The Hope of Comfort

Isaiah 40:1-11                                                                      First Sunday of Advent

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                          30 November 2014

 

Where do you go for comfort?   To the bag of chocolate not-so-well hidden from yourself in the pantry?  To the bottle of alcohol to quiet the discomfort?  (risky choices, when you are in great need!)  Do you go to the friend who always tells you are okay, and who makes it clear to you that even if you are not okay, you’ll still have a friend who cares?   To the dog, who always accepts you and cuddles with you, no matter what you’ve done?  To some physical activity in the bedroom or the gym that alleviates your stress?  Do you go professionals like Toni, Troy, and Jenny for healing touch?   Or to professionals like Chip and David for healing talk?  Think about it.   Are you are person who needs talk comfort or touch comfort or taste comfort?  

 

All of us have talk and touch and taste needs.  You can see all of these primal needs in infants, and they do not develop well if missing any of these three.   But when we are feeling the need for comfort, we should quiz ourselves on our deeper needs.  Our greatest need is for TOTAL comfort.  We are healthiest in our seeking for comfort needs, when we recognize in our souls that it is the Triune God who supplies our deepest longings, who comforts us with a hope that cannot be taken away.   That’s what I want us to consider today.  That complete comfort of hope. 

 

But I must say that as I worked on this sermon, I kept trying to decipher between hope of comfort and the comfort of hope.  Rebecca had surgery on her deviated septum on Tuesday.   She was not nervous; she was hopeful for a good surgical outcome – no more breathing problems and a straightened nose.   She was fine the first day or two out, but then as the length of discomfort wore on, she begin to wear down.  If relief is coming, we can endure pain.  It’s when no relief is in sight that we lose our hope.   But hope can be restored with some comfort.   And there is definitely comfort when we know that suffering has an end or a purpose.

 

The writer of this part of Isaiah, known as second Isaiah, faced the challenge of giving hope to a people facing the long-standing despair of captivity in Babylon.   To these disheartened people, who thought God had abandoned them, Second Isaiah cries out, “Here is your God!   Comfort is here.  Suffering is over.”

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. ² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³ A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. ⁵ Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

⁶ A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. ⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. ⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. ⁹ Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” ¹⁰ See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. ¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

(NRSV)

“Comfort, comfort.  Speak tenderly, compassionately to those who are suffering.”  Some people who have had little creaturely comforts in this life are still people of hope.   Some people who have no promised end of suffering still are people of hope.   Some people without hope find new hope when given the comfort of compassion – suffering with.   Like the one who is despairing or grieving who spends time with a friend or a pastor or a therapist or a Stephen Minister.  

Like the one who has been treatly unfairly, but receives the attention and support of others.  Comfort provides a space for hope to be held.   Yet too much comfort without challenge can lead to complacency.   Strong hope is born of the character developed by enduring suffering.   Paul says to the Romans, “We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Rom 5:1 NRS)

 

If we resist character-building by rushing to comfort ourselves in unhealthy ways, without working on root problems, then hope is not given time for long-term character development, for trust in the One who give Total Comfort.   Equally well, we can rush to offer comfort to others, the kind of comfort that does not lead to hope.  If all we do is offer acts of compassion to those who need us to help them work for change, then we have provided a short-lived comfort.  If all we do is work for change, without speaking carefully of the One who capable of changing the world, we have supplied hope with a cheap battery instead of a plugged-in hope. 

 

What does it mean for the Florida farmworkers to have hope?  It means that they know that God cares about their suffering and wants to relieve it.  It means that hard work will one day bring a decent level of comfortable living.  The playing field will be leveled.  It is shameful that we have a farming economy built on the cheap labor of slaves followed by successive generations of powerless immigrants.  Hope calls for justice in the fields.

 

What does it mean for refugees and warriors in the Middle East to have hope?   It means they can truly believe that their warfare will end, such that they begin to imagine the day.  They can begin to build bridges because they see the humanity of the other side, and they can turn their swords into plowshares.  Hope calls for visions of peace.

 

What does it mean for Ferguson to have hope?   It means that young men of color can be treated with dignity not fear, and that authority figures can be respected, not mocked.  Hope calls for mutual understanding and trust.

