HANG ON
Jacob woke up in the middle of the night because he didn’t know what he was going to do. This son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham himself, had his entire family with him on the banks of the Jabbok River - on the east side of the Jordan River - and he was a little bit worried about what was going to happen the next morning. Because for the past few months Jacob had been traveling for over 500 miles with his two wives and his two female servants and his 11 sons and all of his flocks and all of his herds and all of his possessions back to the land of Edom. And he had traveled all that way to meet his brother Esau. The problem was: 20 years before, Jacob had made Esau so angry that his brother wanted to kill him! That’s why Jacob hadn’t been around for the last two decades! He had been up in a place called Haran, among his mother’s relatives. But during that time, while Jacob was living with and working for his uncle Laban, his relationship with his mother’s brother didn’t turn out too well either. Using his uncle’s unfair treatment as an excuse to get away, Jacob gathered up everything he had (including Laban’s two daughter that Jacob had married as well as Laban’s grandchildren) and snuck out at night, hoping never to see his uncle again. But Laban caught up with him three days later, and at that place where they met those two men came to an agreement that neither one of them would cross that boundary line for the rest of their lives. And so, in effect, Jacob and Laban signed a restraining order against each other in the sight of God.
Which brings us back to Jacob in the middle of the night, on the banks of the Jabbok River, sitting on the northern edge of the land of Edom, with a reunion scheduled the next morning with his older brother… and Jacob had burned all of his bridges! Jacob didn’t know what was going to happen. He didn’t know what he was going to do. He didn’t know exactly how to fix the problem. And so that night, with everything he had, his entire family, and his own life hanging in the balance, he finally did what he should have been doing all along: he hung on to the promises of his God.
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
What a strange thing that happened to Jacob that night! And what a bold move he made! Once he realized that the man he was wrestling with was not just a mere man but was actually God himself, Jacob wouldn’t release he grip! “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” he said! What a brash thing to say to the Lord himself! We almost cringe at how disrespectful and arrogant Jacob sounds here, don’t we? But Jacob was not just being presumptuous. And he wasn’t demanding something of the Lord that was inappropriate or unacceptable. Jacob was simply hanging on to the promises that the Lord had once given him and asking the Lord to keep his word. Because the promises that God had given him seemed to be in danger of not coming true.
Just two decades earlier, 20 miles southeast of where Jacob was that night, the Lord had appeared to him in a dream. And as Jacob watched angels going up and down a stairway leading to heaven, God himself promised him, “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All people on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen. 28:14-15). And so now that Jacob was facing a situation in which his entire family could be destroyed and his own life taken, he held God to his promise. He banked on the Lord’s blessing. Jacob wanted to make sure that the Lord remembered what he had said to him and would follow through. It was a bold act on his part. But it was also a godly act, a Christian confession. Jacob was not going to depend on his own ability to fix the situation. He was going to fully rely on the promises of God.
Of course, Jacob wasn’t always this trusting in his Lord’s words. When he was younger and still living with his parents, the Lord had publically said that Jacob was to receive the birthright instead of his older brother Esau. But instead of hanging on to that promise of the Lord, Jacob (and his mother) became a little impatient and he tricked his father and brother out of that special privilege. And later on, while he was working for his uncle Laban, although the Lord had promised to always be with him and bless him with everything that he needed, Jacob tried to steal from Laban by manipulating his flocks and herds to his own advantage. He was not patient enough to hang on to God’s promises; rather, he was trying to get for himself what he thought he needed at that very moment. It wasn’t until that night he found himself on the edge of Edom, a dawn away from facing his estranged brother for the first time in 20 years, that Jacob finally hung his hopes and all of his trust on what he should have been relying on the entire time.
God’s promises are worth hanging onto. They are worth waiting for. We just get a little too impatient sometimes, just like Jacob once did. We do not want to wait for the Lord to do what he is going to do. We do not want to wait for the Lord to fix what he is going to fix. We do not want to wait for the Lord to bring about whatever he is going to bring about. Because it doesn’t look like it’s going to work anyway! It doesn’t seem as if the situation is going to get any better anytime soon! The pain is too severe or the problem is too complicated or the relationship is too damaged or the situation is too hopeless or it’s just been too long, it’s been too draining, it’s been too overwhelming, and something has to be done… now, in the way we want it done, for the reasons we think it should happen. And so at those times, the promises that God gives to us, such as, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28), and “What I have said, that is what I will bring about; what I have planned, that is what I will do” (Is. 46:11), and “I will be with you always to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20)… those promises are set aside for the time being. We release our grip on them, at least with one hand and sometimes with both, so that we can reach for and try out something else in the meantime. Because God’s promises are taking too long! And whatever the Lord is doing up there is certainly not fitting our time schedule or corresponding with our expert advice.
You think Jacob was brash for hanging onto the Lord’s promises and holding the Lord to them? It’s brash for us not to hang onto the Lord’s promises! To throw them aside! To become so impatient with him and so flustered that we can’t possibly sit still any longer and wait for the Lord to do what he said he would do! “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” Like an inconvenienced child from the back seat the Lord just doesn’t drive fast enough for us sometimes. Like a frustrated observer of someone else’s effort: “OK, just stop what you’re doing and let me take care of it,” we sometimes just don’t think the Lord is handling the situation correctly. Like an annoyed parent: “Can you please hurry up? Everyone is waiting for you!” we oftentimes speak as if God is a child who just isn’t listening to what we are telling him and almost dragging his feet on purpose. And sadly, it’s not humorous; it’s serious. It’s sinful impatience. It’s the disgruntled attitude of not wanting to hang onto God’s promises any longer and not being content with waiting for the Lord to fulfill them.
