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August 31, 2008
“As You Work…”
Romans 12: 9-21
Delivered on August 31st, 2008
It is a rather rare thing that Labor Day weekend is actually the last weekend in August. Labor day was an invention of the Labor movement in New York City in 1882. It was envisioned as a day off for the working man. It still is, but it is also a day off for all of us, or most of us. It is a day to contemplate what the workers of the United States have accomplished. And it is a day for us to contemplate and appreciate what our own labors have accomplished.
But this morning, I want to focus our thoughts in a slightly different direction. Our lectionary Epistle reading this morning is Romans 8: 9-21. It contains directions from St. Paul and the Holy Spirit regarding how Christians are to live within the Christian Community we call the church and how we are to live among those who are not Christians. I want to look at those directions on this labor day weekend and see how they might instruct us as we think about how we should behave and what we should think as we work and spend time in the places where we work.
Now I know that many of you are retired, but I also know that some of you who are still work as volunteers for organizations and some spend a lot of time working for our church in one way or another. So some of what we will talk about this morning will still apply to you.
Some of you are students. Your environment in school is the same as that in which many of us work. You, too are challenged with living as a Christian in a place where Christian Standards of behavior are not discussed or expected to be observed.
For most of us, the place where we work or volunteer or go to school is the place where we come into contact with the most people who are not like us. Some come from other nations and cultures, some are of other races, and many do not share our religious beliefs. For some of us, our workplace is a mission field where we try to help others become Christians. But some workplaces do not allow that, so some of us have to content ourselves with living up to our faith as we work and relate to those with whom we work. So what guidance does this passage have for us?
Well, the old hymn reminds us that the gospel in a word is love. Jesus exhorted us to love others as much as and in the same way in which we love ourselves. This passage deals with love and another concept that occurs often in the Scriptures. In verse 9 we read, “Let love be genuine”. We are to love with a genuine love the people with whom we work. That does not mean that we should fall in love with them or be in love with them. It means that we should care for them and do kind and caring things for them. And we should not be disliking them at the same time. We are called to seek out that which is good in our fellow workers, volunteers and students and admire and respond to those good qualities.
We are to “Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.” In some workplaces and schools there are those who abide by evil standards and ridicule the good things that we love. We are not to allow the evil that others indulge in or speak about to attract us. Be careful, the evil that is in some people can be alluring. In all temptations, hold fast to what is good. The evil may involve sexual temptations, or the temptation to cheat ones employer or the company or the government or on a test. Don’t be fooled, acknowledge the temptation, see it as bad, and do what is good or right.
In verse 11 we read “Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.” Christians should be the best workers any employer ever had. Because we are not only working to please our employers, to give them what they pay us for, we are working to please God. We should give our work and our studies the attention they deserve because we are working to please God and while it is easy to fool our employers or teachers into thinking we are giving them 100% of our efforts, we cannot fool God. Do not lack in zeal and enthusiasm and energy in your work.
In verse 12 we read, “Be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.” All jobs involve duties or situations we don’t prefer. Be patient with fellow workers and employers. Speak many short, sentence prayers during the day. They will help you on your difficult days.
Verse 14. “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them”. Actually, the “You” is missing from the best manuscripts. It may involve those who persecute others. We are to bless them by our kind deeds. In some work places and schools there are persecutors, people who try to blame those they dislike for everything that goes wrong. So do not hate those people and wish them ample visititation for their sins, rather, pray for changes in them and wish them well.
Verse 15 & 16a “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, Live in harmony with one another:” Christians are to get to know and get involved in the lives of their fellow workers. We are to care about what happens to them and be happy and sad with them. And we are to live in harmony with all people, even our fellow workers.
Verse 16b. “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.” Every School and workplace has a “pecking order”. Some work for others, some clean up after others, some serve food to others, some are isolated or ignored by others. In work and school, reach out to and talk to every one respectfully.