 

What did it mean for second Isaiah’s people to have hope while stuck in Babylon?   God declares that they have suffered too much already as captives.  Cyrus the Persion King is advancing on Babylon and the Prophet helps the Israelites to see this as God’s hand – their coming liberation.   God will go before them, making the rough places smooth and gently carrying in his arms the ones who are unable to travel by themselves.    We see here Yahweh's sovereignty over the nations. Humans may think they have complete control over history, but they are mistaken.  The moral order brought by God is higher than the moronic chaos created by humans.  God’s way will prevail, Isaiah tells us.

 

So whether we are talking about the Israeli captives in Babylon, or religious and ethnic conflict in the modern Middle East, or race relationships in Ferguson, or economic concerns for farmworkers in Florida, or some problem of grief, loss, frustration, or shame in our own personal lives….we have confidence that God who came as one of us, Immanuel, is bringing hope to our weary world. 

 

The great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “No words have gone further in offering comfort when the sick world cries” than these words of second Isaiah.   Here’s the crux of the matter according to the Rabbi, “More excruciating than the suffering itself is the agony of seeing no meaning (no purpose) in the suffering.”  We humans want to believe, need to believe, have to believe that our suffering has meaningful purpose – that God has not forgotten us.  To comfort is to throw light into a cave of darkness.   (The Prophets, by Heschel)  Our ultimate hope is that “The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and that all flesh shall see it together.” 

 

 

 

 

It’s not that our way, our religious group or our countries will receive the glory.  

It’s not our flesh against your flesh, but all of us together, basking in the glory of God.   We are not comforted to be comfortable, but to be comforters. (Dr. John Henry Jowett)

 

So we begin to see the glory of the Lord, when the rough places are smoothed, when the high places or people are brought down and the low places or people are brought up, a message we will hear again from Mother Mary in a couple of weeks.   A voice says, “Cry out.” But what shall we cry, but that people are like grass, withering and fading.” 

 

Even powerful people wither and fade.   Why are we so inclined to glorify human beings – celebrities, CEOs, politicians and pundits?   They are grass.   We attend to them like as if they are gold, but they are grass.  We relish their fall from glory as much as their rise to it.   Our hope is not in the rise or the fall of any earthly power.   Hope is not in the rise and fall of our bank account.   It is not in our new car, new house, new Iphone.   Short-lived battery comfort may be found in a pantry or liquor cabinet, in a physical or emotional pleasure or even in the smooth operating new technology.  But short-lived comfort is not hope.   Hope is what we live on.   As Emily Dickinson said, “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.”   Never stops.   Hope is the dove (the Holy Spirit of Christ) that sings in your soul when there are not words to sing.

 

Our hope is found in the living God who comes to us, remarkably in the risk and joy of an infant King, God with us, the one who knows our suffering and provides the comfort of empathy and the promise of resurrection – new life, as only Christ can do.  There is hope in finding comfort and being comforters for one another.  And this comfort when it is rooted in Christ always leads us into sharing a deep relationship with the Hope-bearer, Immanuel, God with us.

 

O Come, O Come Immanuel, Your comfort and your hope within us dwell.  Embrace us, call us, fill us with grace that we may be your faithful in this place. 

When

Matthew 25:31-46                                                             Christ the King Sunday

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                          23 November 2014

 

It has been said by many Biblical and theological scholars that Jesus identifies himself with the poor, the hungry, the sick, and the oppressed.   At the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus quotes from Isaiah, announcing “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.”   In his first recorded sermon, he begins with “Blessed are the poor, the weeping, the meek, the hungry…”  And as he is completing his ministry, the last words in Matthew before the chief priests and elder plot to kill him, he announces the Great Judgment of the Nations, also sometimes called the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.   This vision describes the return of Christ with all the angels.   It is the final judgment after three chapters (Matthew 23-25) of harsh judgment of the scribes and Pharisees, of all who are not ready for Christ to come, and all have not risked giving their all for Christ’s sake.   It immediately precedes the announcement of the plot to kill Jesus.     This is Christ the King Sunday, and this image of the coming of the King, also called the Son of Man, rightly wakes us up – those who are sleeping are cautioned to open our eyes and see Christ in everyone and everything.  

Matthew 25:31-46

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³ and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.

³⁴ Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸ And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹ And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'

 

⁴¹ Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."   

Let’s deal with this challenging text at several levels of understanding.   First of all, the most obvious interpretation.   Human beings are created in the image of God.   So we should see the face of Christ in every person.   How we treat them is how we treat Jesus himself.    He taught us that we should love God and love others, so ignoring those who suffer is not loving.  If Jesus identifies himself with the hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, sick person, imprisoned, then we’d better do that ourselves.