It took Jacob the better part of his life and a disappointed father and a greedy and controlling uncle and two bickering wives and two more competitive pseudo-servant-wives and a furious brother and a 500 mile trek without a home to go to for Jacob to finally drop that impatient attitude and hang onto the promises that the Lord had never taken away. Sometimes the Lord puts us into difficult situations so that we are forced to rely on him once again too. Sometimes he takes away our every option, allowing us to fail multiple times over, cornering us with impossibilities and frustrations and doubts, so that we can do nothing else but grasp hold of and hang onto what he has promised us in his Word. You have had plenty of those situations in your life and, most likely, you will have plenty more. And when you do find yourself in that position again, with nowhere else to turn and no other plan to try, hang on to any and every promise of your Lord. But hang on to this one especially: the nails that Christ hung on himself.
Christ’s hands, probably right below the wrist bones, were tacked to a piece of wood with oversized nails. You can be sure there was some blood and probably more pain than we would want to imagine. And there Christ hung until he died. Hang on those nails. Grab hold of and hang on those nails. Not to die, of course, but to live. Grasp in your hands those bloody metal stakes and never let go. Because there in your hands is the greatest promise of all. Those nails that you grasp, those pointed iron pegs that pinned your Savior to a cross guarantee the promise of forgiveness; they secure the promise of salvation; they solidify the promise of eternal life. Those nails prove to us that if God says it, he’s going to do it, no matter how painful or how time-consuming or how thoroughly humiliating it may be for him. He made you a promise. And if to fulfill that promise he was going to have to give up his own life and face the terrors of hell for every sin that has ever been committed and even bear the brunt of his own Father’s wrath on the enemies and the evils of this world, then that’s the way it was going to be! God will not lie to you! God will not fail you! God will not forget about you or lose track of time or get too preoccupied with something else that your needs go unnoticed. God will come through for you. Hang on! God will see to it that everything is taken care of. Hang on! God will not leave you hanging. Hang on! Hang on to those nails that once kept Jesus hanging on a cross. Because if he kept that promise, he’ll certainly keep every other promise he has made.
Our reading from the Old Testament today doesn’t get to the finale of the story, but in the end, God does keep his promise that Jacob so tenaciously clung to the night before. The next day, when Jacob finally did meet up with his brother, “Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept” (33:4). Jacob’s life was not in danger after all. His family was not completely destroyed. God did remember his promise. And from that day on Jacob’s descendants continued to multiply through his twelve sons - just as God had promised. The entire clan then moved to Egypt where they became a great nation - just as God had promised. The Lord then led those people back to the Promised Land and gave it to them as their home - just as God had promised. And eventually, some 1700+ years after Jacob had wrestled with God, from the line of Jacob the Savior whom everyone had been waiting for was born - just as God had promised.
God’s promises for you will come true as well - promises of peace and safety and strength and comfort and eternal life. And although it probably won’t take 1700+ years for most of them to be fulfilled, you might have to wait just a little bit for some of them. And that’s just fine, isn’t it? Because God has it all in order. He knows exactly what needs to be done. He knows exactly how to do it. And in the end, your Lord will keep everyone one of his promises at exactly the right time. Just hang on.
Amen.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Amen. - Rom. 15:13
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
10/17/10 - Pentecost 21 - 2 Timothy 2:8-13
REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST
On April 21st, 1836, a former U.S. Congressman named Sam Houston led a group of 910 Texas patriots against the Mexican army of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. And as they charged forward on that early spring morning, this band of American nationalists echoed the speech their leader had passionately given to them two days before as they shouted, “Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!” That phrase, “Remember the Alamo,” was an inspiration to those men. It was a tribute to 187 of their fellow Americans who had stood up against Santa Anna and 5000 of his soldiers at the Alamo just over a month before. And so with the bravery and the courage and the massacre of their fallen comrades fresh in their minds, these men under Sam Houston surprised the Mexican troops in San Jacinto and the battle for the independence of Texas was over in just 18 short minutes.
Since that day the phrase, “Remember the Alamo” has been used, both in seriousness and in jest, to make the point that what has happened in the past should motivate us and give us courage for what is to come in the future. It is a call not to forget, but it is also an invitation to forge ahead with confidence because of what someone else has sacrificed on your behalf.
The apostle Paul made this same kind of speech to a young fellow pastor named Timothy; and Timothy undoubtedly carried Paul’s words with him and called them to mind in the thick of the battle as Sam Houston’s soldiers carried his words with them on the battlefield in 1836. But what Paul wrote to Timothy, although similar to Sam Houston’s message, was much more important and much more profound. He encouraged Timothy to remember what Jesus had sacrificed on his behalf so that he could take courage for what was to come in the future.
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.”
Do you see the similarity between Paul’s words and Sam Houston’s rallying cry? “Remember the Alamo! Remember what they did there; remember what they sacrificed there. Remember what you’re fighting for.” Remember Jesus Christ. Remember what he did there; remember what he sacrificed there; remember how he rose from there; remember what he fought for. Paul wanted Timothy and every Christian with him and every Christian after him to remember Jesus Christ. Because he can be our only motivation to march ahead tomorrow. He can be our only comfort in times of sorrow. He can be our only source of peace in the middle of a fierce battle with the sinful and devilish forces of this world. We have to keep going back to and relying on and living for the one who was “raised from the dead” (which means he’s true God), the one who was “descended from David” (which means he was also a true human being). Our lives should be built upon honoring and praising the memory and name of our Savior because of everything that he has done for us.
