been tapped to
deliver to a wild and rebellious people. This is another week where the words are hard to hear
and we hope they aren’t intended for us, but only for those to whom Isaiah was speaking so long,
long ago.
The passage today starts off well. “I will sing for my beloved my love song concerning his
vineyard.” We anticipate soft words, a lyrical tune. We expect to hear whispered words of love, a
song of happiness. And we do – at first.
“My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it
with choice vines.” There was a lot of thought and planning that went into the preparation of this
vineyard. The perfect spot was chosen; a hill that would receive lots of sunshine, would accept
the needed rain but allow the excess to drain off so as not to rot the roots. The land had to be
cleared of rocks and stones so the ground could be tilled and worked to prepare it to accept the
cuttings, and even the selection of those cuttings was given much thought and consideration;
only the best varieties of plants were purchased, ones that would grow large, sweet grapes that
would yield an abundant harvest.
Building this vineyard really was a labor of love for the gardener. To protect the vineyard, he
built a watchtower in the center of the vineyard and hewed out a wine vat within the watchtower.
Now, I confess, I don’t know a lot about growing grapes, so I wondered what a watchtower was
3
for. I pictured a tall structure for someone to go up and look around to survey that year’s grape
crop, but that isn’t the only thing it is for.
The watchtower was a structure that was built in the middle of the vineyard and constructed of
thick stone with a lower and an upper floor. The lower floor was usually built of untreated stone
and due to the thickness of the stone, it remained cooler there than outside. This made it an ideal
place to store the grapes after the harvest. The cooler temperature ensured that the grapes didn’t
begin to ferment right away.
The upper floor was above ground, and it provided a place for the workers, and sometimes their
families, to stay during the harvest so they didn’t have to travel back and forth. Staying in the
vineyard during the harvest not only saved travel time, but it allowed the workers to keep a close
eye on the vineyard at a crucial time of the grape-growing season.
We can see how the one who built this vineyard that Isaiah is singing of has done so as an act of
love. He took the time to do it right, ensuring that the conditions were perfectly suited to reap an
abundant harvest of grapes. He had done the planning, he had done the planting, the watering,
the nurturing, and now he was ready to receive the reward. “He expected it to yield grapes, but it
yielded rotten grapes.”
4
This is where the love song ends, with this abrupt and unexpected downturn. As we might say,
this is where things went south. The singer’s voice is silenced in grief and now, another voice is
now heard, and we recognize this voice as that of the vineyard planter – the voice of God.
God is speaking directly to the people of Judah, especially those in Jerusalem, and by his words
we realize that they are the vineyard. The vineyard is used as a parable to capture their attention,
to help them understand what God is trying to say to them, what he is trying to teach them. I read
somewhere that parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings, and that is certainly true of
this one today
“What more could I have done for you?” God asks. “Since I did everything required, and did it
with much care and nurturing, who is to blame for the rotten fruit that has come from these
vines?” In essence, God is pointing out to his people that he has done his part, he has kept every
promise he has made to them. God is the one who rescued them from slavery in Egypt. God is
the one who provided for them for forty years of wandering in the wilderness. God is the one
who fought for them in battles where their small army defeated greater forces. It is God who has
remained faithful when his people have not.
The people who should be faithful and thankful for all they have and from where it came, instead
have chosen to pretend they don’t need God. They have chosen their fake idols over true love,
they have chosen their rebellious, wild ways over living the abundant life that is God’s plan for
5
them. Frustrated by their attitude, heart broken by their resistance, God speaks directly to his
people and lays out the consequences of their actions.
“I will remover the hedges that protect this vineyard and it will be destroyed; I will break down
the wall and it will be trampled.” The hedge of protection that God has put around his people
will be removed, leaving them open and vulnerable to attack from outsiders. When that happens,
then the land will become a wasteland. The vines will no longer be pruned, the ground will no
longer be hoed, the vines will become overgrown and entangled with briers. The grapes will be
wild grapes instead of cultivated grapes.
We may ask ourselves why it matters what kind of grapes they become. Grapes are grapes, right?
Yes and no. Yes, grapes are grapes to some extent, but wild grapes are much different from their
cultivated cousins. Wild grapevines can become invasive and detrimental to their surroundings.
These vines grow up trees and become so thick that their leaves block the sunshine from
reaching the leaves of the host tree, resulting in stunted growth for the tree.
In winter, snow can cling heavily to the vines which adds weight to the tree branches and the
extra weight can sometimes cause the branches to break off, leaving the tree exposed to the
elements and further hurting the tree. Then there are the grapes themselves. Wild grapes are
smaller and typically less sweet than cultivated grapes which makes them less appealing. They
are not what the gardener is looking for when he or she goes to collect the harvest.
6
God’s people have become like the wild grapes, unappealing to the gardener. They will be left to
go their own way, do their own thing, but they will have to pay the price for their stubbornness.
Unlike some of the parables we find in the Bible, the meaning of this parable is not hidden. We
do not need to ponder its significance or wonder at its message. We plainly see it in the closing
lines. “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his
cherished garden; he expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry!”
Will God’s people see themselves in this parable and change their ways? That is the hope that we
find in Isaiah’s words. All is not yet lost if they do, but the choice is theirs. God has done his part
– above and beyond. He is a patient and loving God, but there comes a time when bad behavior
can no longer be tolerated.
Remember when the prophet Nathan went to King David and told him about the wealthy
landowner who took the only lamb of a poor farmer for his sacrifice? David was angry at the
injustice that was being done to the poor farmer. That was exactly the reaction that Nathan
wanted from David. He wanted him to see the injustice, and in his anger want to make it right.
Then, Nathan explained that David himself was the wealthy landowner and Uriah, the husband
of Bathsheba was the poor farmer.
7
If Nathan had simply confronted David about his sin, David may well have hardened his heart
against Nathan. He may have refused to listen to him, he may have given many excuses and
continued to be blinded about his own responsibility in the situation. The story that Nathan told
David helped Davis see his sin, admit it, and ultimately repent to God for it.
This is Isaiah’s objective here today. To get the people to see the vineyard and the gardener as
one of their own. They would have understood the work and the care that went into the building
and nurturing of this vineyard, and they would have agreed with the gardener’s plans to let it be
destroyed when it failed to produce a fruitful harvest after all that the gardener had done. Then,
when they understood that they were the vineyard and came to see their actions were the cause of
the destruction, Isaiah hoped they might do as David did, see their sin, admit their sin, repent,
and turn back to God.
I’ve heard it said that the Old Testament was not written to us, as Christians, but it was written
for us, nonetheless. If Israel was the vineyard in this story when it was first told by Isaiah, I
believe the Church is the vineyard today, making this passage as relevant to us as it was to the
people in Jerusalem.
We belong to God. He had adopted us into his family through the atoning blood of his son Jesus,
the one who died for our sins. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are given the privilege of
being called a Child of God. But then what? What does that mean for us? Do we just go on living
our lives as though nothing has changed? No, absolutely not. If we did that, we would be nothing
8
more than wild grapes when God wants us to be cultivated grapes whose fruit is sweet and
abundant.
The message is the same as we have been hearing throughout this series. We are to live a life that
is pleasing to God and that proves our transformation in Christ by the fruit we produce. We are
doing our best here to produce good fruit. There is evidence in the life of this church, which is
her people, but we can never rest on what we have done before. We must keep focusing on what
we are currently doing while also staying open for future opportunities to faithfully follow God
and serve his people. We must keep our eyes and ears and our hearts open to the suffering of
God’s people. We must continue to share Jesus with others so they, too, can become a child of
God living a transformed life, which is the only path to true freedom in this life, and in the next.
We can do this – together we can – with God we can. AMEN.
PRAYER: Father God, thank you for making a way to allow us to be a part of your family.
Thank you for sending Jesus to us and for us. May we live a life, as a follower of Jesus, and as
his Church, that is pleasing to you; a life that bears good fruit for your kingdom, today,
tomorrow, and forever. AMEN.
9
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchtower_(agricultural)#:~:text=The%20temperature%20inside
%20the%20structure,to%20their%20home%20each%20day.
Https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20-
3/commentary-on-isaiah-51-7-10
August 7, 2022 Pastor Donna's sermon "Learn to do good"
August 7, 2022
Rootstown
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Learn to Do Good
Scripture: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
10 Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls
or of lambs or of goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more!
13 Bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation--
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove your evil deeds
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;
17 learn to do good;
seek justice;
rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
plead for the widow.
18 Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
If your sins are like scarlet,
will they become like snow?
If they are red like crimson,
will they become like wool?
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land,
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
We’ve spent our time with Hosea, and we leave him now to continue the work God has called him to do, and to work out his family problems in private. We are stopping by this week to visit Isaiah and we will hang out here next week, also. Isaiah has a lot to say to the people of God in Judah during the years of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
Today’s passage was likely written after the Assyrian ruler, Sennacherib, had invaded Judah in 701 BC which was when Hezekiah was King of Judah. You can learn about that time in Isaiah chapters 36-37 and 2 Kings 18-19. The city of Jerusalem is still standing after this invasion, but it is isolated from other surrounding cities which were destroyed, and it is to Jerusalem that Isaiah’s message from God is directed.
Isaiah’s words are not gentle and comforting for what the people have had to endure from the Assyrians as we might hope for them to be after such a time as they have been through. No, the words he speaks today are meant to cut directly to the heart of the people, to call them out on something that they are doing. God wants to talk about their worship practices.
You know the message isn’t going to go well when it begins with being called “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah.” We remember those cities from the time of Abraham and Lot, how God caused fire and brimstone to rain down upon those cities and destroy everything and everyone because of the atrocious sins of the way they were living.
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?” God asks. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.”
Now, wait, we wonder, isn’t that exactly what God had told them to do way back in the day? Weren’t they supposed to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to God as part of their worship, as part of the Law? Of course, the answer is yes. This is a practice that God himself had instituted when he gave the Law to Moses while the Israelites were in the wilderness. So, what’s changed?
The people have changed. Many are still following the letter of the Law, but the thing is, God requires not rote worship but loving worship. The new moon festivals and the sabbath days were to be observed as a show of heartfelt worship of the God who provides for all their needs, but now, the people either don’t practice these rites for the right reasons, or they don’t bother practicing them at all. God is tired of it. He is over their half-hearted attempts to appease him with their words and their actions but refusing to engage their hearts in what they are doing. What God wants is for his people to worship with integrity and genuine desire for relationship with him.
If we read this passage through quickly, it is easy to assume that God is wiping out the whole worship system that he had created. After all, we hear him say, “Trample my courts no more! Bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me.”
And then he says, “Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.”
Is God rejecting worship? Has he grown tired of it all and desires it no more? No. It isn’t worship that God is carrying the burden for, it is how the people are worshiping. I don’t mean the style of worship. God doesn’t care if the Israelites chose a contemporary or traditional style of worship, he doesn’t care if there is a choir or a praise band or not – the elements and style of worship all are pleasing to God – if they come from the heart. But Israel was no longer pouring out their hearts to God; they were going through the motions at best.
Look carefully at what God is saying through Isaiah: “I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity,” and, “your hands are full of blood.” God wants his people to get back to real worship and he gives them instructions for how to do that: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes.”
In other words, stop caring only about what you can get from others, stop taking advantage of the disadvantaged, see what wrongs need to be made right, start caring about, and for, the least, the lost, and the lonely. Clean the dust and the dirt and the cobwebs from your hearts, open your eyes, and SEE how your actions are creating separation between people and separating you from God.
I appreciate how Pastor Michael Ruffin puts the situation in his commentary: “Acts of worship, even if performed correctly and abundantly, cannot compensate for the mistreatment of people, especially of the weak and oppressed.” In other words, to use an expression we have all heard – worship is about quality, not quantity.
God’s call to his people, through the words of Isaiah, is to wash themselves – not just go take a shower but wash themselves from the inside out. Start with the heart, purify the heart and the outer actions will then align with God’s call to quality worship. Again, God gives the people the ways in which this can be done.
“Cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.” These directives were also given to the people when they were given the Law, but they were not practicing this way of living. By the way they treated others, they were not showing love for their neighbors, and they were not showing love for their God.
Now that God has laid it all out, now that he has pointed out how his people were living unjustly and has given them an alternative way to live, God issues an invitation to come back to him. “Come now, let’s argue this out,” says the Lord. Other versions say, “Let’s settle this matter,” or “Let’s settle this.” This isn’t about actually arguing or negotiating, it’s about seeing the error of their ways, recognizing those errors as wrong, and working to do better. This is God’s invitation to repentance for his people, to restore them and give them another chance to change their ways.
“Right now,” God says, “your sins run red with blood, but you have a chance to turn them white as snow.” If this is the path that God’s people choose to take, they will once again enjoy the blessing of the land. But God is not one to coerce – the people can decide for themselves – turn and be blessed – or continue and be destroyed.
It seems like an easy decision, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t choose box “A” – turn and be blessed? No one wants to be destroyed. But there is a catch here – remember, God knows the heart of his people and their choice is not “pretend to do better but not really do it,” the option is “turn away from sin and turn to God.” This must be genuine, a true change of heart which proves a transformed life.