I once read a story about a young man who helped a new kid at school pick up his books from the floor and helped him carry them home. They became friends and years later that young man told his friend that he had so many books that day because he had cleaned out his locker and was planning to go home and kill himself. His friend in helping him pick up his books and carry them home saved his life. Never hesitate to associate with the lowly.
“Do not claim to be wiser than you are”. There is always the temptation to pretend to be what you are not, especially when a pay raise or grades may be at stake. Acknowledge what you know and what you don’t know, and be willing to learn more.
And now for how to handle the really nasty side of School and office politics, lets read verses 17 – 21. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God: for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’. No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them: if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads’. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
God has an army of avenging angels to repay evil-doers according to his plan. That is not our job. We are servants of God who are to reach out in love and compassion with acts of kindness even to those who are not nice to us.
There has been considerable discussion about the phrase “Heap burning coals on their heads”. Some are concerned that our kind acts may be motivated by some perverted desire to cause God punish them even more. In Egypt there used to be a custom for a repentant person to carry hot coals from a fire in a metal pan on his head. Among Arabs and Jews Coals of fire was at one time used as a symbol for divine punishment.
Doing kind deeds for those who hate us or misuse us is a way to convict them that they might be wrong about us and, if their hatred continues, to expose them to more judgments from God. But do not be motivated by what punishments God might inflict, but by what good we might accomplish.
Summer Vacation is over. After tomorrow, it will be time to get back to work at a workplace, a volunteer position, or a school. Take God and his wise words from Romans with you.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2008
“The ‘I’ and the ‘We’”
Romans 12: 1-8
Delivered on August 24th, 2008
Last Sunday during the Sunday School class we had a brief discussion of the King James Bible. I mentioned that the King James Bible is and probably will remain the greatest English translation of the Holy Scriptures. It has influenced literature, and was used over a longer period of time than any other translation. Having said that, I then said that I don’t use it. Neither I nor the people I preach to speak or have a complete understanding of Elizabethan English. So I and most of you use one of the many more recent English translations.
That does not mean that we don’t have problems with some of the words that are still in our modern translations. Some of the words no longer mean what they meant when the Bible was written. Take the word “sacrifice” for instance. The most common use of that word today is to identify something that we do without or get rid of for some higher purpose, usually some purpose that will eventually benefit ourselves or someone we love.
Parents sacrifice some luxuries or a higher standard of living to give their children a University education. People speak of doing without desserts so they can loose weight or not put on weight as a sacrifice.
Yes we do occasionally speak of someone being sacrificed for the sake of others but we usually mean that their jobs or careers are being sacrificed.
When we speak of the losses of lives during a war or a natural disaster as sacrifices we are getting closer to the biblical use of the word.
In the days and places of St. Paul, Sacrifices were a common thing. Every religion of the day required its worshippers to make sacrifices. Paul wrote this letter to the Christians who were living in Rome. That city was at the time full of temples that required sacrifices to be offered to worship the false gods. Every worshipper was sooner of later required to provide an animal that would be slaughtered in front of them by a priest or priestess and offered to the idol of the God. Sometimes the blood of the animal was sprinkled on the worshippers. It makes you wonder if most people wore red clothes to go to worship back then.
And it was not just the pagan or false religions that had bloody animal sacrifices offered during worship. The Old Testament religion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, had many requirements for the killing of animals for Worship. Many of those sacrifices were to be offered to atone with God for the sins of the people. If you became aware that you had violated some provision of God’s law, you were to present an animal at the temple in Jerusalem that was to be killed to atone for your sin.
Now, for the Christians living in Rome during St. Pauls day, both the previous sacrificing practices of the Jews and the Gentiles had to be dealt with because there were both converted Jews and converted Gentiles in the Church at Rome.
Paul instructed the Gentiles who had been sacrificing to false idols to stop it. They no longer believed in those Gods, they should not feed them or their priests.
But he also instructed the Jewish Christians that they no longer needed to offer sacrifices of atonement to the true God and father of Jesus. Because God had sacrificed his son Jesus on the cross as the final and complete atoning sacrifice. In fact, within 30 years of the writing of Paul’s letters, the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed and the sacrificing of animals to God there would cease forever, or at least up to the current day.
