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March 14, 2010
“The Changing Times”
Joshua 5: 8-15/II Corinthians 5: 16-21
Sunday, March 14, 2010
So far, the most important word of the last few years seems to be Change. Change is being talked about everywhere. There are changes in banking and the stock market, Climate Changes. Changes in the economy. Even much discussed and rumored changes at Purdue University. Relationships within and between nations are occurring so quickly that our leaders and their information gathering networks are finding it difficult to keep up.
Living at such a time is interesting for those of us who turn to the scriptures for our guidance and inspiration. Looking at it in 2010 the bible seems to be a document that was written during times when things did not change all that much for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years. Life for Abraham was not all that different from the living conditions during the life of Moses 400 to 600 years later. But even though the changes did not come as often then as they do now, Changes did happen, and, if you look closely at the books that form our bible, you will see that most of them were written during times when there were some very dramatic changes occurring. This morning we are looking at two passages that give God’s advice during changing times.
The first passage we are looking at this morning was our first lesson. It is from the Old Testament. It describes a time of great change in a time of many changes. 40 years before this event the changes and started to occur. Moses had been sent by God to Egypt to remove the Israelites from slavery in Egypt which also involved removing them from Egypt. Then they went to Sinai where God constituted them as a Nation with their own constitution. But for the next 40 years they were a nation without a land, wandering in the wilderness.
A lot of changes happened during those 40 years. All of those who were adults when they left Egypt died during those 40 years so at the end of those 40 years there were only a few over the age of 60. At the end of the 40 years, Moses, their leader died and Joshua was chosen as the new leader. Joshua led them across the Jordan and into the Promised Land to their first stopping place within what would become their own land. This passage describes some of the events that occurred there.
The first event that is referred to is the circumcision of all those men who had been born during the 40 years in the wilderness. They had not circumcised the babies born in the wilderness, but now they needed to go back to one of the practices that had set them apart as descendants of Abraham, the friend of God.
One of the temptations in times of great change is to think that everything new is good and everything old is bad or out of date. Sometimes when we feel lost in a sea of change it is good to go back to some of the practices that we may have let slip, practices that may have defined our existence at one time.
Some of us may not be praying or reading our bibles or attending church as often as we once did. Some of the changes that have occurred in our lives seemed to have taken up some of that time. If you feel that you are lost in all the changes, if you feel that you don’t know who you are any more, return to some of those activities that you did when you did know who you were, especially those activities that will bring you back to God.
Following the circumcisions, The people celebrated Passover. They had the feast that commemorated their deliverance from Egypt 40 years earlier. They celebrated the meal not with the manna they had been given in the wilderness, but with the produce of the fields on the plain to the East of Jericho. And at that point the manna ceased. They did not need it any more, they were now in a land where food could be grown.
Sometimes the things God gives us to form our lives with Him are temporary. When Mother Teresa started her extraordinary life of service to God she felt a remarkable closeness to God. At some point that feeling of closeness went away. She longed for its return, but she did not loose her faith or stop serving God. Sometimes we miss some of the old things and wonder why God took them from us. He usually does it to replace them with something better, or because he knows we no longer need them.
From the camp near Jericho, Joshua went out to scout out the city that he would eventually be attacking. He met a man who had a sword in his hand. Joshua wanted to know if he was friend or foe. He said “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” The man answered “As commander of the army of the Lord I have now come”.
In the civil war of the U.S., people on both sides thought that God was on their side. We often like to think we can sign God up for our causes and our sides. But the real fact to be discovered is whether or not we are on God’s side. God has clearly stated where he stands on most issues if we will read his scriptures. In all the changes in our lives we need to be asking ourselves if as we change, are we still on God’s side, are we still interested in the things God cares about? Are we still trying to help others come to know God?
The man (who seems to have been God himself) told Joshua to take off his sandals because the ground was Holy, on it he was meeting God. Sometimes God comes to us in the times of our great changes. When he does, we are on Holy Ground. For the Christian, every step should be on Holy ground.
Now I would like to look at our second passage. As Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth in the First Century, Christ had brought a lot of changes to him and to them. One of those changes involved how he saw people. He wrote “We regard no one from a human point of view…”
What is a human point of view? Seeing people through their externals, the way they dress, their race, their height, weight, how wealthy they appear to be or are. We Christians are not to do that. We are to see every person as a creature of God created in God’s image. There is something of great worth in each person. But the image has been obscured by the fallen-ness of each person. We are to see each person either as one who believes in Christ or one whom God wants to believe in Jesus.
Paul said that he had especially changed in his view of Jesus. He used to see him from a human point of view, as a human, but as he wrote he saw him as the glorified son of God. The Jesus we read about in the bible still exists, but he is now glorified having been returned to his natural place at the Father’s side. He once appeared as a weak human being. Now he is king of kings and lord of lords. He is not your kind human friend, he is the ruler of the universe.
Then Paul wrote “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; Everything old has passed away; see everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…”
In all of our lives, in times when we face great changes, we are to be new people, Not old people. Old people are stuck in the old sinful ways of the world. New people display the newness and freshness of God’s eternal kingdom as they live. New people see people and situations with God’s eyes and as opportunities to serve God.
In the 20th verse of our second lesson Paul wrote something that might seem strange in a letter written to Christians. He wrote “we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
The people to whom Paul wrote this were Christians. They were believers in Jesus. They had been reconciled to God through Christ. So why was Paul exhorting them to be reconciled to God?
Because through the changes in our lives and the changes in our cultures and communities it is easy to respond in the old fallen human ways and not in godly ways. As we go through stressful changing times we need to be the new creatures God has called us to be. We need to allow God to expose to us our worldly ways of thinking and living and responding. In all of the changes of your life, in all things, be reconciled to God, be known as one who represents Him.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at March 14, 2010 05:06 PM