God's Abundance

  

Text: Matthew 20:1-16

Focus: Mercy

Function: to illustrate God’s grace

20:¹For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ²After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. ⁵When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. ⁶And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ ⁸When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ ⁹When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, ¹²saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. ¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

Good morning beloved of God!

This morning’s text speaks to us about what I would call the unlimited power of God’s grace.

We are talking about God’s mercy that extends to everyone and does not take into account the worthiness of the person receiving God’s mercy and grace.

Hopefully you were able to follow the parable well enough without me repeating it. Jesus illustrates how humans do not get the message of grace that God is trying to show us.

He points out that some workers worked the whole day in the sun and others less and a few just one hour and they all got paid a day’s wages.

People were poor and wages were small. A denarius was the day rate for a poor worker. It wasn’t much, but just like medieval times when there were serfs who worked the fields for the rich and had little rights and little to live on, the people worked for that wage because they had no other choice. It was expected to get that pay for a day’s work. Although everyone got paid only a little, it was the prevailing wage and it was acceptable. People were used to it. It wasn’t enough, but it was what was expected.

So, Jesus illustrates a human condition. When the people saw that those who worked a few hours were paid what now became a generous amount by the landowner, they expected to get more for themselves and were disappointed, naturally, because they got the same amount.

The landowner points out the he paid them the amount to which they agreed. He was fair to them by community and cultural standards of a denarius for a day’s wage. Normally, they would have been satisfied with that amount until the landowner became generous with other people and not them.

I think they were right to be disappointed. And I think that Jesus tells the story to help them get past that kind of disappointment.

He wants them to know that God is generous with mercy.

Now the first sentence comes into play here. The kingdom of heaven has this kind of value system and it is different from the human system where people have to earn the favor they get from others.

God gives God’s love to everyone based on the generous nature of God, not on whether or not they earned it.

And when he says the kingdom of heaven, some people take it to mean that this is a parable about God’s grace for when we get to heaven.

In heaven no one will lack and everyone will have enough. We imagine heaven to be this kind of Utopia.

It is a contrast to our human system that says favor must be earned and there are some who earn it and some who don’t.

And it does speak of our eternal state. I heard the story of a Medieval king who knew he was a sinner, but waited to be baptized until near his death so that he could get away with “sinning” until right at the end and then be forgiven.

I disagree with that theology and won’t get into it except to state that the problem was that he was thinking that his salvation was a reward for his living.

It isn’t

Salvation is the gift of God’s love to humanity. And it goes to everyone regardless of their own merit.

I have had the pleasure of seeing at least four men on different occasions who had previously refused to acknowledge their trust in Jesus their whole lives until their death bed. I saw everyone be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and weep as they acknowledged that they knew their sins were forgiven.

God loves and accepts people. God wants everyone back.

But this isn’t just about what happens in heaven. This is about a heavenly order for human society.

That comes from our last verse. The first will be last and the last will be first. This is about human hierarchy, power and domination. God’s kingdom of generosity toward everyone else does not wait until heaven to get it started. The disciples took Jesus teachings and started a society where everyone shard everything with each other and no one lacked.

They made sure that everyone had enough and that no one hoarded their excess out of fear for the future. They lived by faith that God would provide for them is they shared.

Do you remember the story of the manna from heaven? The Israelites were stuck in the desert without a source of food and God rained this sweet and nutritious substance from the sky every day except Saturday to provide for them. There was enough for a quart a day per person.

When it first came down, some people went out early a gathered more than enough to corner the marker and sell it to their neighbors.

And when that happened, Somehow God shrank the excess that they collected and grew the pittance that others were forced to collect. God didn’t allow them to take advantage of their neighbor for profit.

Jesus points out that the kingdom of heaven is different than the human system of meritocracy.

The kingdom of heaven is based on grace and mercy for everyone. Let us reflect that same mercy with others.

The Power of Forgiveness

  

Text: Matthew 18:21-35

Focus: Forgiveness

Function: to help people forgive

²¹Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” ²²Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

²³“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him, ²⁵and, as he could not pay, the lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made. ²⁶So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. ³¹When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. ³²Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. ³⁵So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Good morning to God’s beloved. Your name is carved on the palms of God’s hands and they will never forget you. Praise God!

