Luke 2:41-52 "Jesus' Rebellious Tweens"

I hear from reliable sources that teens and tweens (kids who are over ten but not yet teenagers) can tend to be somewhat rebellious. I’m sure this is something that is exaggerated by the parents I’ve talked to and it’s just that they don’t understand their kids, but it is a regularly agreed upon fact. When I look back at my own youth I see a bit of rebellious behavior in myself and my friends. Let me tell you about my friends…

At my high school it was against the rules for boys to wear earrings. I remember one guy coming to school with one and having to go to the principle’s office and having it removed. Well, I have to admit that I never really had much desire to have an earring and I guess I assumed that my classmates weren’t terribly interested in it either. But when we were out of high school we had a class get-together the next Christmas when many of us were home from college. I was the only guy in my class who showed up without an earring… Of course, I was rebelling in my own way by growing my hair out long.

I actually realized that most youth have a bit of themselves that rebel. They want to define themselves as different and unique and special and therefore they do things to show this. I personally never really rebelled against my teachers or my parents… at least not major-ly, not like my friends did. My own form of rebellion was rebellion against my peers. I didn’t like the things they liked, I wasn’t into the things they were into. They often looked at me and thought I was a kid who towed the line and didn’t rebel at all, but looking back at it, I realize that I was rebelling, just not against the same thing they were rebelling against.

Because of this, I tend to believe that all youth have a bit of rebellion in them… even those who don’t seem the rebellious sort. And then I come to the story we read this morning in Luke 2. And we see that even Jesus rebelled in a way against his human parents. But, of course, Jesus’ rebellion isn’t like ours and it was something that showed that he was growing into the ministry ahead of him.

I. Rebellious Jesus

Usually, when you talk about someone, a kid in particular, being a bit rebellious, you aren’t just talking about getting their ear pierced. No, usually it is something more drastic, more serious. Perhaps they are talking back to their parents, not really showing the respect they should. Perhaps they run away from home. Perhaps they hang out with people they shouldn’t. I believe it is worthwhile to look at today’s scripture in this light. You might think I’m stretching a bit to do so, but truly, when you look at a twelve year old Jesus, you see that his story is one about rebellion against the “normal” life he is living as he longs to move on and define himself.

Jesus doesn’t necessarily run away from home as he has traveled to Jerusalem with his family. At the same time one cannot argue that he was just absentminded or too caught up in the world of the temple to realize that it was time to go. Jesus chose to be rebellious. He chose to hang out in Jerusalem instead of going home.

Jesus definitely talked back to his parents. When they did finally find him, he acted as if it was perfectly natural that he would be where he was. He acted as if they were the ones who had messed up and not him… and there is something to support this argument. After all, they probably should have checked to make sure he was with them before they left the city.

But what really catches my eye is what it is that Jesus says when they do find him. It’s not necessarily that he thinks it is natural that he is in his Father’s house. It’s the fact that he doesn’t feel that his parents understand him. Talk about the center of adolescent life. I know when I was upset with my parents in junior high and high school it was because they just didn’t understand me. They wanted me to be something I was not and they didn’t get who I truly was. Many of our arguments had a thought process behind them that went like this, “If you truly understood and accepted who I am… you would understand what it is I’m doing.”

And I must say that this seems like the thought behind Jesus’ words here. If Mary and Joseph truly understood who he was they would get why it is that he hung out at the temple and they would realize what it is that he was about. Now bear with me on this one… I know that it’s hard to picture Jesus as a 12 year old kid worrying that his parents just don’t understand him. But this is truly the picture that we get of Jesus in this scripture passage.

And it’s not only here that we see this as an issue for Jesus. It seems that he is constantly, throughout his ministry, longing for people to understand him. Being the Son of God, being the Messiah, the promised Savior, he has to deal with people’s misconceptions and misunderstandings of who he is and he has to constantly work past them. There are people who follow him around expecting him to be something that they have decided he must be. They expect him to heal them… they expect him to feed them… they expect him to kick Rome out of Israel… they expect him to rule. But these aren’t the things that Jesus is about. He is constantly moving from place to place, not to spread his word to new places as much as to get away from the flocks of people who want something from him.

He asks his disciples at one point, “Who do people say that I am?” Basically he is wondering if people, if his disciples, actually understand what he is about. And even when Peter responds, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus tells him to keep it quiet because he knows people won’t get it. And the people who misunderstood Jesus the most in his day were the religious leaders. He didn’t meet their expectations and therefore they eventually found a way to have him killed because they could not understand him.

II. Two Reasons

I think it is interesting to look at Jesus, at his life and ministry, at his childhood trip to Jerusalem, and see it in the light of him being misunderstood. Why? For a couple reasons: First, it helps us to relate to Jesus better, it helps us to see that he went through some of the same things we went through. And second, it forces us to ask ourselves whether we are misunderstanding Jesus today.

First, helping us to relate to Jesus better. Let’s face it, Jesus lived in a vastly different world than we live in. Not only was he in a different time and place but he was also living in a different culture with different cultural expectations. When we read scripture we often decide things don’t necessarily apply to us because the culture we are in is so different than the one Jesus lived in. But then, when we see him growing up as an adolescent boy and dealing with the problems that all adolescents deal with, we realize that some things don’t change as much as we think they do. And we also, hopefully realize that though Jesus was fully God, he was also fully human and therefore not only can we understand him better, he understands us better as well. He knows how we feel when we feel misunderstood by our families and our peers. How does he know this? He felt it himself. So, now we have a connection with Jesus, which allows him to be more than just our Savior or Lord. Now we can have a relationship with him because we know that he knows what we are going through, sometimes better than even we do.

And second, are we misunderstanding Jesus today? I truly believe that the church today does misunderstand Jesus. Actually, I’m willing to go a step farther than that. I believe that everyone today misunderstands Jesus… well, everyone but me. No, you all have been led astray by inappropriate teachings and the culture that you are surrounded by, but I somehow have moved past all that and really, truly, get Jesus.

Unfortunately, this is the way that many of us like to think. We think that though others have messed up in their understanding of Jesus, they get him. After all, what they were taught about him is accurate and he must think and act the same way that they do. I know that I’m guilty of this, and I’m sure that you are, to a certain degree as well. This is why denominations don’t always get along very well. Because each one thinks that they get Jesus better than their neighbors. And, truthfully, we’re probably all a bit off.

I mentioned earlier that it was the religious leaders of Jesus’ day that got him the least, that misunderstood him the most. I think that when we look at their attitudes and behaviors we will see why. They approached Jesus with superiority, they came at him with the knowledge that they were right and he had nothing to teach him. They approached him with a critical eye looking for mistakes and finding ones that weren’t there. Whereas, there were some that came to Jesus with a spirit of humility and they are the ones who truly grew from their interaction with him. They were the ones who became true followers of Christ.

