Sermon Lent 3b 2015: God Calls Us Back from Our Drifting Introduction: Drifting Away

Transcription

1 Sermon Lent 3b 2015: God Calls Us Back from Our Drifting Introduction: Drifting Away Part of the purpose of the season of Lent is to take on a way of living; That helps open the way for God to make us more like Jesus; That s the Christian life, after all; We believe or put our trust in God through Jesus Christ And live our lives with our own gifts and interests and strengths doing what Jesus would do. So, in this season of Lent, we pay particular attention to the way we re living our lives; We give up, we take on, we look to spend more time with God; Because all of us have drifted away from the life God is calling us to live. And I think the concept that we ve drifted away from the life God is calling us to live; Is probably a healthy way to look at how we ve fallen short of the life with God; Or been anesthetized, as Bishop Daniel told our men a couple of weeks ago; Anesthetized over a period of time into sin Or if that s too hard on the ears, We ve been dulled into a life that is less than the life God is calling us to live; We re drifters, we human beings. I mean no one wakes up one morning and decides today I am going to be an idolater; Today and from now on I m going to worship some idol or some way of living That puts God in a second place to wealth or power or food or the things of life; No, we start down a path very slowly, unconsciously choosing things other than God; And pretty soon, God is pushed out of the way and we re worshiping something or someone else. I can t imagine that any of us woke up this morning And made a conscious choice that we re going to be false witnesses, we re going to be liars; That we re simply not going to tell the truth from now on; Maybe you did, but I suspect that we told a white lie once or twice, got away with it; And kept on doing it to the point that we now have trouble distinguishing truth and lies. 1

2 We drift; we re usually unconscious about the life we re living; Or why we re doing the things we re doing and so fall far short Of the grace and the love and the adventure of the life with God. Alternatively, and this can especially be true in Lent when we re working on our life with God By taking up new habits for life like prayer, and study, and minding what we eat; The habits themselves can get in the way of the Spirit moving in us; We can drift into the practice and forget why we re doing it And can reach moments when we say, Lord, don t bother me right now I m fasting; Or sorry, I can t pay attention to someone in need I m going to Bible study. One of my favorite stories about drifting is a generational story about living the life with God; A man decided one Lent that he was going to carve out fifteen minutes each morning; To read his Bible, to pray to God, and to listen to God s call on his life. So each morning, he got up early, sat on the edge of his bed and began reading and praying; It turns out that the man had a very affectionate cat who would walk across the Bible Or nuzzle close to him when he was trying to pray; And the man decided that to have this quiet time, he needed to tie up the cat So that he wouldn t have his time with God interrupted. The man s daughter noticed that her father s life was changed By his early morning time with God: he was more peaceful, gracious, joy-filled; And so she began a similar practice in her own home. Her life was busier than her father s and she could only spend ten minutes with God; She began by tying up her cat before opening the Bible, as she had seen her father do; And then read and prayed for ten minutes before taking her shower; She, too, had a deeper sense of God s grace in her life and it showed. 2

3 The granddaughter knew that her grandfather and mother were people of deep faith; And that each of them spent time in the morning reading scripture and praying; And she, too wanted a life like theirs; but her life was so busy That all she had time for was to tie up the cat and hit the showers to start her day. We drift, we humans; we drift from the deeper, fuller life God is offering us; And when we drift, we fall far short of the life that is really life; But God finds ways to bring us back, sometimes gently and sometimes not so much so. Jesus in the Temple I suspect that s what happened to the Jews and the temple worship By the time Jesus came drifting, institutional drifting; It s not as though the religious leaders got up one day and said, How can we distort God s plan for worship, keep people from coming to God And make a little money on the side; no, they drifted. You see, when God freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt And they were wandering around the desert for forty years, becoming God s free people; God gave them a lot of directions or laws about how to worship; And most of the worship had to do with sacrificing animals. It was a herding and farming culture back in Moses day when the laws came; And so giving God the fruits of their labor: grain or fruit, sheep or cows; Was the way to worship; to express thanksgiving; to gain forgiveness. We don t sacrifice animals as part of our worship today; Though every ancient culture used the sacrifice of animals as a way to give life; They believed there was life in the blood; And so if you sinned, you would offer the blood of an animal; To take your sin away and give you new life in return; Then the priests and the people would eat most of it together; It s all pretty gross, but you can read about it in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. 3