I don’t think that most of us in this room have much of a problem remembering Jesus, do we? We know who he is, we are aware of what he has done, we could recall many of the stories about Jesus from memory if we really needed to. But knowing the facts about Jesus is not what Paul meant when he said, “Remember Jesus Christ” - just as Sam Houston didn’t intend for his soldiers to merely recall how to get to a spot on a map when he told them to “Remember the Alamo.” Houston wanted his men to use what happened at the Alamo to motivate what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. Paul wants us to use what happened to Jesus on the cross and what Jesus did out of that tomb to motivate what we are going to do and how we are going to do it. Remembering Jesus is not just an intellectual exercise; it’s the ability to apply what happened on that cross 2000 years ago to every aspect of your life in every way. And there are many ways that can happen because there are many different responsibilities and positions we have been placed in throughout this life.
For example, I have been given the responsibility to be a father to three children. And if were to evaluate my performance as a father by comparing it to how many times I’ve remembered Jesus Christ and have applied it to my life, then what a miserable father I have been. What terrible mistakes I have made. What unloving words I have said. If I had truly remembered Jesus Christ and what he has done for me at all times and in every situation, my performance as a father wouldn’t have been nearly as miserable. I have also been given the responsibility to be a husband. And what a sub-standard husband I have been. What selfish things I have done. What mean things I have thought. If I had truly remembered Jesus Christ and what he has done for me at all times and in every situation, my actions as a husband wouldn’t have been nearly as poor. I have been given the responsibility to be a brother, a son, a friend, a citizen, a co-worker. And I haven’t fared much better in those roles either. I have been given the responsibility to be a pastor as Timothy was. But instead of being dependable sometimes I have been lazy. Instead of being caring sometimes I have been cruel. Instead of being faithful sometimes I have been faithless. I have not kept Jesus Christ in the forefront of my mind to motivate my every action and my ever word and my every thought - and I have dishonored my God by doing so. There is not one area or station or position in this life in which I have remembered my Savior as I ought.
Have you? I don’t know the inner workings of your life. I haven’t been around to see your every action or hear your every word. And even if I had been, I wouldn’t be able to read your thoughts or figure out your motivations. But just like I have been, you’ve been given different responsibilities and roles in this life in which to apply what Christ has done. You have been given the responsibility to be husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, employers and employees, citizens and leaders, parents and children, friends and neighbors… Have you remembered Jesus Christ in every aspect of your life? Has he always been your motivation? Has he always been the reason and the purpose and the motive for everything you do in every way? Or have there been times when you were completely selfish and unloving? Have there been times when you were faithless in the way you carried out the role your God put you in?
The apostle Paul understood that Timothy, his young fellow coworker, would come to realize his own failures as well. Paul knew from experience that Timothy would find himself unable to perform the duties of his office and incapable of carrying out the responsibilities of every other role that the Lord had given him as a father and a husband and a citizen and leader. And so in order to pick him up from his failings, in order to soothe his conscience from the stress of sin, Paul shares with him a comforting truth about his Lord that he also shares with us: “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
“If we are faithless, he will remain faithful.” Whenever and however we are faithless, our God will actually remain faithful to us! And that should surprise you a little bit because that simple doesn’t happen here! If you let someone down often enough, that person will stop trusting you with anything. If you stab your friend in the back often enough, that friend will stop being your friend. If you ostracize your family members often enough, they will start to have nothing to do with you. There comes a point when a person will no longer put up with someone else if they hurt and harm them enough. But no matter how many times we prove ourselves to be faithless Christians in the way we live our lives, Christ will always prove himself to be faithful. He will never turn his back on us. He will never get so frustrated with us that he would leave us alone. He will never get so angry with us that he would shove us away. He will keep reaching out to us; he will keep turning us back; he will keep loving and caring for and patiently nurturing us regardless of how many times we have forgotten about him. Our God is faithful. Our God is trustworthy. Our God is loyal to us!
Normally we think of a dog being loyal to its owner or a citizen being loyal to his country or a husband being loyal to his wife. But here we have our perfect God being loyal to sinners. We didn’t do anything for him but he acts as if he owes us something! We can’t make his life any better but he acts as if he needs us! We can’t possibly move him to be any happier - and in fact most of the time we just cause him more problems - but he actually wants us around! He wants us to be near him! He wants us to live with him in his home forever! And so he keeps watch over us and protects us in his hands even at those times when we are scrambling to crawl out of them! Our Lord’s loyalty to us is astounding! He should have left us long ago! He should have abandoned us before we were even born! But here he still is: with scars on his back and holes in his hands and puncture wounds in his skull and a tomb that once bore his name. And he still loves us like that. He would suffer all over again if he had to. He would hang on that cross longer. He would die for us if that’s what it would take to get us to heaven.
And so here we come back to a promise God gives us through the apostle Paul: “If we died with him, we will also live with him.” How did we die with Christ? As Paul himself says in an earlier letter that he wrote to the congregation in Rome: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Rom. 6:3). Through our baptisms we were connected to Christ’s actual death on the cross. Through that water and the Word we were given the forgiveness Christ earned through his sacrifice and we are forever tethered to that cross. And so because we died with Christ we will also live with him. He rose from the tomb; so will we! He lives in heaven; so will we! He reigns; so will we! This is his promise to us based on everything that he has done! This is not a promise contingent on anything we do. This is not a promise held as a carrot in front of our noses if only we can get to where we’re supposed to go or be who we are supposed to be. No, this is a promise that the Lord gives us because he has already done enough. The promise of heaven is ours. It is not a “maybe” or even a “will be.” Life with our Lord in heaven is ours right now. And although we may have to fight a vicious battle with sin through this life, victory is our right now.
