Monday, August 24, 2009

Sermon August, 23 “Haggai: A Day in the Life”


Haggai was sent as a prophet to the remnant of Israel who had returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. He was sent with a difficult word for the people to hear. “Give careful thought to your ways,” Haggai cried out. It was a call to spiritual introspection.

In 1:1-12 we see God’s concern is that after a little more than a decade the people have blessed themselves with finely rebuilt homes but have neglected to rebuild the temple. “It’s not time yet,” they excused themselves. But God asks, “Is it a time for you to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” This hard question was not one about worship space but about priority.

The temple was they very symbol of God’s presence with the people. He pointed to the temple building as an illustration of their spiritual life. The temple was neglected because God was neglected. Yahweh had been relegated to the sidelines while the people spun and toiled for their own wellbeing. I asked of our congregation to consider our ways. In what ways have we neglected God by putting our own material concerns first?

God told the people to do three things: Go up the mountain, bring down the wood, and build my house. Hard work indeed. But they responded. They abandoned their own pursuit of “all of these things” and built his house again. Keeping God at the center of our day to day where he belongs involves the hard work of dying to self and seeking first the kingdom!

In chapter 2 (and in Ezra) we find that many were broken hearted at how this rebuilt temple compared to Solomon’s temple in all of its glory. But God encouraged them through Haggai by reassuring them that he was with them. He reminded them that the whole earth is his. He promised to shake heaven and earth to ensure that “the glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house.” And God does just that. Through the treasury of the kings of the Persian Empire and on into Herod’s rule, God did indeed prove that the silver and gold were his. That temple that the people mourned over became one of the wonders of the ancient world.

But even that temple in all of its majesty could not compare to Christ who said of himself, “One greater than the temple is here.” And Paul says of the church, “For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’” As the church we are the chosen means through which God would make his presence known to the world. We are the new symbol of God’s presence with his people. And that means work! Go up the mountain, bring it down, and build. God says to us, “I am with you and I will shake the very foundations of the earth until my glory is revealed through you.” That should be the operative understanding of who we are called to be as the church. Let us consider our ways!

Pastor Scott

Monday, August 17, 2009

Sermon August 16 “Jonah: A Day in the Life”


The story of Jonah was a part of this series because too often we carry around a children’s book picture of this tragedy of a prophet.

In the children’s sermon we covered chapters 1 and 2. Jonah is called to go to Nineveh- he flees, the storm comes, he is thrown overboard, the fish comes, he prays, and he is spit out. All this was told with a plastic blue whale, a bright green bath toy boat, and a Lego man. The point? God is sovereign, he loves people, and he asks us to do things we don’t necessarily like.

Chapters 3 and 4 were the focus of the sermon. There are two main characters in this tragedy; Jonah and God. Jonah loathes the character of God, saying in frustration, “you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take my life away…” The tension in this book comes from the fact that Jonah’s character is not gracious, not compassionate, eager in anger, abounding with hatred (Nineveh as the capitol of Assyria was the epitome of everything he despised), and he wanted the annihilation of the city and all its inhabitants.

My preaching focus pointed out the fact that because God’s character and Jonah’s character were different, then God’s agenda (redemption) and Jonah’s agenda (destruction) would be opposed to one another. God illustrated this tension of character and agenda to Jonah through the lived parable of the vine (see picture above). This is an important idea for our own life of discipleship. Where our character differs from the character of Christ (it most certainly will differ in many areas) then our agendas will be different. So whose agenda drives our day to day? Are we living life asleep on a boat sailing away from God’s purposes or are we being led by God’s compassion to be agents of redemption?

I used Luke 9:51- 62 as the bridge between Jonah’s relationship with God and our walk with Christ. Here James and John want to call down fire from heaven to destroy some people (“the Jonah syndrome”) who won’t let them spend the night. Jesus rebukes them- different characters, different agendas. And in the very next periscope we see three would-be followers of Jesus whose agendas get in the way of Christ’s call on their lives.

So often we have agendas for our lives and futures that are based more on the ideals of the American Dream than on the eternal principles of the Kingdom of God. Like Jonah we like the idea of beings God's people but we want to define what that looks like. For Jonah that meant despising people God loved. For the Rich Young Ruler that meant holding on to the things of this world rather than letting them go in order to follow Jesus. What is your agenda? What is God’s agenda? Whose agenda wins out?

Thankfully the God who showed compassion toward the Ninevites and patience with Jonah is both compassionate toward and patient with us. May the truth of the gospel continue to shape our character into that of Christ’s, and with that may our agendas give way to God's call on our lives.

Pastor Scott

Monday, August 10, 2009

Sermon August 9 "Ezekiel: A Day in the Life"




The texts read were from the well known 37th chapter of Ezekiel. The vision of the valley of dry bones (1-14) and the symbolic action of uniting two sticks (15-28) are quite distinct. (FYI, such distinction between the two makes planning a shortened sermon on a communion Sunday no small feat).

I had the intention to focus my preaching on the two sticks when I planned this series a couple of months ago. However, in my sermon notebook I couldn’t get past the valley of dry bones. It was one of those preaching itches. (I am learning to let it stick when it gets stuck and not try to fight it. So I did. I focused on the vision of this valley.)

The valley was representative of God’s people- lost, displaced, faithless, scattered. But God was not content. He sent his Word and his Spirit to bring these dry bones to life. I do not think this passage is about personal spiritual regeneration. But it does reveal the nature and character of God to move toward us even when we are unable or unwilling to move toward him. It may have been a valley of dry bones, but those bones were his people. He sent the word though they did not, indeed could not, call for the word to come. He sent his breath, his Spirit to invade their lifelessness with his life. That part of God’s character does speak to the reality of our spiritual regeneration. It’s God’s work, based on God’s character and love- not of our own works.

The most poignant part of our worship was at the communion table. Christ’s body broken. Christ’s blood shed. Christ breathing his last. We see in the meal the cost that it takes to give dry bones like you and me flesh, blood, and breath. As a part of our worship we gave people an opportunity to participate in that great exchange of death for life by putting their faith in Jesus Christ.

This actually tied in beautifully with the second part of Ezekiel 37. The unity God told Ezekiel to speak about through this image of the two sticks foreshadows Christ, “My servant David will be their prince forever…” It also foreshadows us, the church, “My dwelling place shall be among them, and I will set my sanctuary among them forever more…” The symbol of the unity of God’s people in Ezekiel’s hand as these two sticks become one is accomplished in the two sticks of Calvary on which Christ was crucified.

The table prepared before us was the picture of dry bones coming to life as we celebrated together our unity through the gospel of grace.

Pastor Scott