Chosen and called to set free Proper 16 Pentecost 11 year C 24th August 2025

 2025  08  24  Proper 16 year C     Pentecost 11

Jeremiah 1:4-10      Psalm 71.1-6        Hebrews 12.18-29       Luke 13.10-17

When does God start to love us?  When does God first call us?  These are probably things that we don’t really think about, but today we find the answer in God’s message to Jeremiah.  Before God formed us in the womb, God knew us and called us.

 

Jeremiah had a revelation via the word of the Lord.  This revelation is like the loving arms of a father, embracing his son and lifting him on to a pedestal.  Jeremiah needed this confirmation of his call because his role would be a tough one of great importance.  He would foretell of the captivity of the kingdom of Judah, and he spoke of a divine restoration coming from the line of David.  Perhaps we too, need a revelation and confirmation that God has called us.

 

There’s a hymn that tells us a little about the revelation of God through the message of Jeremiah; “God of Jeremiah, Grieving with an aching heart, For an empire, Unbelieving as it falls apart.  When Your thunder goes unheard - We will tend the prophet's word, And in season, out of season - We will sing Your song.”  There are a lot of words in this song that probably need stopping and thinking about. While there was a strong message from Jeremiah, in it we sense the love of God and the grief of God.

 

Did the people listen to Jeremiah?  Some did, but extra Biblical traditions tell us that Jeremiah was eventually stoned to death for his prophecies.  In season and out of season, will we tend the prophet’s words and sing the song of God’s message?  It was out of season for Jeremiah.  He was not appreciated for his words, yet he was God’s chosen prophet, who accurately passed on the message of God and his prophecies about going into exile came to pass.   God did not allow Jeremiah to be put to shame, however, in that moment Jeremiah was ridiculed and shamed in the eyes of men…. and then God had the last word and proved him right….  But Jeremiah was gone….  His word and message live on. 

God strengthened Jeremiah for the task by giving Jeremiah a sure vision of his calling…  An understanding of God’s perspective and Jeremiah knew and knew that he knew that God was with him.

 

Do we know that God has called us?  Each one of us, God chose before he formed us in the womb.  We may be called to different roles, but for certain, God has chosen us.  He particularly formed and called each of us individually and calls us together as a church.  We need to ask God to show us, just as he showed Jeremiah, that we have each been so particularly created for his own purpose.

 

What is it that we are called to?  Jesus knew his calling and he told the people; when he read from the prophet Isaiah; ““The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”.  It is because Jesus knew this that he had no questions about healing on the Sabbath.  He was releasing the oppressed.  (working to save life was above other laws).

 

The main reason people give for not submitting to God, is that God allows bad things to happen.  We seem to have no answer, and yet the answer is simple.  God longs for us all to be healed.  He created us to be well, but we are no longer in the Garden of Eden…. That is the reason.  Mankind chose to go their own way, and God respects our free will….  God told Adam in the Garden of Eden, if you eat of the fruit, you will die.  We spend so much time debating what this or that is really about in the word of God that we sometime complicate what is really simple.  Our world is fallen because mankind are fallen.  But God completely loves us still, and has made a clear path back.

 

Notice the compassion of Jesus compared to the Pharisees?  The Pharisees accept pain and disease as a fact of life.  They have little sympathy for the woman.  Jesus shows that he understands the extent of her suffering when he says,  ”ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" 

 

In our story, the lady didn’t ask for healing.  Jesus saw her, had compassion and declared out loud, that she was healed.  The lady had been bound by Satan for 18 years.  Sometimes we dismiss the part that Satan has to play in our suffering, but Jesus has no trouble in clarifying that it is not God’s will that this lady is suffering.  We as mankind, unwittingly gave allegiance to Satan when we turned from God.  Sin entered the world and so did suffering.  Now, we accept suffering as a given and often as part of our identity.  Perhaps we too need God’s vision and God perspective on this and perhaps this is why Jesus calls out to her that she is healed.  She couldn’t possibly imagine herself well.   Her state had become part of her identity, who she was, but Jesus came to set the oppressed free.  He reminds them this woman is a daughter of Abraham – a daughter of the promise.

