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Thoughts Before Worship:
Today is the 6th Sunday after the Epiphany and the second to last Lord’s day before Ash Wednesday. Epiphany has been about revealing the character of God: we’ve seen that God is enfleshed in the man, Jesus Christ; God is personal and persistent; God is reconciling; God is inclusive; God is vast and all-powerful; and today, we see that God is the Healer.
Have you experienced God’s healing? From what? What does being healed look like? Have you ever healed anyone else? How might God use you to bring healing to others? As we prepare our hearts and minds for worship, consider these questions. Ponder them and let them shape our worship and our prayers, for God is indeed our Healer.
Sermon for 2.15.09 - the 6th Lord's Day after the Epiphany
2 Kings 5:1-14
At St. Francis Hospital, when you first walk in, there’s a reception desk. The woman who’s most often there working when I visit is named Sarah. This week, we were talking as she was pulling up the information I needed. She told about a wonderful experience that I’d like to share with you (she’s given me permission to do so).
“I remember this lady who came into the hospital early one morning. It was before many of the other people in the hospital were here, and it was quiet. I was sitting behind the desk here when this woman came in. As she entered, she looked troubled – like whatever brought her to the hospital that morning was very sad. As she walked toward the elevators, I smiled and greeted her, ‘Hello. Good morning.’ ” (Sarah is always such a joyful greeter).
“I went back to whatever I was doing, but in just a moment, here comes this woman coming back from around the corner to my desk. She had tears in her eyes, as she told me just how much my simple greeting and smile had touched her. Oh, you just don’t know how I’ve been feeling and how much that meant to me, she said. Impulsively, I just drew the lady around the desk to me and gave her a hug. I had been having a rough morning too – challenges at home, you know – and I needed that hug too. But she was so moved and we shared that moment. Then she thanked me and went off to visit whoever she came to see. She seemed somehow lighter and less burdened as she went to the elevators this time. As she came and went during the day, I continued to chat with her, just to see how she was doing. And I’ve never seen her again.”
Sarah was, that day, an agent of God’s healing. In her simple, joyful greeting, God brought healing to a woman who was distressed and broken by the worries of the world. Sarah didn’t know what brought the woman to the hospital, but it turned out that the woman needed healing herself. From her response, we know she felt broken, alone, and powerless to control the events in her life. These are feelings that we can all relate to having experienced at some time in our lives, and these are feelings that must have engulfed Naaman in our reading from 2 Kings.
Scripture tells us that Naaman was the commander of Aram’s army. He was a powerful man in the land and he was a successful warrior. He was strong. Yet, he also “suffered from leprosy” (v.1). The term leprosy, when used in the Bible means something somewhat different and vaguer than if we used it today medically. In the Bible, leprosy was a blanket term for many strange, potentially life-threatening, and contagious skin diseases. They didn’t know what caused these different skin maladies, but the people of the Ancient Near East knew that it was bad news. And so, anyone who had any of the diseases called leprosy were often relegated to the fringes of society, cast out until they died or healed. (For Jews, Leviticus 13-14 detail the treatment and response required for those with leprosy.) So, while Naaman was an Aramean, not a Jew, it’s likely that his culture also treated him differently because of his disease.
Quite likely, he had a mild form of leprosy, since he was still participating in society. But think about it. Anytime he experienced anything wonderful in his life, something praise-worthy, it would surely go around town: Did you hear? Naaman won another battle. Yes…he is the one with leprosy. Too bad, he’s such a great man. All the people would have known him as the leprous commander, not the man. And what about his wife? Was his leprosy contagious? On the day after Valentine’s Day, with love on our minds, we wonder, Could they be close to one another, could they hug? So, here’s this man – a mighty warrior – who, despite his greatness, is living with one foot in society but most of his body on the outskirts, just beyond reach, so as not to contaminate others.
With such pain and loneliness, are any of us surprised that he jumps at the suggestion that a Jewish prophet in Israel might be able to heal him? After all, he’s probably tried everything else. So now he’s listening even to his foreign servant girl for medical guidance. And this is where the story of Naaman gets so interesting. It’s not from the trusted, tried and true sources that he finds healing. No. He’s led to healing by a lowly servant girl, a slave captured in a raid. In a male-dominated, my-people-are-better-than-yours culture, Naaman is led to healing by a foreign servant girl with tremendous faith in God. For it is through her faith that God uses her to lead Naaman to healing.
But as quickly as he hears the good news of a Healer he’s not yet sought, he forgets. The king of Aram gives him leave to go seek healing from the man of God in Samaria, but sends Naaman to the king, not the prophet. Though they’ve heard the truth about the source of healing – God through God’s prophet – they still go to the established, accepted source of power and authority. Yet, the king of Israel knows that healing is not his business, and he’s worried about what kind of tricks Naaman and the king of Aram are up to. He’s so worried that he tears his clothes – the universal sign of despair in the Bible.
Enter, Elisha, the “man of God” himself: King, why have you torn your clothes in distress? You know, you said yourself that God brings life and death, so you know that God brings healing. Send this leprous man to me, “that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel” (v.8). Elisha’s not claiming his own authority; he’s simply claiming that he is a “man of God” whom God has anointed – that is, chosen and blessed – to work with God in the world.