Those few hundred men who rushed at their enemies under the leadership of Sam Houston in 1836 didn’t know if they would win. They wanted to, they thought they might, but they couldn’t be sure. And so as they rushed forward yelling at the top of their lungs, “Remember the Alamo,” they hoped, they wished that they would be able to do what their brothers couldn’t and finally win the independence that those 187 men had died for.
As we rush forward out these doors this morning and into “life” again, we do know that we will win the war - because we already have. We can be sure that our enemies will be defeated and we will end up with the victory because our battle cry, “Remember Jesus Christ,” is not just a hope; it’s not just a wish; it’s not just some sentimental reminder about a man who set an example for us to follow. “Remember Jesus Christ” is a confession of faith in the one who already poured out his blood on the battlefield to win our independence. It is complete trust in the forgiveness he won there. It is the unshakeable conviction that “If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him… [and] if we are faithless, he will remain faithful.” Remember Jesus Christ: your faithful Savior, your loyal Lord, your dedicated God. Your life may be filled with faithless actions and words and thoughts. But the outcome of the battle isn’t determined on how well you live this life; it has already been determined by the death Christ already died and the resurrection he already accomplished. Remember your Jesus Christ. With him the war is won. With him the victory is yours.
Amen.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” - 1 Peter 1:3
On April 21st, 1836, a former U.S. Congressman named Sam Houston led a group of 910 Texas patriots against the Mexican army of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. And as they charged forward on that early spring morning, this band of American nationalists echoed the speech their leader had passionately given to them two days before as they shouted, “Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!” That phrase, “Remember the Alamo,” was an inspiration to those men. It was a tribute to 187 of their fellow Americans who had stood up against Santa Anna and 5000 of his soldiers at the Alamo just over a month before. And so with the bravery and the courage and the massacre of their fallen comrades fresh in their minds, these men under Sam Houston surprised the Mexican troops in San Jacinto and the battle for the independence of Texas was over in just 18 short minutes.
Since that day the phrase, “Remember the Alamo” has been used, both in seriousness and in jest, to make the point that what has happened in the past should motivate us and give us courage for what is to come in the future. It is a call not to forget, but it is also an invitation to forge ahead with confidence because of what someone else has sacrificed on your behalf.
The apostle Paul made this same kind of speech to a young fellow pastor named Timothy; and Timothy undoubtedly carried Paul’s words with him and called them to mind in the thick of the battle as Sam Houston’s soldiers carried his words with them on the battlefield in 1836. But what Paul wrote to Timothy, although similar to Sam Houston’s message, was much more important and much more profound. He encouraged Timothy to remember what Jesus had sacrificed on his behalf so that he could take courage for what was to come in the future.
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.”
Do you see the similarity between Paul’s words and Sam Houston’s rallying cry? “Remember the Alamo! Remember what they did there; remember what they sacrificed there. Remember what you’re fighting for.” Remember Jesus Christ. Remember what he did there; remember what he sacrificed there; remember how he rose from there; remember what he fought for. Paul wanted Timothy and every Christian with him and every Christian after him to remember Jesus Christ. Because he can be our only motivation to march ahead tomorrow. He can be our only comfort in times of sorrow. He can be our only source of peace in the middle of a fierce battle with the sinful and devilish forces of this world. We have to keep going back to and relying on and living for the one who was “raised from the dead” (which means he’s true God), the one who was “descended from David” (which means he was also a true human being). Our lives should be built upon honoring and praising the memory and name of our Savior because of everything that he has done for us.
I don’t think that most of us in this room have much of a problem remembering Jesus, do we? We know who he is, we are aware of what he has done, we could recall many of the stories about Jesus from memory if we really needed to. But knowing the facts about Jesus is not what Paul meant when he said, “Remember Jesus Christ” - just as Sam Houston didn’t intend for his soldiers to merely recall how to get to a spot on a map when he told them to “Remember the Alamo.” Houston wanted his men to use what happened at the Alamo to motivate what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. Paul wants us to use what happened to Jesus on the cross and what Jesus did out of that tomb to motivate what we are going to do and how we are going to do it. Remembering Jesus is not just an intellectual exercise; it’s the ability to apply what happened on that cross 2000 years ago to every aspect of your life in every way. And there are many ways that can happen because there are many different responsibilities and positions we have been placed in throughout this life.
For example, I have been given the responsibility to be a father to three children. And if were to evaluate my performance as a father by comparing it to how many times I’ve remembered Jesus Christ and have applied it to my life, then what a miserable father I have been. What terrible mistakes I have made. What unloving words I have said. If I had truly remembered Jesus Christ and what he has done for me at all times and in every situation, my performance as a father wouldn’t have been nearly as miserable. I have also been given the responsibility to be a husband. And what a sub-standard husband I have been. What selfish things I have done. What mean things I have thought. If I had truly remembered Jesus Christ and what he has done for me at all times and in every situation, my actions as a husband wouldn’t have been nearly as poor. I have been given the responsibility to be a brother, a son, a friend, a citizen, a co-worker. And I haven’t fared much better in those roles either. I have been given the responsibility to be a pastor as Timothy was. But instead of being dependable sometimes I have been lazy. Instead of being caring sometimes I have been cruel. Instead of being faithful sometimes I have been faithless. I have not kept Jesus Christ in the forefront of my mind to motivate my every action and my ever word and my every thought - and I have dishonored my God by doing so. There is not one area or station or position in this life in which I have remembered my Savior as I ought.
