Easter 4

May 15, 2011

the Rev. Ken Kroohs

(Acts 2:42-47,Ps. 23; I Peter 2:19-23; John 10:1-10)

WE ARE CONFUSED BECAUSE WE ASK THE WRONG QUESTION

St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, High Point, NC

MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN

I planned an entirely different approach to today’s sermon until I saw something on Friday. .... More about that later.

A couple times during our just completed Bible study “the Bible Jesus read” – the Old Testament – we touched on the fact that so much in the Bible applies just as much today as it did thousands of years ago. In fact, very little does not apply to us! Oh, some of the dietary and health laws are not important to us in the modern world. But beyond that?

The ten commandments were written at least 3,000 years ago and still are very important. The commandment to “treat others as you wish to be treated” is almost as old and still a perfect guide for life.

Some of the teachings we need to consider before understanding their application to our lives. Our gospel today is like that. When Jesus taught this lesson the point was more direct than it is now ... but no more important.

In Jesus’ time there were many people claiming to be the messiah. In fact, that was one of the pharisee’s primary jobs – to test the claimants.

Since there were so many ‘messiah claimants’ running around there needed to be a way to differentiate the real from the fake. The Pharisees tried to do that with questions – tests. Jesus worked to demonstrate His authority through His actions. Jesus said many times that His miracles, such as healings, were done largely to demonstrate that HE was the messiah.

Why Jesus, God did not/does not simply heal everyone of everything is a topic for another day.

In today’s Gospel Jesus explains that all the fake messiahs were just that ... fake messiahs who came not to save people but for their own benefit.

But there is something about this teaching which has always bothered me — deeply. Made me feel inadequate. Jesus says that “His people will know His voice”. But I find myself frequently confused. Not sure which leader to follow. Not sure which teacher is correct. Not clear on which path leads to God. Not sure which voice is Jesus’

Consider questions like capital punishment. Abortion. Homosexuality. Whether a war is just. In every one of those I offer you a choice of positions, I will take the other position and start quoting scripture to you. If you want we can later switch sides and I will quote scripture in the other direction! So how do you we differentiate Jesus’ voice from all the other voices in our society? How do we know which is the correct gate and which gate leads to destruction?

Anytime God wants to rearrange the stars into words and explain things to me that will be much appreciated!!

Let me start by telling you it is not my voice you should listen to .... it is Jesus’ voice. My role, at my best, is to help you find Jesus’ voice in the midst of chaos.

That said, let me explain that I am convinced God is right all the time, neither you nor I am God, and so we WILL be wrong some of the time. Not MAY but WILL. Some of times we think we have heard Jesus clearly we will discover, someday, we heard wrong.

The amazing thing is that is OK! God grades us, I believe, on effort and sincere desire and not on correct answers. If God grades us on correct answers we would all be in deep trouble. But God grades us on our desire to know God. Our willingness to struggle with the questions, and with God. Our use of the big answers to try and find answers to the smaller questions.

Much more time is spent in scripture speaking about how the poor should be treated than is ever spent on sexuality. Much more time is spent in scripture speaking about what it means to be in relationship with God than is spent on war. And I suspect that is part, only part, but part of the answer to why we can get different answers when studying the same scriptures. Part of the answer is that we tend to ask the wrong questions.

The question should be something like: “what would be most God like in our actions?” and not “what does God want?” ...... The difference is that asking “what does God want?” puts us back into the mind set of God as the lawgiver ... the proclaimer of arbitrary laws, with arbitrary punishments.

Answering “which action would be most God-like?” requires us to know God, to be in a relationship with God which allows me to understand God ---- at least a little. Answering “which action would be most God-like?” requires me to know Jesus voice as different from the voices of the pretend messiahs.

But as I said, sometimes I don’t know Jesus’ voice and that makes me upset, frustrated, angry, embarrassed and a few other emotions. So I wonder what it would take to truly know Jesus’ voice.