I am glad we are focusing on forgiveness this morning because I got notice on Friday that I am to lead the forgiveness ceremony during the Kairos weekend. And in order to prepare for the weekend, we are going to do a forgiveness ceremony during our team meeting.

And conducting that is similar to what we are going to look at this morning during worship.

I sometimes think that forgiveness is what distinguishes Christianity over the other religions that I have studied. Many religions teach some sort of vengeance, but God demands that we trust God to do the correct and fair judgment because human anger does not bring about God’s just outcomes.

Forgiveness is mentioned in this passage and it is kind of funny. Peter is always the first to speak and I believe he thinks he is being spiritual when he says that we should be willing to go beyond Jewish tradition and forgive up to seven times.

And Jesus’ answer, “seventy times seven” is a hyperbole meaning don’t even keep count; Just forgive.

Then Jesus launches the parable, again using hyperbole, and helps us see ourselves in our sins in relationship to God.

God is holy. That means that God is separate from creation. God is above creation and we believe that God dwells in some sort of state of perfection.

That state of perfection is awesome. When Moses encountered it on the mountain, his body reflected the brilliance of God’s light for days.

Think about whom God is for a bit. Because God is awesome. I mean think about it, God holds every single human in God’s hand and knows them better than they know themselves. And God is eternal. We will exist forever, but we had a beginning. God is different, God has no beginning, God simply is and always has been and always will be. God is eternally awesome.

And we, compared to God’s majesty are much less.

We are created in God’s image, but we don’t compare.

So Jesus goes into this hyperbole about a man owing 10,000 talents, that is $53,612,224,000 dollars at yesterday’s prices. Jesus uses an absurd amount to illustrate that there is no way any person can ransom their own soul.

Psalms 49:7 says that we cannot save ourselves our our brother. We need God’s salvation.

And Jesus, in this passage gives us a contrast to the majesty of God and ourselves by making the debt so large to the one we might refuse to forgive.

God forgave everything for us, we need to forgive the simpler matters in our own lives.

So God dwells in this majesty and God is the one who purchases our salvation. We cannot. Jesus is calling us to have faith in his transforming power through the Holy Spirit.

For me it was 1978, I was strung out on drugs and was spiritually thirsty. My mom gave me a copy of the New Testament, NIV version so I could easily understand it.

I was on my day off, and I was reading the gospel of John and I saw this majesty that I mentioned about God in Jesus. Jesus was God and left the throne of heaven deliberately to be mistreated by us. And I realized that God’s own self, the creator, gave his life for his creation.

I saw that in context with the majesty of God and realized just how great God’s salvation for us is and how great a sacrifice that God made to redeem us.

This parable brings out that greatness when we look at the size of the ransom that Jesus gave for each and every one of us. When I came to that realization, that is when I decided to give my life to the ministry of the gospel. I thought, if God could do that for me, then I can live for God.

Jesus tells this parable to help them appreciate the tremendous price he paid for our salvation.

And, he tells the parable to give a warning about forgiveness.

In Matthew, we read the Lord’s prayer and we pray that we be forgiven to the extent that we forgive.

For some of us, that might be terrible.

In Matthew, Jesus explains only one part of the prayer, and that is the line of forgiveness.

He says, God is serious, you are forgiven, so forgive others. Don’t worry about whether or not they deserve it or have changed their behavior.

In one sense, because we are promised to be forgiven since we forgave, it is a contract that God has made with us.

And for me it goes beyond that. I believe it is a spiritual discipline. So make forgiveness a matter of regular practice. I am convinced that when I refuse to forgive someone, somehow it blocks my connection to God in prayer.

When we don’t want to forgive, it is because of some injustice. We want justice. When we refuse to forgive, however, I believe that it limits the power of the Holy Spirit to do the justice that our unforgiveness desires. The path to God’s perfect justice is through our forgiveness.

Do the rice paper forgiveness ceremony.

Being Selfless

  

Text: Matthew 16:21-28

Focus: discipleship

Function: to help people give up selfishness

²¹From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. ²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” ²³But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

²⁴Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ²⁶For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

²⁷For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. ²⁸Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Good morning to the beloved children of the loving and living God. Through Christ, God has adopted us into their family and we are part of the beloved. And the great thing is this, God’s love extends to the whole world entire. I remember that when I get mad at people who would otherwise be an enemy. God loves the other as much as God loves us. Let us show that love to others.