Have you? I don’t know the inner workings of your life. I haven’t been around to see your every action or hear your every word. And even if I had been, I wouldn’t be able to read your thoughts or figure out your motivations. But just like I have been, you’ve been given different responsibilities and roles in this life in which to apply what Christ has done. You have been given the responsibility to be husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, employers and employees, citizens and leaders, parents and children, friends and neighbors… Have you remembered Jesus Christ in every aspect of your life? Has he always been your motivation? Has he always been the reason and the purpose and the motive for everything you do in every way? Or have there been times when you were completely selfish and unloving? Have there been times when you were faithless in the way you carried out the role your God put you in?
The apostle Paul understood that Timothy, his young fellow coworker, would come to realize his own failures as well. Paul knew from experience that Timothy would find himself unable to perform the duties of his office and incapable of carrying out the responsibilities of every other role that the Lord had given him as a father and a husband and a citizen and leader. And so in order to pick him up from his failings, in order to soothe his conscience from the stress of sin, Paul shares with him a comforting truth about his Lord that he also shares with us: “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
“If we are faithless, he will remain faithful.” Whenever and however we are faithless, our God will actually remain faithful to us! And that should surprise you a little bit because that simple doesn’t happen here! If you let someone down often enough, that person will stop trusting you with anything. If you stab your friend in the back often enough, that friend will stop being your friend. If you ostracize your family members often enough, they will start to have nothing to do with you. There comes a point when a person will no longer put up with someone else if they hurt and harm them enough. But no matter how many times we prove ourselves to be faithless Christians in the way we live our lives, Christ will always prove himself to be faithful. He will never turn his back on us. He will never get so frustrated with us that he would leave us alone. He will never get so angry with us that he would shove us away. He will keep reaching out to us; he will keep turning us back; he will keep loving and caring for and patiently nurturing us regardless of how many times we have forgotten about him. Our God is faithful. Our God is trustworthy. Our God is loyal to us!
Normally we think of a dog being loyal to its owner or a citizen being loyal to his country or a husband being loyal to his wife. But here we have our perfect God being loyal to sinners. We didn’t do anything for him but he acts as if he owes us something! We can’t make his life any better but he acts as if he needs us! We can’t possibly move him to be any happier - and in fact most of the time we just cause him more problems - but he actually wants us around! He wants us to be near him! He wants us to live with him in his home forever! And so he keeps watch over us and protects us in his hands even at those times when we are scrambling to crawl out of them! Our Lord’s loyalty to us is astounding! He should have left us long ago! He should have abandoned us before we were even born! But here he still is: with scars on his back and holes in his hands and puncture wounds in his skull and a tomb that once bore his name. And he still loves us like that. He would suffer all over again if he had to. He would hang on that cross longer. He would die for us if that’s what it would take to get us to heaven.
And so here we come back to a promise God gives us through the apostle Paul: “If we died with him, we will also live with him.” How did we die with Christ? As Paul himself says in an earlier letter that he wrote to the congregation in Rome: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Rom. 6:3). Through our baptisms we were connected to Christ’s actual death on the cross. Through that water and the Word we were given the forgiveness Christ earned through his sacrifice and we are forever tethered to that cross. And so because we died with Christ we will also live with him. He rose from the tomb; so will we! He lives in heaven; so will we! He reigns; so will we! This is his promise to us based on everything that he has done! This is not a promise contingent on anything we do. This is not a promise held as a carrot in front of our noses if only we can get to where we’re supposed to go or be who we are supposed to be. No, this is a promise that the Lord gives us because he has already done enough. The promise of heaven is ours. It is not a “maybe” or even a “will be.” Life with our Lord in heaven is ours right now. And although we may have to fight a vicious battle with sin through this life, victory is our right now.
Those few hundred men who rushed at their enemies under the leadership of Sam Houston in 1836 didn’t know if they would win. They wanted to, they thought they might, but they couldn’t be sure. And so as they rushed forward yelling at the top of their lungs, “Remember the Alamo,” they hoped, they wished that they would be able to do what their brothers couldn’t and finally win the independence that those 187 men had died for.
As we rush forward out these doors this morning and into “life” again, we do know that we will win the war - because we already have. We can be sure that our enemies will be defeated and we will end up with the victory because our battle cry, “Remember Jesus Christ,” is not just a hope; it’s not just a wish; it’s not just some sentimental reminder about a man who set an example for us to follow. “Remember Jesus Christ” is a confession of faith in the one who already poured out his blood on the battlefield to win our independence. It is complete trust in the forgiveness he won there. It is the unshakeable conviction that “If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him… [and] if we are faithless, he will remain faithful.” Remember Jesus Christ: your faithful Savior, your loyal Lord, your dedicated God. Your life may be filled with faithless actions and words and thoughts. But the outcome of the battle isn’t determined on how well you live this life; it has already been determined by the death Christ already died and the resurrection he already accomplished. Remember your Jesus Christ. With him the war is won. With him the victory is yours.