If you haven’t already guessed by now, Isaiah’s words are just as valid for us as readers as it was for those to whom they were originally spoken. We have to ask ourselves, “What is our worship like?” Why do we come to church? Is it to see our friends, to hear the music or listen to the sermon? Is it to catch up on all the stuff that happened over the week? Is it because this is just what is expected of us on Sunday morning? Is our heart truly in it?
We should be coming to church, not because we have to, but because we want to. We should be here each week eager to praise God and seek his presence in community with our brothers and sisters. We should be excited that we get to come to church, not grumbling because we have to. Then, when we get here, our focus should be on God, not on ourselves.
Worship is a time of praise, song, prayers, word, and sacraments to and for our God. Out of that worship should come the fruit of transformed lives – fellowship, sacrifice of time, talent, and tithes, outreach to those who are in need, justice for the oppressed, defense of the widow and the orphan, learning ways we can cease to do harm, finding new ways to do good, scattering seeds of kindness, sharing the love of God.
When we commit ourselves to God’s preferred way of worship, we never know where the fruit of our faithfulness might lead us. Sometimes it is a blessing for one person, sometimes it becomes a series of changed lives for many people over several years.
That was the case for a man named Abbe Pierre in 1949. Pierre was approached by a man named Georges after being released from prison. Ready to start a new life, Georges found that his family didn’t want him to come around; they asked him to leave.
Georges, homeless, unemployed, and considering suicide, asked Pierre for help. He never expected the response he got – “Could you help me?” Pierre asked. Pierre had been reaching out to help homeless mothers and their children as much as he could, and the needs were starting to overwhelm him. He could use some help in his ministry. Pierre thought that perhaps Georges could better turn his own life around by first serving those who were even less fortunate than he was.
The plan worked. Georges became the first person, later called “companion” in the Emmaus communities that Pierre founded based on the transformation he had seen in Georges. Those who needed help were asked to help still others in varied ways.
Georges later said of Pierre, "Whatever else [Abbe Pierre] might have given me -- money, home, somewhere to work -- I'd have still tried to kill myself. What I was missing, and what he offered, was something to live for." Out of those words came the unofficial motto of the Emmaus Communities: “give the poor a reason to live, not just things to live on.”
Because Pierre lived a life of serving others as the fruit of his faithful worship, lives have been changed, people have been helped, dignity has been restored. Pierre found a way to learn to do good in a world that can so easily be bad.
God doesn’t want out platitudes, our reluctant worship, or our selfish motives. God wants us to see others, he wants us to change lives, he wants us to make our world better, and he wants us to do this because we first understand that all we have comes from him and that knowledge then motivates us to worship with genuineness and integrity this God whom we love and who inspires us to then learn ways to do good. It’s a beautiful circle with God at the center. May we all choose to be a part of it together. AMEN.
PRAYER: Holy God, you ask that we worship you fully, truly, honestly, but sometimes we lose our focus. We let the world give us priorities and we turn away from you. Help us to give our hearts to you, Lord. Help us to turn away from the distractions and whatever stands between us and worship. And as we learn to focus more on you and worship you, let the fruit of that worship show in the ways we will learn to do good for others in your name. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
Margaret Visser, The Gift of Thanks, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, p. 373. From a sermon by C. Philip Green, The Way to Glory, 8/13/2011
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-19-3/commentary-on-isaiah-11-10-20-5
Call to Worship:
L: Is worship a charade; is prayer a game?
P: May our worship be authentic, our prayers heartfelt.
L: With God’s help we will cease to do evil,
P: We will fight oppression and care for the orphans and widows.
L: We will bless others because God has first blessed us,
P: We will honor God with our lives, our words, our love.
ALL: AMEN.
Hymn: 357 Just as I Am, Without One Plea
Rootstown
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Learn to Do Good
Scripture: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
10 Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls
or of lambs or of goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more!
13 Bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation--
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove your evil deeds
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;
17 learn to do good;
seek justice;
rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
plead for the widow.
18 Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
If your sins are like scarlet,
will they become like snow?
If they are red like crimson,
will they become like wool?
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land,
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
We’ve spent our time with Hosea, and we leave him now to continue the work God has called him to do, and to work out his family problems in private. We are stopping by this week to visit Isaiah and we will hang out here next week, also. Isaiah has a lot to say to the people of God in Judah during the years of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
Today’s passage was likely written after the Assyrian ruler, Sennacherib, had invaded Judah in 701 BC which was when Hezekiah was King of Judah. You can learn about that time in Isaiah chapters 36-37 and 2 Kings 18-19. The city of Jerusalem is still standing after this invasion, but it is isolated from other surrounding cities which were destroyed, and it is to Jerusalem that Isaiah’s message from God is directed.
Isaiah’s words are not gentle and comforting for what the people have had to endure from the Assyrians as we might hope for them to be after such a time as they have been through. No, the words he speaks today are meant to cut directly to the heart of the people, to call them out on something that they are doing. God wants to talk about their worship practices.
You know the message isn’t going to go well when it begins with being called “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah.” We remember those cities from the time of Abraham and Lot, how God caused fire and brimstone to rain down upon those cities and destroy everything and everyone because of the atrocious sins of the way they were living.
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?” God asks. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.”
Now, wait, we wonder, isn’t that exactly what God had told them to do way back in the day? Weren’t they supposed to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to God as part of their worship, as part of the Law? Of course, the answer is yes. This is a practice that God himself had instituted when he gave the Law to Moses while the Israelites were in the wilderness. So, what’s changed?
The people have changed. Many are still following the letter of the Law, but the thing is, God requires not rote worship but loving worship. The new moon festivals and the sabbath days were to be observed as a show of heartfelt worship of the God who provides for all their needs, but now, the people either don’t practice these rites for the right reasons, or they don’t bother practicing them at all. God is tired of it. He is over their half-hearted attempts to appease him with their words and their actions but refusing to engage their hearts in what they are doing. What God wants is for his people to worship with integrity and genuine desire for relationship with him.
If we read this passage through quickly, it is easy to assume that God is wiping out the whole worship system that he had created. After all, we hear him say, “Trample my courts no more! Bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me.”
And then he says, “Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.”
Is God rejecting worship? Has he grown tired of it all and desires it no more? No. It isn’t worship that God is carrying the burden for, it is how the people are worshiping. I don’t mean the style of worship. God doesn’t care if the Israelites chose a contemporary or traditional style of worship, he doesn’t care if there is a choir or a praise band or not – the elements and style of worship all are pleasing to God – if they come from the heart. But Israel was no longer pouring out their hearts to God; they were going through the motions at best.
Look carefully at what God is saying through Isaiah: “I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity,” and, “your hands are full of blood.” God wants his people to get back to real worship and he gives them instructions for how to do that: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes.”
In other words, stop caring only about what you can get from others, stop taking advantage of the disadvantaged, see what wrongs need to be made right, start caring about, and for, the least, the lost, and the lonely. Clean the dust and the dirt and the cobwebs from your hearts, open your eyes, and SEE how your actions are creating separation between people and separating you from God.
I appreciate how Pastor Michael Ruffin puts the situation in his commentary: “Acts of worship, even if performed correctly and abundantly, cannot compensate for the mistreatment of people, especially of the weak and oppressed.” In other words, to use an expression we have all heard – worship is about quality, not quantity.
God’s call to his people, through the words of Isaiah, is to wash themselves – not just go take a shower but wash themselves from the inside out. Start with the heart, purify the heart and the outer actions will then align with God’s call to quality worship. Again, God gives the people the ways in which this can be done.
“Cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.” These directives were also given to the people when they were given the Law, but they were not practicing this way of living. By the way they treated others, they were not showing love for their neighbors, and they were not showing love for their God.
Now that God has laid it all out, now that he has pointed out how his people were living unjustly and has given them an alternative way to live, God issues an invitation to come back to him. “Come now, let’s argue this out,” says the Lord. Other versions say, “Let’s settle this matter,” or “Let’s settle this.” This isn’t about actually arguing or negotiating, it’s about seeing the error of their ways, recognizing those errors as wrong, and working to do better. This is God’s invitation to repentance for his people, to restore them and give them another chance to change their ways.
“Right now,” God says, “your sins run red with blood, but you have a chance to turn them white as snow.” If this is the path that God’s people choose to take, they will once again enjoy the blessing of the land. But God is not one to coerce – the people can decide for themselves – turn and be blessed – or continue and be destroyed.
It seems like an easy decision, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t choose box “A” – turn and be blessed? No one wants to be destroyed. But there is a catch here – remember, God knows the heart of his people and their choice is not “pretend to do better but not really do it,” the option is “turn away from sin and turn to God.” This must be genuine, a true change of heart which proves a transformed life.
If you haven’t already guessed by now, Isaiah’s words are just as valid for us as readers as it was for those to whom they were originally spoken. We have to ask ourselves, “What is our worship like?” Why do we come to church? Is it to see our friends, to hear the music or listen to the sermon? Is it to catch up on all the stuff that happened over the week? Is it because this is just what is expected of us on Sunday morning? Is our heart truly in it?
We should be coming to church, not because we have to, but because we want to. We should be here each week eager to praise God and seek his presence in community with our brothers and sisters. We should be excited that we get to come to church, not grumbling because we have to. Then, when we get here, our focus should be on God, not on ourselves.
Worship is a time of praise, song, prayers, word, and sacraments to and for our God. Out of that worship should come the fruit of transformed lives – fellowship, sacrifice of time, talent, and tithes, outreach to those who are in need, justice for the oppressed, defense of the widow and the orphan, learning ways we can cease to do harm, finding new ways to do good, scattering seeds of kindness, sharing the love of God.
When we commit ourselves to God’s preferred way of worship, we never know where the fruit of our faithfulness might lead us. Sometimes it is a blessing for one person, sometimes it becomes a series of changed lives for many people over several years.
That was the case for a man named Abbe Pierre in 1949. Pierre was approached by a man named Georges after being released from prison. Ready to start a new life, Georges found that his family didn’t want him to come around; they asked him to leave.
Georges, homeless, unemployed, and considering suicide, asked Pierre for help. He never expected the response he got – “Could you help me?” Pierre asked. Pierre had been reaching out to help homeless mothers and their children as much as he could, and the needs were starting to overwhelm him. He could use some help in his ministry. Pierre thought that perhaps Georges could better turn his own life around by first serving those who were even less fortunate than he was.
The plan worked. Georges became the first person, later called “companion” in the Emmaus communities that Pierre founded based on the transformation he had seen in Georges. Those who needed help were asked to help still others in varied ways.
Georges later said of Pierre, "Whatever else [Abbe Pierre] might have given me -- money, home, somewhere to work -- I'd have still tried to kill myself. What I was missing, and what he offered, was something to live for." Out of those words came the unofficial motto of the Emmaus Communities: “give the poor a reason to live, not just things to live on.”
Because Pierre lived a life of serving others as the fruit of his faithful worship, lives have been changed, people have been helped, dignity has been restored. Pierre found a way to learn to do good in a world that can so easily be bad.
God doesn’t want out platitudes, our reluctant worship, or our selfish motives. God wants us to see others, he wants us to change lives, he wants us to make our world better, and he wants us to do this because we first understand that all we have comes from him and that knowledge then motivates us to worship with genuineness and integrity this God whom we love and who inspires us to then learn ways to do good. It’s a beautiful circle with God at the center. May we all choose to be a part of it together. AMEN.
PRAYER: Holy God, you ask that we worship you fully, truly, honestly, but sometimes we lose our focus. We let the world give us priorities and we turn away from you. Help us to give our hearts to you, Lord. Help us to turn away from the distractions and whatever stands between us and worship. And as we learn to focus more on you and worship you, let the fruit of that worship show in the ways we will learn to do good for others in your name. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
Margaret Visser, The Gift of Thanks, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, p. 373. From a sermon by C. Philip Green, The Way to Glory, 8/13/2011
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-19-3/commentary-on-isaiah-11-10-20-5
Call to Worship:
L: Is worship a charade; is prayer a game?
P: May our worship be authentic, our prayers heartfelt.
L: With God’s help we will cease to do evil,
P: We will fight oppression and care for the orphans and widows.
L: We will bless others because God has first blessed us,
P: We will honor God with our lives, our words, our love.
ALL: AMEN.
Hymn: 357 Just as I Am, Without One Plea
7/31/2022 pASTOR DONNA'S SERMON "cORDS OF kINDNESS"
July 31, 2022
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Cords of Kindness
Scripture: Hosea 11:1-11
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals
and offering incense to idols.
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
I took them up in my arms,
but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks,
I bent down to them and fed them.
5 They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
6 The sword rages in their cities;
it consumes their oracle priests
and devours because of their schemes.
7 My people are bent on turning away from me.
To the Most High they call,
but he does not raise them up at all.
8 How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9 I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim,
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
10 They shall go after the Lord,
who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west.
11 They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt
and like doves from the land of Assyria,
and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.
I am reading a book by Michael Beck called Painting with Ashes. Michael was a speaker at this year’s Annual Conference and this book is his story of how he went from drug addict to pastor. He doesn’t hold back anything just to make himself look better, but instead; Michael reveals the dark, ugly truth of his journey from brokenness to wholeness in Christ.
At one point in his story, he speaks about his relationship with his grandmother. His grandparents had adopted and raised Michael, but his grandfather died unexpectedly while Michael was still pretty young. As young teen, Michael was introduced to the drug scene and soon thereafter, he began to be a drug dealer, providing large quantities to his distributers and selling to individuals right out of his grandma’s house.