Elisha’s not some superhuman or anything like that. Elisha’s just like you and me, a normal person loved by God. God just chose to anoint Elisha to be a prophet and healer in specific ways, just as we each are called and given gifts for different ministry He’s not the one doing miracles and healing; God does the healing through him. He’s just opened himself to God, offering to work with God in this ministry. And God enabled him to heal Naaman so that Naaman could experience wholeness and love in a way he had not in quite some time.
Yet, we notice in the story that Naaman’s still having a hard time with this. He was okay going to the king, but he’s a little less sure of prophet Elisha’s credentials. Again, he’s forgotten that it was a lowly servant girl who started this whole quest. Naaman’s used to the ways of kings and courts and power politics. And so when Elisha sends a messenger telling him “Go, wash in the Jordan [River] seven times …and you shall be clean” Naaman gets furious. Oh, he’s mad, and he stomps off – as if I haven’t tried taking a bath before, jerk!
Naaman’s all but gone, leprosy and all. He’s ready to put an end to this wild goose chase until, again, a voice of grace comes from the margins. “Father, if the prophet commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it?” ask Naaman’s servants (v.13). So then, why don’t you do what the prophet tells you when it’s something as simple as “Wash, and be clean”? they’re saying. Naaman’s a big, powerful man. Undoubtedly it took courage for his servants to confront him in his anger. Yet, they did for God enabled them to be agents of healing for Naaman. Without them, he wouldn’t have done the simple thing of bathing seven times in the Jordan, and he wouldn’t have been healed.
God worked with all of these people whom Naaman normally would never have listened to – his wife’s servant, Elisha and his servant, his own servants – to bring healing and wholeness to Naaman. Through ordinary people, God accomplished the extraordinary – healing a leprous man, making him whole again. And isn’t this exactly what happened with Sarah at St. Francis? God enabled her to be an agent of healing; God enabled her to bring comfort and healing to the woman. And that woman felt more whole and human as a result of their morning encounter.
These are not events for a select few. In small and everyday ways, God is enabling us to heal others, to be sources of God’s hope and wholeness. It doesn’t have to be grand, miraculous things. God makes it happen through the small and normal things, by everyday people: an honest suggestion or question from a servant, an instruction to bathe – these are the biblical examples.
And what about in our lives? Where can we see and name God enabling us to heal others? What about in visiting the sick and the shut-in? When we do these simple things, God’s grace is felt and everyone feels more whole and human. Or, what about when you invite someone to Sunday worship, to whatever study we’re doing at the time, to Saturday worship, or just to coffee? Perhaps that invitation is just the thing they needed to let God into their lives. Perhaps it’s as simple as praying daily for a specific family or friend. Perhaps it’s volunteering with community service agencies like Hope Harbor or CNCS. Through such little acts, God enables us to heal others, to bring wholeness.
Naaman had his expectations, but his servants and Elisha showed him that God can work in any situation, no matter the person, and no matter the process. That is something we need to hear today, for we live in a professionalized culture. Professionalization has brought us some great fruits and benefits. We have highly skilled individuals to do specific things – doctors, pastors, specialized doctors, nurses, builders, furniture makers, people who work for companies setting up phones, you name it.
But, this professionalization has also negatively narrowed our view of life. We begin to think that only doctors heal, only pastors preach, only builders build, only chefs cook. While some might be trained, all are capable. This is especially true when it comes to healing. God calls us all to be healers and God is enabling us to heal others. It doesn’t have to be in mysterious medical ways; it doesn’t have to be in entirely miraculous and unexplainable ways. It can just be opening oneself up to others and offering yourself to them, as the hospital receptionist did with her simple hello.
As you go from this place, open yourselves to God’s leading. Ponder where and how God might be leading you to be an agent of healing. As you wake in the mornings, or after you’ve had your coffee, consider offering God your day – “God, guide me to be an agent of your healing today; use me to help others feel your wholeness and love.” As you meet people, consider how just a simple smile and friendly “hello” might just be the invitation to wholeness and healing they’ve been needing. Consider how God is making you a healer of God.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Shape of Hope
Thoughts Ere Worship:
As we prepare for worship, consider how you think about God. What terms do you use? Do you think most of God as the great, awesome, Creator of the cosmos? Do you think of God as the Son, Jesus Christ, who revealed Godself to the world in the fullness of time, not with crushing power, but through humble service and surrender? Do you think of a rushing wind, closer to you than breath and yet beyond you as well? God is all of these, and yet still more. Let us worship our God, who is One and Three. Let us worship, for we have seen and we know.
Try to imagine just how big the entirety of Creation must be. Do we even know? There are planets, solar systems, galaxies, and then still more galaxies. From such a vantage point, Earth is such a small piece of the whole of Creation. Think of the number of stars in the sky. Even more, think of the countless billions of people who have lived through the ages. Now, know that the very same God who created the most distant galaxy and who named the stars before there was time, created you and calls you by name to be in worship together. The author of the cosmos is nearer to you than your very breath. Let us use that breath always for praise.