To begin with we need to remember that Jesus is known as the “word of God made flesh”. Jesus voice and God’s voice are the same.

Next we need to remember that the Bible is known as the “word of God” ..... THIS is the voice of God — of Jesus. And yes, sometimes it is difficult for us to hear the specific answers through the noise of the other voices screaming at us. To hear the correct voice requires some work. It requires us to be willing in listen in the sense of studying.

When a person says “I just don’t understand God” and then “I don’t know the Bible very well” I am tempted to say ..... wellllll ... maybe the reason you don’t understand God is that you have never studied God .... never taken the time to listen. How many people understand Latin without ever studying it? Or would expect to! And yet we expect to understand God without bothering to take the time to study God.

God is both much simpler, and much more complex than Latin!

I respect people who say they are “spiritual but not religious” .... that is, believe in God but not in religion. I respect them, understand them, and all too frequently agree with them!

So if someone believes in God but not religion that’s fine ..... IF they know what they are talking about. IF they have the knowledge to truly understand the God they claim to follow.

Some people will disagree with me but I don’t understand how anyone can truly study scripture, truly understand God alone. Scripture is seldom a cookbook because we seldom are preparing the meal being discussed. Go ahead and read the section of Genesis about Sodom on Gomorrah. Not just a couple verses but a couple chapters to get the entire story. Then let’s discuss what those chapters are teaching. How is it that the man who sends his pre-teen daughters to be gang raped is the good guy?

Actually I have no idea about that one .... it is high on my list of questions for when I get to heaven. I do know that people have tried for 3,000 years to understand that teaching and if I assume I can understand it better than all of them, with no help at all, that makes me pretty arrogant.

And I am not just talking about discussing the scriptures with some other people. One of my seminary professors says such groups only spread the ignorance. There are great resources ... personal, books, videos, internet available to all of us.

Which raises another question. How do we know which authority figure is speaking the truth and which is not? Answer — we may not know. Certainly their reputations among people we respect is an important indicator. Another choice is to hear from a couple different people with different views and see which one sounds most God like. Not in their voice or phrasing but in their thoughts.

Remember what I said earlier that I do not believe God is primarily concerned with us getting the correct answers but is primarily concerned with us making the effort. That is the effort to be in relationship with God because the closer we get to God the more likely we are to ‘hear’ the correct voice.

At the very beginning I said I intended to go in a different direction until I saw something on Friday. Actually I had heard about this somewhere but did not expect to see it. A preacher has hired those advertising trucks to go around announcing that the world will end this coming Saturday. ..... I REALLY wanted to get some spray paint and add the message “so give all your money to the church this week” ... I really wanted to do that!

But mostly I got angry. I got angry because this man will turn hundreds of people away from scripture. A few will turn away because they believe him and when it doesn’t happen they will believe the problem is with scripture.

A much great number will turn away, or have their previous rejection of scripture reinforced because some ............. claims to understand scripture. Heck, I looked at his thinking and his arithmetic is wrong!!

I believe we, you and me, are called to study scripture for two reasons. The least important is to help ourselves. Not unimportant but less important than the need to help others. This week someone may say something about this man and his theories. Can you explain why his claim that the earth is precisely 70,000 years old does not hold up scripturally? Can you explain why Easter is important?

Or if there is a question you cannot answer, and there will be many such questions!, can you direct the person ..... no BRING the person to a resource to help you both discover the answer?

All that said and intellectual understanding is important .... there is something even more important and I will leave you with this thought today. God loves you very much. God wants nothing but the best for you. If you can remember that than all those other unknowns become bearable. God loves you.

AMEN

We have previous sermons on our website. To read an earlier recent sermon just enter: www.st-christopher.org/sermon.html.

CLICK HERE TO RESPOND: I would enjoy reading your comments about this sermon. Please feel free to discuss content or presentation. (If you wish to use another email system send your comments to: ken@st-christopher.com)