October 21, 2009

So why you gotta do the things ya do?

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

We can call ourselves what we want and worship how we want but the character of God is love and the greatest gift of the Spirit is love, so how does anger, arrogance and injustice fit true belief or faith?

I’ve got a pretty good imagination but I can’t seem to put the two traits together.  That is I can’t make the character of love produce anger, arrogance and any application or acceptance of injustice.  Anger robs us of our love for others and blinds us to Christ’s love for us.  Arrogance, particularly religious self-righteousness leaves no room for grace.  Instead it must muscle its’ way into heaven of its’ own accord trampling the souls of others on the way; once again I can’t make this fit with love or any of the teachings of the Gospel. 

Injustice, truly an ungodly act from Genesis to Revelations is everybody’s concern.  Next to worshiping false gods, I don’t think anything got the ancient Israelites into trouble more than the miscarriage of justice.  It was never just a personal problem for them and it’s not for us today.  Justice is a community responsibility by its very nature and according to God’s actions as recorded in scripture, the Lord also saw, and sees it to be a matter of community goodness or guilt.

So why do we do the things we do?

This is a question that has been plaguing humanity from the beginning.  John Wesley pinned a lot of our problem on “Original Sin.”  Let’s see if we can’t work this one out and think on how to avoid the personal and social calamities it brings as we consider our situation this Sunday.  Its’ a big order but I think we can take a bite out of it!

Sermon on Original Sin

“A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature, but may also be life stance related. However, manifestos relating to religious belief are rather referred to as credo.”  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   Has God left us a Creed to follow or directions on how to live a way of life that will bring peace and prosperity to ourselves and the world we come in contact with?  Of course we are given multiple gifts of wisdom from God through prophets, revelations and most importantly Jesus the Christ.  Much of what was important to Christ, thus God, can be found in the 15th chapter of John.

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By looking at the Christ we have our best opportunity to understand life, love, tragedy, and redemption.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
- Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein, one of the greatest human minds at unlocking the mysteries of creation understood the power and beauty of that which is beyond our grasp of understanding.  Maybe it was the beauty of it that kept him thinking and dreaming about the unknown and the keys that unlock the doors of understanding, one at a time.

God is the greatest of all mysteries.  This is why faith is so difficult to understand for those without its comfort.  They cannot own it, or create it with their rules;  it is Grace and this is one blessing we cannot control or enforce.  It must be accepted then set free to bless all others.  The minute we tie it down, it is dead, ceases to exist within the borders of our laws.  If we deny others are worthy then we have killed it within our breast.  For Grace comes from the very breath of God, and as Jesus said “we cannot tell which way it will blow.”  Nor is it for us to decide.  Thank God, otherwise we would all be damned by someone!

Seriously, thank God and enjoy the mysterious Grace given to us by our Lord, the Christ.

What do you think?  Were the disciples rich or poor?

While sitting in a NAZI prison Dietrich Bonheffer wrote this about the plight of Jesus’ followers.

“The Disciples are needy in every way.  They are simply “poor” (Luke 6:20).  They have no security, no property to call their own, no piece of earth they could call their home, no earthly community to which they might fully belong.  But they also have neither spiritual power of their own, nor experience or knowledge they can refer to and which could comfort them.  For his sake they have lost all that.  When they followed him, they lost themselves and everything else which could have made them rich.  Now they are so poor, so inexperienced, so foolish that they cannot hope for anything except him who called them.” Discipleship p 102-103

What would you give to have known Jesus?   What would you give to know him now?

Luke 6:20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.’ Matthew5:3    Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

If we love the good things of life more than God, then our wealth is our enemy.  If we are self-righteous, then we will not know how very much we need Christ.

God Bless,
Pastor Rick

Ash Wednesday is approaching quickly, then we will be in the season of Lent.  Have you put much thought into this time of reflection?  Have you done any soul searching?  What about living the next 40 days in self-less love?  Do you know who Christ is?  Do you know why you are a Christian and what it means to live a Christian life?  These are a few of the questions we ought to be reflecting on.  Truth be told, it is what we should be doing on a regular basis, but do we?  Lent is a purposeful time for that and we begin its season on February 25 with the Ash Wednesday Service.

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