 

There is a Spiritual world and there are spiritual laws that are part of that world.  We turned from God.  We may well be saying to ourselves, “that is not fair, it wasn’t me in the garden of Eden.”  But have any of us not sinned?  In many ways that seem so insignificant, we all make the same mistake; we choose selfishness and think that we know better than God.  After all…. What is a piece of fruit from just one tree?????

 

Our reading from Hebrews explains that God gave the law at Mount Sinai.  We are told that this law brought death.  God was revealed on Mount Sinai and we note that in His awesomeness none could stand.   Mount Sinai was to reveal the perfect nature of God and make it clear how “fallen and human ” we are and how “perfect and God” God is.  The Law on Mt. Sinai revealed just what was needed to live a life that really was good and acceptable to God, and how no human could - not a single person could ever keep the law -  except Jesus.  And yet God loved us so much that he also continued to make ways so that we could connect with him and in some way come to know him.

 

Hebrews tells us; “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,

and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

 

Those ”righteous made perfect” will be you and me one day.  Somehow, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has enabled us to enter into the promises of God and God now counts Jesus’ righteousness as ours.  The sacrificial system of the Old Covenant was like a parable for what Jesus would accomplish.  The best way to make this clear is to read or watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  The young boy, Edward, unwittingly gives allegiance to the witch and there is then a price to pay….  Aslan, the Lion pays that price …. A life for a life.  However, in Jesus, ALL of our lives are bought back.  We are baptised into Jesus….  We unite to him… In communion we show that we accept his sacrifice… we partake in it by taking the bread, which he said was his body given for us.  We accept his life in the wine, which is the blood shed for the forgiveness of sin.  In doing this we unite with Christ.  God the father accepts us as his chosen and perfect son.

 

God also sees us as healed and set free.  Yet we live in, what some have said as “Saturday”,  The in between time….the Good News is now and yet not yet.  God has saved us, and does heal us, and we live in the time of promise, but the full fulfilment is yet to come.  Not everyone is turned back to God, and we are still living in this fallen world.  We are waiting for the time when even creation will be redeemed (as scripture tells us in in Romans 8:22 “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”).   The fullness of this promise will be when Jesus comes back again and reigns over the earth.

 

In the meantime, lets pray for God to show us our true identity and his call on our lives.  One thing that I’m very sure of is this; Our vision of our selves and our lives in the Kingdom of God is way smaller than the reality and I believe we need to ask God for a divine glimpse.  1 Corinthians 2:9 tells us “No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no one’s heart has imagined all the things that God has prepared for those who love him.”

 

It is a glorious adventure that we are on together.  But remember that one thing we do know is that we are the body of Christ and Christ proclaimed the Good News to the poor, set the oppressed free, etc…. Where Christ is, there we must be too…  praying for healing, declaring the word of God in and out of season, but also being involved in practical ways of setting people free…  We loved, called and blessed so that we might also be a blessing and bring knowledge of God to our world.

Faith in God, our treasure in the Kingdom of God 10th August 2025 Proper 14C Pentecost 9C

2025   08  10    Proper 14 C   Pentecost 9 Ce

Isaiah 1.1. 10-20     Psalm 50.1-8, 23-24    Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-16     Luke 12.32-40

 

Following on from our story last week about the rich man who built bigger barns and put his faith in his wealth instead of God, is our exhortation this week to make the Kingdom of Heaven our focus and treasure, and to always be prepared.  Jesus explains it this way; “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet,..”  On the surface being always prepared feels exhausting.  Possibly, this is because I have visions of “being prepared” meaning, meal preparation and cleaning etc… as if preparing for an event.  But this preparation that Jesus is talking about is different.  It is, firstly and foremostly, about preparing our hearts such that our hearts can’t be led astray – so that we don’t let the thief can break into our hearts and blind us from the Kingdom of God