The Christ we see in Matthew is all about how you live.   It’s kind of like James who said, “Faith without works is dead.”  In Matthew, Jesus say, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”   (Matt 5:20) He says, “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21)    So we are welcomed by grace, but not excused by grace to live however the H we want.

It is significant to note that Jesus said, the least of these who are members of my family.  Jesus said, “Who are my family members, but those who do the will of God.”   So the least of these who are my brothers and sisters, are the poor, hungry, sick, and imprisoned people of God.  As Son of Man, he could be referring to all people, but more likely, when he speaks of his brothers and sisters, he means those who are faithful to God.  This leads us to the next level of understanding – that the early church was being persecuted, so they were nearly all in those categories.

So we’ve identified the ones we most need to provide loving care.   But have we identified who Jesus is dividing into sheep and goats?   The Greek word, ethne, translated here nations can be translated people, and can be a way of speak of the Gentiles, all the people who are not Jewish.   It is the same word he uses at the end of Matthew, when he says, “Make disciples of all nations”   Some have said, this interpretation means that unbelievers (the nations) who treat believers well will be sheep, and those who have treated us poorly are goats.

And the next thing we must notice is the surprise of both goats and sheep.   When did we?   It is as if the sheep have been so sheep-like in following the Shepherd, they do not know what they have done – did not do it to earn their righteousness.   Meanwhile, those who were busy being goat-like (doing whatever they want) equally never noticed that they could have been serving, helping, caring for Christ.

Lastly we must also talk about that word “eternal” which is the same root as our word, eon.   It is used in Romans to refer to “long ages” and to the eternal God, and in Hebrews to talk about eternal covenant of God.   It seems sometimes to mean forever and sometimes to mean an indefinite length of time.   Either way, I’d rather be in heaven, please help me, Jesus.  And he will.

This is a tough passage, one that makes most of us tremble a bit.   And so we should.   We should tremble with gratitude for Christ’s gift of grace.  We are meant to take seriously his call to be disciples, which means we need to see him in the sick, the naked, the hungry, the stranger, and the prisoner.  

Christ is our loving Shepherd.  He says he will go after us when we are lost in Luke, and in John, he says that he lays down his life for his sheep, and that there are other sheep, outside the fold that he must bring too, and that they will listen to his voice.  

He calls us his sheep.   We must follow him or be lost.   If we are too busy doing our own thing – being goats, then we are not following the Shepherd, the King, the one in charge.   We saw a teen yesterday with a bracelet that said, “I’m second.”   Richard asked the youth who was first.   He said, “God.”  God IS first.   We are the followers.   We are called to live like Christ.  

Let me say it again – the sheep did not line up and say to the King, “See, I took care of all the marginalized people.   I gave food every time we had a food drive at church.   I always handed money to homeless people on the street.”   No.  Good sheep just live their lives focused on the Shepherd, trusting the Shepherd, seeing people and helping them.   They are not trying to earn their way to heaven.   They are genuinely caring for their neighbor, not selfishly using their neighbor to earn their way to eternal life.   For that kind of egotistical falsehood would never cut it with the King.  Loving our neighbor in order to achieve something for ourselves (like giving to the church solely to improve your tax burden) is not real love or generosity.  

If we are truly generous, we do not even recognize it in ourselves.   We are not thinking of ourselves at all.  So to worry too much about how to grow wool and be a sheep instead of a goat is to get this story all wrong.   Jesus is talking about a way of life, and not one that is motivated by fear of hell or hope of heaven, but driven by authentic Christ-like love.   So, instead of worrying about when Christ is coming, let’s get on with preparing to meet him. Instead of worrying about whether we are sheep or a goats, let’s get on with following him.  Instead of worrying about when we should help and when we should not help, we need simply to cultivate the courage to see Christ in other people.   Jesus said to Peter, “Peter, do you love me?”  “Yes, Lord, of course I do.”   “Then feed my lambs.  Tend my sheep.”  

The Grateful Christian

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.8-18                                              Dedication Sunday

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                          16 November 2014

 

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3,8-18

 

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. ² For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ When they say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!