This is a passage of scripture about discipleship. Discipleship is us in the process of learning to live and love like Jesus loved.

In order to introduce the theme of discipleship, Jesus begins again to describe to the disciples just what is going to happen to him when he arrives in Jerusalem.

Remember, the Jewish people and the disciples were all expecting the Messiah to be a political/military leader who would somehow miraculously defeat the overwhelming forces of the Roman army. They were looking for a leader like King David.

Jesus spends three years countermanding that narrative about him trying to teach the disciples to love and share and care for everyone instead of being selfish and living merely for themselves.

Living merely for the good on ones own self without a care for how our prosperity might harm others is selfishness and it is sin. It is the moral philosophy of Narcissism which teaches the only moral good is what pleases ones own self.

It leads to the exploitation and abuse of those less fortunate. And again, Jesus commands us to share our wealth and to meet the needs of others as well as meeting our own needs.

Jesus calls us to live in community.

And the disciples already know that Jesus is on the bad guy list from the religious and political leaders. Jesus is upsetting the status quo with his message of love and care for everyone because it upsets the social order of the rich taking advantage of the poor.

Remember the beatitudes: Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Do you want to find true religion? Then according to James, find the church that cares for the least of these instead of hardening their hearts to the plight of refugees. In Matthew 25, we read that the refugee is Jesus to us and how we treat the refugees is how we treat Jesus. I want our nation to prosper and I believe obedience to God in this matter will spring the revival for which believers are hoping.

But Peter can’t handle the thought of Jesus being crucified since he needs Jesus alive to accomplish this military victory. And he takes Jesus aside to correct Jesus! He is certainly cheeky! And Jesus sternly rebukes him. He even realizes that Satan himself is tempting him again with human power.

Jesus redirects Peter’s thinking to the spiritual kingdom that Jesus is establishing.

And he is telling them about the cost of discipleship.

And Jesus takes it to the extreme of life and death for us.

Peter’s concern about losing Jesus would have been right if it weren’t for the resurrection. I think that is the part of the story that Jesus is trying to explain that goes over the disciples heads.

The death and resurrection of Jesus sets Jesus apart as the one of a kind son of God, our savior.

He shows the disciples through his death and resurrection that there is nothing for us to fear because even death cannot defeat the power of God.

Jesus wants the disciples to rest in the power of God to save us.

I believe John 3:16’s promise that those who trust Christ will have an abundant life, a life without bounds that extends beyond this life into the eternal.

Jesus came to save and to heal this broken world through teaching us to love others through the power of the Holy Spirit which he sent after he rose from the dead.

Jesus’ healing is restoration. So this idea that we must take up our cross and surrender our lives doesn’t seem to fit with the concept of an abundant life.

I always read this passage as now that I am a believer, I need to be wholly committed to the cause of Christ and sacrifice myself in order to get a good reward in heaven.

But I think that is part of the worldly thinking that Peter has in this passage.

We are focusing that way on what we can get out of it.

We are focusing on ourselves.

But the willingness of Jesus to undergo the cross as an example of resistance to empires that do not care for the least of these in their societies for us to follow.

Don’t get me wrong, he bought our salvation through his death and resurrection. Period. But it was the ultimate act of faith by him placing his trust in God to raise him when he died that gave us the example we need to form a community that loves and cares for each other.

Jesus willingness to die on the cross was the ultimate act of selfless love he could show us. It is an example for us to give up selfishness and live for the common good instead of the moral philosophy that we only have to worry about ourselves.

So, when he commands us to be willing to take up our own cross, he is telling us to give up selfishness as well and live for the good of others.

The more I study it, the more I realize that Christian living is living in this beloved community.

Our Rock

Text: Matthew 16:13-20

Focus: The Church

Function: to see that God will sustain us

¹³Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Good morning to God’s beloved! We are people loved by God and we pass that love on to others through the power of the Spirit inside of us.

Today we are looking at the building and the keeping of the Church.

