The difference between can and should can be sinister or relatively benign. It applies to all aspects of life:

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1 There is a difference between can and should. At a young age we begin to learn there is a difference the moment you learn as a child that you CAN take a candy bar out of the store without paying. The moment you learn that you CAN stay out later than your curfew There is a difference between can and should. The difference between can and should can be sinister or relatively benign. It applies to all aspects of life: Can I live on Doritos and Diet Coke? Should I? Can BP pass the buck on the oil spill? Should they? Can those with powerful jobs embezzle money? Should they? Can we get by with not paying our shared ministry? Should we? For the month of June we are exploring what it means to be the Church. As I explained a few weeks ago we are currently in the time in the liturgical year called ordinary time. This is the season between Pentecost (the birthday of the church where God poured out the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Christ in Jerusalem empowering them to proclaim the Gospel and do the work of Jesus Christ) and Advent (the official waiting period for God s decisive action in our lives). But right now we are in the inbetweenie and this time is (no joke) called ordinary time. We decided ordinary time is a good time to talk about what it actually means to be the church in our every day lives. We are being led in our discussion of what it means to be the church by extracting truth nuggets from the life and ministry of the great prophet Elijah. Today s truth nugget comes from the 21 st chapter of 1 Kings, and here it is: Although God gives us as the Church great authority and power to do amazing things through the work of the Holy Spirit there is a difference between what we CAN do and what we SHOULD do. With great power comes great responsibility with great power comes great temptation to serve ourselves instead of God with our actions. As the Church we have great power and influence over other people we become the mouthpiece of God the hands and feet and heart of Jesus to other people in our community, the manifestation of justice and mercy..and we have a choice regarding how we use that power. We CAN use our power and influence to serve God or we CAN use our power to serve ourselves. Just because we CAN doesn t mean we SHOULD. To illustrate this truth we will look at a story staring good old King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and their misuse of power and authority and God s judgment on those actions. 1

2 To bring you up to speed: Our stories for the last three weeks have taken place in the northern kingdom of Israel during the time period when Israel was split into two kingdoms. The reigning king of the northern kingdom was a gentleman by the name of Ahab- and he was a bad king because he accommodated the native Canaanite religion and fell heavily under the influence of his Canaanite wife Jezebel. Elijah is a prophet of God sent to confront Ahab on many occasions and tell the people of Israel to repent of their worship of false gods. Two weeks ago we looked at the first confrontation between Ahab and Elijah and learned that as the Church YES GOD CAN sustain us in difficult times and that with God YES WE CAN do the difficult things God sets before us. Last week (in the early service) we looked at the story of Ahab and the Elijah in the great God-off between Ba al and the One True God and learned that as the Church we must unequivocally choose to serve God in order to find our prophetic voice and use it. Today we will reign ourselves in as we realize that as the Church we have great power to do good or evil or perhaps the more pressing reality we have the ability to limp on in mediocrity, choosing self-serving comfort rather than God inspired challenges to change. Today s message: There is a difference between what we CAN do as a community and what we SHOULD do. As the Church what we SHOULD do will always be dictated by God. As the Church our main objective is to submit to our God and make disciples for Jesus Christ - God will move in our midst and tell us what we should do if we have the wisdom to ask, the patience to listen, and the courage to accept what God tells us. As the Church what we SHOULD do will always be dictated by God. [This means we have to ask God what we should do] Ok, let s go to the text and see what we shouldn t do!! 1 Kings 21: 1-21 Later the following events took place: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. And Ahab said to Naboth, Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money. But Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance. Ahab went home resentful and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, I will not give you my ancestral inheritance. He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat. His wife Jezebel came to him and said, Why are you so depressed that you will not eat? He said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it ; but he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. His wife Jezebel said to him, Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. 2

3 So she wrote letters in Ahab s name and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. She wrote in the letters, Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the assembly; seat two scoundrels opposite him, and have them bring a charge against him, saying, You have cursed God and the king. Then take him out, and stone him to death. The men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. Just as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, they proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the assembly. The two scoundrels came in and sat opposite him; and the scoundrels brought a charge against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth cursed God and the king. So they took him outside the city, and stoned him to death. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned; he is dead. As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, Go, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead. As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. You shall say to him, Thus says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession? You shall say to him, Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood. Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, O my enemy? He answered, I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; This is the Word of the Lord, (Thanks be to God). This is a complicated story of the misuse of God given power and authority. The characters in this story ignore the difference between what they CAN do and what the SHOULD do and God judges them harshly for it. The corruption and evil-doing starts at the top and trickles down. Like most sin and selfcenteredness it begins small and grows. First Ahab: The story begins pretty harmless- King Ahab would like a vegetable garden in close proximity to his house. He would especially like Naboth s plot of land but Naboth will not sell it to him, because God told him he should not. King Ahab, although disappointed, does not act in an evil way he just goes home to sulk. This entire ordeal, 3