Do we approach Jesus with that same humility? Do we expect ourselves, our minds, our hearts, to be changed by our interaction with Jesus? Or are we too busy trying to use him to prove ourselves right? It is the very difference between the tone of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and the tone of humility.

I encourage you to find that tone of humility in your own life, in your own walk with the Lord, in your own reading of scripture. Then, perhaps, you might understand Jesus in a way that you haven’t before. Then, perhaps, you might connect with your Savior and Lord in a deeper relationship than you thought possible. Then, perhaps, you will find new and exciting ways to live out your faith, your Christian walk.

It’s kind of crazy to think of Jesus as a twelve year old crying out for his parents, Mary and Joseph, to understand him. But I think it is even more difficult for us to realize that Jesus is calling for us, today, to truly understand him. He isn’t going to be snitty with us about it as he is with his parents… but he does long for each of us to truly understand him in our own way. Are you ready for that life of understanding?

Christmas Eve "Angelsong"

Can you imagine what it must have been like for those shepherds watching their flocks by night? Yes, we all know the story… we hear it each Christmas and, perhaps, it catches our imagination. We know to expect stables and mangers and angels singing in the night and magi or wise men and stars from the east, but imagine being there for a moment, without knowing what is to come, without the fairytale magic that the Christmas story exudes. Instead, imagine being a normal, working stiff, out watching over sheep at night… remember sheep are not the most fun animals to watch over… they’re incredibly stupid and wont to wander off in some strange direction. But there the shepherds are, an ordinary night unlike any other. There was nothing magical about their lives.

And yet, something amazing was about to happen to them… something that would not only change their lives but change the course of the world forever more. I often wonder if they possibly sensed it coming. I don’t think so. So often drastic changes can happen in our lives without any foreknowledge. There are big events in our lives that we plan for and that we prepare for and then there are big events in our lives that truly just happen to us. In all honesty, the ones that just happen to us are often bad things in our lives: a car accident, a medical problem, a loss of a job. Often it is the good life changing events that we plan for: a wedding, a vacation, the birth of a baby. But there are wonderful things that can change our lives if we only pay attention and let them… things like the arrival of the angels for the shepherds.

I wonder what the shepherds were doing or thinking on that night… perhaps they were sleeping… perhaps one of them had had a really bad day. But the angels came and changed everything in just a moment. And their lives did change in a powerful way, even though they might not have realized it instantly.

The shepherds had choices as to how to respond to this sudden change in their lives, this sudden visit by the angel telling them of good news of great joy. They could have contemplated it, they could have gone back to sleep knowing that the world was just a little better now, or they could even have ignored it completely. Instead they talked among themselves and decided to go see this thing that had been described to them. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it really is a center of the shepherds’ story. I wonder how often it is that we miss those miracles of God happening in our lives suddenly because we are too busy with what we are doing to really pay attention.

A lot happened to the shepherds that night that Jesus was born. An angel appeared to them bringing them tidings of Jesus’ birth, they then saw the hosts of heaven partying in the sky and singing praises. Later on they saw Jesus in a manger, exactly as the angel had described and we are told that they returned to their fields telling everybody they came in contact with what it is that they had seen. But the one choice they had in this whole thing was that they had to decide whether to follow up on this good news of great joy that they had heard. And this is the place where I think we don’t always follow through ourselves. I think that sometimes we find ourselves too busy with our lives to really let the miracles of God happen to us. We are running around, trying to get everything done, we are spending all our time and energy just trying to make do with what is going on in our lives. And because of this we miss the good news that God has for us, we miss the opportunity to experience the miracles that God has lined up for our lives.

I believe I’ve mentioned before that my piano teacher growing up belonged to a group that believed that angels sang each Christmas Eve to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. I’m not sure where this belief came from, as it really doesn’t make much sense to me… but the attitude that it brings is a wonderful one. You see, each Christmas, he would make a point of listening to the world around him, trying to hear angel song in the sounds that he heard. As he heard dogs barking in the background or the wind blowing through the trees, he would listen for harmony, he would listen to hear music. He was paying attention to the world around him, he was living in a way that expected God to do something powerful, something miraculous.

I don’t know if he ever heard angels sing. But I know that while he was doing this he was preparing himself to hear God in a powerful way. And if one of those miraculous works of God did happen, I’m sure he would have been one to hear it and to respond.

I remember paying attention very closely to the world around me on Christmas Eves as well. Growing up, we would regularly go to an evening service like what we are at tonight and as we drove home after worship my eyes would be scanning the sky, looking for a flying sleigh with reindeer pulling it. So, I wasn’t exactly listening for angel song, but I guess it’s a start.

But, what about you, are you living in such a way that if God started sharing his good news with you, you’d hear it? I’m not just talking about listening for angel song on Christmas; I’m talking about really listening to hear God speak in your life. I’m talking about allowing yourself to expect God to break into this world in a powerful and magical way.

I don’t know why, but it seems that it is a little easier to believe in this possibility at Christmastime. Perhaps it is the romanticism that Christmas brings. Perhaps it is the way that Christmas brings us back to our own childhood. Perhaps it is the traditions we keep. But at Christmas I find it easier to believe in miracles. At Christmas I find it easier to believe that God can work in real ways. At Christmas I find it easier to believe that God is with me. If he was with Mary and Joseph in Jesus, if he was with the shepherds as they heard the angels sing, if he was with the magi as they followed the star to Jerusalem, then Bethlehem, then perhaps he will be with me as well.

And the truth is that that is precisely what Christmas is about: God with us. The miracle of Christmas is that God was incarnate, that God was made man, that God lived among us as one of us. God was with Mary and Joseph in a powerful way on that first Christmas morning. It wasn’t some strange, nebulous, feel-good way that he was present. He was physically present to them as a newborn babe, wrapped in swaddling cloths and laying in a manger.

This is the good new that the angels sang about. This was such good news that they couldn’t contain themselves and they appeared in the night sky praising God in song in front of a group of shepherds.

So, can you imagine what it must have been like for those shepherds? Can you imagine seeing what it is they saw? What would you do if you had the opportunity to experience what it is that they experienced? Hopefully you would truly allow yourself to be changed by what it is that you saw. Hopefully you would find great joy in knowing the truth that God is with you in a real, palpable way. Amen.

Micah 4:1-5, Micah 5:2-5a "Heavenly Peace"

I'm going to begin this morning with words that are not my own. They belong to B. Francis Morlan and they are from an article written about the story behind "Silent Night"

The story has become yet another chapter in the book of Christmas legend.

The year was 1914 and soldiers on both sides of the battlefield somewhere in France were enduring a dark and frozen Christmas Eve night. World War I -- the Great War, as it was called -- eventually took the lives of more than 10 million people. But it is doubtless that the mostly-young men of that Christmas Eve were contemplating much more beyond their longings for home and warmth and family.