It is important to understand the meaning of the word church. Mirriam Webster dictionary gives 5 different meanings ranging from the building, to the worship service itself, to the leaders, to the whole body of Christians world wide to the specific denomination of body.

But they all include the religious aspect to it.

But when Jesus used the word ecclesia in the 1^st century it didn’t have a religious connotation to it all. It simply meant the gathering of disciples together. It refers to their community.

And later on the Apostle who wrote Hebrews tells us not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together.

Indeed, Jesus himself indicated that this is and I believe will be a spiritual event fueled by the Holy Spirit itself that causes us to be strengthened and encouraged by community when he said if even just two or three gather together for him he will be with us. We see and feel the evidence of the Spirit inspiring us when we meet together here at Painter Creek.

I suppose it is important to note that Jesus mentions specifically that the gathering is in his name. And I suppose that is why the word for church now has a religious connotation to it. But in his name means that we are gathering together because of him and what he has done for us.

This is the first time that Jesus has mentioned the church going on after he is gone.

It became an important distinction when they gathered in Jesus’ name in the Roman empire. Because when they gathered around Jesus and it became Jesus as Lord, when they gathered around that phrase, Jesus is Lord, they were indicating that their allegiance was to God’s kingdom instead of Caesar and they were murdered for being unpatriotic.

Gathering in the name of Jesus is a blessing for us and we have the freedom to do it here in our country. That is why we Brethren immigrated to the US, to get that freedom. We have to remember that we are also immigrants and it is immigrants that have built this nation.

And I don’t mean politically. I mean spiritually. In Hebrews it speaks of us believers as people who seek a city whose builder is God. We as believers live in a corrupt world, but we dream of a better place where everyone has enough and there are no more wars.

And Jesus came to set up a kingdom of peace that didn’t align itself with any political government. That is why Christian Nationalism is wrong because it focuses on the fleshly power of men instead of the Spirits power to transform hearts.

He rested in the power of the Holy Spirit to make the change. That is why in the text he tells Peter that it was not human understanding or his cleverness that helped him see that Jesus is the Messiah, but it was the Spirit of God inside of him that showed him Jesus.

The Spirit draws us to Christ and helps us to believe.

And after Peter confesses the role of Christ to the world and makes it public that Jesus is Lord instead of any other power, Jesus commissions him to build the Church.

Now, there is argument about what the next verses mean. If you are Roman Catholic, then the Rock that build the Church is Peter and Jesus establishes the authority of the apostles. Which was necessary since they gave us the New Testament.

If you are not Roman Catholic, then the Rock that Jesus established as authority is the confession itself that Jesus is the Messiah. And there is other New Testament scripture about testifying the “good confession.”

Simply put, although I am not Roman Catholic, I tend to agree with them on this verse. Simply because it is the most obvious reading.

I like that reading because God entrusted this all important message to us who are human and subject to error. The church isn’t perfect, but she is planted by God.

In that error, we have created a multitude of different expressions of the faith, different denominations and sects that number in the hundreds of thousands. Hopefully most are like us and don’t believe that we are the only ones who got it right. But we see the power of diversity through the Spirit to reach everyone with the transforming power of the gospel of Christ. And I believe that is why God made us all different.

We shouldn’t fight about who is right, but trust the Spirit to lead others like she leads us.

And then the passage takes a turn and gives us a glimpse of what it means to have the authority that Jesus gave to us, the church.

He talks about our prayer life and what we pray for. He says that what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

He is speaking, I believe, about how the Church will transform the culture through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Humanity numbers its days based on the life and death of Jesus. But maybe the biggest thing is the cessation of slavery.

Although the bible gives instructions for the proper treatment of slaves, it doesn’t endorse slavery. It calls us to treat everyone equally and to consider another person’s needs as well as ours, even to give preference to the other in faith trusting God to supply our need.

But since slavery was a political reality, the Bible tried to mitigate the evil. And that showed just what God thought of slavery so it began a Christian movement to eradicate slavery in the world. And although slavery exists, it is illegal everywhere because the Church has power.

God is calling the church to be transform the culture. And we can. I wonder what is next?

I hope it is justice for immigrants.

So, are the church. We are the body of Christ left on earth to keep up the work of Jesus to build faith in people and disarm oppression.