Grandma begged and pleaded with Michael to stop, but he refused. She prayed for him daily, but nothing changed. Finally, Michael, as do many rebellious teenagers, gave Grandma an ultimatum; either he continued to run his drug business out of her house, or he would leave and find his own place.
Now, many of us would tell Grandma that she should have said good- bye and good riddance, and we shake our heads when we learn she didn’t follow our advice. You see, Grandma had suffered through several losses in her life and her fear of losing Michael and being left all alone drove her to allow Michael to continue his illegal activities in her home.
Grandma never gave up on Michael, though. Even as the lines of customers reached from Michael’s bedroom through the house to the front porch, Grandma would sit in her chair in the living room, reading her bible and praying for Michael and all the others who became his regulars. She just loved him too much to give up.
That is where God is in today’s scripture. We have skipped over a lot of what has happened to Hosea in the previous chapters. I told you that Hosea’s marriage to Gomer was constantly in conflict. Gomer would leave and go back to her old lifestyle, then she would return for a while, but eventually she would leave again. Eventually, her life would spiral so far downward that Hosea would have to rescue her from being sold as a slave by buying her back for himself.
In that action, Hosea fully understood how far Israel had fallen from following God. God’s love was so great for his people that he would take them back whenever they turned away from following all their false gods and returned to him.
Today, we hear God’s lament for his people, and it echoes with the heartbreak that was heard in Michael’s grandmother’s prayers for him.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.”
God is heartbroken at how Ephraim, meaning Israel, has turned out. He remembers the days long ago when he brought them out of Egypt, how he saved them from the oppression of slavery to the Egyptians. He longs to once again gather the people to himself, to hold them in his arms as one holds a precious infant. God wants them to remember that he is the one who led them through the wilderness for forty years, when their clothes and their sandals never wore out. He wants them to remember that it was God who gave them manna to eat and brought water from the rocks when they were thirsty.
God’s love is so much greater than these people realize or remember, but unlike Michael’s grandmother, God cannot allow Israel to continue to live a life that is not good for them. They have turned their backs on the one who can love them and provide for them, and they have turned to false gods made of stone, wood, and metal – gods who have no life in them, who cannot provide for them, who do not love them as their own.
So, God gives Hosea a prophesy to warn the people: “They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword rages in their cities; it consumes their oracle priests and devours because of their schemes. My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all.”
The day will come, Hosea tells them, when they will return to living under the rule of a foreign king once again. Assyria will conquer them, and they will serve the Assyrian king, and they have brought it all on themselves by breaking their covenant to serve only God.
Today, we often call this “tough love.” Tough love is hard. Sometimes it gets ugly. When we step up and put our foot down by setting boundaries for our children or other loved ones, we get to bear the brunt of their rebelliousness. We become the target of their anger; we are the one on whom they spew their hateful, hurtful words. We are painted as the “bad guy” in their life. It’s hard, isn’t it?
We want to be the one they love, the one they turn to for help, the one they know they can trust, but sometimes, in order to protect ourselves and for the benefit of others, we need to be strong enough to be the bad guy. Anyone who has raised teenagers knows this feeling at least once in their lives.
For me, it happened when I was planning a business to trip to Orlando. My husband and I had been struggling with our son for quite a while over doing his homework – he thought it was optional, his teachers did not. His test grades were always high, but his overall grades suffered because of his refusal to turn in his work.
The deal was made that any grade on his grade card before the trip that was lower than a “C” meant he would not go to Florida with us. The time for the trip approached. We were leaving on a Sunday; grade cards came home on a Friday. The list of exam grades was all As and Bs; but with no homework, his overall grades contained one D and one F. He would not be able to go.
It was a hard decision, but warnings had been given, the results on that grade card were entirely up to him. The weekend was awful. He was angry at me for sticking to my word, I was upset that he hadn’t tried at least a little bit to do the dang homework. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was to drop my kid off at my mom’s on Sunday and leave for Florida without him.
As I think about that time, I cannot imagine how much more God’s heart broke at having to discipline his own people in the way that he did. He had tried many times and through many prophets to warn them. He had given them many chances to turn their lives around, to leave their worship of false gods and to return to him. Sometimes they would do just that, but it never lasted; they would once again fall away and turn back to their idols, forgetting the God who loved them.
Our God is a God who keeps his word and he had to do that for his people to really learn who he was. He would allow his children to be returned to slavery, this time through the Assyrians, but he would not completely destroy them. And so, we hear the cry of his heart:
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”
God has decided to do what he needs to do to discipline his children, but it will be up to them whether they learn from their experience. We cannot coerce our children to change their hearts. We can discipline, we can love, we can pray, but ultimately, what they do and how they live is up to them.
Michael’s grandma waited patiently for Michael to come to his senses and turn back to God. My son never became proficient at doing that homework, but he never again had a grade card with such low grades. And God knows there will be a day when Ephraim, Israel, will once again return to him. They will not live in exile forever. “They shall go after the Lord, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.”
God is the same today. He loves us and he wants only what is best for us, but he allows us to make our own choices, our own decisions. God calls us to himself, but he will not coerce us to come. He wants us to want to come to him of our own free will so that we will know his love is genuine, and he will know the same of us.
We are warned that life without God is a life of slavery to sin and death, but through God, through his son, Jesus, we have been given the gift of leaving that life behind. We have been given a second chance – or maybe a third or a fourth. God will give us as many chances as it takes as he waits for us to come to him and live for him. For as long as we breathe, we can turn to God, and he will take us in.
It took Michael many years of trying and failing to live a life of faithfulness to God, but today, he does just that. His story echoes in many of our own lives as we remember how we have come to be here today. The roads may have been different, but we all have struggled on our journey, we may have slipped up, we may have walked away, we may have even given up, but God doesn’t quit on us. He keeps waiting, patiently waiting, and when we do turn back to him, we notice that his arms are open, and he beckons us to come to him.
There is a hymn that pleads, “Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with cords that cannot be broken, bind us together with love.” That is God’s desire. His love is not oppressive but liberating, his love is not fickle but infinite. God wants to bind us together into a family – his family – a family bound together with cords made of kindness and love, mercy, and grace. Will we accept the invitation? AMEN.
PRAYER: Gracious, loving God, we want to be bound up together in your cords of kindness. We want to experience your mercy and grace and feel your love. Forgive us, Lord, when we act like the Israelites in Hosea’s time, when we turn away from you instead of to you, when we refuse to follow you, when we are in need of discipline. Help us to see you, arms open wide, beckoning us to come back, to be loved, to be included, to be your children once more. Thank you for your faithfulness when we have none, thank you for your love even when our actions are unlovable. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Cords of Kindness
Scripture: Hosea 11:1-11
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals
and offering incense to idols.
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
I took them up in my arms,
but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks,
I bent down to them and fed them.
5 They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
6 The sword rages in their cities;
it consumes their oracle priests
and devours because of their schemes.
7 My people are bent on turning away from me.
To the Most High they call,
but he does not raise them up at all.
8 How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9 I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim,
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
10 They shall go after the Lord,
who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west.
11 They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt
and like doves from the land of Assyria,
and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.
I am reading a book by Michael Beck called Painting with Ashes. Michael was a speaker at this year’s Annual Conference and this book is his story of how he went from drug addict to pastor. He doesn’t hold back anything just to make himself look better, but instead; Michael reveals the dark, ugly truth of his journey from brokenness to wholeness in Christ.
At one point in his story, he speaks about his relationship with his grandmother. His grandparents had adopted and raised Michael, but his grandfather died unexpectedly while Michael was still pretty young. As young teen, Michael was introduced to the drug scene and soon thereafter, he began to be a drug dealer, providing large quantities to his distributers and selling to individuals right out of his grandma’s house.
Grandma begged and pleaded with Michael to stop, but he refused. She prayed for him daily, but nothing changed. Finally, Michael, as do many rebellious teenagers, gave Grandma an ultimatum; either he continued to run his drug business out of her house, or he would leave and find his own place.
Now, many of us would tell Grandma that she should have said good- bye and good riddance, and we shake our heads when we learn she didn’t follow our advice. You see, Grandma had suffered through several losses in her life and her fear of losing Michael and being left all alone drove her to allow Michael to continue his illegal activities in her home.
Grandma never gave up on Michael, though. Even as the lines of customers reached from Michael’s bedroom through the house to the front porch, Grandma would sit in her chair in the living room, reading her bible and praying for Michael and all the others who became his regulars. She just loved him too much to give up.
That is where God is in today’s scripture. We have skipped over a lot of what has happened to Hosea in the previous chapters. I told you that Hosea’s marriage to Gomer was constantly in conflict. Gomer would leave and go back to her old lifestyle, then she would return for a while, but eventually she would leave again. Eventually, her life would spiral so far downward that Hosea would have to rescue her from being sold as a slave by buying her back for himself.
In that action, Hosea fully understood how far Israel had fallen from following God. God’s love was so great for his people that he would take them back whenever they turned away from following all their false gods and returned to him.
Today, we hear God’s lament for his people, and it echoes with the heartbreak that was heard in Michael’s grandmother’s prayers for him.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.”
God is heartbroken at how Ephraim, meaning Israel, has turned out. He remembers the days long ago when he brought them out of Egypt, how he saved them from the oppression of slavery to the Egyptians. He longs to once again gather the people to himself, to hold them in his arms as one holds a precious infant. God wants them to remember that he is the one who led them through the wilderness for forty years, when their clothes and their sandals never wore out. He wants them to remember that it was God who gave them manna to eat and brought water from the rocks when they were thirsty.
God’s love is so much greater than these people realize or remember, but unlike Michael’s grandmother, God cannot allow Israel to continue to live a life that is not good for them. They have turned their backs on the one who can love them and provide for them, and they have turned to false gods made of stone, wood, and metal – gods who have no life in them, who cannot provide for them, who do not love them as their own.
So, God gives Hosea a prophesy to warn the people: “They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword rages in their cities; it consumes their oracle priests and devours because of their schemes. My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all.”
The day will come, Hosea tells them, when they will return to living under the rule of a foreign king once again. Assyria will conquer them, and they will serve the Assyrian king, and they have brought it all on themselves by breaking their covenant to serve only God.
Today, we often call this “tough love.” Tough love is hard. Sometimes it gets ugly. When we step up and put our foot down by setting boundaries for our children or other loved ones, we get to bear the brunt of their rebelliousness. We become the target of their anger; we are the one on whom they spew their hateful, hurtful words. We are painted as the “bad guy” in their life. It’s hard, isn’t it?
We want to be the one they love, the one they turn to for help, the one they know they can trust, but sometimes, in order to protect ourselves and for the benefit of others, we need to be strong enough to be the bad guy. Anyone who has raised teenagers knows this feeling at least once in their lives.
For me, it happened when I was planning a business to trip to Orlando. My husband and I had been struggling with our son for quite a while over doing his homework – he thought it was optional, his teachers did not. His test grades were always high, but his overall grades suffered because of his refusal to turn in his work.
The deal was made that any grade on his grade card before the trip that was lower than a “C” meant he would not go to Florida with us. The time for the trip approached. We were leaving on a Sunday; grade cards came home on a Friday. The list of exam grades was all As and Bs; but with no homework, his overall grades contained one D and one F. He would not be able to go.
It was a hard decision, but warnings had been given, the results on that grade card were entirely up to him. The weekend was awful. He was angry at me for sticking to my word, I was upset that he hadn’t tried at least a little bit to do the dang homework. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was to drop my kid off at my mom’s on Sunday and leave for Florida without him.
As I think about that time, I cannot imagine how much more God’s heart broke at having to discipline his own people in the way that he did. He had tried many times and through many prophets to warn them. He had given them many chances to turn their lives around, to leave their worship of false gods and to return to him. Sometimes they would do just that, but it never lasted; they would once again fall away and turn back to their idols, forgetting the God who loved them.
Our God is a God who keeps his word and he had to do that for his people to really learn who he was. He would allow his children to be returned to slavery, this time through the Assyrians, but he would not completely destroy them. And so, we hear the cry of his heart:
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”
God has decided to do what he needs to do to discipline his children, but it will be up to them whether they learn from their experience. We cannot coerce our children to change their hearts. We can discipline, we can love, we can pray, but ultimately, what they do and how they live is up to them.
Michael’s grandma waited patiently for Michael to come to his senses and turn back to God. My son never became proficient at doing that homework, but he never again had a grade card with such low grades. And God knows there will be a day when Ephraim, Israel, will once again return to him. They will not live in exile forever. “They shall go after the Lord, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.”
God is the same today. He loves us and he wants only what is best for us, but he allows us to make our own choices, our own decisions. God calls us to himself, but he will not coerce us to come. He wants us to want to come to him of our own free will so that we will know his love is genuine, and he will know the same of us.
We are warned that life without God is a life of slavery to sin and death, but through God, through his son, Jesus, we have been given the gift of leaving that life behind. We have been given a second chance – or maybe a third or a fourth. God will give us as many chances as it takes as he waits for us to come to him and live for him. For as long as we breathe, we can turn to God, and he will take us in.