When soldiers on the German line placed candles on small Christmas trees and raised them above their trenches it touched the hearts of their enemies. These men -- thousands of them on both sides -- spontaneously began to sing the carols of Christmas.

What began in those moments became the legendary Christmas truce. Weapons were put down, men ventured from their fortifications and gathered in No Man's Land to make note of the season together. They exchanged small gifts after agreeing to a truce so that all could celebrate the season.

And so for a short period of time, no shots were fired. The following day, men who only hours before fought fiercely now stood side by side and buried their dead. Together, with heads uncovered, they held a service to memorialize their fallen comrades. Before departing for another frozen night in the trenches, a solitary voice began to sing Silent Night, in French. He was joined by another voice -- this one singing in German -- the words of a hymn known and beloved by all.

Together they contemplated ‘heavenly peace’.

-From “The True Story of Silent Night” by B. Francis Morlan

I. Micah and Peace

The book of Micah is an important book, for it prophesied the coming Savior who would bring about a world of peace. And yet, when we look at the world since Jesus came, I have a hard time seeing the peace that was prophesied. Nation rises up against nation and battle it out. Currently we are in another year of the great War on Terror. But even when nations are not attacking nations we see that our world does not have peace in it. For when we look around us on this day we see neighbors out to do each other in, we see broken families separated by hate and pain and loss we see everything around us but peace. Oh, don’t get me wrong. Often at Christmastime we do our best to pretend that this is not the case.

Back, where I grew up, there are a lot of woods. And as I grew up a lot of the woods were cut down, clear-cut. Now let me tell you that the hills and mountains can be so majestic with the greenery up and down them, but then you will come to some bald section where all you see is stumps and fallen trees and it is simply ugly. When a part of the mountain is clear-cut it takes a beautiful thing and makes it horrible, at least to look at. But I remember driving to one of the clear-cut areas when I was in high school after a snowfall, I think it was with my parents. It was no longer ugly. It actually looked pretty. The white snow covered all the ugliness and smoothed it out so it wasn’t jagged and all of a sudden something that had looked ugly to me now actually looked pretty good. That is usually how we define peace. We hide the anger and the warfare and put something over it so it doesn’t show up… but the ugliness is still there and as soon as the snow melts it will be back. This is what possibly, probably, happened that Christmas night in 1914. War stopped one night in some battlefields so that people could think of peace and pretend it was there before they got back to war the next day. This kind of peace is good. It helps people to stop and take a break and see a glimpse of what it is that we have to look forward to. But it is no heavenly peace.

You see, Micah 4 isn’t talking about a Christmas truce. What Micah 4 is talking about is a Christmas, the coming of a Savior, that will bring everlasting peace to all people and all places. What Micah is talking about is heavenly peace that is brought by the Prince of peace. What Micah is talking about has not come yet, though every now and then we catch a glimpse of it.

II. Jesus knew no peace

I began with a Christmas story that talked about the disconnect between what we celebrate at Christmas and what the world we live in is really like. As we looked at the soldiers who were to be fighting each other, they decided that, at least for one day, the hope of Christmas was greater than the reality they were living in. If you don’t mind, I’d like to tell another Christmas story now:

The king was worried. The people he ruled over were a pretty simple people, but they had deep-held beliefs, and they believed that a king would be coming who would free them from the rule of him and his people. This could not happen. The king even became more worried when a group of foreigners came and told them that the king had been born. What was this king to do. He turned to experts in the beliefs of the people he ruled over and had them tell him where this new king would come from. They scoured through their writings and prophecies and came across the scripture passage that we read this morning: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” Bethlehem, a mere six miles away from his throne in Jerusalem. Of course, this king we were talking about was King Herod and the people he ruled over were the people of Israel and the new king he was worried about was the Messiah, Jesus. And so begins a life on the run for Mary and Joseph and their young child, Jesus; as they flee to Egypt and then move back to Nazareth.

This Christmas story comes from the gospel of Matthew and isn’t quite as poetic or peaceful as the story we get in Luke where angels sing to shepherds about peace on earth. In Matthew we see that Jesus did not know peace himself at the time of his birth, but rather found himself fleeing with his parents to avoid being put to death by someone who was threatened by what it was that Jesus represented.

It is, perhaps, good and even a bit of a relief to know that the peace that Micah promised is not something we missed. It is not like Jesus brought about peace with his birth or with his life and since that time we somehow lost it or messed it up. No, the peace that Jesus is to bring has not come yet. The Prince of peace came to this world and the world didn’t want him and his parents had to flee with him just to keep him alive.

And I think that perhaps true, heavenly peace often finds itself in this situation. It finds itself having to flee because the world is just not interested in peace. I also think that perhaps this is why so many of the good Christmas songs are bittersweet. Think about it for a second. Yes, there are a few good ones that are upbeat and fun, but the songs that really catch you at Christmastime, both the hymns and the fun songs, often have an underlying sorrow to them. There’s I’ll be home for Christmas… if only in my dreams. White Christmas has the same melancholy flavor to it. And O Little Town of Bethlehem and What Child is This are two good examples of the traditional carols that are talking about something as joyous as the incarnation but do so in a sort-of sad way. I think the reason for this is that Christmas truly is a bittersweet holiday. It is a celebration of something amazing and wonderful and miraculous that happened. But it is also an acknowledgement that we still have something to look forward to. As we have spent this Advent season looking at Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah, we realize that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies to completion during his life on this earth… there is something more coming, there is something to look forward to.

III. Advent People

I like to refer to us, to Christians, as Advent people. We are looking forward to something in our world, in our lives, that hasn’t yet come. Tonight and tomorrow we celebrate one of the great mysteries of our faith: the birth of our God as a baby in a stable 2000 years ago. There truly is magic in the Christmas story and in the celebration of it. We catch a glimpse of the heavenly peace that Micah promises as well as the worship of the angels and, best of all, we get to see that God just refuses to do things in a way that would make sense to us. But Christmas isn’t the celebration of the end of the story. Neither is Easter. Jesus, in his incarnation, in his life and teaching, in his death and resurrection, was just beginning his work in this world. We trust, we believe, that we have something great to look forward to. Jesus is going to bring true, heavenly peace to this world! Christ is going to bring an end to our pain and suffering! As Advent people we don’t just spend this season looking back at what has happened, we don’t just try to catch the traditions of our parents and grandparents and try to make this Christmas like the one that we remember from our childhood. No, as Advent people we look forward to what is ahead. We definitely remember and celebrate the past, but we look forward to what God has promised. We live with expectation, with excited anticipation, with bated breath because we know that the first act was great but the finale will be truly glorious.