2.8.09 – 5th Sunday after the Epiphany
Ps 147.1-11, 20c
For the past four years, I’ve spent at least a little time each summer at Camp Fontanelle, a United Methodist camp near Fremont, NE. Two years, I worked there the majority of the summer. The other two years, I helped for just a week or two. But each year, one thing was always the same.
It would always happen at night. Maybe we’d just finished our worship time around the
campfire, or maybe we’d be walking the prayer labyrinths, or perhaps we’d be stopped on the top of a hill during a night hike. No matter the exact circumstances, I would turn back my head to gaze into the clear, night sky. As I stood there with my head upturned, it would suddenly be as though that was the first time I’d seen stars at all. Looking up at the vast expanse of stars, I would be completely awestruck. I’d seen the stars before that summer, perhaps even spent other nights gazing at them. But on these special nights, their beauty, distance, and magnitude washed over me.
Perhaps it was simply that after living in the city (either Omaha or Chicago) for so long, it was
just a sight for sore eyes to actually see more than a few stars. Yet, more than that, it was a spiritual moment for me. I’d stand there gazing at the sky and I’d be struck with the realization of God’s greatness and vast power. Whoa…if God made all this…phew, God must be so much bigger and greater than I’ve been thinking lately. Seeing all those stars blanketing the skies, I couldn’t help but feel so small and insignificant – not as beautiful as stars, nor as powerful or big; not as impacting on others.
Awash in wonder at the night sky and God’s magnificence, I would just as suddenly feel this new wave of awareness: The God who made all this made and loves me too. It was almost too much to take at times, this awareness and assurance of God’s personal, closer-than-breath love. This great and powerful God who created the great starry night, created and cares also for me. Sometimes I’d want to break out into song praising God; sometimes I’d be moved to pray, asking forgiveness for sin or help for others or myself; sometimes, I’d simply rest in the peace of the moment.
Seeing the stars, I would feel both small and beloved at the same time. I was in the middle of the vastness of the cosmos. I realized – I felt intimately in my bones – that I was just a tiny part of Creation. Yet, I also had this overwhelming sense of peace and hopefulness. Standing there craning my neck, I felt God’s love as close to me as the gentle breeze rustling the grass at my ankles. I knew that God loved me and that this very same God created all that is, seen and unseen, out of this intense love – a love that is personal, and yet so vast and great and powerful. This is also the beautiful tension that we find in Psalm 147, as we are led to “praise the Lord,” for being both infinitely powerful and intimately near and caring.
Reading and praying Psalm 147, we’re led to praise God, shouting, “Hallelujah!” at both the beginning and end of the psalm – for Hallelujah means praise the LORD. And what are we to praise God for? For being God, says the psalmist, as he strings together a list of reasons we should praise God with all our lives. The psalmist reveals God as solely worthy of our praise because God is so near to us and caring, but also so great and powerful. In theological terms, the psalmist calls us to praise God for God’s immanence and transcendence. In Psalm 147, the psalmist moves between these two natures of God’s character as reasons for our praise.
We praise God for God’s might, power, and greatness – that is, God’s transcendence. God is over all things, greater than all things, the author of all things; thus, God transcends Creation. The psalmist refers first to God’s vast power by praising God for creating, numbering, and naming every single star in the sky (v.4). God is so “great” and “abundant in power”; indeed, God’s “understanding is beyond measure,” the psalmist praises (v. 5). As if to further prove God’s magnificence, the psalmist continues. God “covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills” (v. 8). God is not just our God, a personal caregiver, but the great I Am and Creator of all that is, seen and unseen. Before there was time, God was, and is, and always will be. Praise the Lord, indeed!
We praise God also for God’s immanence, that is God’s nearness to us, and God’s personal, gracious, care for us and all Creation. Indeed, as the psalmist praises, God “builds up” God’s people, “gathers the outcasts,” “heals the brokenhearted,” and “binds up” the wounded (vv. 2-3). God “lifts up the downtrodden” (v. 6). God even cares for the animals by giving them food (v. 9). This is the immanent nature of God, for which we praise God. God cares for Creation with graciousness and love. God is with us, near us, even within us.
God is both the Almighty Creator and the loving, steadfast, personal God who has revealed Godself to us in manifold ways. The psalmist outlined just a few general categories of God’s power and care, but we too know and love God as both powerful Creator and loving Lord. We know God: God’s goodness and care, and God’s power.
Our very presence in worship attests to the truth of God’s presence in our lives. We come to worship God because God has acted in our lives in personal and loving ways. We lift our praises to God because God has made Godself known to us and because God has created everything.
During the past few months, many have shared about how they’ve experienced God’s love, but we all can point to times when we’ve personally felt God’s love and care for us. For some, God’s grace has been felt through the words or works of others – a kind note, a phone call when you most needed it, memorial gifts, or assistance, be it financial or physical. For others, God’s grace has been experienced in escape from addiction or the comforting of sorrow and pain. How have you felt God’s grace and love in your life? Have you shared that experience with others? For all the ways we experience God’s love, with the psalmist, we praise God with loud, “Hallelujahs!”