It took Michael many years of trying and failing to live a life of faithfulness to God, but today, he does just that. His story echoes in many of our own lives as we remember how we have come to be here today. The roads may have been different, but we all have struggled on our journey, we may have slipped up, we may have walked away, we may have even given up, but God doesn’t quit on us. He keeps waiting, patiently waiting, and when we do turn back to him, we notice that his arms are open, and he beckons us to come to him.
There is a hymn that pleads, “Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with cords that cannot be broken, bind us together with love.” That is God’s desire. His love is not oppressive but liberating, his love is not fickle but infinite. God wants to bind us together into a family – his family – a family bound together with cords made of kindness and love, mercy, and grace. Will we accept the invitation? AMEN.
PRAYER: Gracious, loving God, we want to be bound up together in your cords of kindness. We want to experience your mercy and grace and feel your love. Forgive us, Lord, when we act like the Israelites in Hosea’s time, when we turn away from you instead of to you, when we refuse to follow you, when we are in need of discipline. Help us to see you, arms open wide, beckoning us to come back, to be loved, to be included, to be your children once more. Thank you for your faithfulness when we have none, thank you for your love even when our actions are unlovable. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
7/24/2022 PASTOR DONNA'S SERMON "pITY ON THE HOUSE"
July 24, 2022
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Pity on the House
Scripture: Hosea 1:2-10
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and have children of prostitution, for the land commits great prostitution by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel, for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. 7 But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
10 Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered, and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall rise up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Anyone here like the Marvel movies? The Avengers, Captain America, Thor and the rest? I do. I haven’t seen the newest Thor movie yet, but I have seen the earlier ones and I noticed a theme that runs through them that might be easy to miss in the chaos of destruction and the thrill of saving the world. That theme is love – not just the romantic love between Thor and Jane Foster, not just Thor’s love for earth and its people – but Thor’s love for his family, even – and especially – his love for his brother Loki.
Let’s face it, Loki is not easy to love. He’s the quintessential bad guy, always looking for ways to be the king of some world or realm, always betraying Thor whenever he gets a chance. But Thor truly loves his brother, not because he doesn’t see him as he is, not because he doesn’t recognize Loki’s diabolical nature. Thor loves Loki in spite of all that, simply because he is his brother. Even knowing Loki is adopted doesn’t bother Thor – they are brothers and that is all that matters.
That’s what I was thinking of this week when I read the beginning of Hosea. This is truly a testament to the love God has for his people. It’s also a testament of the love Hosea has for God, that he would be so obedient as to defile himself by marrying a prostitute, simply because God told him to do so. That is a strong faith, my friends, and a strong love.
I believe, even though Hosea married Gomer because God had told him to, that he came to love this woman in spite of her past. Let’s face it, this was a risky love that Hosea was pursuing. A love that will persevere through both the good times and the bad times. A love that others might look at and wonder why he bothers. A love that does not give up even when Gomer disregards that love and returns to her previous lifestyle.
Do we have someone like that in our life? Someone who has loved us no matter what we have done, no matter what we have said, no matter how many times we have hurt them? Is there someone in our lives whom we love enough that we refuse to give up on them, no matter what? If we can say yes to either or both of these questions, then we get a glimpse of what God is asking Hosea to do when he sends him out to marry a woman who will make it hard to love.
This was Hosea’s introductory call into the ministry of being a prophet. Kind of feels like jumping off the deep end, doesn’t it? No easy prophesy to convey to the people as a learning curve, just the directive to go out and marry a prostitute. It’s important to remind ourselves here that Hosea is not being punished by God – instead God is using Hosea to show the people how God himself sees them and their own infidelities.
Professor Pamela Scalise teaches us that those who would hear Hosea’s message and witness his obedience to God would have been the men who were heads of families, of clans, and even national leaders. God’s message, through Hosea, would have been meant for them to see themselves as both the children and the wife; as ones who had prostituted themselves before other gods and as children of those who had done so before them.
God’s accusation of these people was intentionally offensive because he wanted them to be shocked into seeing themselves as how they had become. It was a wake-up call in the hopes that recognition would lead to repentance.
So, Hosea marries Gomer, and all seems to go well at first, so they started their family. The first child was a boy. God said, “Name him Jezreel.’ This was a name that the people would associate with bloodshed – a name they knew from their history.
Next came their baby girl. God chose her name to be Lo-ruhamah – not loved. Our heart breaks when we hear that name, doesn’t it? How can this tiny baby not be loved? But, we ask, how can one not love God? Ahh, perhaps that was his point then.
Not long after little Lo-ruhamah was on solid food, along comes the next child – another boy. Again, God chooses his name; this one is to be named Lo-ammi: “you are not my people, and I am not your God.” Again, our heart breaks a little when we hear this, and we are reminded that when we had visited with Amos, he had prophesied that there would be a time coming when there would be a famine – a time when there would be no word from God. A time when God’s people would seek for God but not be able to find him. What God told through Amos he is showing through Hosea.
This is another week where the reading is hard. Another week where we wonder where the good news is, where the hope is in the words and actions of the prophet we visit as he carries out God’s directives. But, as always, if we search for it, we will find it.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. God has used words to reach out to his people. He has spoken through his prophets, but his people are no longer willing to listen. So, God calls Hosea to radical action – to SHOW his people how they are, what they are doing. Hosea could tell them another story using words, but instead, God calls Hosea to tell his story by how he lives.
We all have a story to tell. Remember, I asked if anyone had someone who had loved them or someone you have loved no matter what? If we had the time, we might invite everyone to tell that story, and in the telling, we would sympathize with the heartbreak and celebrate the triumphs. But, of all who hear our stories, who among us would feel the heartbreak the deepest, who would thrill to the victories the most? It would be the ones whose experiences most closely matched the storytellers.
When we have experienced our own hard times, we can better understand what others are going through. When we have emerged through those hard times into the light, we can more readily encourage those who are still on their journey, we can celebrate with them a little more exuberantly. What we have lived helps us see what others are living.
God has called Hosea to tell the Israelites, through his own experiences, how God sees them. This is a radical love that God is pouring out on his people. If they wouldn’t listen to words, perhaps some will see with their eyes and turn back to God. Hosea’s story becomes more authentic because he is living it himself. Hosea isn’t telling God’s story to God’s people simply by using words – he is living the story in real time, in real life.
Sadly, after the birth of their third child, Gomer leaves Hosea. She breaks her marriage vows and returns to her former lifestyle. She lusted after the material things that she could gain from other men – rich food, fine clothes, jewels, money. She reveled in this life for a time, but finally, reality set in and Gomer realized she was not living in the way she should. She came to her senses and returned to her husband, and Hosea took her back because he loved her.
In the closing verses of today’s scripture, we begin to feel the love God has for his people, this love that will not let him give up on them, no matter what. He gives them a glimpse of what is to come when they finally admit they have sinned and fallen away, and they finally turn back and worship him as their One, True God:
“Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered, and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall rise up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.”
Just as Gomer finally returned to her husband, the nations of Israel and Judah will come together and return to God. They will once again love him as their ancestors did long ago. And in that day, the names of Hosea’s children will be changed. Instead of Lo-ammi, he will be Ammi – my people – and instead of Lo-ruhamah, she will be Ruhamah – pitied. And in those days, God will say, “You are my people,” and they will say, “You are my God.”
Gomer would eventually leave Hosea again, but she would come back, and he would take her in, and it would happen again and again. I think it is easy for us to judge Gomer. She had everything she needed at home, yet she kept throwing it all away and running back to a sinful way of living. I think it’s also easy for us to judge Hosea. Why would he keep taking her back? She clearly was incapable of returning his love in any real, lasting way. She was a selfish person who didn’t care for her husband or her kids; he should have closed the door in her face and told her to get lost.
Friends, before we judge either of these people too quickly, let’s take another look. God may have been using Hosea’s situation as a way to reach the Israelites, but I believe he is using Hosea’s story to reach us today.
We are Gomer. We are the ones who come to God and profess our love one day but then turn our backs the next. Then we come back, say we are sorry, beg for forgiveness, and ask to be let back in the house. And God, in his love, opens that door wide and welcomes us back. All is good for a while, but then we slip up and we slip away, returning to the places we never should have been in the first place. We run away again. But God will have pity on us when we once again come to our senses and knock on the door, asking for another chance, promising to be better this time, asking for forgiveness once again.
God’s love is greater than our sin. That is the good news we need to hear. God loves us and wants us to be a part of his family. How do I know that? Because God loves us so much that he sent his son to die for our sins so that we can live with him for all of eternity. That is certainly a radical love. Thank God for his love. AMEN.
PRAYER: Loving God, your love for us is radical. That you could love us even when we turn away from you is amazing, but we thank you, Lord, that you never give up on us. We thank you that when we come to our senses and come back to you, you welcome us with open arms. Lord, we don’t deserve it, but we are so grateful for it. Now, help us to share the good news of your love with others. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17-3/commentary-on-hosea-12-10-5
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Pity on the House
Scripture: Hosea 1:2-10
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and have children of prostitution, for the land commits great prostitution by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel, for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. 7 But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
10 Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered, and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall rise up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Anyone here like the Marvel movies? The Avengers, Captain America, Thor and the rest? I do. I haven’t seen the newest Thor movie yet, but I have seen the earlier ones and I noticed a theme that runs through them that might be easy to miss in the chaos of destruction and the thrill of saving the world. That theme is love – not just the romantic love between Thor and Jane Foster, not just Thor’s love for earth and its people – but Thor’s love for his family, even – and especially – his love for his brother Loki.
Let’s face it, Loki is not easy to love. He’s the quintessential bad guy, always looking for ways to be the king of some world or realm, always betraying Thor whenever he gets a chance. But Thor truly loves his brother, not because he doesn’t see him as he is, not because he doesn’t recognize Loki’s diabolical nature. Thor loves Loki in spite of all that, simply because he is his brother. Even knowing Loki is adopted doesn’t bother Thor – they are brothers and that is all that matters.
That’s what I was thinking of this week when I read the beginning of Hosea. This is truly a testament to the love God has for his people. It’s also a testament of the love Hosea has for God, that he would be so obedient as to defile himself by marrying a prostitute, simply because God told him to do so. That is a strong faith, my friends, and a strong love.
I believe, even though Hosea married Gomer because God had told him to, that he came to love this woman in spite of her past. Let’s face it, this was a risky love that Hosea was pursuing. A love that will persevere through both the good times and the bad times. A love that others might look at and wonder why he bothers. A love that does not give up even when Gomer disregards that love and returns to her previous lifestyle.
Do we have someone like that in our life? Someone who has loved us no matter what we have done, no matter what we have said, no matter how many times we have hurt them? Is there someone in our lives whom we love enough that we refuse to give up on them, no matter what? If we can say yes to either or both of these questions, then we get a glimpse of what God is asking Hosea to do when he sends him out to marry a woman who will make it hard to love.
This was Hosea’s introductory call into the ministry of being a prophet. Kind of feels like jumping off the deep end, doesn’t it? No easy prophesy to convey to the people as a learning curve, just the directive to go out and marry a prostitute. It’s important to remind ourselves here that Hosea is not being punished by God – instead God is using Hosea to show the people how God himself sees them and their own infidelities.
Professor Pamela Scalise teaches us that those who would hear Hosea’s message and witness his obedience to God would have been the men who were heads of families, of clans, and even national leaders. God’s message, through Hosea, would have been meant for them to see themselves as both the children and the wife; as ones who had prostituted themselves before other gods and as children of those who had done so before them.
God’s accusation of these people was intentionally offensive because he wanted them to be shocked into seeing themselves as how they had become. It was a wake-up call in the hopes that recognition would lead to repentance.
So, Hosea marries Gomer, and all seems to go well at first, so they started their family. The first child was a boy. God said, “Name him Jezreel.’ This was a name that the people would associate with bloodshed – a name they knew from their history.
Next came their baby girl. God chose her name to be Lo-ruhamah – not loved. Our heart breaks when we hear that name, doesn’t it? How can this tiny baby not be loved? But, we ask, how can one not love God? Ahh, perhaps that was his point then.
Not long after little Lo-ruhamah was on solid food, along comes the next child – another boy. Again, God chooses his name; this one is to be named Lo-ammi: “you are not my people, and I am not your God.” Again, our heart breaks a little when we hear this, and we are reminded that when we had visited with Amos, he had prophesied that there would be a time coming when there would be a famine – a time when there would be no word from God. A time when God’s people would seek for God but not be able to find him. What God told through Amos he is showing through Hosea.
This is another week where the reading is hard. Another week where we wonder where the good news is, where the hope is in the words and actions of the prophet we visit as he carries out God’s directives. But, as always, if we search for it, we will find it.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. God has used words to reach out to his people. He has spoken through his prophets, but his people are no longer willing to listen. So, God calls Hosea to radical action – to SHOW his people how they are, what they are doing. Hosea could tell them another story using words, but instead, God calls Hosea to tell his story by how he lives.
We all have a story to tell. Remember, I asked if anyone had someone who had loved them or someone you have loved no matter what? If we had the time, we might invite everyone to tell that story, and in the telling, we would sympathize with the heartbreak and celebrate the triumphs. But, of all who hear our stories, who among us would feel the heartbreak the deepest, who would thrill to the victories the most? It would be the ones whose experiences most closely matched the storytellers.