Amen.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” - 1 Peter 1:3
Sunday, October 03, 2010
10/3/10 - Pentecost 19 - Amos 6:1-7
IT'S THE BLOOD, NOT THE BLESSINGS
It was around 800BC in the northern part of the Promised Land during the time of King Jeroboam II, and the Israelites had it all. God’s people in that northern kingdom of Israel were blessed with good food, nice homes, large fields, safe borders, and plenty of the other niceties of life. They didn’t have a need that couldn’t be met; they didn’t have a want that couldn’t be filled. They didn’t have a worry in the world because of all the earthly blessings that the Lord had showered upon them. And they were loving life. In fact, they couldn’t have been happier. But not everything was good. Because the Lord was actually angry at them! Even though he was blessing them with an incredible amount of gifts, even though he was supplying them with almost every enjoyable thing they could have possibly wanted in this life, the Lord was not happy with them at all. Instead he was furious! God was extremely upset at his people because they had forgotten about the only thing that should have made them happy. They had forgotten about him.
The Lord did not like it that his own people, his own chosen nation, had forgotten about him because they should have known better! His own children should have understood that the gifts were not more important than the Giver, that the blessings should have never overshadowed the one who blessed them. And so the Lord sent the prophet Amos to his people. Amos was originally a shepherd and an owner of a fig orchard by trade from the southern kingdom of Judah. But this man of the flocks and the fruit trees was hand-picked by the Lord anyway to be his special messenger to preach to his countrymen in the northern kingdom of Israel. And the Lord’s words through him were not very pleasant.
“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!... You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.”
For the previous 150 years leading up to the time Amos spoke these words, as long as the land of Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, the northern land of Israel had been in a spiritual downward spiral. They had never had a godly king on the throne and Jeroboam II, the king who ruled during Amos’ time, was no better. The people worshiped false gods in the cities of Bethel and Dan; they refused to honor the Lord in Jerusalem; and the majority of the people had turned their backs on their God. And yet the people of Israel were still happy! They were content to lie on their expensive couches and enjoy their lavish feasts and listen to their beautiful music and indulge in the finest pampering available, but they were unconcerned that the house of Joseph - the nation of God’s people - was in spiritual ruins. They shouldn’t have been happy, but they were. They shouldn’t have been content, but they were. Because their happiness was based on the wrong things altogether.
The way in which the Lord gave earthly blessings to the Israelites in and around 800 BC is similar to the way he has blessed us here in and around 2010 AD, isn’t it? We eat some of the best food in this world, we live in nice homes, we are supplied by hundreds of thousands of acres of local farmland, we enjoy relatively safe borders, and we have access to plenty of the other niceties of life. The Lord has been good to us. The Lord has showered us - drenched us - with more blessings than we can possibly enjoy all at once! And so we have to be careful not to slip into the error that those Israelites did during the time of Amos: We must be careful not to base our happiness on the things we have and the things we can get and the things we can keep in this life. That’s just a really hard thing not to do.
Because we look forward to the blessings, don’t we? We work for the blessings, we strive for the blessings, we revel in the blessings, but sometimes we are also only happy if we are in the middle of the blessings. Because think of what happens in your life when you don’t get what you worked so hard for. What happens when you can’t have what you really want? What happens when the blessings that you have enjoyed for years are suddenly taken away from you? Are you disappointed? Are you angry? Are you extremely sad? There are times when I am disappointed or angry or sad when I can’t get the blessings I so eagerly want. Because those particular blessings mean so much to us. The good things in this life are so important to us that our happiness is largely based on what we have and what we can get and what we can keep. And we forget that this life is not about the blessings. True happiness cannot be found in the gifts. Learn from the Israelites during the time of Amos: they had everything; but they really had nothing at all. They could get their hands on anything they wanted; but they neglected the only thing they actually needed. They were overjoyed with all of the earthly blessings the Lord had given them; but they ended up throwing away the only blessing that really mattered.
Our happiness cannot be based on the kind of house we can get or the type of retirement we can enjoy or the quality of vehicle we can drive or the size of the tv we can watch or the amount of trips we can take or even the number of family members we can spend time with. Because those things aren’t what really matter. And those things won’t last anyway. Those things won’t stay. Those things are temporary. They may give us a dose of happiness now and they may very well be God-given gifts that we should enjoy, but to base our entire happiness and contentment on these various earthly blessings is a serious mistake and an insult to our Lord. Because he has given us something far greater! He has given us something much more permanent, much more meaningful. And this is what that much more permanent and meaningful gift is:
On the very first Easter Sunday evening, Jesus’ eleven remaining disciples were gathered together in a locked room, afraid for their lives. But there, suddenly, the resurrected Jesus appeared to them and he showed them his hands and his feet and his side. The holes. The gashes. The wounds. The blood no longer there because it had been wiped off by those who had buried him in that tomb - now once again empty. And of course a few days before that miraculous appearance to his disciples, Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed to that cross, and the blood poured out, soaking the wood and dripping to the ground and gathering in puddles at the centurion’s feet. A few hours earlier Jesus had been taken by the Roman soldiers and had had a thorn-twisted crown pressed down into his skull - only to then be beaten over the head with a staff. The blood from those puncture wounds and the soldier’s strikes must have matted down his hair and streamed down his face. And that was after he was pinned to a post and scourged with a metal-pronged whip 39 times, tearing his flesh, opening up his back to the bone. That morning, to start things off, the men in that mock courtroom blindfolded the Lord and beat him with their fists, undoubtedly causing some nasty cuts and gashes on the face of our Savior. And the night before, in an upper room with his disciples, before all of this blood came pouring out of the different wounds of his body, Jesus gave his blood to his chosen followers and to us in the wine of the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of our sins.
