Sunday, Sep. 17, 2006

Pentecost 15

Isaiah 50:4-9 (NLT)

The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know what to say to all these weary ones. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. ⁵The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I do not rebel or turn away. ⁶I give my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pull out my beard. I do not hide from shame, for they mock me and spit in my face.

⁷Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be dismayed. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will triumph. ⁸He who gives me justice is near. Who will dare to oppose me now? Where are my enemies? Let them appear! ⁹See, the Sovereign Lord is on my side! Who will declare me guilty? All my enemies will be destroyed like old clothes that have been eaten by moths!

Ps. 116

Mark 8:27-38 (NLT)

Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"

²⁸"Well," they replied, "some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets."

²⁹Then Jesus asked, "Who do you say I am?"

Peter replied, "You are the Messiah." ³⁰But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹Then Jesus began to tell them that he, the Son of Man, would suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the leaders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, and three days later he would rise again. ³²As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and told him he shouldn't say things like that.

³³Jesus turned and looked at his disciples and then said to Peter very sternly, "Get away from me, Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's."

³⁴Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. "If any of you wants to be my follower," he told them, "you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. ³⁵If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life. ³⁶And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? ³⁷Is anything worth more than your soul? ³⁸If a person is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in the glory of my Father with the holy angels."

Sermon:  Leadership: The Power To Bless and Curse

An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession.  Like many young men, the boy didn't really know what he wanted to do, and he didn't seem too concerned about it.

One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment.  He went into the boy's room and placed on his study table three objects:

A Bible, a silver dollar, and a bottle of whiskey...

"I'll just hide behind the door," the old preacher said to himself, "and when he comes home from school this afternoon, I'll see which object he picks up.  If it's the Bible, he's going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be!  If he picks up the dollar, he's going to be a businessman, and that would be okay, too.  But if he picks up the bottle, he's going to be a no- good drunkard, and, Lord, what a shame that would be."

The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son's footsteps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room.  He tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table.  With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them.

Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm.  He picked up the silver dollar and dropped it into his pocket.  He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink.

"Lord, have mercy," the old man whispered, "he's gonna be a Congressman!"

 We are continuing our series of teachings on the important building blocks of the Christian faith.  Last week we started in the Garden of Eden and looked at the doctrine of Original Sin. 

            In fact we are going to be spending a good bit of time in Genesis.  My favorite New Testament professor in seminary, Dr. Wagner, told us that Genesis is the most important book in the Bible.  If you don’t understand what is going on their, God’s purpose in creation, the fall of mankind, and the plan of salvation that God immediately begins to orchestrate in response to man’s sin, if you don’t see the patterns that are there in Genesis, you won’t understand anything else that follows.

            So, let’s continue.

Last week I gave you a handout with some blanks to fill in.  We walked through the whole subject of human sin.  There are some more copies in the bell tower if you didn’t get one last week.  As for filling in the blanks, the sermon has been posted on our web site with the blanks filled in.  Check it out.  If you don’t have access to the internet, by all means call me and I will be glad to go through it with you. 

            We covered a lot of material dealing with the whole subject of human character, so let’s take a little more time to look at this.  I want to step back a little here and look at what was going on between the serpent and Adam and Eve.  Let’s read it together. 

READ:  Gen. 3:1-5

            Did you hear what the serpent is doing?  His bending and twisting of the truth leads finally to a monstrous lie which he states as casually as though it were a universally known fact:  “You will not surely die.  You will become wise, like God, knowing good and evil.” 

            Reminds me of that joke where the woman says:

 “My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn't.”

            One of the best Bible commentaries I have ever read is Walter Brueggeman’s commentary on Genesis.  I think he has this whole story of the fall of mankind absolutely nailed!  This is what Brueggeman says about the role of the serpent in this story:

            “The prohibition [not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] which at first seemed a given is now scrutinized as though it were not a given, but an option.

The serpent engages in a bit of sociology of law, in order to relativize even the very rule of God.  Theological and ethical talk is used here, not to serve but to avoid the claims of God.

            “God is treated as a third person.  God is not a party to the discussion but is the object of the discussion.  This is not speech to God, or with God, but about God.  God has been objectified.  The serpent is the first character in the Bible to seem knowing and critical about God, and to practice theology in the place of obedience.”

Question:  Do you ever find yourself in the company of people who do that, people who like to talk about God, but you don’t get the sense that they spend much of their time talking to God?  _____________

What is the result?  When you get into that kind of discussion, where does it usually lead?   (usually avoidance of God’s clear command, or a questioning of God’s motives or character)

Question:  Do you ever find yourself talking about God instead of to God?

What is the result?  _______________

            I think Walter Brueggeman makes another absolutely essential point about this story:

            “The matter of death had been mentioned in 2:17 by God.  But it had not been the main point.  [God’s instruction] was not a threat, but a candid acknowledgment of a boundary to life.  But the boundary is now altered to become a threat.  It is transformed into a terror which puts everything else in question” [including the word of God].  (And here is the extremely important point that Brueggeman is making)

“It is not God, but the serpent who has made death the primary human agenda.”  