Paul did allow the Jewish Christians to participate in the sacrificial services at Jerusalem while they lasted, but they were to remember that they were a remnant from a bygone age that really had no effect.
So Paul encouraged Christians not to offer animal sacrifices or to depend on animal sacrifices as payment for their transgressions.
But in the Jewish religion and in the gentile pagan religions there were sacrifices offered for other reasons. If you felt especially blessed by God in some way you would offer a thank offering.
Animals were offered to celebrate the birth of a child. Luke tells us in his Gospel that Mary and Joseph offered two birds as a sacrifice when the infant Jesus was dedicated at the temple in Jerusalem 8 days after his birth.
So Jews and Gentiles who had become Christians still wanted to offer sacrifices to God for various reasons. Paul coined a new expression to redirect this old customary need to please the God who had offered Jesus as the final sin offering.
To do so he coined what I think was a new expression: Living Sacrifices. In this passage Paul exhorts the Christians at Rome to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, Holy and pleasing to God, this is to be their spiritual act of Worship.
In other words they were to respond to the love of God displayed to them in the salvation of Christ, not by killing an animal that cost them money, but by making their lives a sacrifice to God. They were to live to serve him and they were to live lives that displayed the purity and holiness of God to God and the entire world.
And how were they to begin to accomplish that? Look at verse 2. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
It starts with the mind. The body follows the mind. Every one who just competed in the Olympics has had to alter their lifestyles quite a bit to perform at that level. Their training schedules took over their lives for years. But before that could happen, before they could make the changes in their lives that were necessary to train for the Olympics, their minds had to be convinced that it was worth it. Most physical training begins with the mind being convinced that something marvelous is possible if one trains hard enough and smart enough.
So as we begin to prepare ourselves to be living sacrifices how do we renew our minds? By being careful what we put into them. By reading and studying the scriptures, by reading and singing some of the great hymns of the church. By reading the writings of and the biographies of the lives of some of God’s great saints, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Edwards, Wilberforce, Grahm, and others.
And of course we need to be careful what kinds of things from our worldly culture we allow our minds to dwell on. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to the things that are helpful for renewing our mind and we need to deliberately neglect those things that are not helpful in our quest to become living sacrifices, useful to God and his kingdom.
Part of the renewing of ones mind involves not placing oneself at the center of ones universe. As Paul wrote in vs 3 “Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought.” We are to regard ourselves as servants of God, no better than his other servants.
And we are to joyfully work together with God’s other servants, using the gifts that God has given us to build up the other members. Each of us has been given at least one gift. That gift or talent or skill is not to be used just to earn a living or to make our lives more enjoyable. It is to be used to build up the body of Christ, which includes the congregation you worship and fellowship with.
You are to use your gift in the church with zeal and with joy.
Some of the gifts that God gives are listed in the 6th – the 8th verses: Prophecy, Ministry, exhortation, giving, Leadership, Compassion. This list is not comprehensive. We could add Music abilities, carpentry skills, cooking, companionship, and others.
We are to use our gifts with and for the others in the church.
You see, the Christian religion is a personal and a corporate religion. It is personal: stressing our relationship with God and the renewing of our minds to become individual living sacrifices.
And it is a corporate religion, one that urges us to worship God with others and to have Christian fellowship and friendships with others, helping each other to grow in Christ and using our gifts to help each other and to build up the entire body of Christ. Christianity is a religion of the I and the We. We need to be alone with God and we need to be with others who love and Worship God.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2008
The Dream Killers Can’t Win
Genesis 37: 17-20, 26-28, & 45:1-8
& Revelation 21: 1-8
Delivered on August 17th, 2008
The children who attended our Vacation Bible School in June already know this story. The trials and tribulations of Joseph were the subjects of our Vacation Bible School curriculum. The children might know more than you do about this story, so I want to recap briefly for you the ins and outs of the life of Joseph.
