(Tyson Congregational Church, Tyson VT, August 22, 2010).
Jeremiah 1:4-10 & Luke 13:10-17
I have noticed something; I wonder if you have, too. I have noticed that people are frequently quick to give their opinions about how other people are living; and not just quick, but eager. And it doesn’t seem to be related to age: young children of 8 years will be as quick to tell you when you are doing something “wrong” as will an 80-year-old!
There’s a story like that in Luke, today. Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath. That means he was doing what I’m doing: he was explaining what God wants to a congregation – only, he did it a whole lot better. And while he was teaching he noticed a woman bent double by some disease.
Ida Willow and I once knew a woman like that; in fact, we met because we were both renting rooms in her New Hampshire farmhouse back in 1976. Ida was her name; she and Willow became great friends. Willow used to drive her around the back roads near Franconia to spot and collect herbs that Ida used for folk remedies.
Ida was stricken by polio while carrying her 12th child. It so weakened her back muscles that she could not straighten up, and for the rest of her life she walked around like this…. To clean, she often sat on the floor and scooted around the house. It was sad to see; she was such a wonderful woman, and if I had known how to do it, I would have gladly healed her.
Maybe the woman in the Scriptures suffered from polio, too. Maybe it was some other disease. Whatever it was, Jesus recognized it as a sign and consequence of the fallen nature of the world.
The Fall These hardships, these illnesses, these blights on our lives: Genesis ascribes them all to the entry of Death into creation; Death that entered because of human disobedience to the commands of God.
Do you remember the story? The serpent asked Eve whether God had really commanded them to not eat of the trees of the Garden, and she answered, correctly, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden [that is, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil], God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
And the serpent lied to her, saying, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” For yourself! You won’t need God to instruct you; you will be able to discern good and evil directly by your own knowledge, your own wisdom. (Genesis 3:1-5)
How do you think that has worked out for us?
So Genesis says it is because we humans decided we could determine for ourselves what is Good and what is Bad that evil entered the world. In other words, we’re not very good judges. And because we are not good at that kind of discernment, we opened a door to let evil into God’s creation, bringing death and its advance scout, sickness, into the world. And we have been suffering the consequences ever since.
Set Free in Jesus So when Jesus saw that woman doubled over with some sickness, he saw Satan; Satan binding that woman, making her a victim of evil; and he had compassion for her, because he is God’s good Word to us. He reached out to her and touched her and said, “Woman, I set you free!” And immediately she straightened up and in joy began to praise God.
What a wonderful moment! What a testimony to the power and glory of God, who yearns to set us all free from the sins and powers that keep us down, that bend us to their evil will! What a great opportunity to celebrate the grace and power of God, extended to us in Jesus Christ!
Sit Still! But that’s not what happened, is it? The ruler of the synagogue – that is, a priest; you might say, the Sr. Pastor of the church in which a lay minister was preaching, saw what that lay minister did and got indignant.
“This is not right!” he bellowed at the congregation. “There are 7 days in a week; you can ask Jesus for healing on 6 of them – why break the Sabbath law? Just one day a week, be in worship wholly and completely; for that one day in seven, just sit at the feet of God and listen; don’t act. Hear what God has to say to you so that your lives can become more holy.”
That’s a good idea, right? I mean, the last time I was here we touched on the story of Martha and Mary. Martha had invited Jesus to lunch, and then spent his whole visit bustling about making sure everything was done “just so.” She wanted his visit to be one of comfort and ease for him – but she couldn’t enjoy or relax if she was going to make that happen.
And what did Jesus say; remember? He said, “Martha, chill. Things don’t have to be perfect. Take some time out; come sit with Mary and listen awhile; just be with me; let my Spirit wash over you in stillness.”
In effect, that’s what the synagogue ruler is saying: “Come on, folks, the Scripture calls us to set aside the Sabbath as a time of rest, when we can sit in the sanctuary and rest under the fig tree, and contemplate the Word of God to us. We have the other six days to be busy with worldly things.”