4 And by Jesus day, the sacrifices weren t taking place anywhere but Jerusalem; Herod the Great had built a magnificent temple in the heart of Jerusalem; And when you traveled there to fulfill some vow and to worship God; You had to have an animal to do it the right way as set forth by God. Now, if you were a Jew living in Rome or in Spain or any place far away; It s not very likely that you d bring your own cow or sheep on the road; It was hard to travel in Roman times And carrying a sheep or a goat or a cow or bird would have been almost impossible. So, the leadership at the temple set up a system to help devout Jews, coming from out of town; To worship God in Jerusalem First, they set up a currency exchange at the temple; Because the Roman coins had the image of Caesar stamped on them; And since Caesar claimed to be a God, it was a false idol; You needed a different coin to buy an animal for sacrifice. Then because it cost money to have someone exchange coins, they needed to pay them a salary So the exchange of coins cost money; Then to make it convenient they brought in animals for people to buy; And since the guys selling the animals needed to earn a living; They had to make a profit on the animals they were selling. Then they needed a Starbucks or whatever was appropriate in the day; Because the people working the temple marketplace needed to easy to grab a drink Or a hot falafel or bowl of hummus and pita bread; And the marketplace grew and grew; And for convenience, all of this was moved inside the courts of the temple; Talk about drifting. 4

5 And if this drifting isn t enough to get Jesus riled up when he arrives; We have to keep in mind that the system of worship was keeping people from God; If you couldn t pay, you couldn t pray; If you didn t have money, you couldn t pay the temple tax, much less buy a goat; And in the tough economic times of Jesus day, the worship itself had become a barrier. So Jesus drives the money changers and the animal merchants and hummus makers out; He turns the tables on their drifting to try and find a way to bring the leaders And the people back to the original purpose of the temple; A house of prayer, a place for everyone to worship God. Jesus is angry and uses that energy as an act of love; To halt the drift, to challenge the leaders about what they re doing and why; And to open the way for everyone to come into the presence of God. It s the Good Shepherd doing something to take care of His sheep; It s Jesus the healer, healing some brokenness so people can draw close to God; It s Jesus the teacher, teaching and reminding people That there are no barriers to God; that God s life is for everyone; Whatever is going on in your life, however you have drifted. And when Jesus goes to the cross to suffer and die for our sins and is resurrected; He removes all barriers that drifting and sin have built up between us and God Forgiving you and me, so that we can start over With the God who loves us and understands that we drift. Stopping the Drift Years into their practice of prayer in the morning; The grandfather comes for a visit at his daughter s home and her daughter is there as well; When he finishes his time of prayer and walks down the hallway for breakfast; He notices that his daughter is tying up her cat; And asks her what she is doing; 5

6 The granddaughter sticks her head out her bedroom to listen in. The daughter tell him that she s getting ready for their quiet time with God; But what s with tying up the cat, he asks; They both tell him that they noticed he always ties up his cat When he starts his time of prayer and that they want to be like him in his life with God. He bursts out laughing and tells them that tying up the cat Has nothing to do with his time with God and reminds them that he hasn t had a cat in years; Stunned into silence, he reminds them that the main purpose of the time Is to pay attention to God and to let God guide their lives, stop tying up the cat. We re drifters, we human beings, We drift on our own and we drift at the hands of others, including religious others; But even in our drifting, God is calling us back to the life that s really life; The life lived with our own gifts and interests and talents and strengths Doing what Jesus would do. Sometimes the call is gentle and gracious as we notice or someone else points out our drifting; And sometimes it comes when Jesus turns our lives over to stop our drifting; But gentle or stern, it comes to us at the hand of a forgiving God who loves us And beckons us into a life that is really life. So today and this week, I invite you to look and see where you are drifting, we all are; Invite God to come into your life to halt the drift And to set your feet on a path to real life; And easy or hard, God promises to be with you to make you more like Jesus And draw you into a life that is richer and fuller and more loving Than any life we can know on our own by the grace and the love of God. Amen. 6