Question:  Do you ever hear people ask, “If God is good, then why do such bad things happen to good people?” 

How do you answer?  ______________________

Question:  Why are there earthquakes, and hurricanes, and floods, and droughts?  Why is the earth so violent? 

            How do you answer?  _________________

READ:  Gen. 3:17-19

The earth was cursed because those who had been given authority over the earth (the man and the woman) had brought the curse of sin into their realm.

 Do you see what this story has to say to us about our responsibility in leading the whole creation? 

            That’s right.  This is a story about leadership.  It is about authority given to us by God, and how the misuse of that authority has gone outward from us to the entire creation. 

I want to make a statement here, and I want to ask you if you can agree to this:

The earth is in a state of violence because it has been subjected to an evil presence which it was not designed to handle. 

            As someone has said, “Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.” But not by its own choosing.  We did that.  And we pass it on from generation to generation. 

            Have you ever heard of the psychological concept of “projection”?  I don’t mean this thing up here (projector) but it’s the idea that we project our own interpretation of reality onto situations, or people.  It’s a powerful idea.

            For example, we project the image of our human parents onto God.  Our earliest concept of God is usually taken from what we saw in our parents. 

            Wow!  No wonder an entire generation of Americans, see God as being so overly indulgent of His children, so much more concerned with being their friend then being their disciplinarian or even their coach, so laid back and permissive, as to be completely without judgment.  Or, without standards. 

            But that is merely our projection.  If we listen to what the Bible says, we can avoid the trap of being limited to seeing only the god of our projection, and we can begin to see the True God, the Living God, the God who has a plan to bring us out of our fantasy world, back into the clear light of His reality.

Will you turn now from Genesis to Romans

READ:  Romans 8:19-25

            This is the revelation that St. Paul received, and passed on to us.  God gave us authority over the earth.  The earth was not cursed by God, but by us.  The earth does not want to hurt us.  It has no choice.  It is in violence now because we brought violence upon it.  So the earth “groans” in “travail” like a woman in childbirth. 

But here is the real mystery of sin.

            Even though we brought sin into the world, we cannot now get sin out of the world.  Sin is like a “Pandora’s Box.”  Once you open it, you cannot close it.

            And so our only hope is to look to One who is greater than we are, One who does have power of all of creation, and even over sin and death.

            We must look to One who can bridge the barrier between heaven and earth, One who can stand on the earth as a Child of God with all of the rights and authority that comes with that, and at the same time, One who has not been corrupted by the stain of sin.  But the mystery reaches even further than this.

            The One who comes to save this lost humanity, this violent planet, must be willing to lay down His own life in the task of releasing the captives.  The only power strong enough to break the death curse that we put on the earth is the power of a pure, holy, and completely self-sacrificing Love. 

            IN A WORD:  PERFECT

            It reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw once: “Next time you think you’re perfect, try walking on water.”

            There is only one Person who fits that description.  Jesus Christ. 

            And now, so you will know that you belong to a church which does have a true and faithful biblical foundation (if anyone would pay attention to it.)  

            I want to ask you to set your Bible down and open the Prayer Book to page 848.  Let’s take a look at what our Catechism says about this very same subject. 

            See the heading there, “Sin and Redemption”

Let’s read it together.  I’ll read the questions.  You read the answers. 

Sin and Redemption

Q. What is sin?

A. Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.

Q. How does sin have power over us?

A. Sin has power over us because we lose our liberty when our relationship with God is distorted.

Q. What is redemption?

A. Redemption is the act of God which sets us free from the power of evil, sin, and death.

Q. How did God prepare us for redemption?

A. God sent the prophets to call us back to himself, to show us our need for redemption, and to announce the coming of the Messiah.

Q. What is meant by the Messiah?

A. The Messiah is one sent by God to free us from the power of sin, so that with the help of God we may live in harmony with God, within ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation.

Q. Who do we believe is the Messiah?

A. The Messiah, or Christ, is Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son of God.

ONE MORE QUESTION:  Have you accept Jesus Christ as YOUR Messiah, Savior, Redeemer?  Have you asked Him to come into your heart and live His life in you and through you?  If not, there’s no time like the present to do it.  Let’s pray the “Sinner’s Prayer”. 

            It’s a prayer as old as the church, but it has never had a precise formula, only an outline of the basic content.  It goes something like this.

1. Confession.  “Lord Jesus Christ, I confess to You that I am a sinner.  I cannot save myself.  I ask You to forgive my sins.  By the power of Your blood freely offered on the cross, save me from my sins.

2. Invitation:  “I ask You to come into my heart and be the Lord and Ruler of my life.  I need You to be the center of my life so I can live as God intended. 

3. New Birth:  “Lord Jesus, I ask You to fill me with Your Holy Spirit.  Empower me and equip me for the ministry You created me for.”

4. Faith:  “Because I have asked by faith in the Son of God, I believe and know that I have received.  Thank You, Lord Jesus, for forgiving me, renewing me, filling me, and making me a child of God.”