Joseph was the 11th son of Jacob. Jacob also came to be called Israel. There was to be one more son born after Joseph.
Jacob had two first class wives and 2 second class wives called concubines. Joseph was the first born son of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel.
Joseph was Jacobs favorite son. I think that it is a mistake for parents to have favorites among their children. I know that it is a mistake for parents to let everyone know who the favorite child is if there is one. But that is what Jacob did. He bought Jacob a better coat than he gave to the other sons.
It was probably because he was their father’s favorite that his brothers began to dislike Joseph, but they had other reasons to dislike him. For one thing, he was a tattle-tale. He observed some of his brothers while they were tending their fathers sheep and he told his father some unflattering stories about them.
Joseph had also told them some dreams he had had which seemed to predict that he would become more powerful and have more authority than them. They thought he had delusions of grandeur and thought himself to be better than they were. Even their father seemed to be upset about his having and telling his dreams.
So, when he was 17, his 10 older brothers kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. Actually, it was their original intent to kill him. They are recorded as saying “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”
But then they got a little squeamish about killing a member of their family and they decided that if they sold him into slavery they wouldn’t have his blood on their hands and they would have a little extra money.
The next several years were difficult for Joseph. He was sold to an Egyptian government official. But Joseph was faithful to God and worked hard for his master and worked his way up to be the chief steward in charge of the household. But then his master’s wife falsely accused him of a transgression and Joseph was sent to prison.
After a while, with God’s help, Joseph became the chief trusty of the prison, trusted by the Warden to run the day-to-day affairs of the prison.
Then one day, two of the king’s officials got in trouble and were sent to prison. While they were there, they both had dreams and God allowed Joseph to interpret the dreams. The interpretations came true.
Joseph remained in prison for 2 more years. Then the king or Pharoah had two dreams. He was convinced that the dreams were important, but no one could tell him what they meant.
Finally, someone remembered that Joseph had correctly interpreted some dreams. Joseph was sent for and God gave Joseph the meaning of the dreams. The dreams predicted that Egypt would experience 7 years of abundant crops followed by 7 years of famine.
Joseph advised the king to select a wise and trusted man to oversee the storing up of the crops during the 7 years of plenty so they would have food stored up for the 7 years of famine. The King appointed Joseph as his prime minister in charge of receiving and disbursing the food. This happened when Joseph was 30. He had been a slave or in prison for 13 years.
In the second or third year of famine, when the famine had become widespread, when Joseph was 39 or 40 years old, His father Jacob sent his 10 brothers to Egypt to buy some food. When they came they did in fact bow down before him, fulfilling his dreams. Joseph did not trust them right away and he put them through some tests for a period of time before he told them who he was.
When he finally revealed himself to them he told them that God had acted through their despicable deed to bring him to Egypt so he could save many lives during the famine. Joseph had become the ruler of Egypt and therefore had authority over all who came to Egypt seeking food. The dream had come true. His brothers had tried to kill his dream but God had raised him up over his brothers and even his father.
But this story is way more than just a nice little all-ends-well story about the family of Jacob circa 1800 BC. Because the dreams that Jacob had received had come from and were fulfilled by God. These dreams were not just dreams that were given to Joseph about his rosy future. These dreams and the events they predicted were and are a part of Gods plan for this world and His eternal kingdom.
Joseph being a ruler in Egypt paved the way for Jacob’s family to move to Egypt. During their stay in Egypt the family of Jacob grew into an ethic group numbering more than 2,000,000. After they became slaves in Egypt they came out of Egypt and after spending 40 years wandering in the wilderness they came into the promised land. During their times in the promised land prophets were sent to them with more dreams and visions and messages of blessing and judgement. Many of those messages contained the promises that God would send the Messiah.
Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God came from that ethnic group and was born in that promised land. From the Messiah came the Gentile and Jewish church. From the church came a world wide Christian Communion that has salted and flavored the world.