The Priority of Good But Jesus rebuked him! Jesus, who told Martha to sit still awhile – which is in keeping with the Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:8) – told the Sr. Minister of the church that he was wrong to tell the people to sit still on the Sabbath!
“You hypocrite!” Jesus fumed, “doesn’t everyone who has livestock take time to water and feed them even on the Sabbath? Who here who has a cat or a dog will not feed and exercise your pet on Sunday? How much more if you keep chickens, rabbits or cows? Even on the Sabbath you will have mercy on your animals, because you know they have needs and must not be allowed to suffer for some moral principle. And yet, you deny mercy for your fellow humans – who are worth infinitely more to God than any animal!”
So there is a lesson here about priorities. Clearly, you do not have to wait until Sunday to sit still and listen to Jesus; any time the Holy Spirit comes knocking, you should knock off what you’re doing and sit still awhile. And just as clearly, when there is a good work to be done on the Sabbath, you would not do well to say, “it can wait until tomorrow; today I’m just going to rest.”
We Opine on Negatives, not Positives But what I think is interesting is the willingness of the synagogue ruler to put his oar into the water, whether he needed to or not. We are like that, aren’t we? As soon as someone else does something, we form an opinion about it. We pass judgment, and we’re perfectly willing to share our judgments with others – whether it has anything to do with us or not.
Except!
There is one class of thing that I have noticed we are not very eager to get involved with; one oar we don’t want to stick in the water.
Jeremiah Look at the story of Jeremiah. Here is the account of the young man being called by God to the office of prophet. God says (Jeremiah 1:5), “Before you were even taking form in your mother’s womb, I knew you, Jeremiah; I sanctified you before you were born; even then I ordained you to be a prophet.”
What does that mean, “sanctified”? It means God set Jeremiah apart from others; God selected Jeremiah from before his conception to be a prophet. That’s incredible! That’s amazing! What would you say if God said something like that to you?
“Who? Me?”
Right? Because we don’t think we’re all that special; all that capable. We think of ourselves as just ordinary mortals – not like Jeremiah or Moses. We’re just “folk.”
So look closely: that’s exactly Jeremiah’s response. He’s no different than you: Verse1:6: “Ah, Lord,” he says, “I cannot speak; I’m just a kid.”
In other words: Who’s going to listen to me? I’m too young; my elders will ignore me and my peers will laugh at me for putting on airs.
But God doesn’t bend: “Don’t make excuses!” He says, “You’ll go to the people I send you to, and you’ll say what I tell you to say. And don’t you pay any attention to the frowns and glares you get, because I’ll be with you, and I’ll deliver you from any complications that arise.”
God Calls You Now, if God told you to go somewhere and do something, how would you respond? I’m asking because I believe that God is calling you, and sending you; I believe that God has a ministry for you to do. Each of you. He doesn’t just want you to come here and sit at his feet and listen; he wants you to get up and do the good things he needs done and has equipped you to do.
So what’s your excuse? Too young? Too old? Too shy? Too busy? Too poor? Too hurt? What?
Moses [The following notes on Moses' objections served as key points; I covered each objection and God's response in an ad-lib manner.]
If you have your Bible, flip with me to Exodus 3. That’s near the beginning of the Bible. It goes Genesis, then Exodus. Exodus, chapter 3. This is the story of God calling Moses to go to Israel to free the Hebrews from captivity.
Now you have to remember that the reason Moses was out in the desert to begin with was because he had been raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter as an adopted son of the royal household. Then he saw an Egyptian overlord abusing a Hebrew slave and killed the overlord. To escape being punished, he fled to the desert. So he was a fugitive felon in the eyes of the Egyptians. And one day he saw this burning bush; burning but not consumed; so he went to investigate, and God talked to him, saying that Moses was God’s chosen instrument to free God’s people from slavery to Egypt. Vs. 3:7-10.
But what does Moses say? Vs. 11… Who am I? I’m a nobody; I’m no hero, certainly no one bigger than life. I’m just an ordinary man; below ordinary, really; I’m a fugitive murderer. I’m certainly not the right guy to send back to Egypt, where I’m wanted for murder, to try to free a whole people!