But more than just specific instances of healing, grace, and awe, the psalmist is guiding us to the deep and profound truth that the God who is powerful enough to create everything, is also near and loving enough to care for us personally. That God is so great and yet so close gives us not only assurance, as with my experiences at camp, but also hope. God loves us, and God is powerful enough to take care of us no matter what happens. Thus, we have no need to fear, for we have all the hope in the cosmos that God’s will will be done on earth as in heaven.
The fruits of such hope found in God’s presence and power are joy and faithfulness. That’s why the psalmist begins and ends with the interjection, Praise God! Hallelujah! When we know, see, and believe God to be vast and near and full of love, we are free to praise God despite the world’s gloominess. God fills us with hope, which frees us to worship and serve God faithfully.
Because of God-given hope, we are free to worship in the face of death, as we do at funerals. Because of God-given hope, we are free to worship even when we’re sick. Because of God given-hope, we are free to serve others and care for them without fear of being consumed or not having enough to go around.
And, because we have supreme hope in God who is great and near, we can live as faithfully as God can enable us. We can pray with thanksgiving even in the midst of the petitions of a hurting world. We can give of our time and our money because we know that regardless of stock markets and job insecurity, God’s got our backs. We can take time off of work to spend with family and friends, or volunteer to serve others, because we’re not stuck in the fear that says we have to work ourselves to the bones. We’re able to care for strangers and say hello to people on the streets and in the stores, because we know that God loves each of them just as much as us. We’re able to take time to visit the sick and shut-in.
God’s simultaneous greatness and nearness fills us with hope, which leads us to work with God in God’s mission in the world. God fills us with hope so that we can gather outcasts, heal the brokenhearted, and bind up the wounded with God. God fills us with hope so that we can lift up the downtrodden with God. With hope in God, we can love those who are overlooked. This is the shape of our hope – hope found in our loving God who is all-powerful and closer-than-breath. And this too is our worship. Let our helpful hands raise our “Hallelujahs” to the Lord God, Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth!
God is great and God is good, indeed. And this very same God who fashioned the cosmos and called the stars by name, created us, loves us, and travels with us in the journey of life. This is our hope: the supreme ruler of the world loves us, knows us intimately, and is known by us. God fills us with hope so that we can live as praise-filled creatures of God. Praise the Lord!
As we prepare for worship, consider how you think about God. What terms do you use? Do you think most of God as the great, awesome, Creator of the cosmos? Do you think of God as the Son, Jesus Christ, who revealed Godself to the world in the fullness of time, not with crushing power, but through humble service and surrender? Do you think of a rushing wind, closer to you than breath and yet beyond you as well? God is all of these, and yet still more. Let us worship our God, who is One and Three. Let us worship, for we have seen and we know.
Try to imagine just how big the entirety of Creation must be. Do we even know? There are planets, solar systems, galaxies, and then still more galaxies. From such a vantage point, Earth is such a small piece of the whole of Creation. Think of the number of stars in the sky. Even more, think of the countless billions of people who have lived through the ages. Now, know that the very same God who created the most distant galaxy and who named the stars before there was time, created you and calls you by name to be in worship together. The author of the cosmos is nearer to you than your very breath. Let us use that breath always for praise.
2.8.09 – 5th Sunday after the Epiphany
Ps 147.1-11, 20c
For the past four years, I’ve spent at least a little time each summer at Camp Fontanelle, a United Methodist camp near Fremont, NE. Two years, I worked there the majority of the summer. The other two years, I helped for just a week or two. But each year, one thing was always the same.
It would always happen at night. Maybe we’d just finished our worship time around the
campfire, or maybe we’d be walking the prayer labyrinths, or perhaps we’d be stopped on the top of a hill during a night hike. No matter the exact circumstances, I would turn back my head to gaze into the clear, night sky. As I stood there with my head upturned, it would suddenly be as though that was the first time I’d seen stars at all. Looking up at the vast expanse of stars, I would be completely awestruck. I’d seen the stars before that summer, perhaps even spent other nights gazing at them. But on these special nights, their beauty, distance, and magnitude washed over me.
Perhaps it was simply that after living in the city (either Omaha or Chicago) for so long, it was
just a sight for sore eyes to actually see more than a few stars. Yet, more than that, it was a spiritual moment for me. I’d stand there gazing at the sky and I’d be struck with the realization of God’s greatness and vast power. Whoa…if God made all this…phew, God must be so much bigger and greater than I’ve been thinking lately. Seeing all those stars blanketing the skies, I couldn’t help but feel so small and insignificant – not as beautiful as stars, nor as powerful or big; not as impacting on others.
Awash in wonder at the night sky and God’s magnificence, I would just as suddenly feel this new wave of awareness: The God who made all this made and loves me too. It was almost too much to take at times, this awareness and assurance of God’s personal, closer-than-breath love. This great and powerful God who created the great starry night, created and cares also for me. Sometimes I’d want to break out into song praising God; sometimes I’d be moved to pray, asking forgiveness for sin or help for others or myself; sometimes, I’d simply rest in the peace of the moment.