That is the gift that is much more permanent, much more meaningful. It’s the blood, not the blessings. It’s the blood of Christ that gives us true happiness and true joy and true peace of mind and true comfort and true pleasure, not the passing blessings of a sin-filled life in a sin-filled world. Because unlike any other gift in this world, Christ’s blood will not go away. It’s soaked deep into that cross beam of his death - it’s not coming out. It’s sitting in that cup on the altar of the Lord’s Supper - it will never run dry. It’s dried on the grave clothes that Jesus left in the tomb - it won’t be washed away. That blood can and does give us something that nothing else on this earth can: our forgiveness, our salvation, our guaranteed spot in a heaven where God himself lives. The houses that each of us enjoy can give us shelter and a sense of home. The vehicles we drive can get us where we need to go. The various toys and hobbies we have can give us something to do. The family members we visit can give us someone to talk to and to help out and to laugh with. But none of these things can give us heaven. None of these things can seal our eternity in Paradise. Christ’s blood can. In fact, that is the only reason why he bled: so that heaven could be ours, at no cost to us, at the cost of life to Christ.
It’s one of the saddest tragedies in all of Scripture that the majority of God’s own chosen Israelite nation threw that away. Even after all the prophets that the Lord had sent them, even after Amos himself spoke such harsh words to the people, they threw it away. Amos spoke this warning of the Lord to his people only about 60-70 years or so before the Assyrian army came down and swept them away. And because they had ignored God’s warning and had rejected the Lord and his Word, by 722 BC the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist. They were gone, living in a foreign country, never to return. They had relied on their earthly blessings: their houses, their food, their flocks, their army, their lifestyle… and they had gotten burned. Their happiness turned to sorrow, their joy turned to despair. And all they were left with was a deep regret for what they had lost - something they had lost long before they ever had it taken away.
My fellow Christians, we who are true Israelites according to the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, do not overlook what those Old Testament Israelites gave up. Do not forget what they forgot. Do not let the good, enjoyable, and God-pleasing blessings of this life become the objects of your full affection and the basis of all of your happiness in this life. Because if you do, when those blessings get old, when those blessings lose their sparkle, when those blessings are taken away, you will be left with nothing. Nothing to rely on, nothing to hold on to, nothing to make you happy. By all means, enjoy them now! Use them, share them, relish them! But don’t bank on them. Instead, bank on the blood. Set all of your hopes and all of your trust and all of your confidence and all of your happiness on that which poured from Jesus’ wounds. His blood will protect you when your roof cannot. His blood will carry you in ways your vehicle is incapable of doing. His blood will comfort you even when your family is completely gone. His blood will make you happy when nothing else can and happier than anything else will. It’s the blood, not the blessings. And with that blood of Jesus at the center of your life, no matter what you have on this earth, no matter what you can get, and no matter what is taken away, your happiness will never fade. With Christ’s bloody hand in yours, your happiness will never end.
Amen.
“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.” - Rev. 1:5-6
It was around 800BC in the northern part of the Promised Land during the time of King Jeroboam II, and the Israelites had it all. God’s people in that northern kingdom of Israel were blessed with good food, nice homes, large fields, safe borders, and plenty of the other niceties of life. They didn’t have a need that couldn’t be met; they didn’t have a want that couldn’t be filled. They didn’t have a worry in the world because of all the earthly blessings that the Lord had showered upon them. And they were loving life. In fact, they couldn’t have been happier. But not everything was good. Because the Lord was actually angry at them! Even though he was blessing them with an incredible amount of gifts, even though he was supplying them with almost every enjoyable thing they could have possibly wanted in this life, the Lord was not happy with them at all. Instead he was furious! God was extremely upset at his people because they had forgotten about the only thing that should have made them happy. They had forgotten about him.
The Lord did not like it that his own people, his own chosen nation, had forgotten about him because they should have known better! His own children should have understood that the gifts were not more important than the Giver, that the blessings should have never overshadowed the one who blessed them. And so the Lord sent the prophet Amos to his people. Amos was originally a shepherd and an owner of a fig orchard by trade from the southern kingdom of Judah. But this man of the flocks and the fruit trees was hand-picked by the Lord anyway to be his special messenger to preach to his countrymen in the northern kingdom of Israel. And the Lord’s words through him were not very pleasant.
“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!... You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.”
For the previous 150 years leading up to the time Amos spoke these words, as long as the land of Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, the northern land of Israel had been in a spiritual downward spiral. They had never had a godly king on the throne and Jeroboam II, the king who ruled during Amos’ time, was no better. The people worshiped false gods in the cities of Bethel and Dan; they refused to honor the Lord in Jerusalem; and the majority of the people had turned their backs on their God. And yet the people of Israel were still happy! They were content to lie on their expensive couches and enjoy their lavish feasts and listen to their beautiful music and indulge in the finest pampering available, but they were unconcerned that the house of Joseph - the nation of God’s people - was in spiritual ruins. They shouldn’t have been happy, but they were. They shouldn’t have been content, but they were. Because their happiness was based on the wrong things altogether.
The way in which the Lord gave earthly blessings to the Israelites in and around 800 BC is similar to the way he has blessed us here in and around 2010 AD, isn’t it? We eat some of the best food in this world, we live in nice homes, we are supplied by hundreds of thousands of acres of local farmland, we enjoy relatively safe borders, and we have access to plenty of the other niceties of life. The Lord has been good to us. The Lord has showered us - drenched us - with more blessings than we can possibly enjoy all at once! And so we have to be careful not to slip into the error that those Israelites did during the time of Amos: We must be careful not to base our happiness on the things we have and the things we can get and the things we can keep in this life. That’s just a really hard thing not to do.