 

⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹ For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing. ¹² But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; ¹³ esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. ¹⁵ See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

 

 

Grateful Christians recognize the brevity of life – each day, week, month, year is a gift not to be wasted or taken for granted.   Go ahead and make peace with your fellow Christians because you know you will be together for eternity, and God will tolerate embittered attitudes.  In fact, I doubt you will see much of eternal love until you release your bitterness and forgive all the people against whom you are holding grudges or those whom you judge.  The thief that comes in the night will feel more like sudden destruction and the labor pains will be more severe if you are still clinging to these unhealthy, unchristian attitudes.   There is no escape because God loves you and God will have you, but God cannot force you to love, only keep inviting you until you at last discover it is the only way.

So since we belong to the day, we wear not the armor of defensiveness but faith and love and hope.   Oh, I think we have heard those words before.  Faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is….love.   A grateful Christian recognizes the brevity of this life and is focused on the eternity of the life to come, a life in which there will be no more tears or pain, no more bitterness, war, hatred, cruelty or suffering.   Grateful Christians knows that they have not achieved salvation by works but by the gift of God, through grace.   But grateful Christians never, ever, ever take that gift for granted.   Grateful Christians know that they must participate in/work out their own salvation not with malaise and complacency – but with fear and trembling.

 

Because the grateful Christians understand that they have nothing on which to stand but the grace of God, so they are patient with the weakness and failures of their brothers and sisters.   They offer encouragement more than judgment.   They build each other up, knowing that when we are enveloped in love and acceptance we become our best selves.  Andrew’s University sends the parents one of those daily quote calendars with the tear-off pages.   I have been living with this one quote for one month, thinking about it, dwelling on it. “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.”  (Stephen Covey)   I would say that Christian encouragement is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.   I would say that Christian parenting is communicating to your children their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.  Grateful Christians encourage one another and build up others because they never stop imagining what good God can do in them.

 

Grateful Christians are respectful and peaceable.  They do admonish those who are not doing what they should.   Yes they do.  For to ignore someone’s weakness is to demonstrate a lack of love.  The word translated idler could be translated trouble-maker.  So we challenge the troublemaker or person who is not doing their part.   We do it directly and in love.   And we encourage, we give courage to those who are depressed or down-hearted.   Grateful Christians help the weak rather than judging them.   And most of all, they are patient…patient…patient.   Patience is not just the ability to wait, but how to behave when you are waiting.  (Joyce Meyer) Think about it. 

If I am standing at the door waiting with a frown on my face, yelling to Richard that we are going to be late, or worse saying, “You always…..”  then I am clearly not exercising patience but impatience.

 

And here’s the toughest part of the passage.   Do not repay evil for evil, but seek to do good to one another and to all.   Ummm-huh.   This is the hard part.  And it is not the only place where the Bible instructs us not to repay evil for evil.   Jesus says it.   Paul says it again in Romans.   It is very clear that we must find a way to do good to those who have done us harm.  Is this not what Christ himself did?   Is this not what he really means when he says “take up your cross and follow me?”   It does not necessarily mean that we literally have to die on a cross, but that we should be willing to sacrifice our wishes for the sake of loving others.  

 

It means relinquishing your need to be in control and your need to be right.  And when you do that, you cannot play the blame game.  If I had a dollar for every minute I have spent in twenty-four years of ministry and twenty-six years of parenting, trying to help children of God see that blaming another or holding a grudge against another or assuming the worst from another is an exercise in making yourself miserable, pulling yourself away from God’s grace and peace, I’d have a million dollars, and we’d be building the sanctuary right now year with my personal gift to the church.  

 

Here’s the thing – anger is good if it propels us to seek solutions to a relationship problem with ourselves or with others.  But too often, we let anger at ourselves or others or at some situation turn to bitterness because we know we cannot act out our anger in wrath.  So instead of finding good ways to express it, we bottle up our anger and sip a little of its bitter poison daily.   We feed on bitterness rather than grace, because bitterness is so easy to drink.  It seems so sweet to the taste, so satisfying in the moment, but it slowly kills us – like the frog that never jumps out of the slow warming pot.  Until we really decide to see and to seek the best for every person and situation, no matter what, we leave ourselves vulnerable to the disease of bitterness. 

There will always be hurt and misunderstandings.  Unless we are so focused on rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in all circumstances, we will never become authentically grateful Christians.   You cannot be a truly grateful and loving, if your gratitude and love is dependent on things going your way and people understanding you and being kind to you.   