Seeing the stars, I would feel both small and beloved at the same time. I was in the middle of the vastness of the cosmos. I realized – I felt intimately in my bones – that I was just a tiny part of Creation. Yet, I also had this overwhelming sense of peace and hopefulness. Standing there craning my neck, I felt God’s love as close to me as the gentle breeze rustling the grass at my ankles. I knew that God loved me and that this very same God created all that is, seen and unseen, out of this intense love – a love that is personal, and yet so vast and great and powerful. This is also the beautiful tension that we find in Psalm 147, as we are led to “praise the Lord,” for being both infinitely powerful and intimately near and caring.
Reading and praying Psalm 147, we’re led to praise God, shouting, “Hallelujah!” at both the beginning and end of the psalm – for Hallelujah means praise the LORD. And what are we to praise God for? For being God, says the psalmist, as he strings together a list of reasons we should praise God with all our lives. The psalmist reveals God as solely worthy of our praise because God is so near to us and caring, but also so great and powerful. In theological terms, the psalmist calls us to praise God for God’s immanence and transcendence. In Psalm 147, the psalmist moves between these two natures of God’s character as reasons for our praise.
We praise God for God’s might, power, and greatness – that is, God’s transcendence. God is over all things, greater than all things, the author of all things; thus, God transcends Creation. The psalmist refers first to God’s vast power by praising God for creating, numbering, and naming every single star in the sky (v.4). God is so “great” and “abundant in power”; indeed, God’s “understanding is beyond measure,” the psalmist praises (v. 5). As if to further prove God’s magnificence, the psalmist continues. God “covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills” (v. 8). God is not just our God, a personal caregiver, but the great I Am and Creator of all that is, seen and unseen. Before there was time, God was, and is, and always will be. Praise the Lord, indeed!
We praise God also for God’s immanence, that is God’s nearness to us, and God’s personal, gracious, care for us and all Creation. Indeed, as the psalmist praises, God “builds up” God’s people, “gathers the outcasts,” “heals the brokenhearted,” and “binds up” the wounded (vv. 2-3). God “lifts up the downtrodden” (v. 6). God even cares for the animals by giving them food (v. 9). This is the immanent nature of God, for which we praise God. God cares for Creation with graciousness and love. God is with us, near us, even within us.
God is both the Almighty Creator and the loving, steadfast, personal God who has revealed Godself to us in manifold ways. The psalmist outlined just a few general categories of God’s power and care, but we too know and love God as both powerful Creator and loving Lord. We know God: God’s goodness and care, and God’s power.
Our very presence in worship attests to the truth of God’s presence in our lives. We come to worship God because God has acted in our lives in personal and loving ways. We lift our praises to God because God has made Godself known to us and because God has created everything.
During the past few months, many have shared about how they’ve experienced God’s love, but we all can point to times when we’ve personally felt God’s love and care for us. For some, God’s grace has been felt through the words or works of others – a kind note, a phone call when you most needed it, memorial gifts, or assistance, be it financial or physical. For others, God’s grace has been experienced in escape from addiction or the comforting of sorrow and pain. How have you felt God’s grace and love in your life? Have you shared that experience with others? For all the ways we experience God’s love, with the psalmist, we praise God with loud, “Hallelujahs!”
But more than just specific instances of healing, grace, and awe, the psalmist is guiding us to the deep and profound truth that the God who is powerful enough to create everything, is also near and loving enough to care for us personally. That God is so great and yet so close gives us not only assurance, as with my experiences at camp, but also hope. God loves us, and God is powerful enough to take care of us no matter what happens. Thus, we have no need to fear, for we have all the hope in the cosmos that God’s will will be done on earth as in heaven.
The fruits of such hope found in God’s presence and power are joy and faithfulness. That’s why the psalmist begins and ends with the interjection, Praise God! Hallelujah! When we know, see, and believe God to be vast and near and full of love, we are free to praise God despite the world’s gloominess. God fills us with hope, which frees us to worship and serve God faithfully.
Because of God-given hope, we are free to worship in the face of death, as we do at funerals. Because of God-given hope, we are free to worship even when we’re sick. Because of God given-hope, we are free to serve others and care for them without fear of being consumed or not having enough to go around.
And, because we have supreme hope in God who is great and near, we can live as faithfully as God can enable us. We can pray with thanksgiving even in the midst of the petitions of a hurting world. We can give of our time and our money because we know that regardless of stock markets and job insecurity, God’s got our backs. We can take time off of work to spend with family and friends, or volunteer to serve others, because we’re not stuck in the fear that says we have to work ourselves to the bones. We’re able to care for strangers and say hello to people on the streets and in the stores, because we know that God loves each of them just as much as us. We’re able to take time to visit the sick and shut-in.
God’s simultaneous greatness and nearness fills us with hope, which leads us to work with God in God’s mission in the world. God fills us with hope so that we can gather outcasts, heal the brokenhearted, and bind up the wounded with God. God fills us with hope so that we can lift up the downtrodden with God. With hope in God, we can love those who are overlooked. This is the shape of our hope – hope found in our loving God who is all-powerful and closer-than-breath. And this too is our worship. Let our helpful hands raise our “Hallelujahs” to the Lord God, Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth!