When we have experienced our own hard times, we can better understand what others are going through. When we have emerged through those hard times into the light, we can more readily encourage those who are still on their journey, we can celebrate with them a little more exuberantly. What we have lived helps us see what others are living.
God has called Hosea to tell the Israelites, through his own experiences, how God sees them. This is a radical love that God is pouring out on his people. If they wouldn’t listen to words, perhaps some will see with their eyes and turn back to God. Hosea’s story becomes more authentic because he is living it himself. Hosea isn’t telling God’s story to God’s people simply by using words – he is living the story in real time, in real life.
Sadly, after the birth of their third child, Gomer leaves Hosea. She breaks her marriage vows and returns to her former lifestyle. She lusted after the material things that she could gain from other men – rich food, fine clothes, jewels, money. She reveled in this life for a time, but finally, reality set in and Gomer realized she was not living in the way she should. She came to her senses and returned to her husband, and Hosea took her back because he loved her.
In the closing verses of today’s scripture, we begin to feel the love God has for his people, this love that will not let him give up on them, no matter what. He gives them a glimpse of what is to come when they finally admit they have sinned and fallen away, and they finally turn back and worship him as their One, True God:
“Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered, and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall rise up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.”
Just as Gomer finally returned to her husband, the nations of Israel and Judah will come together and return to God. They will once again love him as their ancestors did long ago. And in that day, the names of Hosea’s children will be changed. Instead of Lo-ammi, he will be Ammi – my people – and instead of Lo-ruhamah, she will be Ruhamah – pitied. And in those days, God will say, “You are my people,” and they will say, “You are my God.”
Gomer would eventually leave Hosea again, but she would come back, and he would take her in, and it would happen again and again. I think it is easy for us to judge Gomer. She had everything she needed at home, yet she kept throwing it all away and running back to a sinful way of living. I think it’s also easy for us to judge Hosea. Why would he keep taking her back? She clearly was incapable of returning his love in any real, lasting way. She was a selfish person who didn’t care for her husband or her kids; he should have closed the door in her face and told her to get lost.
Friends, before we judge either of these people too quickly, let’s take another look. God may have been using Hosea’s situation as a way to reach the Israelites, but I believe he is using Hosea’s story to reach us today.
We are Gomer. We are the ones who come to God and profess our love one day but then turn our backs the next. Then we come back, say we are sorry, beg for forgiveness, and ask to be let back in the house. And God, in his love, opens that door wide and welcomes us back. All is good for a while, but then we slip up and we slip away, returning to the places we never should have been in the first place. We run away again. But God will have pity on us when we once again come to our senses and knock on the door, asking for another chance, promising to be better this time, asking for forgiveness once again.
God’s love is greater than our sin. That is the good news we need to hear. God loves us and wants us to be a part of his family. How do I know that? Because God loves us so much that he sent his son to die for our sins so that we can live with him for all of eternity. That is certainly a radical love. Thank God for his love. AMEN.
PRAYER: Loving God, your love for us is radical. That you could love us even when we turn away from you is amazing, but we thank you, Lord, that you never give up on us. We thank you that when we come to our senses and come back to you, you welcome us with open arms. Lord, we don’t deserve it, but we are so grateful for it. Now, help us to share the good news of your love with others. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17-3/commentary-on-hosea-12-10-5
7/17/2022 pastor donna's sermon "living in a bitter day"
July 17, 2022
Rootstown
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Living in a Bitter Day
Scripture: Amos 8:1-12
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “Amos, what
do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me,
“The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer.
3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,”
says the Lord GOD;
“the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!”
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
and practice deceit with false balances,
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?
9 On that day, says the Lord GOD,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
2
I will bring sackcloth on all loins
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD,
when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD,
but they shall not find it.
Amos has extended the invitation to stay another week so here we are. This week
Amos speaks hard words. Some might say even harsh words. These are words that no
one wants to hear – and no one really wants to have to say. But the truth sometimes is
hard. Sometimes hearing the unbridled truth is what it takes to wake us up from the
lethargy we seem to fall into in our overworked, hectic lives.
Let’s face it – at the end of the day, after work and chores and errands, after kids and
families, and all the rest – what we really want is just to veg in front of the TV or spend
time on our devices so that we can close ourselves off from everything that is “out there”
pulling us in too many directions, overloading our senses, overwhelming our strength.
We’re tired, we’re sapped, and we’re vulnerable.
That is why it is so hard to listen for the word of God and so hard to take time to look up
and out to see what is around us. We are afraid if we see something we might have to
do something. But today’s scripture once again calls us to look up and around, not just
at what we see in our own neighborhood, but what we see in the world. Ouch! Are we
3
up to that? Can we really muster up the wherewithal to do that? With God’s strength we
can.
This seeing that God is asking us to do through Amos is a deeper seeing. Here’s an
example of deeper seeing. God asked Amos, “What do you see?” and this time the
answer was, “A basket of summer fruit.” What do we picture when we hear that? A
beautiful, lush display of ripened fruit, juicy and waiting to be eaten. Have you ever
bought a package of beautiful strawberries at the supermarket and when you got home
discovered that some of the ones on the bottom had rotted? We didn’t see deeply
enough to see the spoilage, we only saw the beautiful attraction on the outside, the part
we like to see.
As Rev. Dr. Derek Weber writes, “God asks Amos, who then asks us, to look deeper.
What is underneath our wealth, our comfort, our excess? Who is suffering, who is
hurting, who is decaying like a basket of summer fruit” that is beautiful to the eye but
spoiled underneath?
Lest we begin to think this is only a 21 st century problem, let’s remember our scripture:
“Hear this, you who trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying,
‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, so that we
may offer wheat for sale?’”
4
Even in Amos’ day people we too busy to care about others on a regular basis. The new
moon festivals and the sabbath breaks were a time to endure as they waited to get back
to “real life” where business could go back to being as usual, where trades could
resume, where blinders could be put on and life could rush right by. And how do we
know they had little care for others?
Hear this proof: The people have said, “’We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel
heavier and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy
for a pair of sandals and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’”
What kind of practices are these? Dirty, deceitful practices that go against what God
would have. These people have devised ways to cheat others, their scales are out-of-
balance to their good and the others’ misfortune, they are willing buy another person for
a few pieces of silver or a pair of sandals. And who is going to notice if there is dirt and
debris mixed in with that wheat – go ahead and sweep it up off the floor and sell it
anyway. Is this how we are supposed to treat people?
“But wait,” you say, “we don’t do any of those things. We don’t measure with any scale,
let alone an imbalanced one, we don’t sell wheat off the floor, and we certainly don’t buy
people!” And you are right. That is not how we conduct ourselves today. Times have
5
changed and many ways of doing business and just living day to day are different now
from Amos’ time. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own ways of cheating others
and taking advantage when we know we shouldn’t
Have we ever made our children younger than they really were just to get a discount at
a restaurant or to save on admission to an amusement park? Have we ever said, “We
can do such and such because everyone else does,” even though we know it is wrong?
Have we ever written a check when we know there was no money in our account? Have
we ever peeked at someone’s phone when they accidentally left it on, or opened
someone else’s mail?
We are an inventive and creative people and the ways we use those gifts can be for the
better or for the worse. Most of us can surely confess that we have done both better and
worse. Why do we do the things that we know are wrong? Because we think we can get
away with it, that no one will really be harmed, that no one will even notice. But God
notices. That’s the thing we forget – God is omniscient – he sees everything and knows
everything – even when we don’t think so.
That is what has happened to the children of Israel in Amos’ time. They have forgotten
about God. They have forgotten that even when they don’t think about him or
acknowledge him, he is still with them. He sees all and knows all – and he is not happy
with them. And God tells Amos, “’The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely, I
6
will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and
everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and
sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?’”
If you are a parent, or even if you have ever been around children for any length of time,
you know that sometimes they don’t listen well. We tell them over and over not to run in
the house, to clean their room, to not hit their brother or sister, to not ride their bikes in
the road, but inevitably, they do something they are not supposed to do, and we must
discipline them. We don’t like it, they don’t like it, but it is necessary for their safety and
their development as a decent human being.
That is where God is in today’s passage. He loves the Israelites beyond measure, and
he wants to give them all the good things they need and want, but they have broken the
rules too many times and as a loving father, he must discipline his children. He doesn’t
want to have to do this, they are not going to like it when he does, but it is for their own
benefit that it must be done.
God tells Amos the plan. He tells Amos exactly what to expect when the day of
discipline comes: “’On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your
songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.’”
7
Put your spiritual imaginations to work and picture how hard it is for God to bring this
punishment to his people. Imagine the broken heartedness this causes, the deep grief
that God feels. This isn’t what he wants to do. When God says, “I will make it like the
mourning for an only son and the end of a bitter day,” I believe he means for both Israel
and for himself. When we have had to punish our own children, don’t we feel awful for
it? Doesn’t our heart break? Don’t we live that day as a bitter day right along with them?
Wouldn’t God, as the loving father that he is, feel the same?
And as if that weren’t enough, God continues by warning that, “‘The time is surely
coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They
shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking
the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.’”
Today’s passage began with the picture of abundance – a basket of summer fruit,
bounty from the rich, fertile land that Israel was at that time. But it ends with famine –
not a famine of food and or water, but a famine of something even more important and
vital for life – the absence of the word of God. God has been speaking to his people
through his prophets since the time of Moses, but now, in their willful sinfulness, God
will be silent to his people.
8
With no food or water, a body will perish, but without God, the soul will perish. Which is
the more detrimental to us, which is more devastating?
We know that Amos’ prophesy came to be. The Assyrians conquered the Northern
kingdom of Israel, many died, many others taken captive. Those who were left wore
sackcloth and shaved their heads as a sign of mourning. Where there had once been
singing in the temple there was now only wailing and lamenting, and the feasts that had
been seen as an obstacle for business were now neither a time of rest and worship, nor
a time of enduring to get back to business as usual – they were simply another occasion
to remember and mourn for what was.
Israel had committed many sins in their time, but what was it that God had found in
them here to cause this much punishment? God’s own words, through Amos, tell that it
was their sin of oppressing of the poor and the needy by using means of economic
exploitation. They put profits ahead of people by cheating, by committing fraud, and by
enslaving those who were poor to the point that it will make the very land tremble. It was
God’s love and compassion for such as these whom Israel did not, and would not, see
as people of value, that caused Israel’s destruction.
As we go about our daily lives, as we try to keep up with all the demands on our time,
we simply cannot allow ourselves to succumb to the temptation to keep our heads down
and our eyes closed to the world around us. God is still calling us to look up and around
9
and see the poor, the needy, the vulnerable, to see them as people worthy of love and
valued by God. And once we see them, then we are called to minister to them in
whatever way we have means to do so.
Friends, I confess that there are days when I feel like we are headed toward that same
fate as the Israelites. It feels like we are fast becoming a society where we are in danger
of God once again becoming silent. Who will stand in the gap for us? Who will reach out
and show the love of God to those who are in need? It is up to us, to all of us,
individually and collectively to say “I will do it.”
In the introduction to this series, I warned you that there would be some words that
would be hard to hear, and I know this week is one of those times. I also said that I was
praying that we would be able to hear the hope and the love that could be found, even
in those hard words, and I believe this week we surely can find both. Even though I
have only been here a couple of weeks, I already see how this church finds ways to
stand in the gap for those who are in need, I have witnessed how seriously God’s
directive to care for his people is taken, I have seen the outpouring of love and feel the
hope that fills this church body.
I have seen people reaching out, inviting me to go with them to visit the shut-ins, I have
seen back-packs being filled with food for families who live without enough to eat, I have
heard how people have worked to build a house for a family who needed a safe place to
10
live, how children are being taught the word of God through Bridge Builders, how many
different groups are invited to use this building to meet, how bicycles were provided to a
refugee family, how prayers were offered, and how love was shared.
We are certainly not without our own struggles, but friends, when we choose to put
aside our own tendencies to hide from the world, when we find ways to affect the lives
of others for their benefit and for God’s glory, then I know he sees and is pleased. May
we never stop trying to bear one another’s burdens, may we never stop living as gap-
fillers for God, may we never have to live in a time when God is silent. AMEN.
PRAYER: Great Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to stand in the gap for
you to the ones who need our help. May we seek to spread your love through the
ministries you call us to provide. Help us to keep our heads up and our eyes and hearts
open that we might see where we can be of assistance to all because all are worthy of
love and valued by you. May we bear one another’s burden’s and increase your
kingdom here on earth as we await the return of your precious son, Jesus Christ.
AMEN.
11
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
Call to Worship:
L: As God asked Amos, now he asks us,
P: “What do we see?”
L: We see distractions, divisions, dissension,
P: We see the fruit we produce by the way we live.
L: Then let us worship our God, and be a witness of the gospel,
P: Let us produce good fruit that will benefit others
ALL: And honor God. AMEN.
Hymn: 61 Come, Thou Almighty King
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE:
OBJECT: 2 bags of quarters – 1 with $3 in all quarters, 1 with a few nickels replacing
some of the quarters.
Lesson – It isn’t right to cheat – God is watching all that we do and we should not take
advantage of others even if we think we can get away with it.
Rootstown
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Living in a Bitter Day
Scripture: Amos 8:1-12
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “Amos, what
do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me,
“The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer.
3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,”
says the Lord GOD;
“the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!”