And God says, vs. 12: Nonsense, I will be with you. And to prove it, I’ll give you a sign: when you’ve succeeded, you and the whole people will worship here, on this mountain.
But that doesn’t comfort Moses, so he tries again, vs 13: But why should the Hebrews listen to me? After all, I grew up as an Egyptian; what am I supposed to say when they ask me who – which God – sent me to them?
And God answers, vs. 14: Tell them I AM WHO I AM sent you.
Oh, great! That’ll make them sit up and take notice!
Ok, tell them I Am the God of their Fathers, and I have sent you to convince Pharaoh to let them go.
And Moses comes back with the perfect response; the one I would make; the one I’m pretty sure you would make, too (vs. 4:1): Yeah, but suppose they don’t believe me!
And God says (sigh): Ok, here’s a sign: throw that stick in your hand on the ground.
Moses did so, and it became a serpent; then, when he grabbed it by the tail it became a stick again.
Magic tricks. Magic tricks; that’s supposed to convince the Hebrews to put their lives in Moses’ hand; who has already claimed to be getting special messages from God. Right.
So Moses says, vs. 4:10: Listen, God, I’m not a public speaker. I get tongue-tied. There’s no way I’m going to be able to speak smoothly and convincingly about all of this.
And God says (a bit annoyed, I imagine): For pete’s sake, Moses! Who made your mouth in the first place? Wasn’t it me? Don’t I give voice and sight, the gift of hearing; isn’t it by my hand that some are mute and deaf and blind? Now go: I will give you the words to speak and teach you what to say.
So Moses tries the one last ploy he has (vs. 13): Please, Lord, don’t send me. I just can’t do this. Pick someone else.
Verse 14: “So the anger of the Lord was kindled against him.” Uh oh; that’s not good.
But, God found a solution: he used Aaron as Moses’ mouthpiece; God spoke to Moses, Moses told Aaron, and Aaron made the public announcements.
We Grow into God’s Calling But if you read the story of Moses, you’ll see that over time Moses grew into his role and relied less and less on Aaron to speak for him. Truly, God did take this timid person, Moses, and teach him how to be God’s agent in the world; God graced him with the ability to do what God had created him to do.
In the same way, God took the hesitant Jeremiah and turned him into a powerful agent of God’s will.
And in just the same way, God is already with you, waiting for you to quit making excuses and to put your faith in him. If you will begin to do the work you are called by God to do in the world – the work you have been trusted with to build up the kingdom of heaven – God will be with you, working in you and through you; and you will grow into the likeness of yourself that God holds in his mind and means for you to become.
Your Satisfaction And you: you will experience a kind of deep satisfaction, a sense of fulfillment that does not depend upon how much money is in your bank account, or what model car you drive, or the square feet in your house – or even if you have a house. It will be the sense of fulfillment that comes despite any illness or setback or reversal of worldly fortunes; the fulfillment that comes for no earthly reason, but simply because you have put your faith in God, put your hand in Jesus’ hand, and have begun walking into that future which God holds before you.
Not the one that you think is good and right; but the one that God has declared is meant for you, is good – for you. And once you are on that road, your feelings of hesitation, anxiety, self-doubt – all of it will steadily drop away. Those are all lies of the devil, intended to bind you and keep you from standing upright, free in Christ.
Get Up, Do What’s Right So, don’t spend your time pointing out where someone else is doing something you think is wrong – we’re really not very good judges of what is good and what is not. Instead, spend your time doing what God puts on your heart as right. And don’t be surprised if others say you are wrong for doing it.
But don’t listen to them either. Sit with Mary, listen to Jesus. But don’t just sit there: after you listen, get up and go do what you have heard, even if the rulers and authorities and self-opinionated busybodies don’t like it. Because the kingdom of Heaven does not lie in doing what you or your neighbors think is right, but in doing what God calls you to do for Christ.
Amen.