God is great and God is good, indeed. And this very same God who fashioned the cosmos and called the stars by name, created us, loves us, and travels with us in the journey of life. This is our hope: the supreme ruler of the world loves us, knows us intimately, and is known by us. God fills us with hope so that we can live as praise-filled creatures of God. Praise the Lord!
Sharing the Good News
Sermon for January 25, 2009 - 3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Thoughts Before Worship:
Today is the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany. As we worship, we’ll continue encountering a God who has revealed Godself to the world in powerful and life-changing ways. For that’s what this season of the year is for, celebrating the way God has revealed Godself to us. Today, we see how God continues to call out to people to follow, obey, and share God’s good news with others. We’re all called by God to be disciples of Jesus; we’re called to come and follow. How well are we following? Can others see who we’re following? Have we told them? Let us worship God, who called us out of sin and death and brought us in to new life.
Sermon
As I sang in the song “Come and Follow,” God calls us all to come and follow, to obey and to share God’s love. This is one of the main themes throughout scripture: God calls us, Come and share my love, and sends us out, Go, share my love with others. And so it is today that we have Jonah, a prophet of the Lord, sharing God’s good news with the people of Nineveh.
1. The Story of Jonah
Now, we all remember the story of Jonah, generally, but allow me to refresh our memories. God called Jonah to preach against Nineveh, “the great city,” and its wickedness. Rather than listen and hop the next camel train to Nineveh – which was 500 miles west of Israel – Jonah hightailed it east to the coast and jumped on a ship heading as far east as he could go. Of course, God was displeased with Jonah’s disobedience and caused a violent storm on the sea, which eventually led to Jonah being thrown overboard by the ship’s crew; whereupon, he was swallowed by a fish, in which he lived for three days and nights. After Jonah prayed to God, God caused the fish to vomit Jonah out onto dry land.
This brings us to the passage read today, in which God calls Jonah a second time. This time, he listens and goes off to Nineveh to “preach against it” (1.2). Interestingly, his prophecy for the people of Nineveh, at least what’s recorded here, is minimal. He doesn’t mention God. He doesn’t mention that God desires the Ninevites to repent and follow God’s way. He just proclaims, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (3.4): it’s like screaming, The end is near!
Remarkably, “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth” (3.5), which is a sign of mourning and repentance. All the people, even the king, put on sackcloth and humbled themselves before God. They even put sackcloth on their animals (v.8): that’s how convinced they were of their sin and their need of forgiveness and redemption. They thought, as it says in verse 9, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from [God’s] fierce anger so that we will not perish.” And God did look on the Ninevites with compassion because they were repentant. Praise God, and Amen!
2. Analogical Setup
Now, consider how this story can be read as an analogy of the mindset of the religious establishment. Jonah is an Israelite prophet of the Lord. He was called by God to preach a message of judgment to the people of Nineveh, so that they might repent of their sinfulness and live in communion with God. He was called to be a blessing to others by sharing the good news of God’s love and redemption. However, Jonah’s sinful disobedience prevented him from faithfully being who he was called to be. Remember, he ran away from God’s call and had to be called again, after some pretty outrageous experiences.
Jonah was probably serving as a prophet during the reign of King Jeroboam II in Israel from 793-753 BCE. During this time, Nineveh was one of the largest cities of Assyria, which, in 722, would conquer Israel and establish itself as the empire of the land. So, for this reason alone, Jonah would not have had much love for the people of Nineveh (it would be like if Canada were plotting to take over North America and were gaining power; many Americans would probably not look too favorably at the Canadians). Even worse in Jonah’s eyes, the Ninevites were Gentiles, not Israelites, and they worshipped different gods. They were outsiders, not among God’s “chosen people,” thought the people of Israel. The established religious people looked down upon the outsiders, hoarding their sense of blessedness.
Thus, Jonah ran from God’s call to preach to Nineveh, not so much because he was scared of the task, but because he didn’t want to chance that they might actually repent of their sin and be forgiven by God. And Jonah was very angry with God when God forgave the Ninevites, just after our passage today. As he says later, “[I] was so quick to flee to Tarshish [because] I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (4.2). In a nutshell, Jonah knew that God is compassionate, loving, and forgiving, so he didn’t want to introduce the Ninevites to God because he knew God would love them and forgive them, and he wanted them destroyed.
3. God enables Repentance
God called Jonah to share the good news of forgiveness and redemption to the Ninevites and to make them aware of their sinfulness and need of repentance. Jonah ran away, because he didn’t like the Ninevites and didn’t want God to forgive them. Yet, God kept after Jonah, saving him from the storm with the fish, and bringing him back to dry land. Then, God called Jonah again. And, I’m sure that if Jonah had run again, God would have called Jonah even a third time, and a fourth, and more, until he repented of his disobedience and followed God’s will. God enabled Jonah to repent of his sin – his disobedience in running away – so that he could share God’s love with others. And through Jonah’s prophecy (and certainly the Spirit’s work) God enabled the Ninevites to repent of their sins and be forgiven. In doing so, God revealed the vastness of God’s love, which reaches from the chosen people of Israel to the Gentile sinners of Assyria, and even to us.