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
and practice deceit with false balances,
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?
9 On that day, says the Lord GOD,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
2
I will bring sackcloth on all loins
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD,
when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD,
but they shall not find it.
Amos has extended the invitation to stay another week so here we are. This week
Amos speaks hard words. Some might say even harsh words. These are words that no
one wants to hear – and no one really wants to have to say. But the truth sometimes is
hard. Sometimes hearing the unbridled truth is what it takes to wake us up from the
lethargy we seem to fall into in our overworked, hectic lives.
Let’s face it – at the end of the day, after work and chores and errands, after kids and
families, and all the rest – what we really want is just to veg in front of the TV or spend
time on our devices so that we can close ourselves off from everything that is “out there”
pulling us in too many directions, overloading our senses, overwhelming our strength.
We’re tired, we’re sapped, and we’re vulnerable.
That is why it is so hard to listen for the word of God and so hard to take time to look up
and out to see what is around us. We are afraid if we see something we might have to
do something. But today’s scripture once again calls us to look up and around, not just
at what we see in our own neighborhood, but what we see in the world. Ouch! Are we
3
up to that? Can we really muster up the wherewithal to do that? With God’s strength we
can.
This seeing that God is asking us to do through Amos is a deeper seeing. Here’s an
example of deeper seeing. God asked Amos, “What do you see?” and this time the
answer was, “A basket of summer fruit.” What do we picture when we hear that? A
beautiful, lush display of ripened fruit, juicy and waiting to be eaten. Have you ever
bought a package of beautiful strawberries at the supermarket and when you got home
discovered that some of the ones on the bottom had rotted? We didn’t see deeply
enough to see the spoilage, we only saw the beautiful attraction on the outside, the part
we like to see.
As Rev. Dr. Derek Weber writes, “God asks Amos, who then asks us, to look deeper.
What is underneath our wealth, our comfort, our excess? Who is suffering, who is
hurting, who is decaying like a basket of summer fruit” that is beautiful to the eye but
spoiled underneath?
Lest we begin to think this is only a 21 st century problem, let’s remember our scripture:
“Hear this, you who trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying,
‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, so that we
may offer wheat for sale?’”
4
Even in Amos’ day people we too busy to care about others on a regular basis. The new
moon festivals and the sabbath breaks were a time to endure as they waited to get back
to “real life” where business could go back to being as usual, where trades could
resume, where blinders could be put on and life could rush right by. And how do we
know they had little care for others?
Hear this proof: The people have said, “’We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel
heavier and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy
for a pair of sandals and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’”
What kind of practices are these? Dirty, deceitful practices that go against what God
would have. These people have devised ways to cheat others, their scales are out-of-
balance to their good and the others’ misfortune, they are willing buy another person for
a few pieces of silver or a pair of sandals. And who is going to notice if there is dirt and
debris mixed in with that wheat – go ahead and sweep it up off the floor and sell it
anyway. Is this how we are supposed to treat people?
“But wait,” you say, “we don’t do any of those things. We don’t measure with any scale,
let alone an imbalanced one, we don’t sell wheat off the floor, and we certainly don’t buy
people!” And you are right. That is not how we conduct ourselves today. Times have
5
changed and many ways of doing business and just living day to day are different now
from Amos’ time. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own ways of cheating others
and taking advantage when we know we shouldn’t
Have we ever made our children younger than they really were just to get a discount at
a restaurant or to save on admission to an amusement park? Have we ever said, “We
can do such and such because everyone else does,” even though we know it is wrong?
Have we ever written a check when we know there was no money in our account? Have
we ever peeked at someone’s phone when they accidentally left it on, or opened
someone else’s mail?
We are an inventive and creative people and the ways we use those gifts can be for the
better or for the worse. Most of us can surely confess that we have done both better and
worse. Why do we do the things that we know are wrong? Because we think we can get
away with it, that no one will really be harmed, that no one will even notice. But God
notices. That’s the thing we forget – God is omniscient – he sees everything and knows
everything – even when we don’t think so.
That is what has happened to the children of Israel in Amos’ time. They have forgotten
about God. They have forgotten that even when they don’t think about him or
acknowledge him, he is still with them. He sees all and knows all – and he is not happy
with them. And God tells Amos, “’The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely, I
6
will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and
everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and
sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?’”
If you are a parent, or even if you have ever been around children for any length of time,
you know that sometimes they don’t listen well. We tell them over and over not to run in
the house, to clean their room, to not hit their brother or sister, to not ride their bikes in
the road, but inevitably, they do something they are not supposed to do, and we must
discipline them. We don’t like it, they don’t like it, but it is necessary for their safety and
their development as a decent human being.
That is where God is in today’s passage. He loves the Israelites beyond measure, and
he wants to give them all the good things they need and want, but they have broken the
rules too many times and as a loving father, he must discipline his children. He doesn’t
want to have to do this, they are not going to like it when he does, but it is for their own
benefit that it must be done.
God tells Amos the plan. He tells Amos exactly what to expect when the day of
discipline comes: “’On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your
songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.’”
7
Put your spiritual imaginations to work and picture how hard it is for God to bring this
punishment to his people. Imagine the broken heartedness this causes, the deep grief
that God feels. This isn’t what he wants to do. When God says, “I will make it like the
mourning for an only son and the end of a bitter day,” I believe he means for both Israel
and for himself. When we have had to punish our own children, don’t we feel awful for
it? Doesn’t our heart break? Don’t we live that day as a bitter day right along with them?
Wouldn’t God, as the loving father that he is, feel the same?
And as if that weren’t enough, God continues by warning that, “‘The time is surely
coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They
shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking
the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.’”
Today’s passage began with the picture of abundance – a basket of summer fruit,
bounty from the rich, fertile land that Israel was at that time. But it ends with famine –
not a famine of food and or water, but a famine of something even more important and
vital for life – the absence of the word of God. God has been speaking to his people
through his prophets since the time of Moses, but now, in their willful sinfulness, God
will be silent to his people.
8
With no food or water, a body will perish, but without God, the soul will perish. Which is
the more detrimental to us, which is more devastating?
We know that Amos’ prophesy came to be. The Assyrians conquered the Northern
kingdom of Israel, many died, many others taken captive. Those who were left wore
sackcloth and shaved their heads as a sign of mourning. Where there had once been
singing in the temple there was now only wailing and lamenting, and the feasts that had
been seen as an obstacle for business were now neither a time of rest and worship, nor
a time of enduring to get back to business as usual – they were simply another occasion
to remember and mourn for what was.
Israel had committed many sins in their time, but what was it that God had found in
them here to cause this much punishment? God’s own words, through Amos, tell that it
was their sin of oppressing of the poor and the needy by using means of economic
exploitation. They put profits ahead of people by cheating, by committing fraud, and by
enslaving those who were poor to the point that it will make the very land tremble. It was
God’s love and compassion for such as these whom Israel did not, and would not, see
as people of value, that caused Israel’s destruction.
As we go about our daily lives, as we try to keep up with all the demands on our time,
we simply cannot allow ourselves to succumb to the temptation to keep our heads down
and our eyes closed to the world around us. God is still calling us to look up and around
9
and see the poor, the needy, the vulnerable, to see them as people worthy of love and
valued by God. And once we see them, then we are called to minister to them in
whatever way we have means to do so.
Friends, I confess that there are days when I feel like we are headed toward that same
fate as the Israelites. It feels like we are fast becoming a society where we are in danger
of God once again becoming silent. Who will stand in the gap for us? Who will reach out
and show the love of God to those who are in need? It is up to us, to all of us,
individually and collectively to say “I will do it.”
In the introduction to this series, I warned you that there would be some words that
would be hard to hear, and I know this week is one of those times. I also said that I was
praying that we would be able to hear the hope and the love that could be found, even
in those hard words, and I believe this week we surely can find both. Even though I
have only been here a couple of weeks, I already see how this church finds ways to
stand in the gap for those who are in need, I have witnessed how seriously God’s
directive to care for his people is taken, I have seen the outpouring of love and feel the
hope that fills this church body.
I have seen people reaching out, inviting me to go with them to visit the shut-ins, I have
seen back-packs being filled with food for families who live without enough to eat, I have
heard how people have worked to build a house for a family who needed a safe place to
10
live, how children are being taught the word of God through Bridge Builders, how many
different groups are invited to use this building to meet, how bicycles were provided to a
refugee family, how prayers were offered, and how love was shared.
We are certainly not without our own struggles, but friends, when we choose to put
aside our own tendencies to hide from the world, when we find ways to affect the lives
of others for their benefit and for God’s glory, then I know he sees and is pleased. May
we never stop trying to bear one another’s burdens, may we never stop living as gap-
fillers for God, may we never have to live in a time when God is silent. AMEN.
PRAYER: Great Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to stand in the gap for
you to the ones who need our help. May we seek to spread your love through the
ministries you call us to provide. Help us to keep our heads up and our eyes and hearts
open that we might see where we can be of assistance to all because all are worthy of
love and valued by you. May we bear one another’s burden’s and increase your
kingdom here on earth as we await the return of your precious son, Jesus Christ.
AMEN.
11
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
Call to Worship:
L: As God asked Amos, now he asks us,
P: “What do we see?”
L: We see distractions, divisions, dissension,
P: We see the fruit we produce by the way we live.
L: Then let us worship our God, and be a witness of the gospel,
P: Let us produce good fruit that will benefit others
ALL: And honor God. AMEN.
Hymn: 61 Come, Thou Almighty King
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE:
OBJECT: 2 bags of quarters – 1 with $3 in all quarters, 1 with a few nickels replacing
some of the quarters.
Lesson – It isn’t right to cheat – God is watching all that we do and we should not take
advantage of others even if we think we can get away with it.
7/10/2022 Pastor Donna's Sermon "What Do you see?"
July 10, 2022
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: What Do You See?
Scripture: Amos 7:7-17
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a
plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A
plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“See, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer;
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has
conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his
words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’”
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there,
and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a
temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman and
a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said
to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
16 “Now therefore hear the word of the LORD.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
17 Therefore thus says the LORD:
Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be parceled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”
2
Last week, the prophet Elisha taught us to listen to God, even when we didn’t understand the
reason behind his instructions. This week we are going to stop by for a visit with Amos, who
says, not just listen, but look around and see what God wants us to know.
We hear this same plea today in various forms. We are becoming a society of people who never
look up, out, or around. We are too busy peering down at what we are holding in our hands: our
phones or our tablets. The world that we hold in our hands is vast and captivating, but at the
same time, it is also narrow and confining. When we only look down, our vision is confined to
what we see on the screen, and we can’t see the broader picture of the world around us that is
teeming with life. We can’t see the needs of the world or hear the cries of distress, so we can’t
see that there is a place where we are called to minister to the least, the lost, and the lonely. We
don’t notice when we are veering off the straight and narrow way that God has prepared for us.
Now, I’m not saying that technology is a bad thing. There are many good things that come from
having and using our phones and tablets. We can communicate with others instantly even when
they are across town, around the world, or just upstairs. We can look up useful information (or
trivial information) in a quick second, we can learn new languages or new skills, we can shop or
take a class, or read a book. Our devices are not, in themselves, either bad or good, but it is up to
us to use them in a good way, in a balanced way.
That is why I like Amos’s lesson of the plumb line. I’m not sure how often a plumb line is used
today. Most people I know use a level instead, but before levels were invented, with their
3
bubbles that could determine whether something was level or straight, a plumb line was the tool
of choice. Why is it important to make sure what we are building is straight? Think of a wall, or
the side of a building. If it were to be built out of plumb, meaning not straight, it wouldn’t be a
safe structure.
When a building leans too far in one direction, it is in danger of toppling over. It is no good for
what it is intended and needs to be torn down. That was the message God gave Amos to pass on
to the people of Israel. They had gotten to leaning too far in one direction, and they were no
longer good for what they were intended. They were no longer following God because they were
out of plumb.
Today’s passage takes place at Bethel. Bethel plays a prominent role in the lives of many of the
Old Testament people. Abraham built an altar there as he was passing through to Egypt and
revisited it again later. Jacob, on the run from his brother, encounters God at Bethel. This is
where Jacob dreamed of the ladder set up on earth that reached to heaven where angels were
going up and coming down, where God introduced himself to Jacob and renewed his promise to
give the land to his people while making a promise to be with him always. Genesis 28:18-19 tells
us, “So, Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and
set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the place Bethel.” This was a place
that was revered by the Israelites for many years.
4
But then, Jeroboam I changed all that. He chose not to follow God and God’s ways. He had two
golden calves made and he set up a place of worship in the north and in the south – and the
southern place was in Bethel. This Jeroboam also began to appoint his own priests and instituted
a new festival for the people to celebrate the gods “who brought you up out of the land of
Egypt.” Israel is beginning to lean; they are no longer plumb straight, as God showed Amos in
his vision.
Now, this Jeroboam, the second king with that name, has followed the first Jeroboam’s ways. He
has continued promoting worship in the high places, he has turned the people away from God,
and he has appointed his own priests, including Amaziah, who hears Amos’ prophesy from God:
“See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will spare them no longer; the
high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I
will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Amaziah doesn’t like what Amos has to say so he goes to the king and makes an indictment
against Amos based on rumors, misrepresentations, and outright lies. Then Amaziah goes back to
Amos and tells him to get out of town and never come back. “We don’t need a seer in this
place,” he says, “This is the king’s sanctuary and a temple of the kingdom. Take your words
elsewhere or else.”