And that is not the end. The dream continues, The church is to prepare the world for the Second coming of Christ. The return of Jesus will usher in the final and eternal form of the kingdom of God. We have been given a dream or a vision of what that kingdom will be like. Jurgen read a part of that vision this morning from Revelation. Maybe you have never received a special dream or vision from God, but we have all been given the vision that came to the Apostle John and that is described in the book of Revelation. It is a vision of the struggle leading to and the final arrival of the eternal kingdom of God. It is Johns vision, and through his writing of it and our reading of it, it has become our vision. It is the final installment of all the dreams and visions that God has given to his people from the beginning of time.
We have read how Joseph’s brothers tried to kill his dream by selling him into slavery. But the dream still came true. In fact, their attempt to kill the dream caused Joseph to be taken to Egypt where the dreams of Joseph’s supremacy would be fulfilled.
Throughout the ages, many others have tried to kill the vision that God has given us. Many have tried to wipe out the church and erase the vison. But The visons and dreams and promises of God still stand. They are still written down and preached about and read. And every one of them will come true.
Now please do not misunderstand me. I am not preaching from the scripts of Disneyland. I am not saying “all your dreams will come true.” Many of your dreams are the ramblings of your mind as you sleep.
I am not saying that God will make all your dreams come true. I am saying that God will make the dreams and visions that he has recorded in His Word come true. And I am saying that no one or nothing will be able to kill or permanently silence that vision.
We have been entrusted with God’s great vision. People will attempt to kill the vision, or truncate it so that we become the last generation to know the vision. That will not happen. We have the dream, we have read the descriptions of God’s eternal kingdom. We are invited to participate in the building of the kingdom, but with us or without us, and in spite of those who will try to kill the dream, it will continue and grow until the promised kingdom comes.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2008
You of Little Faith
Matthew 14: 22-33
delivered on August 10th, 2008
This passage describes one of the trademark miracles of Jesus. When you hear of someone being described as able to walk on water you know they are being described as a Messianic figure and are being compared to Jesus.
This miracle demonstrates the power of Jesus as the son of God over the elements of the universe he created. The apostles recognized this, and are quoted at the end of this passage as saying “Truly you are the son of God”.
As we Christians read this passage we begin with the assumption that is stated at the end. As we begin to read verse 22 we already know that Jesus is the Son of God. With that in mind, there are some interesting details about the Son of God in this passage.
First of all, I want you to notice that the disciples of Jesus did not just happen to be in the boat without Jesus. Matthew tells us that Jesus made his disciples get into that boat and leave without him. But Matthew does not tell us why, although he may give us a clue.
Shortly after Jesus sent the apostles away in the boat, and dismissed the over 5000 people he had just miraculously fed, “he went up he mountain by himself to pray.” One of the reasons he sent the apostles away in the boat was so he could be alone to pray.
Now, we have already started with the assumption that Jesus is the Son of God, He is God. So logic causes me to ask myself and all of you an important question. If the eternal and almighty Son of God when he lived on earth as a human being, needed to get away from others to pray to God, What makes us think we can function well without spending time alone with God in prayer? I ask this question not only of you but of myself. Most of us do not spend enough time alone with God in prayer. Martin Luther was once asked how he could spend a few hours in prayer each day and still do all that he did each day. His answer was that he had so many things to do each day that he could never have gotten them all done if he did not rise early and spend an hour or two in prayer first.
Now I am not suggesting that you get up early and pray for an hour or two. I am suggesting that you begin to spend time with God in prayer, and that if you already do, that you gradually add more time or more occasions to your prayer time. If Jesus found it necessary, we must need it too.
During the following night, Jesus was on the mountain praying and the apostles were in the boat on the lake. They were having a difficult time. The wind had come up and was driving the boat away from their destination and was causing waves to beat against the boat. It is important to remember that the apostles were in that boat and in that storm because Jesus had sent them there.
Often when things are not going well and we find ourselves in difficult circumstances it easy to assume that we are not where God wants us to be and we might pray that God will get us out of here and take us to a calm, trouble free place. This passage reminds us that sometimes we are in trouble because we are where God wants us to be. God sometimes puts us in danger as part of his plan. It is OK to pray for relief and comfort and Joy, but we need to remember that God will sometimes put us in a small boat on a stormy night.