The hope that we celebrate this advent season is that we will know peace. The peace will not be an earthly peace but a heavenly one. It won’t be a peace that hides our differences and pretends everything is fine even though it is not, it won’t be a peace that is forced on people against their will. It will be a true peace, it will be an end to warfare between nations and between people. This is worth celebrating. It is worth trusting. It is worth praying for. So let us join with those who have gone before us and call out for Jesus to come and bring his peace to this world. Amen.

Malachi 3:1-4 "Refiner's Fire"

As many of you know, I’m into swords. I’ve got to say that one of the things I find most interesting about swords is the way they are made. You see, nowadays you can get a catalogue or go to a cutlery store and pick out a nice looking sword made from stainless steel. The swords are actually advertised as being stainless steel as if this were a good thing. The problem is that they aren’t really swords. They are decorative objects that are made in the shape of a sword. You see, the blades are just cut out of a piece of stainless steel. Because of this the swords are about twice as heavy as a sword their size should be. Yes, they look good, yes they polish up nice, but as swords go they are pretty much worthless.

But you can also find catalogues that have swords made in the real fashion. These swords are not polished and nice. You actually have to regularly oil them and maintain them so that the blades don’t rust. But these swords have been refined, they have been made in the traditional way, which means that they are lighter than the modern, stainless steel, equivalent and yet they are stronger. And the thing that makes them strong and light is the refining fire that they are beat out in. It is when they go through the fire that they get their strength. It is when they are refined that they become what it is that they are designed to be. The refining fire is what makes a sword a sword and not just a decoration. It is the refining fire that makes the Christian the Christian and not just someone going through the motions. You see, you can go through the motions, you can say the words, you can act out your faith and fit in with many other Christians. But it is only when you’ve been through the fire of your faith, when you’ve faced trial and temptation, when you’ve had to let it all out, it’s only then that you truly are the Christian you claim to be.

I. The Messenger

Today again we look at an Old Testament prophecy that talks about the coming of Christ. Today again we see that what was being promised isn’t exactly what we’d expect. Today again we realize that God keeps his promises to his people, though not really in the way that they expect or want.

The scripture begins by referencing a messenger who will prepare the way for God. This messenger refers to John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry on earth. He was about the same age as Jesus as we discover in Luke that Mary and Elizabeth were both pregnant at about the same time. But John the Baptist must have begun his ministry at an earlier age than Jesus because he was well known as a prophet and a preacher before Jesus began his teaching. John, the messenger who prepared the way for Jesus, is an important part of the story. He is featured in the beginning of each of the gospels. Mark, Luke, and even John really begin by talking about John the Baptists ministry or birth or purpose before they even come close to introducing Jesus.

John the Baptist is important, he is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he is the one who prepared the way for Jesus. And here in Malachi as well as in Isaiah 40, John is referred to as a messenger. His importance is in his message. And his message is one that was needed to prepare the way for Jesus. So what is this important message that begins each of the gospels, that allows the world to be ready for Jesus’ incarnation, for Jesus’ presence? Well, it’s described in slightly different ways in each of the gospels, but it is the same message.

Matthew says that John’s message was simply this: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Matthew says that “people went out to John from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” (Matt. 3:2,5,6)

Mark says that “John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Mark goes on to say that “this was his message: ‘After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’” (Mark 1:4,7,8)

Luke tells us that John “went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Luke 3:3)

The gospel of John doesn’t really tell us about John the Baptist’s message, but rather tells us that he testified concerning Jesus, the Word, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” (John 1:15) In the gospel of John we see that John the Baptist was all about taking the limelight off of himself and directing it to it’s proper place, to the Son of God.

So, what is the messenger’s message? It is really quite simple when you put the gospels together, for they are really saying the same thing. John’s message was that we need to repent for our sins and turn from them. His message was that we need to be baptized. And his message was that one greater than him was coming who would do things that he could not even imagine.

So, how did John prepare the way for Jesus? I think the first thought might be that he prepared the way for Jesus by telling people that Jesus was coming. This makes sense, but I’m not sure that it is really the part of his message that was preparing the world for Jesus. Rather I think it is the other part of his message that does so. The other part of John’s message is that we are called to repent and turn away from our sins.

II. Know the Need

John, in his call to repentance, makes us aware of our need for a Savior. I believe that I have described before what the meaning of the word repentance is. It is one of those church words that means some theological term and therefore loses some of its meaning because we have made it so theological. But repentance basically means to change your mind. It means to turn around and head the other direction. In the Old Testament, when the people of Israel were traveling to the Promised Land, they angered God and God told Moses that he was going to destroy them. Moses pleaded for the people of Israel and we are told that God repented of his anger and decided to give them a second chance. This doesn’t mean that God’s anger was a sin and he repented because he had been in the wrong. Rather it is saying that God changed his mind. He had decided upon a certain course and he chose to go the opposite way instead. Usually when we think of the call for us to repent we think that it means that we are to be sorry for our sins. But this is not repentance. It is choosing to turn away from our sinful ways and head in a different direction. And this is precisely what John the Baptist called for the people of his day, and also calls for us, to do.

John is telling us of the need we have. He is reminding us that we like to head off in wicked directions. He is sharing with us our need to repent. He is preparing us and our hearts for Jesus by reminding us that we need Jesus. John isn’t giving us the answer to the problem, he is just reminding us of the problem. He is reminding us that we are sinful beings, in need of a Savior. John’s message prepares us for Jesus’ message by bringing us to our lowest, by showing us how incapable of goodness we are by ourselves. John’s message, by itself is quite depressing, for it leaves us trying to turn from our sins and finding ourselves unable. But then Jesus enters the scene and meets the needs that John has reminded us we have.

III. Jesus, the Answer

John has prepared us for Jesus. And Jesus, through his incarnation, through his life and teaching, through his death and resurrection, offers us the path to true repentance. Jesus’ death and resurrection doesn’t make sense if you don’t understand our need for it as John shares it. John’s call to repentance is impossible to truly follow if we don’t have Jesus to live that out for us and sacrifice himself for us.

I want to go back to Malachi 3 again. You see, it begins by talking about a messenger who will prepare the way. But then it tells us that, “suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come.” This is a different messenger. This messenger of the covenant is Jesus himself. And his coming isn’t necessarily going to be the wonderful thing that we all look forward to. Let us continue in Malachi, “who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

It doesn’t sound like the most comfortable process, does it? And yet this is what we are told that Jesus is and does for us. Again, this only becomes the good thing that it is when we accept John the Baptist’s message that tells us of our need to repent. But when we do repent, when we do turn ourselves over to Jesus, we discover that he is a launderer’s soap, that he is a refiner’s fire. And this whole Christianity thing doesn’t seem like the most wonderful thing in the world after all.