4 and Ahab s eventual demise (remember the dogs licking up his blood part?), begins with this one act of self-centered sulking. As a church do we ever sulk? Second Jezabel: Now the sin begins to grow. It moves from a simple sulk to something more sinister. Jezabel looks with distain on her sulking husband and says, Aren t you king? Pull yourself together you CAN have any piece of land you want no matter what The LORD says. You re king. If you won t - I will. And then it starts she forges letters and asks the nobles and elders of Jezreel to falsely accuse Naboth and to kill him. All for a vegetable garden. All for a sulking king who did not get his own way. As a church have we ever experienced something small and harmless that grows into something much more damaging? Third: The Nobles and Elders This one really gets me. These are the people who blindly do what they are told to, even though it is wrong. Just following orders. Because of this LETTER those who are in leadership positions in the city conspire to stone Naboth to death on a false blasphemy charge. Ahab s sulk, and Jezebel s manipulation and misuse of power turns into a conspiracy to murder. They don t even ask why- they just do it. All for a vegetable garden and a sulky self-centered king. As a church, do we ever blindly follow someone other than God because of our fears or self-centered motives? This story should be a stark reminder to us as the Church that sin has many layers. As individuals part of something larger than ourselves we must be on guard against corruption and sin of all kinds. We always have a choice. Turning a blind eye to the misuse of power and corruption is just as bad as actively engaging in those things. As the Church, we must know the difference between can and should. As the Church, what we SHOULD do must always come from God. Now I could end this sermon right here- (Jim Tuggey is getting excited I can tell). We could look at the example of King Ahab, Jezabel and the corrupt nobles and elders of Jezreel and pledge not to mis-use our power in this way. As the Church we could look at every decision as good and evil and strive to choose the good but to be very honest with you I m not sure how helpful that would be. As the Church we are sometimes faced with black and white issues right and wrong. In the past we have had to choose to speak out against slavery and then racism, discrimination against women and we may face similar issues in the future 4

5 but if we re really talking about what it means to be the church here and now today and tomorrow and next Thursday at 3:30 in the afternoon.. we have to acknowledge that the can and should issues we face are decidedly more grey. Should we fix the stone work on the building this year or next? Should we cut the budget because we re running a deficit? Should we go ahead with this Christian Education position even though we have very few kids? Should we risk sending more than we think we can to conference for shared ministry even though money is tight?. In our every day life as a community of faith we face decisions and most of them are not as clear cut RIGHT and WRONG as our story today. This is why it is so important for us to ALWAYS turn to God for what we should do how should we proceed sometimes it s a choice between good and evil sometimes it s a choice between good and better I had the privilege and honor of participating in the closing session of the North Central New York Annual Conference this Friday, and the opening session of the Upper New York Annual Conference this Saturday at the Oncenter in Syracuse. This is a prime example of how we as the church have successfully chosen the should we as a body of disciples have listened to God s voice, and responded to the nudges Six years ago we, as a denomination, had a choice. We had the ability to continue to limp along with our dwindling numbers, draining enthusiasm and empty koffers until we died a slow death Or, we could choose to respond to God s nudges and challenge to change and to begin that change by uniting with our brothers and sisters from the Western New York, Troy, and Wyoming annual conferences to become something new. We chose to respond to God s challenge we chose to listen to God s voice we chose to do what we SHOULD do, even though it was not easy. We are already doing this friends as a denomination we are faithfully trudging along behind our God into the wilderness of the unknown trusting that God will equip us for the journey. Will we, as a small portion of that denomination at Oneida First choose to show the same courage and faith to follow their example in our every day matters? I hope so. 5

6 We CAN choose to change, or not to change but what is God telling us we SHOULD do? What does it mean to be the Church? It means knowing the difference between can and should and always turning to our creator for what we should do next. May God grant us the wisdom and the patience to let God guide us through all things great and small. Amen. 6