We tend to treat others based on our perceptions of them.  If we see people as evil, we treat them accordingly. (notice this phenom in all the global conflicts)

If we judge a woman to be greedy, we are unlikely to extend aid to her. If we interpret a man’s actions as arrogant, we will probably keep him at arm’s length.   But I have the power to control my perceptions of people.  So I choose to affirm and to believe about every one created by God: You are a beloved child of God no matter what I think of you, I will keep repeating that to myself.   I will keep seeking to see and to know and to say what is good in you, what is true, what is just, what is worthy of praise.   I will think on these things, as Paul said in Philippians.  

 

I will actively refuse to dwell on what’s wrong with you or what’s wrong with the world.   I will dwell on the amazing presence of a loving Christ and rejoice.   I will not dwell on how I have been hurt by a person, but on how I can help that person become the healthiest child of God they can become.   I will give thanks for my circumstances because I know that if I am willing to grow, God will use all things for my growth and blessing, turning the bad to good, and to better good than would have been if the bad had never happened.  

 

So, my friends, I am thankful.   There is absolutely nothing that anyone can say or do that will take my gratitude away, because God is supremely good and God’s in charge of this world.   So with everything in me I want the mind of Christ.   I don’t want a sickly mind, full of angry or proud thoughts.  With everything in me, I want the heart of Christ -- with everything in me.   I don’t want a sickly heart full of bitterness and shame.   I relinquish my right to hold onto that bitterness and shame and all its poison in my life.   I want to be free.   I want to be a new creation in Christ.   I want the soul of Christ, spacious enough to hold the hurt of others and still keep loving.  I want my life to spill over with love and joy overflowing.  I want to be a truly grateful Christian, trusting God’s ability to provide everything I need emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally, materially, futuristically.  I want to be a truly grateful Christian, giving back to others with a reckless generosity that refuses to worry or calculate that I’ll not have enough one day.   Because God is our Provider.

 

We’ve been talking about God First for five weeks.   Well, God first means I surrender my will to God’s will. I ask God’s help to pry my little fingers of every control, so I can surrender completely and be free of worry.  

I want to be more than I am, through Christ, and the truth is, I AM more than I am, as I make room for Christ to live in me.   And so are you!  

 

(Will you pray with me?)

 

Please take us, Jesus, every one of us and every part of us and make us new.  We will rejoice, we will pray without ceasing, and we will give thanks, trusting always in your goodness and giving as much of ourselves as we can possibly give, because we know that as we truly give, so we truly live.

Choosing God First

Joshua 24:13-27                                                                 Gratitude Season

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                          9 November 2014

 

I grew up in a time and a place in which sports for kids were not very organized or supervised.   In the neighborhood and on the school playground, we would just go out and start choosing sides for kickball, basketball, or baseball.   Two captains volunteered first, and then teams were chosen.  Nobody wants to be chosen last, not even God.   Oh yeah, let me choose career, family, friends, entertainment, hobbies, house and yard work, and God.   Yes, God would be okay on my team, as long as God doesn’t try to run the team.   I mean I think we might even let God be lead-off batter on the team, as long as God doesn’t want to be captain, cause that’s not going to work, I’m captain of this team.

Today, friends, we are reading the story from the book of Joshua.  Joshua was Moses’ right hand man.   He and Caleb were leaders among the twelve spies who went to check out Canaan.   Joshua took over leadership of the Israelites after Moses died.   He is best known for two things – the spiritual song about his first conquest.  Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho.   Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came a tumbalin down.   And the other thing for which Joshua is known is from our reading today.   I quoted it in This Week at Peace your weekly email:  Choose this day whom you will serve but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.   As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  The only gift I ever made for my father was a calligraphy of that verse with the outline of a house.   It’s all faded now, but my mom still has it hanging in her kitchen hallway.  

So we read today Joshua’s final challenge to the people before he died at the ripe old age of 110, according to the story.  I know I said we are all getting old last week, but you’re not that old.  But you still should get on with wills and estate planning.   Joshua’s final challenge.  The text says, that after he stopped speaking, he sent them out to their inheritance. 

Now before we read it, let me say that Joshua is one of those Old Testament books that tells “oral history” in retrospect.   Joshua is set in the 13^th century before Christ.    But it was likely written in the 7^th or 6^th century, during the time of exile, to keep the people’s faith strong.   But the theological message of Joshua is still valuable to this day.   Joshua says God wants to be first.   And if you say God is first, if you promise to serve God, then you’d better mean what you say.