But let me tell you about this refiner’s fire. You see, not only is Jesus the refiner’s fire, he went through it himself. At the beginning of his ministry he met with John the Baptist and he was baptized even though he had nothing to repent for. And at the end of his ministry he died the death of a criminal though he had done no criminal act. The refiner’s fire that Jesus puts us through; he went through it himself. He went through it and suffered and died for our sake so that we would not have to deal with the flames. Jesus took that fire upon himself, though he did not have to, and Jesus offers us salvation from our sins because of what he did. But then Jesus tells us that if we truly want to follow him, we are going to have to go where he leads? Jesus doesn’t promise us complete prosperity and ease of life. What Jesus does promise is a life that will have suffering in it, a life that will have difficulty, a life of pain and trouble, but a life that is good.

God always likes to twist things around and catch his people by surprise. He offers us a chance to follow him, but he tells us that this will be like sending us through a refining fire, like brushing us with a hard soap. But the difficulty, the fire, the soap will not be there to get us down or to hurt us. It will be there to make us stronger, to help us grow closer to him. If we pay attention to the message of John the Baptist, we realize our need for Jesus. If we accept John’s words we acknowledge our need for refining. And when Jesus comes and offers us a life of following him we discover that though this life may be hard, it is the most wonderful thing we can do to follow him. Amen.

Jeremiah 33:14-16 "Awaiting the King"

The holiday season is upon us. Actually, it’s been upon us for a while now. Last weekend, when we were in California, Lisa and I went to look at some baby stores to try out more strollers and cribs and things. Actually, more often than not, Lisa went to look at baby things with her sister and I found a bookstore to spend my time in. In the midst of this, we re-discovered the craziness of stores at Christmastime. At one point, needing to buy some batteries, I waited in line for twenty minutes just to ring up an order.

But I must say that all the hustle and bustle around the holiday season troubles me. It troubles me greatly. I think that as we run from store to store and shop to shop we miss the point of what Christmas is really about. Yes, it’s neat to receive gifts from those you love. It’s even more special when you find the perfect thing for someone else who you love that shows them how you care. But the gift giving and the decorations are really secondary to what we are celebrating on Christmas. Christmas is a time to celebrate the truth of Jesus’ birth. But that birth, for it to truly be the special thing that we long for it to be, needs to be seen in a bigger picture. You see, the people of Jesus’ day had been waiting for a Messiah for centuries. They had been expecting, longing, trusting that God would send a savior. What Christmas really is is a celebration of the fact that God keeps his promises.

I. What we Await

As we begin this season of Advent, I want to talk a bit about what it means to trust someone. You see, Advent is all about trust. Not directly. As we look at each of the four advent candles we discover that they call attention to different things that we should feel as we await the celebration of Jesus’ birth: faith, peace, love, joy, hope. For some reason, one I still don’t fully understand, the third candle, the joy candle, is pink. But when you move past these individual candles you discover that the advent season is about waiting. It is about anticipation. It is about celebrating something that hasn’t yet happened. Therefore, it is about trust. Trusting is believing in something though you don’t have proof of it. Trusting is taking someone at their word. Trusting can be hard. It can be particularly hard when that person has failed the trust before. If someone lies to you it becomes much harder to trust them. You can easily forgive them for their lies, but you will be less trusting of their words in the future. Thankfully, we have a God who does not lie to us, who is faithful to keep his promises, who deserves our trust completely.

This advent season we are going to be looking specifically at some Old Testament promises that God made to his people, Israel. We are going to see what it is that they awaited in Jesus. This advent season we are going to look at the bigger picture of the world that Jesus came into. Jesus wasn’t just another baby born to parents 2000 years ago. He was special, he was unique. Of course, you say, he was born of a virgin. But that isn’t itself what makes him special. What makes Jesus special is that he was the answer to a promise. God promised to send a savior to his people and he did, he sent his own Son. Again and again, in Jesus’ birth and throughout his life you will hear the words, “this happened to fulfill the prophecy.” Jesus was God’s fulfillment of a great promise. God made these promises to his people and he called for them to follow him and trust that he would keep his promises.

For the people of Israel, this life of trust was a long and difficult road. They went through much and waited and waited for a Messiah. In the scripture we read this morning we hear one of the promises that they are given in the midst of that long and difficult road.

“In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.”

No wonder the people of Israel were looking for a savior who would be a king and deliver them from their enemies. That seems to be what God is promising here. And yet, Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise. Jesus is the righteous Branch that sprouted out of David’s line. He is the one who did justice and righteousness in the land. How did he do justice and righteousness? By sacrificing himself for each of us. He saved Judah, Jerusalem and all the world; just not in the way that the Israelites were expecting.

God made promises to the people of Israel and God answered those promises in Jesus. But many of Jesus’ day did not accept Jesus as the answer to God’s promises because he was different than what they expected. I fear that we might have the same problem. We currently trust God and in doing so we have decided that we know how it is that Jesus is going to return. We take scripture and break it apart and come up with ideas about what it all means. But in the end, what we are called to do this advent season and throughout our lives is to trust that God will bring about his will in his time and his way.

II. Future Promises

We know that Jesus is going to return. In Revelation particularly, we have that return described to us. And, oh, it is described as a glorious return. He will return from the sky on horseback and the whole world will see him and he will bring his kingdom. He will create a new heaven and a new earth and we will live in his presence forever more. But sometimes we seem to think that we are just to wait until that kingdom comes. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” and we think that means that we are praying for the end of the world so that Jesus can return. But Jesus’ kingdom is more than that which we have to look forward to. It is here and now and we are to be sharing it with those around us. But where is it? We still don’t see it in the midst of the darkness that we find in this world. We still don’t see it because we are too busy running around trying to get all our Christmas shopping done. The kingdom is found where we find justice and righteousness. These are the things that uphold Jesus’ kingdom. These are the things that will show it so that we can see it. And it is also found in love.

So, lets not wait too long for Jesus to fulfill that promise. He has already begun to do so. And we are to be the fulfillment of that promise for each other and for the world, and even for the people of Israel. We are to live lives of justice and lives of righteousness. We are to live lives of love. This is how we will find ourselves as a part of Jesus’ kingdom. This is how we will find ourselves as a part of the promise.

We believe that Jesus fulfilled the promises that God made in Jeremiah. We believe that he answered the needs of his people. But we also believe that he continues to fulfill that promise. We also believe that the promise is for us and we can wait on the Lord to bring his kingdom to this earth. When you pray the Lord’s Prayer, asking God’s kingdom to come here on earth, know that you are a part of that kingdom. When you receive communion, Jesus’ body and blood, know that you are receiving a piece of the promise that God has made to you.

This holiday season, this Advent, I encourage you to step back from the busy-ness that you see around you. I encourage you to step back from the consumerism that we find in the stores. A great way to do this is to take a special time through the Advent season to sit down and spend with God. This last Wednesday night we made advent wreaths at the church. Many of you went home with beautiful wreaths and devotional books to take you through advent. I encourage you to sit down starting today and throughout the season with your family and take the time to celebrate advent. Light the candles and read the devotionals and remember that God keeps his promises. He kept his promises to the people of Israel by sending them Jesus and he will keep his promises to each of us. If you weren’t here on Wednesday night, I have more devotionals left, feel free to pick one up from me as you leave worship today. Let us spend this Advent season focused on Jesus and on God, the true promise keeper. Amen.