4. Us: Where do we fit in the story?
The story of Jonah and Nineveh’s repentance reveals God’s abundant love – love so vast that it reaches even to those Jonah thought were unlovable. The story of Jonah reveals God’s character, but it also reveals our own character. At different points in our lives, we play different parts in this story ourselves.
Are you like Jonah after God’s first call? Do you know that God is calling you to something particular but run the other way instead? I can personally relate to this, for my first response to the inkling that God was calling me to be a pastor was to run away from the idea of it. Is God calling you to invite others to church, or to call a friend out of blue just because you’re thinking about him/her? And what do you do? Is God calling you to begin a new Bible study or prayer group? And what do you do? Run away?
Are you like Jonah after God’s second call? Are you responding in perfect obedience and faithfulness? God is calling us as a congregation to be a welcoming witness of God’s love for all people, and we’re responding as faithfully as we know how. And just as it was a long, hard road to Nineveh, being a truly integrated multi-ethnic church is full of long-term challenges. Nonetheless, many of you have gone above and beyond in your efforts to make this relationship work for the glory of God. Who else is responding to God’s call obediently? Who’s saying yes? Consider what God’s calling you to, because God is calling all of us, and then think hard about how you’re responding.
Are you like the Ninevites – fully aware of your sinfulness and need of repentance? Then by all means, declare your own fast and get right with God and your community. Get on your knees, pray for forgiveness and strength, and then turn the other way towards God and greater faithfulness. Just as God enabled Jonah and the Ninevites, God enables us to repent of our sin so that we can share God’s good news with others. And as forgiven and reconciled people, go forth from this place to tell others about God’s love. God’s love is offered to everyone, but people need to hear that from you; they need to hear how God’s love has changed your life and how God can change their lives too. People need to hear that God loves them, and they need to hear it from you.
Or, are you like Jonah in his narrow view of God’s love, thinking that God couldn’t possibly love everyone? This is such a temptation. We see so many people living such horrible, despicable lives, and we know how to make better choices for them. And yet, God doesn’t ask us to make the choices for them; God sends us to them, that we might bring them to God. Let God change their lives. We just have to get them here. We all know there are people in this town who don’t go to church on Sunday morning. We all know there are people in this town who never read the Bible or pray. We know and believe that all people need the love of God in their lives in a real, tangible way. Well…how are they going to hear about God’s love for them, or God’s free offer of forgiveness ,if you don’t tell them, or invite them to church, or to coffee, at the very least?
Like Jonah and the Ninevites, God enables us to repent of our sins so that we can share God’s good news with others. Forgiveness and redemption are offered to us, even to us. And forgiveness and redemption are offered to everyone, they just need to hear the initiation, and see the reality of changed lives. May God forgive us for our tendency to run and hide, and may God give us the courage to share with others how God has transformed our lives. Amen.
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Thoughts Before Worship:
Today is the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany. As we worship, we’ll continue encountering a God who has revealed Godself to the world in powerful and life-changing ways. For that’s what this season of the year is for, celebrating the way God has revealed Godself to us. Today, we see how God continues to call out to people to follow, obey, and share God’s good news with others. We’re all called by God to be disciples of Jesus; we’re called to come and follow. How well are we following? Can others see who we’re following? Have we told them? Let us worship God, who called us out of sin and death and brought us in to new life.
Sermon
As I sang in the song “Come and Follow,” God calls us all to come and follow, to obey and to share God’s love. This is one of the main themes throughout scripture: God calls us, Come and share my love, and sends us out, Go, share my love with others. And so it is today that we have Jonah, a prophet of the Lord, sharing God’s good news with the people of Nineveh.
1. The Story of Jonah
Now, we all remember the story of Jonah, generally, but allow me to refresh our memories. God called Jonah to preach against Nineveh, “the great city,” and its wickedness. Rather than listen and hop the next camel train to Nineveh – which was 500 miles west of Israel – Jonah hightailed it east to the coast and jumped on a ship heading as far east as he could go. Of course, God was displeased with Jonah’s disobedience and caused a violent storm on the sea, which eventually led to Jonah being thrown overboard by the ship’s crew; whereupon, he was swallowed by a fish, in which he lived for three days and nights. After Jonah prayed to God, God caused the fish to vomit Jonah out onto dry land.
This brings us to the passage read today, in which God calls Jonah a second time. This time, he listens and goes off to Nineveh to “preach against it” (1.2). Interestingly, his prophecy for the people of Nineveh, at least what’s recorded here, is minimal. He doesn’t mention God. He doesn’t mention that God desires the Ninevites to repent and follow God’s way. He just proclaims, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (3.4): it’s like screaming, The end is near!
Remarkably, “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth” (3.5), which is a sign of mourning and repentance. All the people, even the king, put on sackcloth and humbled themselves before God. They even put sackcloth on their animals (v.8): that’s how convinced they were of their sin and their need of forgiveness and redemption. They thought, as it says in verse 9, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from [God’s] fierce anger so that we will not perish.” And God did look on the Ninevites with compassion because they were repentant. Praise God, and Amen!