Let us be faithful, because God will never leave us.

 

Incredible Mercy

  

Text: Romans 11: 29-32

Focus: Mercy

Function: to help us overcome our shame

²⁹for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. ³⁰Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, ³¹so also they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy. ³²For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

Good morning to the beloved of God. In my prayer time, I was reminded by God of the fact that God’s love was the power that brought Christ to earth, I realized that Jesus came to teach us how to love and live in faith.

It takes faith to walk this Christian journey. And faith is given to us by God by God’s providence and love.

Sometimes it comes to us in the midst of suffering and trials as we learn to depend on God with our basic needs to provide for us our daily bread.

I am doing a bit of bible study on these verses this morning and I need to unpack the 2^nd and 3^rd verse from our text by explaining its context.

When I was in college studying the scriptures, I took a whole class on the book of Romans. And the professor drilled into our heads that this passage answers an age old question about God’s covenant with the Jews now that we gentiles, non Jews, are included into the family of God. He wonders if the Jews who rejected Jesus will be restored in the end. And he indicates they will because God loves them. God loves everyone.

Now, Paul is Jewish and he loves his people and he wants them to follow the teachings of Jesus like gentiles who were readily accepting the good news about how love for others will bring about the justice that everyone needs and deserves.

And in the passage he says that from the Jewish faith, we get the root of salvation, what it means to live by faith in the God who cares about justice for everyone and will judge fairly on our behalf, or against us if we oppress others.

God cares about justice and fairness. And when Paul says in the passage that everyone is imprisoned in disobedience, he means that no one is perfect and we all need mercy. Everyone needs mercy. No one is perfect. Grace is mercy undeserved. It is the gift of God’s love. God forgives us in God’s love.

So, instead of worrying about whether or not God will get even with our enemies on our behalf, and it is true, all of us have a God-given longing for justice. But don’t worry about revenge for yourself, ask God to give you mercy for the times that you have failed to care for the least of these. Don’t ask for judgment for your enemies, ask for mercy for yourself.

God handled judgment for us on the cross. God sent the Christ to take the sin of the world on him.

I believe that we will all be restored to God in the end because the scriptures tell us so. But, I also believe that those who do not do good works and commit acts of evil against others will spend eternity without the rewards set aside for those who practiced unconditional love for others.

But let me be clear. We don’t practice love in order to get a better reward in heaven. Love is our reaction to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But the reward in heaven still stands. Part of living by faith is remembering that when we suffer unfairly, God sees and has a blessing for us, if not here on earth, then in heaven.

Jesus said our works will be tested with fire and those that are pure and loving will survive, those that aren’t will be burnt up and many will suffer the loss. I believe the loss will be their pride and vanity in building a life focused merely on themselves instead of the love that shares freely the blessings that God has given to us.

Remember, God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others. It is a Biblical principal that started with Abraham and he is the father of all of us who live by faith according to Paul in this book of Romans.

That is enough about works in this sermon. This passage is about mercy.

And our first verse nails it on the head.

The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. God is not going to take them back. God gives and gives and gives.

We can reject the gift and not benefit from it, but that doesn’t mean that God does not keep on giving to us.

The bible says that God has carved our names on the palm of his hands so that God won’t forget us.

I picture the scars on the palms of Jesus and think of the same thing for us. God has us in God’s own hands and we can rest in that.

When he says that these gifts and callings are irrevocable, he is promising us that in his power we will not fail.

I am pleased that during this next Kairos weekend, I get to talk to the guys on Sunday morning a talk about how with God’s help they can live this Christian life right there in the prison compound.

It is a message of faith. And I am reminded that there are many times that they are going to err. And here is the thing. Most of these guys are covered in shame. They got to prison honestly. Most of them were never loved with the kind of love that we experienced in our families. Most of the abusers are victims of abuse themselves and have a screwed up view of life. And shame is the issue.

So, when I read that scripture that the and the calling of God cannot be taken away even though we are all imprisoned in our own brokenness.

Jesus is the Christ and he came to heal and restore us to God and to each others. And if salvation comes, even in the prison, how much more can it happen out here at Painter Creek with and for us?