Joshua 24:1-2, 13-27

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. ² And Joshua said to all the people…

¹³ I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant. ¹⁴ "Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵ Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." ¹⁶ Then the people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; ¹⁷ for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; ¹⁸ and the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God." ¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good." ²¹ And the people said to Joshua, "No, we will serve the LORD!" ²² Then Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him." And they said, "We are witnesses." ²³ He said, "Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel." ²⁴ The people said to Joshua, "The LORD our God we will serve, and him we will obey." ²⁵ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem. ²⁶ Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a large stone, and set it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the LORD. ²⁷ Joshua said to all the people, "See, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you, if you deal falsely with your God." 

 

Like the Israelites, you Peace people have been given a land with trees and shrubs that you did not plant and with a building you did not build.   You have been blessed by the hand of God at work in your short decade of history as a congregation.   God gave us vision when we were a few around a kitchen table.   God gave us determination to keep trying when we were just 25 people meeting on Sunday evenings.   God gave us courage to keep believing when people came and went for four years at SCF and finally we were large enough to be considered by the presbytery a real church worth chartering.   Then we picked up the tabernacle when God said leave this place and go to a new home, which was the Manatee Association of Realtor’s Building, where for three years, God richly blessed us.   Then God gave us a year of testing as we thought we might build on five acres on Lorraine, and then decided we’d better stay at the Realtor’s building, extending our lease, but they said no, we want you out sooner than you thought.  So we quickly found a foreclosed church on Lorraine Road and after pursuing that for months, and coming close to closing on it, a dreaded mold sent us running, and God’s hand was in it because at just the right time, by providence, this property became open, and one year ago, today, we took ownership of this building and 24 acres.

And so I say to you, as Joshua said to them, as God has so richly blessed you, “Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served.”   So what gods did our ancestors serve…well our ancestors may have serve the god of the American Dream or the god of freedom.   No there’s a great deal of good in the American Dream and our freedom in this country.  They are much to be valued, but not if they lead us to put more faith in our country than in our God.   Maybe we valued individual freedom more than our communal responsibility to God and one another.  As Veterans Day approaches, we give thanks to all who loved their country enough to give their lives and their limbs, and we are so very grateful to them for freedom won.  

But we who are Christians in America or anywhere else must remember that ultimate freedom and ultimate loyalty are to Christ.   Such that I choose to love my brother or sisters in Christ, no matter from what country they hail.   And further, I care for all of humanity and desire God’s best for all of them.  

There are many choices that we make in life – where to go to college or what career or life path to pursue, whom to marry if called to marriage, when or if to have children, how to rear those children if I have them, where to live, and so forth.   And each step of the way, God is guiding us to make the better of many choices, and when we choose wrongly, God takes the bad and turns it to good.   So our choices are significant and have consequences but not consequences that are beyond God’s intervention.   God’s coming in Christ proves that nothing and no one is beyond God’s ability to save.

So let’s talk about some of the choices we make, because they all boil down to a few primary issues.   Who is most important?   What are our gifts?   How do we spend our time and our money?   Joshua makes it clear that he thinks God is most important.   God is first.   The trouble is we think we can choose all kinds of things and squeeze God into the cracks.   It is so easy to put family first. 

These are the ones we love most of all right, but remember, Jesus once said, “Who is my mother and my father and my brother and my sister?   Those who do the will of God.”  He said that when his Jewish mother was waiting outside to see him. 

What are our gifts?   Sometimes we think because we are gifted in something, and our gifts come from God, then the gift is first.   So our career, or the sport we play, or the musical talent we have.   Those gifts are significant, but are not the most important.   It is the Gift Giver.   Time is one of the most precious gifts God gives.   How we spend our time tells a lot about who and what we value.   Think about that one.   Last but not least, money.    Money is a good gift to be used for our well-being, that of our families, and for the purposes of God and neighbor.  

But here’s where we really don’t want God to be captain, because you see, we understand more about the game of time and money than God.   We know how much we need to invest because we know how investments work.   God was laughing about that one back in 2008 when we all knew so much.   We know how much time certain things in life take.   

We know how much we need to hold on to because of all those unforeseen situations of declining health.   God would not know anything about that or have any control over that stuff.

When Joshua invited the people to make their commitment to put God first, they said, “Sure, we will choose God, for look at all God has done for us.  We would never choose another god, an idol.”   But Joshua had noticed that sometimes when the people say they are choosing God, they are not really committed.   So he tells them, in other words, “Don’t tell me you are choosing God, unless you mean it.  You cannot play with God.   Choosing God is serious business.”  