2. Analogical Setup
Now, consider how this story can be read as an analogy of the mindset of the religious establishment. Jonah is an Israelite prophet of the Lord. He was called by God to preach a message of judgment to the people of Nineveh, so that they might repent of their sinfulness and live in communion with God. He was called to be a blessing to others by sharing the good news of God’s love and redemption. However, Jonah’s sinful disobedience prevented him from faithfully being who he was called to be. Remember, he ran away from God’s call and had to be called again, after some pretty outrageous experiences.
Jonah was probably serving as a prophet during the reign of King Jeroboam II in Israel from 793-753 BCE. During this time, Nineveh was one of the largest cities of Assyria, which, in 722, would conquer Israel and establish itself as the empire of the land. So, for this reason alone, Jonah would not have had much love for the people of Nineveh (it would be like if Canada were plotting to take over North America and were gaining power; many Americans would probably not look too favorably at the Canadians). Even worse in Jonah’s eyes, the Ninevites were Gentiles, not Israelites, and they worshipped different gods. They were outsiders, not among God’s “chosen people,” thought the people of Israel. The established religious people looked down upon the outsiders, hoarding their sense of blessedness.
Thus, Jonah ran from God’s call to preach to Nineveh, not so much because he was scared of the task, but because he didn’t want to chance that they might actually repent of their sin and be forgiven by God. And Jonah was very angry with God when God forgave the Ninevites, just after our passage today. As he says later, “[I] was so quick to flee to Tarshish [because] I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (4.2). In a nutshell, Jonah knew that God is compassionate, loving, and forgiving, so he didn’t want to introduce the Ninevites to God because he knew God would love them and forgive them, and he wanted them destroyed.
3. God enables Repentance
God called Jonah to share the good news of forgiveness and redemption to the Ninevites and to make them aware of their sinfulness and need of repentance. Jonah ran away, because he didn’t like the Ninevites and didn’t want God to forgive them. Yet, God kept after Jonah, saving him from the storm with the fish, and bringing him back to dry land. Then, God called Jonah again. And, I’m sure that if Jonah had run again, God would have called Jonah even a third time, and a fourth, and more, until he repented of his disobedience and followed God’s will. God enabled Jonah to repent of his sin – his disobedience in running away – so that he could share God’s love with others. And through Jonah’s prophecy (and certainly the Spirit’s work) God enabled the Ninevites to repent of their sins and be forgiven. In doing so, God revealed the vastness of God’s love, which reaches from the chosen people of Israel to the Gentile sinners of Assyria, and even to us.
4. Us: Where do we fit in the story?
The story of Jonah and Nineveh’s repentance reveals God’s abundant love – love so vast that it reaches even to those Jonah thought were unlovable. The story of Jonah reveals God’s character, but it also reveals our own character. At different points in our lives, we play different parts in this story ourselves.
Are you like Jonah after God’s first call? Do you know that God is calling you to something particular but run the other way instead? I can personally relate to this, for my first response to the inkling that God was calling me to be a pastor was to run away from the idea of it. Is God calling you to invite others to church, or to call a friend out of blue just because you’re thinking about him/her? And what do you do? Is God calling you to begin a new Bible study or prayer group? And what do you do? Run away?
Are you like Jonah after God’s second call? Are you responding in perfect obedience and faithfulness? God is calling us as a congregation to be a welcoming witness of God’s love for all people, and we’re responding as faithfully as we know how. And just as it was a long, hard road to Nineveh, being a truly integrated multi-ethnic church is full of long-term challenges. Nonetheless, many of you have gone above and beyond in your efforts to make this relationship work for the glory of God. Who else is responding to God’s call obediently? Who’s saying yes? Consider what God’s calling you to, because God is calling all of us, and then think hard about how you’re responding.
Are you like the Ninevites – fully aware of your sinfulness and need of repentance? Then by all means, declare your own fast and get right with God and your community. Get on your knees, pray for forgiveness and strength, and then turn the other way towards God and greater faithfulness. Just as God enabled Jonah and the Ninevites, God enables us to repent of our sin so that we can share God’s good news with others. And as forgiven and reconciled people, go forth from this place to tell others about God’s love. God’s love is offered to everyone, but people need to hear that from you; they need to hear how God’s love has changed your life and how God can change their lives too. People need to hear that God loves them, and they need to hear it from you.
Or, are you like Jonah in his narrow view of God’s love, thinking that God couldn’t possibly love everyone? This is such a temptation. We see so many people living such horrible, despicable lives, and we know how to make better choices for them. And yet, God doesn’t ask us to make the choices for them; God sends us to them, that we might bring them to God. Let God change their lives. We just have to get them here. We all know there are people in this town who don’t go to church on Sunday morning. We all know there are people in this town who never read the Bible or pray. We know and believe that all people need the love of God in their lives in a real, tangible way. Well…how are they going to hear about God’s love for them, or God’s free offer of forgiveness ,if you don’t tell them, or invite them to church, or to coffee, at the very least?
Like Jonah and the Ninevites, God enables us to repent of our sins so that we can share God’s good news with others. Forgiveness and redemption are offered to us, even to us. And forgiveness and redemption are offered to everyone, they just need to hear the initiation, and see the reality of changed lives. May God forgive us for our tendency to run and hide, and may God give us the courage to share with others how God has transformed our lives. Amen.
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