Jesus knew exactly where they were and he walked to them on the water of the lake. And in doing so, he scared them. They thought he was a spirit or a ghost. Now in their defense, it was between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning. It was probably dark or nearly dark on the lake. And they saw a man walking on the sea. Under similar circumstances we would all probably be afraid. And that would be OK.
Now as a life long, rational, decent and in order Presbyterian, I tend to think that God is a Presbyterian too. But there are times when we have to deal with the reality that God is not really like us. We like to live in the material world and barely acknowledge the Spiritual world and its forces. But God is a spirit and sometimes he does spiritual and even spooky stuff. He has occasionally given me goosebumps and made the hair stand up on the back of my neck (I can still grow plenty of hair back there.) God sometimes does some pretty scary, pretty spooky, pretty marvelous things. Don’t ignore them or try to rationalize them away.
But I also want you to notice that as the apostles were having a difficult time, maybe even in a bit of trouble, Jesus knew exactly where they were and he came to them and the wind ceased.
When you are in the storms of life, Jesus knows you are there, and he will come to you, and he will eventually cause the storms to cease. You can count on it. It may not happen in the way you would have chosen or nearly as soon as you might have desired, but it will happen.
Now we have come to my favorite part of the story. Peter heard Jesus identify himself and said “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”. Jesus said ‘Come”. Peter got out of the boat and started walking toward Jesus with the power of Jesus. But then Peter got distracted from Jesus by the wind and the storm and he began to sink. He called out to Jesus “Lord, Save Me. Jesus reached out and caught him and said “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
In the nearly 2000 years since this event occurred preachers have had a heyday preaching about Peter’s lack of faith and his having to cry out to Jesus to keep from perishing in the sea into which he had walked without enough faith.
But I love Peter for what he did in this passage. You may have missed the fact that there were other people in the boat, but only one believed enough that the one on the lake was Jesus to talk to Him and offer to join him on the lake. That took faith. He believed that it really was Jesus and was willing to get wet to prove it.
Yes, he is accused by Jesus of having only little or small faith, but he had more than any one else in that boat. And little is better than less or none.
But there is something that has puzzled me about this passage for a long time. I remember a TV cartoon in which Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were feuding. Daffy was getting the worst of the pratfalls and tricks. At one point Bugs tricked Daffy into jumping out a window. As Daffy plummeted to the sidewalk below, Buggs looked at the camera and said, “Eh, do you think that silly duck will remember that he is a duck and that he can fly?” There then was a “SPLAT” and Buggs said “I guess not”.
Now how does this recollection of a TV cartoon help us with this passage? Well, let me leave Peter for just a minute as he is beginning to sink and as he is calling out “Lord, save me”. Now let me ask you, what do we know about Peter? What did he do for a living before he met Jesus? That’s right he was a fisherman. He had spent many hours on this lake, and he had experienced wind and storms before. Now we might be able to assume that Peter could swim well, but we don’t have to make that assumption. In the end of the gospel of John we are told that Peter could swim. When he saw the resurrected Jesus on the shore he jumped in and swam about 100 yards to the shore.
Now lets go back to Peter as he started to sink into the water. Did he forget that he could swim? Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe Peter was tired of getting by on his own power. He had done miracles by the power of Jesus. He had briefly walked on the surface of the lake by Jesus’ power. Maybe Peter knew that he probably could swim back to the boat under his own power and drag himself into the boat. But he also knew what he could do by the power that came from Jesus. Peter did not want to get by on his own power any longer. He wanted to be saved from depending on his own power and cleverness. He wanted to be buoyed up by the power of God. I love Peter for this great act of faith, and so did Jesus. Yes, Peter may have had only a little faith, but it was more than anybody else demonstrated that day.
How much faith do you have? Are you doing any thing with the faith you have, or are you getting by on your own power and abilities? Are you swimming in the lake on your own power and abilities or are you walking on the lake by holding on to Jesus’ hand.