This is kind of like when Jesus said to Peter and the disciples, “Oh, you want to follow me, do you?  Well, then deny yourself and pick up your cross and start walking.”   It’s like when Jesus told the parable about the two sons – one who said he’d work and then did not follow through and the other who said “no” but then changed his mind and worked.   The second one was preferred.  God does not appreciate a flimsy promise, a casual commitment.   A covenant is a covenant. 

So if you are committed, then you are witnesses against yourselves, for the promises you make.   So think about what you’re saying when you sing Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated Lord to Thee.   Think about the opening lines of A Declaration of Faith, We acknowledge one God alone, whose demands on us are absolute, whose help for us is sufficient.   Choose this day whom you will serve.

But as for the Deiberts, we will make God captain of the team.  And with joyful hearts, and maybe a wee bit worry and grumbling, we will give the full 10% of our income as a weekly act of gratitude to God to continue the ministry and mission of Peace.  Above that we will give to the building campaign.  We have clearly seen that God’s demands are absolute and God’s help is sufficient.   To the best of our ability, we will put God first with our relationships, our money, our time, and our talent, and we are confident beyond the shadow of doubt that God will not cease to provide everything we need.   We’re choosing God first --- because God has called and loved and blessed us.  How about you?

Reversal of Fortune

                                                           

Luke 16:10-15,19-31                                                         All Saints & Souls

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                          2 November 2014

 

There’s no getting around it.   Jesus talks a lot about money.  More about money than anything, except the Kingdom of God.   Eleven of 39 parables talk about money.   One of every 7 verses in the Gospel of Luke is about money.   But we don’t like to talk about money, unless it is about how to get more of it or how much we saved in some fabulous deal.   Jesus said things like: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal"   and "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."   He said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…but woe to you who are rich, for your have received your consolation.”

 

What was true in his day is still true today – loving money is dangerous, because it becomes nearly impossible to put God first if money runs our lives.  Further, if money leads us to ignore the poor, then we are to be pitied, because as Rev. Dr. James Forbes once said, “Nobody gets into heaven without a letter of recommendation from the poor.” 

 

As you hear the opening section of our reading today, it will help to know that when Jesus refers to dishonest wealth, he is talking about money and referring to the previous parable, in which a manager who is being fired, works his way out of disaster by being generous toward others, even those who owe his boss, which then earns him his job back.   This is a key to understanding the parable we are reading, because as I see it, the real sin of the rich man is not his riches but how his riches lead him to be inhumane toward a neighbor, Lazarus.   This relates to our last two weeks in worship.   Taylor Hill preached on the loving God and neighbor and how we have to broaden our circle of love.   The week before that we read from 1 Timothy that the root of evil is not money but the love of money. 

 

Hear God’s word of truth, and allow your soul to be touched by it:

Luke 16:10-15, 19-31

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. ¹¹ If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? ¹³ No slave 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. You cannot serve God and wealth." ¹⁴ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. ¹⁵ So he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.

 

¹⁹ "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' ²⁵ But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶ Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' ²⁷ He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- ²⁸ for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' ²⁹ Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' ³⁰ He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' ³¹ He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

In twenty-four years of ordained ministry, I have always in preaching avoided this parable.   Wonder why.   God knows our hearts.   God knows who we are and what we value.   The rich man (also known as Dives) feasts sumptuously every day.  He dresses in linen and purple, which in Bible times means the finest of luxurious apparel.   Lazarus is essentially on his doorstep starving (imagine a mansion with a gate) hoping that someone will bring the leftovers his way.   He’s covered in sores.   The dogs, by licking his wounds, are being more compassionate than Dives.   Lazarus dies and is carried away by angels to be with Abraham, while Dives dies, is buried, and is sent to Hades, the place of torment.

 

Now notice just how little respect Dives has for Lazarus, a human being.  First of all, we see in the parable that he knows his name.  He’s probably known his name a long time, while he ignored him.   Hear the words of verse 23 in the literal order of the Greek:  “and in the hades (that’s the underworld) having lifted up his eyes (or come to an understanding – having seen), being in torments, he sees Abraham far off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”  But here’s what even worse:  Even after this reversal, even after seeing what has happened, he is still looking down on Lazarus and wants him to serve him.   He should be asking Father Abraham to tell Lazarus how sorry he is for his cruel indifference.  He should be begging for forgiveness from Lazarus, but he still wants Lazarus to be his lackey.   He’s still wants Lazarus to serve his family.   “Abraham, get Lazarus to go tell my brothers…”    Why does he think his brothers would listen to Lazarus?   People like Dives’ family never paid any attention to people like Lazarus.   They have the teaching of Moses and the prophets about caring for the poor.   Why have they not listened?