Amos is quick to deny being a prophet; he is just a simple herdsman and a dresser of sycamore
trees and quite happy at that. But you see, when God gives you a vision and tells you to share it,
5
then that is what you do. Amos IS a prophet, but he wants to make sure Amaziah knows he isn’t
the kind of prophet Amaziah is used to – Amos won’t make up pretty lies to make the king and
the people feel good – he will only speak the truth – God’s truth, no matter what. Amos will
choose to stand straight for God – plumb straight.
Amaziah, the out-of-plumb false priest would pay the price for his accusations about. and to,
Amos. He didn’t get God’s message to look up and see what was around him. He failed to notice
that God, not those idols he worshiped, was in control. And God showed Amaziah what a hard
heart and harsh words against one of God’s chosen prophets would get him, and what
disobedience to God would cost.
God gave Amos another prophesy, this time it wasn’t only for the people of Israel, but also for a
person of Israel – for Amaziah himself. “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
Therefore, thus says the Lord:
Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the
sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and
Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”
Amaziah didn’t want to see the truth in Amos’ prophesy. He didn’t want to believe that God
would have any say in what happened to Israel and its people. But just because we don’t want to
6
see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there, and it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Amos’ prophesy did
come to pass. Amaziah and his family were wiped out, and Israel was led off into a seventy-year
period of captivity. They had become too out of plumb to be corrected in any other way.
As a builder works at building a wall or a house, he doesn’t simply make sure the first row or
side is plumb and then forget about the rest. He must continually check to see that each part of
the building is level, square, plumb.
Friends, in our lives, we need to continually do the same. We must, over and over again, hold
ourselves against God’s plumb line and ask ourselves, “What do we see?’ and then we need to
also ask God, “What do you see?”
If our answer doesn’t match up with God’s, then we might just be getting out of plumb, and as a
good builder will know, getting straightened out now is so much easier than waiting until later,
or by waiting too long, we may find that we must be torn down to be corrected at all. No one
wants that. So, what do you see? Are you straight with God? Are you plumb straight? I pray so.
AMEN.
PRAYER: God of grace and mercy, help us to see ourselves clearly enough that when we start to
become out of plumb in your eyes, as measured by your standards, that we will seek your will
and recommit ourselves to you in order to get back where we need to be. Lord, thank you for
7
your patience with us when we start to lean, prevent us from going too far, and keep us coming
back for a remeasure when needed. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-15-
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: What Do You See?
Scripture: Amos 7:7-17
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a
plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A
plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“See, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer;
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has
conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his
words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’”
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there,
and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a
temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman and
a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said
to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
16 “Now therefore hear the word of the LORD.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
17 Therefore thus says the LORD:
Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be parceled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”
2
Last week, the prophet Elisha taught us to listen to God, even when we didn’t understand the
reason behind his instructions. This week we are going to stop by for a visit with Amos, who
says, not just listen, but look around and see what God wants us to know.
We hear this same plea today in various forms. We are becoming a society of people who never
look up, out, or around. We are too busy peering down at what we are holding in our hands: our
phones or our tablets. The world that we hold in our hands is vast and captivating, but at the
same time, it is also narrow and confining. When we only look down, our vision is confined to
what we see on the screen, and we can’t see the broader picture of the world around us that is
teeming with life. We can’t see the needs of the world or hear the cries of distress, so we can’t
see that there is a place where we are called to minister to the least, the lost, and the lonely. We
don’t notice when we are veering off the straight and narrow way that God has prepared for us.
Now, I’m not saying that technology is a bad thing. There are many good things that come from
having and using our phones and tablets. We can communicate with others instantly even when
they are across town, around the world, or just upstairs. We can look up useful information (or
trivial information) in a quick second, we can learn new languages or new skills, we can shop or
take a class, or read a book. Our devices are not, in themselves, either bad or good, but it is up to
us to use them in a good way, in a balanced way.
That is why I like Amos’s lesson of the plumb line. I’m not sure how often a plumb line is used
today. Most people I know use a level instead, but before levels were invented, with their
3
bubbles that could determine whether something was level or straight, a plumb line was the tool
of choice. Why is it important to make sure what we are building is straight? Think of a wall, or
the side of a building. If it were to be built out of plumb, meaning not straight, it wouldn’t be a
safe structure.
When a building leans too far in one direction, it is in danger of toppling over. It is no good for
what it is intended and needs to be torn down. That was the message God gave Amos to pass on
to the people of Israel. They had gotten to leaning too far in one direction, and they were no
longer good for what they were intended. They were no longer following God because they were
out of plumb.
Today’s passage takes place at Bethel. Bethel plays a prominent role in the lives of many of the
Old Testament people. Abraham built an altar there as he was passing through to Egypt and
revisited it again later. Jacob, on the run from his brother, encounters God at Bethel. This is
where Jacob dreamed of the ladder set up on earth that reached to heaven where angels were
going up and coming down, where God introduced himself to Jacob and renewed his promise to
give the land to his people while making a promise to be with him always. Genesis 28:18-19 tells
us, “So, Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and
set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the place Bethel.” This was a place
that was revered by the Israelites for many years.
4
But then, Jeroboam I changed all that. He chose not to follow God and God’s ways. He had two
golden calves made and he set up a place of worship in the north and in the south – and the
southern place was in Bethel. This Jeroboam also began to appoint his own priests and instituted
a new festival for the people to celebrate the gods “who brought you up out of the land of
Egypt.” Israel is beginning to lean; they are no longer plumb straight, as God showed Amos in
his vision.
Now, this Jeroboam, the second king with that name, has followed the first Jeroboam’s ways. He
has continued promoting worship in the high places, he has turned the people away from God,
and he has appointed his own priests, including Amaziah, who hears Amos’ prophesy from God:
“See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will spare them no longer; the
high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I
will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Amaziah doesn’t like what Amos has to say so he goes to the king and makes an indictment
against Amos based on rumors, misrepresentations, and outright lies. Then Amaziah goes back to
Amos and tells him to get out of town and never come back. “We don’t need a seer in this
place,” he says, “This is the king’s sanctuary and a temple of the kingdom. Take your words
elsewhere or else.”
Amos is quick to deny being a prophet; he is just a simple herdsman and a dresser of sycamore
trees and quite happy at that. But you see, when God gives you a vision and tells you to share it,
5
then that is what you do. Amos IS a prophet, but he wants to make sure Amaziah knows he isn’t
the kind of prophet Amaziah is used to – Amos won’t make up pretty lies to make the king and
the people feel good – he will only speak the truth – God’s truth, no matter what. Amos will
choose to stand straight for God – plumb straight.
Amaziah, the out-of-plumb false priest would pay the price for his accusations about. and to,
Amos. He didn’t get God’s message to look up and see what was around him. He failed to notice
that God, not those idols he worshiped, was in control. And God showed Amaziah what a hard
heart and harsh words against one of God’s chosen prophets would get him, and what
disobedience to God would cost.
God gave Amos another prophesy, this time it wasn’t only for the people of Israel, but also for a
person of Israel – for Amaziah himself. “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
Therefore, thus says the Lord:
Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the
sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and
Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”
Amaziah didn’t want to see the truth in Amos’ prophesy. He didn’t want to believe that God
would have any say in what happened to Israel and its people. But just because we don’t want to
6
see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there, and it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Amos’ prophesy did
come to pass. Amaziah and his family were wiped out, and Israel was led off into a seventy-year
period of captivity. They had become too out of plumb to be corrected in any other way.
As a builder works at building a wall or a house, he doesn’t simply make sure the first row or
side is plumb and then forget about the rest. He must continually check to see that each part of
the building is level, square, plumb.
Friends, in our lives, we need to continually do the same. We must, over and over again, hold
ourselves against God’s plumb line and ask ourselves, “What do we see?’ and then we need to
also ask God, “What do you see?”
If our answer doesn’t match up with God’s, then we might just be getting out of plumb, and as a
good builder will know, getting straightened out now is so much easier than waiting until later,
or by waiting too long, we may find that we must be torn down to be corrected at all. No one
wants that. So, what do you see? Are you straight with God? Are you plumb straight? I pray so.
AMEN.
PRAYER: God of grace and mercy, help us to see ourselves clearly enough that when we start to
become out of plumb in your eyes, as measured by your standards, that we will seek your will
and recommit ourselves to you in order to get back where we need to be. Lord, thank you for
7
your patience with us when we start to lean, prevent us from going too far, and keep us coming
back for a remeasure when needed. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-15-
7/3/2022 Pastor Donna's Sermon "wash and be Clean"!
July 3, 2022
Rootstown
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Wash and Be Clean
Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high
favor with his master because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man,
though a mighty warrior, suffered from a skin disease. 2 Now the Arameans on one of
their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served
Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is
in Samaria! He would cure him of his skin disease.” 4 So Naaman went in and told his
lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5 And the king of Aram said, “Go,
then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”
He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets
of garments. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter
reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him
of his skin disease.” 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and
said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of
his skin disease? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”
8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he
sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that
he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman came with his horses and
chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him,
saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you
shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for
me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God and
would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease! 12 Are not Abana and
Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash
in them and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his servants
approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do
something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to
you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times
in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the
flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
2
The idea of summer conjures up thoughts of long, lazy sun-filled days. Front porch
sitting, iced tea or lemonade sipping, visiting with neighbors, kids playing outside until
dark, backyard BBQ kind of days. Maybe even family vacation days. Summer is a great
time to plan a trip, a journey to a new destination – or a revisit of a familiar place where
we might notice something new.
This summer series is a journey of sorts. We are going to visit a few books from the Old
Testament and spend time with some of God’s people – some of the prophets of old.
We will listen to the words of Elisha, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea. Words that
might seem harsh to the people to whom they were spoken, but we will see how there
was love behind the warnings, the disciplines, the corrections. My prayer throughout this
series is that we all find the hope that can be gleaned from the lives of the prophets, that
we will learn from the lessons they gave the people, that we will see God at work then,
and now, and draw closer to him as disciples on our own faith journey.
Today, we begin the first leg of our journey with Elisha and the story of Naaman.
Naaman was a captain in the army under the king of Aram. He was a mighty warrior
who had helped his country win many battles, but Naaman suffered from a skin disease
of which there was no cure. As luck would have it – or as God had planned it –
Naaman’s wife had a servant girl who had been captured on a raid of Israel. When the
3
servant girl learned of Naaman’s problems, she approached her mistress and told her of
the prophet who lived in Israel who would be able to cure this skin disease.
Of course, the wife told her husband, and Naaman went right to the king and relayed
what had been said. As he had hoped, the king gave Naaman permission to go to Israel
to seek this cure and he even wrote a letter of recommendation to the king of Israel on
Naaman’s behalf.
Naaman made his preparations to leave, taking with him gifts for the king including ten
talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing, the letter from
the king, and his faithful servants. Full of hope, Naaman went to see the king of Israel,
handed him the letter, and waited for instructions. Imagine his surprise when the king,
upon reading the letter, suddenly tore his clothes in a panic and accused the king of
Aram of using Naaman to trick him and pick a fight. Poor Naaman, all he wanted was to
find a cure for his leprosy, but now what?
The prophet Elisha heard what was happening at the king’s palace and sent word to the
king, “Don’t panic, don’t worry. Send him to me and he will learn there is a prophet in
Israel.” So, Naaman and his contingent went to Elisha’s. They stopped at the gate, and
Naaman was told by a messenger to go wash himself in the Jordan River seven times
and he would become clean and healed. That seems easy enough, doesn’t it? Maybe
too easy? Naaman thought so. He became angry. He was ticked that Elisha himself
4
didn’t bother coming to the door but sent a messenger, and then he was even more
ticked that he was told to just go jump in a river – seven times! Surely there should be
more to this healing than that!
Sometimes what seems too easy makes us uneasy. Betty Crocker can attest to that. In
the 1950s, General Mills created a new cake mix and launched it under the Betty
Crocker line. This boxed mix had everything needed to make a cake except water. It
was a great concept – just add water, mix, bake, eat, and enjoy. Sales should have
been through the roof. They weren’t.
Puzzled, the execs conducted some market research to see why the product wasn’t
selling. What they discovered surprised them – people were concerned that the product
was too easy to use. It was so simple and yet so good that the women felt guilty for
serving it to their family and their guests. They didn’t want to give the false impression
that they had worked so hard to make the cake that they simply refused to buy the cake
mix. So, General Mills reworked the cake mix so that the cakes would need to have
water and an egg added to the mix.
It worked. the extra step made people feel better about having to “work” at making the
cake – the guilt was gone – and sales skyrocketed.
5
Naaman would have been one of the people who would have preferred the extra step
necessary to make the cake. Bathing in the Jordan river seven times just wasn’t
enough. Why the Jordan? Why not any random river in his own country? How was this
supposed to work anyway? Leprosy was a serious disease – there was no cure for it,
and it led to a painful end. Water? The Jordan? Seven times? That was it? Seriously?
Absolutely not! Naaman, in his anger, must have thought this was a joke and he was
having no part of it. He was heading home, angry, frustrated, confused, and still a leper.