Crying Out to God

  

Text: Romans 10:5-15

Focus: Faith

Function: To help people rest in God’s grace

⁵Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” ⁶But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷“or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸But what does it say?

“The word is near you,
    in your mouth and in your heart”

(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim), ⁹because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For one believes with the heart, leading to righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, leading to salvation. ¹¹The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” ¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. ¹³For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

¹⁴But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? ¹⁵And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Good to morning God’s beloved. In 1 John we read that the apostle describes God as Love. And we are God’s Children. We are the children of Love and we have the power of the Holy Spirit to live in that love. Praise God!

You have heard me say that the word for righteousness should be translated as just, or justice. But in this passage, when he is talking about righteousness, he is talking about a right standing in the presence of God.

Throughout the Old Testament in the Hebrew, the word righteous isn’t the same as the Greek word in the New Testament and it does mean people who have a right relationship, or standing in the presence of God.

I believe it speaks of people who at the least acknowledge God and at the best revere and honor God.

The book of Romans speaks of obtaining this right relationship with God through faith. By faith he means we trust Christ to be our redeemer and the Lord of our life.

By Lord, I mean the one we follow and emulate as a way of life.

And in this passage of Romans, righteous is also speaking of living in a right relationship with God.

Living in a right relationship with love.

Living in a loving relationship with the world around us.

And Paul speaks of this faith in Jesus. He refers to the Old Testament and a dilemma mentioned there, that God is in heaven and we can’t reach God.

So Paul explains in this passage that although we cannot reach God in heaven, God reached us from heaven in Jesus, the Christ who saved the world.

In a very real way, this passage is telling us how to be saved.

He says, and my favorite verse from this passage is the verse that says “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

We’ll get to what it means to be saved before we end today.

It is almost as if this passage gives us a formula for a prayer to begin this relationship with God.

It is a prayer of faith resting in the fact Jesus made the way for us to draw back near to God.

He says to confess Jesus as Lord. Lord means master. I like to confess Jesus as Christ. But confessing the phrase “Jesus is Lord” is what got Christians thrown to the lions in Roman arenas because Caesar was Lord and to confess Jesus was treason. And many of us died for our faith because we also believe as the text says, in the power of the resurrection.

The faith was, they killed Jesus and he rose from the dead, the same will happen for us in the afterlife.

And again, the salient verse from this passage is Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

People who pray are people who believe and are calling on God.

Paul is telling us that God answers every prayer. Every person, whether or not they consider themselves to be in that right relationship with God, who prays will have God answer that prayer with God’s healing power.

Praying is important. It places us in the proper perspective to the creator who calls their self: Love.

John 1 says that Christ created everything. We believe that God is omnipresent, everywhere.

Although Paul speaks of the dilemma of bridging the gap between heaven and earth that Jesus solved for us, we also believe that God is everywhere and in everything.

St. Francis called the sun, Brother Sun and the Moon, Sister Moon, he called the flora, the fauna and even the rocks and minerals as part of Christ because it is all a part of Christ and comes from him.

And he is in everything and in everyone. Everyone has access to this salvation.

And as I mentioned, when he speaks of salvation, he is speaking of God’s restoration of us.

He is speaking of God’s healing.

I always limited it to going to heaven when I die. But salvation is God restoring things in our lives here and now. It is us taking steps in faith to follow the love of God for others.

And every time I think of this I am reminded that the path to healing and wholeness is indeed found in what Jesus taught us.

Follow the teachings of Christ and find the peace of Christ works. It takes faith. It takes a risk. It takes sacrifice, especially when that obedience leads us to forgive when we have been harmed.

But that is what living by faith is all about.

And then it is also about sharing our faith. Or more specifically, spreading the love of God.

I am not sure if the last paragraph is a missionary call, or a pause in the passage whereby the Apostle stops to worship Christ for coming to earth to give us the good news of God’s restoration and healing.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who spread the good news of God’s love.

For us , it started with Jesus and then Jesus sent the Holy Spirit into us and according to the apostle John, the coming of the Spirit makes us one with Christ.

So yes, it is about Christ coming to change the world and it is about us taking up that mission and continuing the work of Jesus together in our community.

Jesus started sharing the good news and has commissioned us to do it as well. God rejoices in our spreading that love.