 

And the most dramatic line, full of double meaning: they would not be changed even if a man was raised from the dead.   Not if Lazarus was raised from the dead to go tell them.   Not even if Jesus, was raised from the dead.   The point is that some people still ignore the Gospel, even when it is offered generously to them.   Yet when they go to this place of torment, they finally do see what is true and good and holy, and begin then to want it for themselves and for their families.   So Dives is in his painful learning stage.   Too bad he waited so long and got so far from God. 

With Lazarus on his doorstep he had the chance to learn to love those who were different from him.   He could have grown in his appreciation of Lazarus’ humanity, even learned something from Lazarus about the kingdom of God.   He could have shared generously all the blessings he had been given.   But Dives ignored all the opportunities for growth in his lifetime, and God was forced to teach the tough love in Hades.  Remember that in Matthew, Jesus says that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven.   We can say then that Dives participated in creating the great chasm that exists between him and Lazarus.   But what he did not seem to see was that the fortunes would be reversed.   Even from Hades, Dives still is unable to see the dignity of Lazarus, and until he does, I suppose, his torment will continue.  Revelation 20 gives us a vision of last days when “Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.” 

 

Friends, I pray that none of us are so wealthy and arrogant and caught up in our luxurious lifestyle that we are dehumanizing the person who mows our lawns or picks our tomatoes or lives on the wrong side of the tracks, or river so to speak.  We should beware that we are never so comfortable that we cannot sympathize with someone who lacks food, shelter, education, or healthcare.  There is nothing so expensive as being on the edge of poverty.  We are so well-off that nobody lies in our driveways, waiting for leftovers.  But do we notice the people who serve us?   Do we care about those who struggle to make it?  Are we sensitive to the  increasing gap between wealthy and poor, no matter that we might have different political perspectives on how to solve that problem?  We must care about the poor who stand in lines at the day job center.  We do care about those who go to collect bags of food at Beth-el Farmworker ministry.  And about the homeless who sleep under bridges, and in their cars.   They sometimes show up at the church asking for help, because a few still believe they might get help from the church.   We care, but are we willing to give up a portion of luxury to make a real difference?   Will we do what we can to make our governmental and community structures strong, such that those persons in greatest need are humanized, not degraded?  

It’s a complicated problem, but the answer begins with loving the neighbor.   If we open our eyes, we can see that God wants us to be concerned with more than our own luxuries and our own families.   All the rich man could see was his own luxurious lifestyle and later, and his desire to spare his brothers.   But we are called to look beyond our own to notice those who suffer, and to suffer with them and lift them up.   By drawing near to those who are poor and suffering, we draw near to God.   The Mission Team of Peace gives us many opportunities to give to people in need, like today’s Halloween offering for the Manatee Food Bank.   It is not too late to write a check.   In the next two weeks, the Gratitude Team at Peace will encourage everyone to respond to God’s gracious gifts by making a grateful promise to God to give toward the ministries and mission of Peace in 2015.  

 

And let me remind you of one more thing you can consider.  Why not make a plan right now to give to God generously in your death.  Could you set up a charitable annuity that would take care of you now and benefit the work of God later?   Do your descendants really need 100% of your estate?   Richard and I have four children, who will certainly be fine with 80% of our estate when we go, rather than 100%.   Think of Dana Beck Fancher, who gave when she died to the First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin.   She had no idea she would be blessing a new mission in Lakewood Ranch, a Presbyterian church named Peace with $25,000 to purchase a property.   Think of the good that can happen when people let go, and allow God to multiply their gifts.  

 

Mother Teresa said, “Never worry about numbers.   Help one person at a time and start with the one closest to you.”  She said, “Only in heaven will we see how much we owe the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.” God wills that all of us be saved.   God does not want to punish anyone, only to bring all of us to the place of love and healing and renewal – to know what really matters.   Sometimes to be healed, we have to have the cancer of selfishness burned away.  If we continue to ignore the least of these, who are beloved by God, then we have ignored Christ himself, Matthew 25 teaches.   We will live in torment, until we begin to love.  

James 5 says, “Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you.”  “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.” 

1 John says, “How does God’s love dwell in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?”  With that question I will leave us hanging.