Because we look forward to the blessings, don’t we? We work for the blessings, we strive for the blessings, we revel in the blessings, but sometimes we are also only happy if we are in the middle of the blessings. Because think of what happens in your life when you don’t get what you worked so hard for. What happens when you can’t have what you really want? What happens when the blessings that you have enjoyed for years are suddenly taken away from you? Are you disappointed? Are you angry? Are you extremely sad? There are times when I am disappointed or angry or sad when I can’t get the blessings I so eagerly want. Because those particular blessings mean so much to us. The good things in this life are so important to us that our happiness is largely based on what we have and what we can get and what we can keep. And we forget that this life is not about the blessings. True happiness cannot be found in the gifts. Learn from the Israelites during the time of Amos: they had everything; but they really had nothing at all. They could get their hands on anything they wanted; but they neglected the only thing they actually needed. They were overjoyed with all of the earthly blessings the Lord had given them; but they ended up throwing away the only blessing that really mattered.
Our happiness cannot be based on the kind of house we can get or the type of retirement we can enjoy or the quality of vehicle we can drive or the size of the tv we can watch or the amount of trips we can take or even the number of family members we can spend time with. Because those things aren’t what really matter. And those things won’t last anyway. Those things won’t stay. Those things are temporary. They may give us a dose of happiness now and they may very well be God-given gifts that we should enjoy, but to base our entire happiness and contentment on these various earthly blessings is a serious mistake and an insult to our Lord. Because he has given us something far greater! He has given us something much more permanent, much more meaningful. And this is what that much more permanent and meaningful gift is:
On the very first Easter Sunday evening, Jesus’ eleven remaining disciples were gathered together in a locked room, afraid for their lives. But there, suddenly, the resurrected Jesus appeared to them and he showed them his hands and his feet and his side. The holes. The gashes. The wounds. The blood no longer there because it had been wiped off by those who had buried him in that tomb - now once again empty. And of course a few days before that miraculous appearance to his disciples, Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed to that cross, and the blood poured out, soaking the wood and dripping to the ground and gathering in puddles at the centurion’s feet. A few hours earlier Jesus had been taken by the Roman soldiers and had had a thorn-twisted crown pressed down into his skull - only to then be beaten over the head with a staff. The blood from those puncture wounds and the soldier’s strikes must have matted down his hair and streamed down his face. And that was after he was pinned to a post and scourged with a metal-pronged whip 39 times, tearing his flesh, opening up his back to the bone. That morning, to start things off, the men in that mock courtroom blindfolded the Lord and beat him with their fists, undoubtedly causing some nasty cuts and gashes on the face of our Savior. And the night before, in an upper room with his disciples, before all of this blood came pouring out of the different wounds of his body, Jesus gave his blood to his chosen followers and to us in the wine of the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of our sins.
That is the gift that is much more permanent, much more meaningful. It’s the blood, not the blessings. It’s the blood of Christ that gives us true happiness and true joy and true peace of mind and true comfort and true pleasure, not the passing blessings of a sin-filled life in a sin-filled world. Because unlike any other gift in this world, Christ’s blood will not go away. It’s soaked deep into that cross beam of his death - it’s not coming out. It’s sitting in that cup on the altar of the Lord’s Supper - it will never run dry. It’s dried on the grave clothes that Jesus left in the tomb - it won’t be washed away. That blood can and does give us something that nothing else on this earth can: our forgiveness, our salvation, our guaranteed spot in a heaven where God himself lives. The houses that each of us enjoy can give us shelter and a sense of home. The vehicles we drive can get us where we need to go. The various toys and hobbies we have can give us something to do. The family members we visit can give us someone to talk to and to help out and to laugh with. But none of these things can give us heaven. None of these things can seal our eternity in Paradise. Christ’s blood can. In fact, that is the only reason why he bled: so that heaven could be ours, at no cost to us, at the cost of life to Christ.
It’s one of the saddest tragedies in all of Scripture that the majority of God’s own chosen Israelite nation threw that away. Even after all the prophets that the Lord had sent them, even after Amos himself spoke such harsh words to the people, they threw it away. Amos spoke this warning of the Lord to his people only about 60-70 years or so before the Assyrian army came down and swept them away. And because they had ignored God’s warning and had rejected the Lord and his Word, by 722 BC the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist. They were gone, living in a foreign country, never to return. They had relied on their earthly blessings: their houses, their food, their flocks, their army, their lifestyle… and they had gotten burned. Their happiness turned to sorrow, their joy turned to despair. And all they were left with was a deep regret for what they had lost - something they had lost long before they ever had it taken away.
My fellow Christians, we who are true Israelites according to the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, do not overlook what those Old Testament Israelites gave up. Do not forget what they forgot. Do not let the good, enjoyable, and God-pleasing blessings of this life become the objects of your full affection and the basis of all of your happiness in this life. Because if you do, when those blessings get old, when those blessings lose their sparkle, when those blessings are taken away, you will be left with nothing. Nothing to rely on, nothing to hold on to, nothing to make you happy. By all means, enjoy them now! Use them, share them, relish them! But don’t bank on them. Instead, bank on the blood. Set all of your hopes and all of your trust and all of your confidence and all of your happiness on that which poured from Jesus’ wounds. His blood will protect you when your roof cannot. His blood will carry you in ways your vehicle is incapable of doing. His blood will comfort you even when your family is completely gone. His blood will make you happy when nothing else can and happier than anything else will. It’s the blood, not the blessings. And with that blood of Jesus at the center of your life, no matter what you have on this earth, no matter what you can get, and no matter what is taken away, your happiness will never fade. With Christ’s bloody hand in yours, your happiness will never end.
Amen.
“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.” - Rev. 1:5-6
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