Romans 8:19-25 "The Earth Waits"

I. Preparing for Death

There is a show on The Learning Channel right now called “the Monastery”. In this show five people at different places in their faith, or lack of faith, agree to spend 40 days at a Benedictine monastery and you watch as the monastic life changes them. It is an interesting show, to say the least. In last week’s episode the group went out to a cabin about a mile from the monastery proper where one of the monks has lived as a hermit for the last thirty years. He spends his life praying and making rugs. The visitors asked him about what it is that he sees himself doing there. He responded by telling them that he is preparing for his death. One of the guys commented on how sad and depressing that was. Basically, he had spent the last thirty years of his life preparing to die. The hermit got a beautiful smile on his face and a distant look. He said, “You say that as if it were a bad thing. It will be a great adventure.”

This hermit, in spending thirty years in constant prayer, realized that he has something to look forward to. He is waiting in expectation for what comes next for him.

Today’s scripture tells us that the earth, the world around us, is waiting in expectation for Christ to return! The world around us longs for Jesus to come back. And I look at us as Christians, as Christ’s followers, and I realize that many of us do not share that same expectation and excitement.

The fact is that we, I, have too much going on in this world. We’re too attached to the world around us, too unwilling to let them go. I have again and again found myself saying, “Jesus, I’m ready for you to return; but not until…”

II. The Last Days

Did you know that the authors in the New Testament referred to the time that they were living as “the last days” or “the end times”? Now many Biblical scholars have said that the New Testament authors truly believed that Jesus would be returning within their own lifetime. These scholars say that since it is clear that Jesus did not return and it has been two thousand years now and Christ has not yet returned, that they were wrong to think that they were actually living in the end times. What is actually funny is that many of these same scholars will go on to say that though the writers of the New Testament were wrong in thinking that they lived in the end times, when we look at the world around us we realize that we must be living in the end times ourselves. Every generation of Christian has looked at the world around them and believed that they truly were in the last days, though those who had come before them were not.

But, you see, I believe, as many of you do, that the Bible is the Word of God and therefore when Paul or the writer of Hebrews refers to living in the last days, then they were actually living in the end times. But that means, then, that people have been living in the end times for almost 2000 years. It also means that we don’t know how much longer we will live in the end times. This means that we need to redefine our understanding of what the end times are. They cannot be a few days or years leading up to Christ’s return. They need to be something more. And that something more seems to me to be the fact that whenever the Bible talks about living in the end times it talks about having a great expectation for what is to come.

We are people of the end times. This doesn’t mean that Jesus will return tomorrow. He might, but we just don’t know. What it does mean is that we should be longing with our whole heart for him to return tomorrow.

III. Longing

When we look at the world around us; when we see famine and war and strife; when we see people turning away from God and his ways; what is our response to this world? Do we get caught up in the strife ourselves? Do we just realize that this is the way of the world and try to make do? Or do we join with creation in waiting in eager expectation for Christ to return?

Today’s scripture is about the world longing for Christ’s return. It tells us that the earth groans, that it is in the pains of childbirth as it waits for Christ. In the passage from Revelation that we read this morning we see that something great is coming. There is going to be a new heaven and a new earth and all that is broken and lost will be made new. The earth around us, like us, will have to die so that it can be reborn into a new earth that will feel no war again, no famine again, no pain or suffering again.

Do we truly feel the excitement of that longing for what is to come? Or do we allow ourselves to get so caught up in the world around us that we don’t pay much attention to the world to come?

I’ve read a few books about reaching out to today’s young. One thing that is mentioned in numerous books is that the “if you should die tomorrow” question doesn’t really work too much anymore. You see, people today aren’t very interested in what is going to happen when they get to the throne of judgment. They are much more interested in what God can do for them today, in the world. This actually makes sense. We as a world aren’t teaching our young to think about the life to come, and therefore they are much more interested in the world as it is today. And so, when we reach out to non-believers, we are encouraged to talk about how God can impact your life here on earth as well as focusing on what he will do for you after you die. But, the danger is that we could go too far in one direction. We could become so temporally focused, we could become so focused on this world today that we forget to wait in eager expectation for Christ to come again.

But let us look again at today’s scripture… “The earth waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the earth was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

As Romans usually is, this is dense and packed and confusing. But, as Romans usually does, it is saying something powerful. Because of sin, the world was subject to frustration. Because of sin, the world is in bondage to decay. But the world can look forward to liberation from this. The world can look forward to the glorious freedom of the children of God.

The world, the earth, and we who are in it, are living in the end times, the last days. What this means is that we are living in a place of already but not yet there. We are already the children of God. We are already saved, adopted into the family of Christ. We are already God’s followers, the body of Christ. But we are not yet complete, we look forward with hope to the completion of this in our lives.

We are called to look with eager expectation for Christ’s return. But we are also called to reveal ourselves as God’s children before this world and bring about God’s kingdom on this world. It will truly never happen until Christ returns, but as Christ’s body we are called to work towards it happening.

This means that as we look at the trouble in the world around us we can feel sorrow at what we see. It means that we can long with our whole heart for Christ to come again and bring an end to war, famine, hunger, sickness, evil. But it also means that we are called, as Christ’s body to work in this world today to lessen each of these things. We are called to be peacemakers. We are called as Christ’s body to bring an end to war. We are called to feed the hungry and the stranger. We are called to bring an end to hunger and famine. We are called to care for widows and the sick and those in prison.

We live in the end times. This means that we are already and not yet there. We long for Jesus to bring his peace to this world as we work in this world to bring about Christ’s peace. We know that we cannot truly put an end to the problems of this world, but we also know that God can and will work through us to bring healing to this world. The earth waits for the sons of God to be revealed. It is waiting for the end, where Christ returns and brings an end to the suffering it has faced. But it also waits for us, God’s children, to bring God’s love and peace to it.

So let us live with the same eager expectation that the earth has. And let us work in this world to be Christ’s body and bring Christ to those who need him. Amen.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 "Mezuzah"

Today’s scripture tells us to take the commands of God and bind them to our doorposts. Jews throughout history have taken that command very seriously. I want to read to you from a book about how they do so:

A mezzuzah [sic] (Hebrew for ‘doorpost’) is a cylinder of metal or wood put aslant on the right-hand doorpost of the house. Inside is a rolled fragment of parchment on which is a summary of the Deuteronomy command: ‘Remember God and love him with your all.’

Anyone going in our out is obliged to remember it and may stretch out their hand toward it, and kiss the hand. In such a house the whole course of life ought to be subject to the authority of God’s word.

