2nd Sunday after Pentecost 2008 Proper 3

May 25, 2008

the Rev. Ken Kroohs

(Isaiah 49:8-16a; Psalm 131; I Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34)

St. Christopher’s, 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 try to stay away from the term “literal” or “literalist” when discussing how scripture is read or understood. I stay away from those words because they have been so badly corrupted.

I believe the Bible is true — which is one way of defining a literalist. And I believe human beings FREQUENTLY mis-understand the Bible — which is one way of defining a liberal.

So I qualify as either a literal liberal or a liberal literalist. .... Take your pick.

Our gospel today illustrates the problem of understanding what Jesus meant when He spoke. I believe Jesus meant what is written. But I also know it has been frequently mis-understood and mis-used.

However I also suspect this is not a modern problem. This teaching, if not this specific passage may well have been what Paul was attempting to explain when he wrote in 2^nd Thessalonians that anyone who does not work should not eat. Apparently some people had taken this teaching about how the heavenly father feeds the birds and clothes the lilies of the field very literally and assumed they could sit back and God would provide. To that Paul said, “not true”. We are expected to do our share.

Unfortunately this has been used every time a public feeding program such as food stamps or welfare have been discussed. Using these teachings to oppose food stamps, I believe, is not what God intended.

The problem with many literalists is that they also can be simplisticists (wow! I invented another new word!!) That is, in the attempt to understand scripture literally, they take the first, most simple possible reading.

I try to keep in mind that parts of the Old Testament are about 3,000 years old. Assuming that during those 3,000 years the average length of a generation was 20 years (I am defining a generation as the age of the mother when the middle child is born) – that means that parts of the Old Testament have served some 1,500 generations. Or considering only the New Testament we have almost 2,000 years or 1,000 generations.

No matter what number you assign, the Bible has been serving MANY people from MANY different cultures. Therefore, by necessity, the Bible must use symbolic language at times. That does not make the Bible untrue. A symbol can be literally true. The statement that the mortgage market crashed is symbolic, and literally true.

So, with that understanding we go back into the Gospel to see what God meant us to learn from it. The key is in the opening words. “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

And then comes the critical statement: “You cannot serve God and wealth.”

As far as our spiritual lives go, there is no such thing as a tie ball game. There cannot be two presidents. We cannot give God an equal place in our lives. Either God is number one, or God is not first. End of story.

And honestly ... most of the time ... God is not. That’s a difficult thing to admit but it is true.

Example: Shirley and I REALLY want a wireless, surround sound system for our house. We both love music and love to have it playing in our home. In fact, if it is possible I intend to make sure the system has the power to reach outside the house to our outbuilding and my upstairs office.

We REALLY want that. And we have talked about using the stimulus checks ... we won’t touch the illogic of that political tactic! .... stimulus checks to pay part of the cost of such a system.

Then one day Bert Walls was at the office and I asked about the youth trip to Open Door. He talked about it for a moment than shared how powerful an experience it was for him to serve the meals at Open Door. How powerful an experience it was for him to see people so extremely grateful to get a sloppy joe sandwich. Something most of us would not be especially excited about.

They lusted after a sloppy joe sandwich. I lusted after a fancy sound system.

I had never even considered sharing some of that stimulus check with other people. Money I had not expected so was not planning on. ... God was not number one in my thoughts. I allowed another master to be number one and frankly, honestly, God was somewhere far down the list.

Those thoughts reminded me of how the Jews saw the scriptural teaching to tithe, 10%, as a great gift. That God was not necessarily expecting 100% of the stimulus check, but 10% would be kind of nice to consider.

Going back to the words of the Gospel, I believe what Jesus is telling us ... and people in any culture ... is not that God will provide fancy clothing or banquets of food. But rather that we need to consider what really matters. God will clothe and feed us — with what really matters. Our ego is tied into our material possessions. Our pleasures are tied into our material possessions. Or rather we have ALLOWED our egos and our pleasures to be tied into our material possessions. When we break that connection, we discover that much we had thought important — isn’t really.

I do wonder if Jesus had a dry sense of humor here. He asked if worrying can add one hour to our lives when we know that worrying can take away a lot more than one hour!

Confidence in God reduces the stress that can kill us.

Jesus tells us to look first for the kingdom of God. .... Literalism rears its ugly head again! Too often people have interpreted that as meaning “heaven”. Occasionally people have suggested that will mean some kind of heaven on earth.

The problem is that we read the word “kingdom” as meaning a geographical location ... a physical place. If we dig a bit deeper into scripture we discover that the word is not about a physical location but is about a state of mind. When Jesus speaks about the “kingdom of God” He is speaking about a situation where God is king ... God is the ruler ... the inhabitants obey God. Physically that can be anywhere people serve God rather than another master.

Jesus tells us to strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness .... strive first to set God as our master which will put us in right relationship (righteousness) with God and when we achieve that ... or rather get a bit closer than we are now ... we will discover that what really matters becomes ours.

Doesn’t mean we will no longer need food or clothing or shelter. Those are still important. But it does mean we will be able to put them in perspective to serving God by serving other people.

I asked before if Jesus was using a very dry sense of humor here. This passage ends with Jesus in the role of therapist! “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

I suspect what Jesus is driving at is the same teaching as when he spoke about the man who stored up grain in his barns and when the barn was full, built bigger barns to store more grain but died before he ever enjoyed his life. (Luke 12:17-22)

If we worry too much about tomorrow and the problems which MIGHT occur, we will turn inward ... focus on ourselves and forget God, much less other people. Excessive worrying ... and I know that can be a difficult line to find at times ... excessive worrying can be an evil which draws us away from God. It can be from, or develop into, a lack of faith.

Before closing let’s take a moment to look at the Isaiah reading. Notice first how it again illustrates the problem of taking the scripture simply literally. When Isaiah said: “break forth, O mountains, into singing” he was NOT talking about something you could tape record! Instead he is symbolically speaking about the joy all creation has when God is served.

Notice in this passage the very comforting teaching: “Can a woman forget her nursing child? ... Even if they forget, yet I will not forget.” ... Under no conditions will God forget about us ... forget our needs.

Then look back ... this is the scary part ... at the beginning of this passage. Isaiah speaks about giving freedom to prisoners, food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, protection to those in need.

If we are not careful we miss HOW God says that will happen. God says these actions are the responsibility of the worshiping community – then the Jews but now it includes us. That we are responsible for keeping God’s promises to the people around us.

Isaiah tells us that when we seek first the kingdom of God, the rule of God ... when we seek first to obey God we will find God’s comfort for us, God’s peace for us, AND, and God’s mission for us to accomplish.

As our opening prayer said: “Grant O lord, that the course of this world may be peaceably governed by your providence; and that your church may joyfully serve you in confidence and serenity – through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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)