3rd Sunday of Pentecost 2008
June 01, 2008
the Rev. Ken Kroohs
(Deuteronomy
11:18-21 & 26-28; Psalm 31:1-5 & 19-24; Romans 1:16-17 & 3:22b-31;
Matthew 7:21-29)
St. Christopher’s,
MAY
THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS
ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN
We did not hear it but the true beginning of the gospel lesson is:
blessed are the poor in spirit for their’s is the kingdom of heaven. What is commonly called the sermon on the
mount. Frequently cited as one of the
greatest moral and ethical teachings in history. And we forget that this one teaching went on
for several pages of Matthew’s gospel ... three full chapters.
Take time this week to go to Matthew 5:1 and read the entire
sermon on the mount.
In this section Jesus turns His attention to the extremes of
religiosity. At either end of the
extreme we find people who appear to
be religious ... people who believe
they are religious but whom Jesus criticizes and rejects.
That said, this seems to be a bit confusing at first. Jesus
begins by saying that only those who do the will of God will enter
heaven. ... OK ... makes sense. But then
He addresses people who say they have prophesied in Jesus name, cast out
demons, and done deeds of power — all in Jesus’ name.
So here we have people who seem
to be filled with the Holy Spirit ... seem
to be empowered by God but Jesus says to them: “I do not know you”.
Turn back to the Deuteronomy reading ... the very end. Moses is telling people to fully embrace
God’s teachings. At the end, Moses
curses those who “do not obey God but
turn from the way that I am commanding you today to follow other gods that you
have not known.”
I don’t think I am over reaching to link these two lessons. Jesus says He has not known the people and
Moses speaks about gods people do not know.
Both are speaking about a relationship.
Jesus, I believe, says that simply running off and doing things — even good things is not enough. We must live our lives in a relationship with
Jesus ... with God.
The other extreme are those people who hear the teachings, say
they are followers of Jesus Christ ... but do nothing. Jesus only speaks positively of those
persons who hear the teachings and act on them ... hear and act. Neither is enough by itself.
All that is important, but I a large percentage of the questions I
get every week are answered in the words about the house built on the
rock. Notice something about the house
built on the rock: “the rain fell, the
floods came, and the winds blew”.
Can you imagine a more direct teaching about how a true Christian
will still suffer adversities? Jesus is
holding up this life style ... the one built on the rock ... holding that up as
the ultimate example and still it
gets hit with severe storms.
Some scholars argue this is an “end of time” description. Maybe, although that does not make much sense
to me. But maybe. However, I believe it clearly and directly is
a “this time” teaching. It is a teaching
about our lives. It is a teaching about
today, yesterday, next week and the remainder of our lives.
A friend’s child ... teenager, say no more! ... was giving him
trouble and he asked for advice. My
first, and last words were “go to a professional family therapist!”. But in between I told him that I thought his
role would be as the pillar of strength in his child’s life. I told him that he needed to stand straight
and firm, don’t dance around so the child had no idea where he was. Be the solid rock. The child would wander away at times and then
drift back, would dash away at other times and tentatively come back. He
needed to let the child know how much love and concern would be there
every time he came back – but within the limits. I explained that if he changed his limits
than he was no longer the pillar or rock the child could depend on but was
blowing in the wind and hard to find.
That is the kind of rock Jesus is speaking about. God is fixed and solid and always there. We can, and do, and will drift or dash away
from God. But God will always be present
for us. Funny thing, we can run as fast
and as hard as we know how for years, only to discover that rock, God, is just
inches away from us. The journey away
can be long. The journey back can be
very short.
Frequently we drift away during the good times, only to hurry back
when life’s storms hit.
I am envisioning a large granite rock. Like any image this one can be pushed beyond
the breaking point. But I am envisioning
this large, solid, essentially indestructible rock. A rock sticking up out of life’s messes ...
maybe a little like
As I envision that rock I notice it does not have a roof ... the
rain still hits me. It does not have
walls ... the wind still stings me. But
it still provides safety to last through the storms. Not to avoid the storms, but to take me
through the storms.
God allows the world
... allows our lives to include this nastiness.
I think I sometimes understand the “why” of that. But even if I am wrong about the “why” I am
confident that God stands with us through those problems ... those pains.
A long time ago I heard or read, cannot remember the source, an
interesting question. Like most such
questions this overstates the issue but it is worth considering. The author
asked: “Who is your friend?” The author
suggested we consider a situation such as being diagnosed with cancer or losing
our jobs. Who would we tell? The person,
or persons we would tell are our friends.
And we would tell them because we had a relationship with them, and
because we trusted them. We do not
expect them to cure the cancer. We do
not expect them to get us a job. We
simply needed them to be there with us.
We needed them to hear us and walk with us through the storm. To be a
rock.
Now God is much more than a human friend! But the image works. God can be ... God wants to be that rock we can run to when the storm hits. Ideally we are already at the rock but if we are not, we can run to it. We can go to the rock, depend on the rock
because we know Jesus and we trust Jesus.
So simple. So
important. So why don’t we do it? Why don’t we live at the rock and depend on
the rock?
I suspect the answer is in the teaching we heard last week ... you
cannot serve two masters ... and Moses comment about following other gods. We don’t live at the rock, depend on the rock
because we have .... foolishly ... placed our trust in other powers.
Elizabeth Walker wrote: “Often
we are not free to accept God’s words because of the chains that bind us,
invisible chains that draw our sense of self away from God.”
When we give loyalty to other powers, we put those chains around
ourselves. Another image: when we give
loyalty to other powers we build a wall between us and God. Either image works. When we give loyalty to other powers ... gods
we really do not know, we make it harder to turn to the one true God.
“Yeah right ... what powers?
Nothing has power over me!” ... Thinking that? Addicts can answer the question of other
powers fairly easily. But there are lots
of other powers.
For me ... and I know you all well enough to know this is also a
chain or wall for some of your! ... for me it is self sufficiency. I had to depend on myself for so long that I
find it very difficult to depend on anyone else ... even God. “I
can take care of this thank you very much” is one of my chains or walls.
For other people it could be the exact opposite — “I cannot do
anything myself” For some people it is a need to be known and respected by
other people – they manipulate other people so they stay the center of
attention. For some people it is money -
“I can pay for the solution.”
Ask yourself, what is your foundation? What do depend on when times are tough?
Ask yourself – be honest now! – what difference does it make that
you are a Christian?
Ask yourself ... acknowledging that few people in our society live
as Jesus would want people to live .... Ask yourself, how are you different
from the dominant culture? From the
people around you? How could an observer
pick you out and say: “That one has a relationship with God?”
I decided not to put a homework sheet with these questions in your
bulletin but have copies on yellow paper I will leave here if you want to pick
one up as a reminder.
These are some of the most difficult questions you can ask
yourself. Which makes them some of the
most important.
Let us pray: Dear God, we ask that you make the chains and walls
limiting us visible to our eyes, and give us the wisdom and strength to tear
them down. 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)