Proper 19B Pentecost 17B 15th September 2024
A couple of old
sayings come to mind in talking about this week’s readings. The first one that comes to mind is; “Don’t
through the baby out with the bath water” - We are saved by faith and not by works, but
don’t throw that works baby out – it has a purpose. We prove our faith by our actions. Do people know that we are people of faith by
the things we do? The second old saying
that comes to mind is, “Don’t put the cart before the horse.” In other words, remember that we ARE saved
by faith and not by works and the faith comes first.
Our first
reading comes from the book of wisdom and is subtitled in some Bibles as
“Wisdom’s rebuke to the foolish”. I
can’t help but reflect on the many things in our modern life that I think are
so obviously foolish as I read this passage, and yet those things I think are
foolish, many other good people do not. And
here is the warning, as scripture tells us; Who can discern his own error? We all do things because we think we are
right and correct. So, how do we
discern? How can we know if we are in
error?
To discern
truth, we need a plumbline. Something to
measure against. Here is where we need
to start. What have we decided is the
plumbline and where do we find it? The
wisdom reading calls fools, “scoffers”.
These are those who scoff at the word of the Lord. We read; “I will pour out my thoughts to
you; I will make my words known to you.”
GOD desires for us to know HIS thoughts.
God wants us to live an abundant life.
We are all His creation and He cares for us. He is not trying to test us, and he
understands that we sometimes get confused and don’t understand, therefore He
offers us ways to understand and know HIM… and He does this through his word
and through nature.
God loves us
and wants for our good, absolutely and beyond any shadow of a doubt. Last week, I shared that you are God’s
favourite… the kind of partiality that God has, and the only kind that we
should emulate, is that like my mum’s friend who, at a family wedding, went to
each of the Grand children and whispered, “Gran told me that you are the
favourite”. We are as precious to God
as if we were the favourite – both you and me… and others. God wants us to prosper and gives us this
life as a gift. The very first gift that
we often overlook is life itself. God
brought us into being, knit us in our mother’s womb and formed us. He gives us life. Jesus had something to say on this matter; “those
who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my
sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” When we have faced the reality that we need
Jesus and we then live our lives for him, we see things differently… we find
our plumbline.
God speaks
to us and desires for us to hear him, but we often fail to hear. When was the last time you savoured a
sunset? That was God saying, “I love you
and made this moment for you to know how much I love you.” It is told to us this way in our Psalm; “The
heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his
handiwork. Day to day pours forth
speech, and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of
the world.”
Even nature
tells us about God. But we need
sometimes to stop and listen, but even that, in isolation, will not lead us to
truth, but points to it and perhaps confirms the truth. (Creation scientist
would have a lot to say about this and I do recommend you do some of your own
readings from creation scientist about how creation does indeed testify to the
voice of God). In fact, there is a key to hearing God’s voice
and discerning His truth and it has been popping up in our readings quite a bit
in this season, and it pops up again in our readings. It is the phrase; “The fear of the
LORD”.
Previously
I’ve spoken about how the fear of the LORD is not like a horrible terror…. but
it is a word, “Yirah” which implies respect, reverence and worship. One writer explained that it is like that
feeling you would have as you stood on the edge of a majestic cliff, looking
down at the wonder of creation… that feeling… towards God is Yirah… the fear of
the LORD. In that, is the understanding
of the majesty of God, and there needs to be a humility and submission by us
toward God.
When we live
our lives, acutely aware of the majesty and greatness of God, surely, we will
keep his commands. This is where the
saying, “the horse before the cart” comes in.
We can tell people to follow God’s commands, but without the “fear” of
the Lord, or some kind of revelation of God’s majesty, they will not do
it. However, when we respect, revere and
understand the majesty of God, we should naturally follow God’s commands… and
if we don’t, we truly are foolish. In
fact, you can’t truly revere God and then break his commands. Although… we do. How is this possible?
For a long
time now, the Christian church has lived in the knowledge of the Mercy and
Grace of God. Saint James wrote to a
church who understood the mercy and grace of God. They knew that they were saved by God. They knew that they were loved and accepted
by God. And they knew that this wasn’t
because of anything that they did, but only because of God’s goodness… they
understood that they were God’s favourite (we could say), however, they forgot
the majesty of God… the fear of the LORD… the Yirah. … and they threw the baby
out with the bathwater… so to speak. They realized that God’s commands were not
to earn their way to Heaven, but they forgot that the commands of God exist for
their own good.
This is the
same for us. The commands of the LORD
are for our good and for the good of our world.
There are SO many contentious political issues at present, and I wonder,
if we, as Christians, really had YIRAH, would these issues have become the
issues that they are today? Are we
throwing the baby out with the bath water?
We are saved by Jesus, but not because of anything that we do, however
when we truly grasp the majesty of God, we prove our faith in God by keeping
his commands, knowing that they are for our good.
In our
Gospel reading Peter made a declaration; Jesus is the Messiah. Peter is affirmed by Jesus for this statement
and then goes on to explain that Jesus was going to suffer and die. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. Peter’s idea of what the Messiah would be,
was different to the reality, and Jesus responds, “Get behind me Satan!” We can be well intentioned, chosen and loved
by God, and still be doing the work of Satan, unless we are constantly in
submission to God. After all, God is
God. That is the plumbline.
Peter
thought he was doing a good thing in rebuking Jesus. I suspect that in the mind of Peter, Peter
was the guardian of Jesus. He was well
intentioned, but Jesus declared him to be doing the work of Satan. Here is a huge warning for us all and a cause
for us all to ponder. In our own lives, living
mercifully, and with an understanding of the grace of God, are we well
intentioned, but inadvertently promoting the work of Satan? Are we compromising instead of actually
living in submission to God and seeking him and his truth?
There are a
number of warnings in today’s readings.
In James’ letter we are told that even the demons believe in God – And we
are urged to live lives that testify that we belong to God by our actions and
deeds. In our first reading we note the
warning that when we deliberately continue to not to keep God’s commands and do
not fear the LORD, then when calamity happens and we call out to God, He says
that he will not answer. We are saved by
Grace…. We don’t need to DO anything to be saved, because Jesus has done
it. But now, let this faith be proved by
our actions. Jesus told his followers that if we want to follow him then we
need to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.
We have a
Gospel that is truly Good News, and the way to abundant life. We are saved and
accepted into the Kingdom of God simply by faith, but God has a purpose for us
in this life and it isn’t to test us. It
is to bless us and the community, and the nations. This happens through God living in, and
through us. If the world out there
thinks that God is dead, then it is because we have not taken up our cross and
followed Christ… and we are not allowing God’s blessings to flow because we are
simply being people of faith, and not people who show our faith by our deeds. God has more for us to do and the blessings
will over flow when we realize and walk in all that he has called us to. It won’t always be easy… the cross may be
heavy… but the blessings will far out-weigh.
May our pray
for this week be; Lord, send me where you would have me be a blessing. Give me courage to bring your love to this
world you died to save. Let us truly
offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. Amen.
The
summons; Shout to
the Lord; Change my heart oh God;
Breathe on me breath of God; Here I am Lord
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