But God intervened through Naaman’s servants. “What could it hurt?” they asked. They
pointed out that if Naaman had been given a difficult task he would have set to
accomplish it right away. He expected difficulty, he expected a challenge, but why not
try the directions as given, why not give the simple plan a chance?
Naaman finally listened and went to the Jordan and immersed himself in the water.
Seven times he dipped himself below the surface and after the last time, his skin was
restored; he was healed! What a miracle! I can only imagine the celebration that ensued
when they all noticed that Naaman no longer showed signs of leprosy, but now had the
smooth skin of a young boy.
I love the story of Naaman, but I can’t help but think about how his expectations almost
caused him to live with leprosy and all its issues instead of choosing to be healed and
6
whole once again. There are so many people in the world who are more like Naaman
than they realize.
Friends, God offers us the most perfect wholeness through Jesus Christ. All we have to
do is accept the gift by believing in him. That’s it. Only, we don’t understand how such a
magnificent gift can be given so easily. We think there must be more to it than that. We
are willing to work for this gift, jump through all the right hoops to win the gift, do
whatever it takes to get this gift, add the egg to the cake mix to receive this gift, but
really, all we have to do is accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is really that
simple.
Naaman was healed and he knew that healing had come through God. He vowed after
that to worship the One, True God, to offer sacrifices to only him, and to remember what
he had done for him.
We humans like to complicate things because we think that makes the end result more
valuable somehow. God wants to make coming to him as easy as possible so that
everyone has the same opportunity to do so. The apostle Paul reminds us of that in his
second letter to the Ephesian church, “For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no
one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
7
Elisha told Naaman to go to the Jordan and wash himself seven times and he would be
clean. The blood of Jesus was shed for us that we might be washed and made clean by
his death on the cross. It was there that he took on all our sins so that we would not
have to be punished for them. Then the gift was extended, in his resurrection, to include
eternal life for all who accepted the offer to wash and be clean. Sometimes it really is
the simple answer that is the best answer after all. AMEN.
PRAYER: Father God, forgive us when we try to make difficult what you made easy.
Help us to remember that your offer of salvation through your son, Jesus Christ, is a
free gift, available for the asking, and help us to accept it with grateful hearts that
welcome you into our lives. May we share the good news of your gift in this world so
that others might also come to accept the gift that we have been given. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inside-the-box/201401/creativity-lesson-
betty-crocker
8
Call to Worship:
L: God’s healing love is available to all,
P: To Jew and Gentile, man and woman, rich and poor.
L: God’s loving mercy is poured out on us,
P: Let us accept this gift with open hearts.
L: We will rejoice in this gracious gift that is given,
P: Given freely, given abundantly to all who accept.
ALL: Hallelujah! AMEN.
Prelude:
Hymn:
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE:
Let’s play a game. Anyone ever heard of the game Simon Says? Ok, we are going to
play that, but we are going to change it to Elisha Says because Elisha is the prophet we
are going to hear from today. I will tell you all something to do, and if I say, “Elisha
Says,” then you do it, but if I don’t say “Elisha Says,” then you don’t. Ready?
Elisha says, touch your eyebrow.
Elisha says touch your toes.
Jump one time.
Elisha says give yourself a high five.
Spin in a circle.
Elisha says put your hand on your head, jump on one foot, and stick out your tongue.
Some of those instructions were pretty silly, weren’t they? Well, this summer we are
going to be reading about some of the prophets. Do any of you know what a prophet is?
(A person who hears a message from God and shares that message with others)
Sometimes the message God gives through the prophets seems a little strange and we
wonder what in the world is God thinking! But the important thing we remember is that
God is so much smarter than we are, and he does things differently from how we might
do them. And guess what? His plan is always better than ours.
Today we are going to learn about a guy named Naaman who had a skin disease that
no doctor could cure. So Naaman went to see Elisha the Prophet, and Elisha told him to
go wash in the Jordan River seven times.
9
That seems silly, doesn’t it? If no doctor could cure him, how would jumping in a river
help? But God was at work and so, even tho it sounded silly, Naaman did what Elisha
said, and he was healed!
Imagine if Naaman had said, “this is too silly” and didn’t do what Elisha told him to do.
He would never have been healed. God told Elisha what to tell Naaman, and Naaman
did what he was told even though is sounded like a crazy plan. But God’s plan was to
cure Naaman all along – it’s a good thing Naaman could play a good game of Elisha
Says!
Rootstown
Series: Prophet Margins
Message: Wash and Be Clean
Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high
favor with his master because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man,
though a mighty warrior, suffered from a skin disease. 2 Now the Arameans on one of
their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served
Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is
in Samaria! He would cure him of his skin disease.” 4 So Naaman went in and told his
lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5 And the king of Aram said, “Go,
then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”
He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets
of garments. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter
reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him
of his skin disease.” 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and
said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of
his skin disease? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”
8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he
sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that
he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman came with his horses and
chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him,
saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you
shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for
me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God and
would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease! 12 Are not Abana and
Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash
in them and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his servants
approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do
something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to
you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times
in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the
flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
2
The idea of summer conjures up thoughts of long, lazy sun-filled days. Front porch
sitting, iced tea or lemonade sipping, visiting with neighbors, kids playing outside until
dark, backyard BBQ kind of days. Maybe even family vacation days. Summer is a great
time to plan a trip, a journey to a new destination – or a revisit of a familiar place where
we might notice something new.
This summer series is a journey of sorts. We are going to visit a few books from the Old
Testament and spend time with some of God’s people – some of the prophets of old.
We will listen to the words of Elisha, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea. Words that
might seem harsh to the people to whom they were spoken, but we will see how there
was love behind the warnings, the disciplines, the corrections. My prayer throughout this
series is that we all find the hope that can be gleaned from the lives of the prophets, that
we will learn from the lessons they gave the people, that we will see God at work then,
and now, and draw closer to him as disciples on our own faith journey.
Today, we begin the first leg of our journey with Elisha and the story of Naaman.
Naaman was a captain in the army under the king of Aram. He was a mighty warrior
who had helped his country win many battles, but Naaman suffered from a skin disease
of which there was no cure. As luck would have it – or as God had planned it –
Naaman’s wife had a servant girl who had been captured on a raid of Israel. When the
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servant girl learned of Naaman’s problems, she approached her mistress and told her of
the prophet who lived in Israel who would be able to cure this skin disease.
Of course, the wife told her husband, and Naaman went right to the king and relayed
what had been said. As he had hoped, the king gave Naaman permission to go to Israel
to seek this cure and he even wrote a letter of recommendation to the king of Israel on
Naaman’s behalf.
Naaman made his preparations to leave, taking with him gifts for the king including ten
talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing, the letter from
the king, and his faithful servants. Full of hope, Naaman went to see the king of Israel,
handed him the letter, and waited for instructions. Imagine his surprise when the king,
upon reading the letter, suddenly tore his clothes in a panic and accused the king of
Aram of using Naaman to trick him and pick a fight. Poor Naaman, all he wanted was to
find a cure for his leprosy, but now what?
The prophet Elisha heard what was happening at the king’s palace and sent word to the
king, “Don’t panic, don’t worry. Send him to me and he will learn there is a prophet in
Israel.” So, Naaman and his contingent went to Elisha’s. They stopped at the gate, and
Naaman was told by a messenger to go wash himself in the Jordan River seven times
and he would become clean and healed. That seems easy enough, doesn’t it? Maybe
too easy? Naaman thought so. He became angry. He was ticked that Elisha himself
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didn’t bother coming to the door but sent a messenger, and then he was even more
ticked that he was told to just go jump in a river – seven times! Surely there should be
more to this healing than that!
Sometimes what seems too easy makes us uneasy. Betty Crocker can attest to that. In
the 1950s, General Mills created a new cake mix and launched it under the Betty
Crocker line. This boxed mix had everything needed to make a cake except water. It
was a great concept – just add water, mix, bake, eat, and enjoy. Sales should have
been through the roof. They weren’t.
Puzzled, the execs conducted some market research to see why the product wasn’t
selling. What they discovered surprised them – people were concerned that the product
was too easy to use. It was so simple and yet so good that the women felt guilty for
serving it to their family and their guests. They didn’t want to give the false impression
that they had worked so hard to make the cake that they simply refused to buy the cake
mix. So, General Mills reworked the cake mix so that the cakes would need to have
water and an egg added to the mix.
It worked. the extra step made people feel better about having to “work” at making the
cake – the guilt was gone – and sales skyrocketed.
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Naaman would have been one of the people who would have preferred the extra step
necessary to make the cake. Bathing in the Jordan river seven times just wasn’t
enough. Why the Jordan? Why not any random river in his own country? How was this
supposed to work anyway? Leprosy was a serious disease – there was no cure for it,
and it led to a painful end. Water? The Jordan? Seven times? That was it? Seriously?
Absolutely not! Naaman, in his anger, must have thought this was a joke and he was
having no part of it. He was heading home, angry, frustrated, confused, and still a leper.
But God intervened through Naaman’s servants. “What could it hurt?” they asked. They
pointed out that if Naaman had been given a difficult task he would have set to
accomplish it right away. He expected difficulty, he expected a challenge, but why not
try the directions as given, why not give the simple plan a chance?
Naaman finally listened and went to the Jordan and immersed himself in the water.
Seven times he dipped himself below the surface and after the last time, his skin was
restored; he was healed! What a miracle! I can only imagine the celebration that ensued
when they all noticed that Naaman no longer showed signs of leprosy, but now had the
smooth skin of a young boy.
I love the story of Naaman, but I can’t help but think about how his expectations almost
caused him to live with leprosy and all its issues instead of choosing to be healed and
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whole once again. There are so many people in the world who are more like Naaman
than they realize.
Friends, God offers us the most perfect wholeness through Jesus Christ. All we have to
do is accept the gift by believing in him. That’s it. Only, we don’t understand how such a
magnificent gift can be given so easily. We think there must be more to it than that. We
are willing to work for this gift, jump through all the right hoops to win the gift, do
whatever it takes to get this gift, add the egg to the cake mix to receive this gift, but
really, all we have to do is accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is really that
simple.
Naaman was healed and he knew that healing had come through God. He vowed after
that to worship the One, True God, to offer sacrifices to only him, and to remember what
he had done for him.
We humans like to complicate things because we think that makes the end result more
valuable somehow. God wants to make coming to him as easy as possible so that
everyone has the same opportunity to do so. The apostle Paul reminds us of that in his
second letter to the Ephesian church, “For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no
one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
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Elisha told Naaman to go to the Jordan and wash himself seven times and he would be
clean. The blood of Jesus was shed for us that we might be washed and made clean by
his death on the cross. It was there that he took on all our sins so that we would not
have to be punished for them. Then the gift was extended, in his resurrection, to include
eternal life for all who accepted the offer to wash and be clean. Sometimes it really is
the simple answer that is the best answer after all. AMEN.
PRAYER: Father God, forgive us when we try to make difficult what you made easy.
Help us to remember that your offer of salvation through your son, Jesus Christ, is a
free gift, available for the asking, and help us to accept it with grateful hearts that
welcome you into our lives. May we share the good news of your gift in this world so
that others might also come to accept the gift that we have been given. AMEN.
References
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/prophet-margins
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inside-the-box/201401/creativity-lesson-
betty-crocker
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Call to Worship:
L: God’s healing love is available to all,
P: To Jew and Gentile, man and woman, rich and poor.
L: God’s loving mercy is poured out on us,
P: Let us accept this gift with open hearts.
L: We will rejoice in this gracious gift that is given,
P: Given freely, given abundantly to all who accept.
ALL: Hallelujah! AMEN.
Prelude:
Hymn:
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE:
Let’s play a game. Anyone ever heard of the game Simon Says? Ok, we are going to
play that, but we are going to change it to Elisha Says because Elisha is the prophet we
are going to hear from today. I will tell you all something to do, and if I say, “Elisha
Says,” then you do it, but if I don’t say “Elisha Says,” then you don’t. Ready?
Elisha says, touch your eyebrow.
Elisha says touch your toes.
Jump one time.
Elisha says give yourself a high five.
Spin in a circle.
Elisha says put your hand on your head, jump on one foot, and stick out your tongue.
Some of those instructions were pretty silly, weren’t they? Well, this summer we are
going to be reading about some of the prophets. Do any of you know what a prophet is?
(A person who hears a message from God and shares that message with others)
Sometimes the message God gives through the prophets seems a little strange and we
wonder what in the world is God thinking! But the important thing we remember is that
God is so much smarter than we are, and he does things differently from how we might
do them. And guess what? His plan is always better than ours.
Today we are going to learn about a guy named Naaman who had a skin disease that
no doctor could cure. So Naaman went to see Elisha the Prophet, and Elisha told him to
go wash in the Jordan River seven times.
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That seems silly, doesn’t it? If no doctor could cure him, how would jumping in a river
help? But God was at work and so, even tho it sounded silly, Naaman did what Elisha
said, and he was healed!
Imagine if Naaman had said, “this is too silly” and didn’t do what Elisha told him to do.
He would never have been healed. God told Elisha what to tell Naaman, and Naaman
did what he was told even though is sounded like a crazy plan. But God’s plan was to
cure Naaman all along – it’s a good thing Naaman could play a good game of Elisha
Says!