When you run out of power, when you have a problem that you can’t overcome on your own, or when you just get tired of getting by on your own power, reach out to Jesus. He will be there and give you all that you need to do what he wants you to do.
You, like Peter may have only a little faith, but when you put that faith in Jesus, a little faith can do more than what is needed.
Pastor David Horner
Posted by faithpres at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2008
Mixed Emotions at the Table
Romans 9: 1-16
delivered on August 3rd, 2008
During a Communion service I told the congregation to receive the body and blood of Christ with Joy. One of the church members later said that he had been taught to approach the Lord’s Supper with Sorrow for his sins and sorrow for the suffering of Christ and he found my exhortation to receive the meal with joy to be strange and even jolting.
I told him that I agree with him and his training, that we should approach the table with Sorrow and grief, but that I think there is also room for joy. I think that the Lord’s table is a place were we should have mixed emotions. As we come to this table there is reason for sorrow and joy
In the passage that I just read to you, St Paul was not writing about the Lord’s Supper, but in this passage I think the Holy Spirit working through St. Paul has given us a few things we might think about as we prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper this morning.
First of all, Paul expresses a great sorrow that most of his fellow countrymen had not come to believe in Jesus and receive Salvation from him. Paul had been called to be the first major evangelist of the Gentiles, but he still felt a great sorrow for those Jews, people of his own race, who did not believe in Jesus.
He wrote that he would have been willing to surrender his own salvation if that would have brought them into God’s kingdom.
Now of course, the only person whose condemnation or suffering can bring us salvation is Jesus, and St. Paul knew that, but he loved his fellow Jews so much that he would have surrendered his eternal Salvation for their sakes if he could.
Which leads me to think that as we approach the Lord’s table, it is proper to be sorry for those who are not here. The majority of Jews today have not accepted Jesus as their savior. We should feel and express sorrow and concern for them as we approach this table.
They have been born into the group of people who received the OT ordinances of God. Their feasts and festivals point to the Savior, but they have not come to Him.
We need to pray that God will have mercy on more of the Jewish people and bring them to faith in Christ.
But Paul was not so concerned about the Jews only because they were the physical descendants of Abraham. He was sorrowful about them because they were HIS people.
We all have people. People we love. People we identify with. People we have come from and people who have come from us. And we all have people who are not here. Not only do they not come to Faith Church for Communion, they do not go to any church for communion because they do not believe in Jesus. When we come to eat this meal, we should be sorrowful that we do not share this Sacrament, this salvation with them.
The cause of Christ might be well served if we were willing to sacrifice our eternal salvation for our people if we could, if we could realize that we loved them that much.
In the 6th – the 12th verses of this passage, Paul expounds on the reasons why the unbelief of the majority of the Jews does not constitute an unfaithfulness of God’s plan. To put it simply, not all of the chosen people are chosen. They never were. Of Abraham’s sons, only one was chosen. Of Isaac’s twin sons, only the younger was chosen.
Those who were truly chosen were chosen long before they were born, so it had nothing to do with any merit on their part. Those who are saved are saved because of God’s Mercy.
And that is a reason to rejoice as we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We are here because we believe. We believe because God in his mercy chose us to believe. It had nothing to do with us personally. We were no better than others or no more worthy than others. We have been given God’s Salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
As we eat and drink this meal and look forward to the great wedding feast in the kingdom of God we should be grateful and rejoice because we are the recipients of God’s Mercy.
And we should be sorrowful because of the sufferings of Jesus and because of those who are not yet a part of God’s kingdom. As we commune it is proper to pray that God will show mercy and give faith to more of his people, the Jews, and to more of our people, those whom we love and desire to be a part of God’s eternal kingdom.
Let us pray,
Almighty God, We thank you for extending your mercy to us and inviting us into your eternal kingdom. We also pray that you will extend your mercy to more of your people and to our people.
Pastor David Horner
Posted by faithpres at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)