A tale is told of a Gentile buying a house from a Jew, and noticing the mezzuzah, asking its significance. ‘This is a mezzuzah,’ the Jew explained. ‘Inside the case you see is a scroll on which are written the most sacred and holy words of the Jewish law.’

When the transaction was completed, the purchaser of the house was interested to see if the mezzuzah would be taken with the outgoing family. But no, the mezzuzah stayed, and every day he saw it on his way in or out, until finally his curiosity would hold no longer. With a small screwdriver he removed the case, opened the tiny parchment with trembling fingers, and read:

‘HELP! I am being held prisoner in a mezzuzah factory.’

(From Celtic Daily Prayer by the Northumbria Community, pg 542-543)

It seems that the mezuzah is a great way of following the letter of the law without getting to the point of the law. Hopefully people living in a house with one do pay attention to the words inside it. Hopefully they do allow themselves to recite the beginning of the great commandment every time they touch the mezuzah, but my fear is that they might just allow themselves to go through the motions. I mean, what is the point of having the words written on your doorframe if you never look at them.

But I’m not attacking the Jews or the custom of the mezuzah here. I think it’s a beautiful thing. And how many of us do the same thing. We have a Bible or maybe even multiple Bibles throughout our house, but we never open them up and read from them, learn from them, allow them to change us.

Let us open in prayer

I. Inspired for What?

We are taught that the Bible is the Inspired Word of God. It says so in 2^nd Timothy 3:16. “All Scripture is God-breathed (or inspired) and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” In seminary, as we began to study the language that the Bible was written in, Greek, we discovered something interesting and quite a powerfully different way to read this scripture. It’s all about the word “and”.

You see, we usually read it as “All Scripture is God-breathed; period. And all Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking… etc.” When we read it this way we assume that the word and is separating two separate thoughts about scripture. But there is a much more interesting and more accurate way to read it. The word “and” could be separating the words “God-breathed” and “useful” All of a sudden this scripture takes on a deeper meaning. All of a sudden it is saying, “All Scripture is inspired by God for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness and all Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

What is the difference? Well the first reading allows us to set the Bible down in our houses and keep it closed and feel that we are honoring it just by having it on display somewhere. The second reading forces us to open up the Bible and spend time in it and allow it to do in us what it is inspired and God-breathed to do.

Saying that the Bible is inspired is letting ourselves off the hook. Saying it is inspired allows us to argue with people in the culture war about the importance of the Bible without allowing the Bible to impact our own lives. But when we say that it’s inspired to do something, we then force ourselves to open the Bible and spend time with it and allow it to change us to our very being. This is what Hebrews talks about when it tell us about the power of the Word of God. And this is why Deuteronomy 6 tells us to take God’s commands so very seriously.

II. What do we do?

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

I find this passage in Deuteronomy to be powerful and yet interesting. You see, there is something left out of this list of the things we are supposed to do with the commandments. It never tells us to obey them. Now, there are other places in Deuteronomy where it is made clear that we are called to obey the commandments, but that is not the focus of this group of verses. God wants us to obey his word, but, truthfully, that is just not enough for him. Now you could say that maybe God is asking for a bit too much, I mean, obedience is hard enough, now he expects us to spend time talking about his word in our homes and on our journeys. I mean, who is this God? What, does he expect our lives to revolve around him or something? Well, yes, he does. Just a little further down in Deuteronomy 6, in verse 15 we are told that God is a jealous God. I must say that that is not the normal thing that I think of when I think of God.

The words that come to mind when I am thinking about God usually are: loving, just, good, Father, righteous, holy, Almighty, all-knowing. But jealous? I’ve got to say that that is an interesting one. And it doesn’t only appear here. Last Sunday, when we read from Joshua 24, the same thing was said about God. He’s a jealous God. He expects us, his people, to be faithful to him.

Well then, it’s a good thing that we’re a New Testament church. Since Jesus came, God gave up his jealousy, right? Jesus came to forgive our sins so we no longer need to worry about being faithful, right?

Well, not exactly. It is true that the word “jealous” doesn’t come up in describing God in the New Testament, at the same time it is made clear that God has a certain expectation for his people. We are called to stay true to him and be faithful to him and put him first.

And so we are told that we are to spend time with God’s word and with God’s commandments and we are to work to get to know God as best we can.

But today’s scripture isn’t about obeying the commandments. It’s about sharing them with your children and teaching them and using them to teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteousness; just like it says in 2 Timothy. We are to raise up our children with scripture. We are to find opportunities to discuss what it says around the table at home and when we are journeying. When we lie down to go to bed, we are supposed to discuss the scriptures and also when we awake. The scripture isn’t telling us to think about the scripture when we lie down. It’s telling us to talk about them.

Our scriptures are not me-and-God. They’re not private. They’re to be shared with those around us. Private time with God is important, but it cannot be the only part of your faith. Worship is good too, but the sermon format is very one-sided. I stand up here and preach, and lecture. There is not much time for discussion. Yet it is often discussion over scripture that truly brings out depth. When people see scriptures from each other’s perspectives they are able to see something new and wonderful.

III. Physical Faith

And then today’s scripture makes this importance of the scriptures something physical. “Bind these commandments as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

You see, physically acting out something gives it more weight and makes it more real to many of us. My sister once went skydiving; something I’m not sure I’d be terribly comfortable doing. She tried to describe to me what it was like. The description was lost in the translation. It didn’t make much sense to me. Then she showed me a video that was taken of her and her friend as they jumped out of the airplane and fell, screaming, towards the earth. I got a much better idea from watching her skydive than she could tell me. But, to truly understand what it is like to skydive, I’d really have to get in an airplane myself and then jump out of it. Thankfully, there are some things in life that I don’t feel that I need to truly understand, and skydiving is one of them.

If someone tells you that scripture is important to them, that’s one thing. Okay, you have to take their word for it. But you might not really understand what it’s about. Now, if you visit that person’s house and run across a mezuzah in their doorway or see a dusty Bible on their bookshelf, you will take them more seriously because they are physically showing their commitment to the commandments. But if they then begin to share with you about the scripture that is so very important to them, if they begin to engage you in discussion about what it means to be a follower of Christ, if they are living out the faith in their own lives, then this is how you will truly come to understand what it means to take the scriptures seriously.

So, how seriously do you take God’s scriptures? The fact that you are here today tells me that you’ve already come through that first group. You’re someone who claims to take scripture seriously. That’s a good start. I would imagine that most all of you have a Bible at home somewhere. How often do you open it to read its words? That’s the next step. But let us follow today’s scripture even more by finding time to spend discussing scriptures with each other. Let us focus on sharing God’s truth with our children and our families and our friends. I’m not talking about being obnoxious with God’s truth. I’m talking about discussions with people. I’m talking about asking questions of those around you about what they think a scripture is trying to say. I’m not talking about preaching, I’m talking about having conversations about God. It can make for some of the most interesting conversations you could imagine. And you will discover that not only will you learn things but God will use you to teach others things as well.

So, let us take God’s inspired word seriously. Let us realize that when we are told that it is inspired, that doesn’t mean that it’s holy and needs to be put in a place of honor somewhere in our house. Instead let us ask what it is that scripture is inspired to do and let us be about the business of doing that very thing. Amen.

Joshua 24:14-18 "Joy in the Service of God"

I. A Choice is Given

Today’s scripture is one of those places in the Bible where things are laid out so very clearly that it is hard to miss the point that is being made. But let me set the scene for you anyway.

The people of Israel had spent generations as slaves in Egypt. God sent Moses to them and they were delivered from that life of slavery. They wandered for forty years in the wilderness as the generation of slaves in Egypt died away and their children grew. Then God brought them into the Promised Land. After having wandered their whole lives, they were now entering a land that was to be their own. People who should have defeated them in battle inhabited it, but God was with them and again and again, they were victorious in ways that proved to them that it was God delivering this land to them. And now, they were ready to go and settle this land, and Joshua, Moses’ successor and their leader, gathered them together and gave them a choice.

He starts out by telling them to “Fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness… But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.” And then comes Joshua’s great pledge of faith and faithfulness, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

The people are given a choice by Joshua and by God. Are you going to serve the God who has been so faithful to you or are you going to get caught up in your surroundings and follow other paths. The people, resplendent in the glory of their victories, pledged to serve God. They were at that high point where God was so very real to them and they knew for a fact that they could practically see him. So they pledged to serve him completely.

But the story goes on past what we read this morning. Joshua doesn’t believe the people. He knows how fickle they can be. He continues on, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

The people respond even more vehemently, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

Joshua responds to this by basically saying, “God’s going to hold you to this. You claim a lot in this time of joy, but God is going to remember your promises in times where it is harder to follow him.”

II. Easy Faith / Hard Times

You see, there are times in all of our lives where it is easy to have faith. There are times that we all have where God is so very clear to us and so very real. I went through a time like this in high school. I was a part of a prayer group where powerful things were happening. I was at a place, spiritually, where I felt that I could actually feel God’s Spirit within me. I thought that faith was easy because it wasn’t faith. I believed in God because I felt him. I knew he was there and therefore it didn’t take any faith at all to believe in him. It was during this time that I truly decided in my own life to serve God. I had been a Christian long before this, but it was during this time that I truly felt the call to ministry and decided to accept the call.

But this certainty of God did not remain. In college I began to question my understanding of God. I never really questioned him, but I didn’t any longer trust my ability to sense his call. There were a couple things that led to this, some of them academic and intellectual, some of them personal and relational. Academically, I began to read Biblical study that I didn’t necessarily agree with. And I discovered that some of it was as reasoned and logical and spiritually sound as what I believed. Oh, there are people out there who are attempting to tear down the Bible and its message, and they are easy to dismiss when you see where they are coming from, but there are people who are equally passionate about following God’s will in their lives and yet they see that following God in a completely different light than I do. And their reading of scripture is just as legitimate as mine.

And relationally I watched myself attribute my own feelings and emotions to God and claim that God wanted something that in truth I wanted. I found myself using God as an excuse to do what I wanted. And I realized that as I did this I did not realize that I was doing this. I realized that I could no longer trust myself to sense God, my own emotions got in the way too much… but I still longed to serve him.

And so faith became something new to me. It became something different. It became surety of what we hope for and certainty of what I could not see. I could no longer see God’s call on my life, I hoped it was still there, but I wasn’t sure. There is a concept that has entered Christian theology. It comes from a 16^th century priest. The concept is that of “the dark night of the soul”. It is that time in your spiritual life, that time in your walk of faith where it seems that God is not with you. It is that time of wilderness where God seems to have abandoned you. Often, in Evangelical circles, we are told that this time is not supposed to be a part of the spiritual walk, but in truth, when we look at God’s followers in the Bible they each go through it. There are times in our lives that God seems distant, unknowable, unreal. These are the times where faith is really needed. These are the times where we truly need to decide whether we are going to stay faithful to the promise we made to follow God.

And as I felt this dark night of the soul in my own life, Joshua’s choice was put before me once more. Do I serve God or do I serve the distractions that this world puts around me?

III. Joy in Service

Joshua calls for us to serve God even when it is not easy. He encourages us to be faithful to a God that will not always seem to be faithful to us. He tells us to trust God even when God doesn’t seem trustworthy, or at least, when we don’t seem capable in trust.

But there is something more to Joshua’s choice as well. He isn’t just calling for us to have faith. He isn’t just asking us to believe in God. He is looking for service in our lives.

How do you answer Joshua’s choice? Are you ready to serve God? You see, we don’t necessarily see it here in Joshua, but there is good news as well. There is joy when you commit to serve God. There is peace when you find yourself serving God in whatever way you can.

I don’t know why, but we so often don’t allow this joy of service into our lives. I think it might be because of fears we have. During my time of questions and unknowing, I didn’t mistrust God. I mistrusted myself and other Christians. I didn’t think we were capable of truly knowing God and his will. I doubted myself and this kept me from truly finding the joy that is serving God. But there are other doubts we have when it comes to serving God.

A song by a Celtic Christian group, Eden’s Bridge, poetically asks these questions: What if I am too small? What if I am too weak? What if I should lose my way? What if I cannot serve? What if I cannot give? If I fail who will be there for me?

We not only question ourselves, we question God. We don’t necessarily trust that he is great enough to make up for our weaknesses. But God is and he will.

Perhaps we choose not to serve God not out of fear but out of busyness or because we already have too many other commitments. And so I put before you the same question Joshua put forward: Who are you going to serve: the God above or the gods of this world? Saying that you are too busy to serve God is putting a god of this world before the Lord. Saying that you are too weak or small to serve God is saying that you don’t trust God to be with you. But when you show God trust and when you put him first, you will discover a wonderful gift from God. You will find a joy in the service. You will find that God is strong enough to make up for your inadequacies. And you will find yourself used in ways that you never thought possible.

Today is All Saints Sunday. It is the day that we especially remember the saints who have gone before us. I think they can be the best example of people who found joy in the service of God. They faced hard lives and worked through difficult times and yet they chose to follow God and serve him. And it is so much their examples to us that have grounded our faith so well. And they found a joy in their lives as they turned them over to God and lived out lives of service. We can only hope that we might be the same kind of examples to those who come after us.

There is joy in the service of God. If we take Joshua up on his choice and choose wisely; we will find a joy that we did not know existed. I encourage you to discover that joy for yourself by finding ways in which you can serve God in your own life: be it at church, at your job, in your family. Open yourself to the possibility of service of God and watch as he makes opportunities available to you. Amen.