 

At a conference that I attended on prayer ministry, it was impressed on us, the importance of praying God’s protection over all aspects of our lives.  The reason being, as soon as we begin to step out into God’s call, things come along to distract us.  These things are usually important things that need out attention, and we think that we will get back to what God has called us to do after we’ve dealt with these things.  We can’t neglect those things, but before the distraction happens, be aware and praying for protection.  The scheme of the enemy is to get us to a point where we neglect God… and then reject God.  Throughout all times, we need to be bringing our cares to God and keeping a Kingdom of God perspective.  Not only will this help us keep God’s call front of mind, but it will help us to see God’s miraculous provision at work in our circumstances, and we will understand, through the experience, God’s all-encompassing love for us.

 

Isaiah lived around 740-700 BC.  At this time Judean life was prosperous.  Isaiah paints a picture of the religious duties being carried out by the people.  They were doing all that was prescribed and offering sacrifices to God.  They were partaking in the rituals.  On the surface this was a nation committed to God.  Their actions showed that they belonged to God, but their hearts were not in it.  This is another way that the enemy works…  there is a sense of assurance because of our actions in the form of rituals, traditions or even good works, but God has always said that we are justified by faith…. In other words, it is our hearts towards God, that matters.

 

Have you seen movies showing the religious commitment of the Mafia?  This is what comes to mind for me when I read Isaiah’s words about the people performing their sacrifices but God knows their deeds and says; “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.”  These words were to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and as he begins, he addresses them as the rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Do you remember those places?  They were so depraved and immoral that God destroyed them, and this is how Isaiah gets their attention.  Can you imagine it?  He wasn’t pulling any punches but striking hard!

 

Those in the Mafia believe in God, pray to God, but make God into an image that suits them.  Much like the ancient world’s false Gods to whom you’d gain your reward by some action.  These are people, so confident in their own power and control that, they think they can control God.  Can a group of people, so hypocritical in their faith, ever come to God?  The point of Isaiah’s message was to get their attention and cause the people to change their ways.  In fact, a harsh message is always God’s mercy.  God saw that the Jews were hurting each other and themselves in the path they were on.   It is easy to explain these goings on using the analogy of the Mafia, but what does it say to us?  Are there areas where we feel confident and comfortable in all that we do, believing ourselves to be good, but have we missed the heart of God’s message?

 

Isaiah urges the people, “learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.  …..”  Isaiah says this, not to the Mafia, but to a group of people who were going through the motions of their faith, doing their religious duty.  It has come to light that there are “Professional Protestors”.  Those who spur others on and get on board each and every cause.   I’m not sure that this is what God means about caring for the poor etc…  So we are challenged to examine ourselves with God’s searchlight.  What is our action achieving?  And are we acting because of God’s calling, or do we have another motive? Might we be falling into the same hypocrisy as those to whom Isaiah was speaking?   

 

There are some somewhat invisible people volunteering to get up at 5:30am on a cold winter’s morning to help Orange Sky feed people, and there are those in danger of losing their jobs to speak the truth about babies born alive and left to die.  Now, we can add to the list Christian doctor, who has been found guilty of professional misconduct, but not for harming patients, but for posting Christian views on social media, costing him his medical licence.  These people  have nothing to gain and lots to lose, but they act because of the spirit of God moving in them.

 

Our Street Chaplains aim to be good Samaritans, but they are asked in training at times, to examine their motives.  Doing good is always good, but we examine our motives, because it just might be that we’ve made actions into our own kind of ritualistic way of feeling good about ourselves, while neglecting the real impactful actions that God really requires of us.  Sometimes our Good Works can lead to self-righteousness, meaning, we forget that it is only through our faith in God that we are saved.

 

For us, as the people of God, there is a call to show our faith by our actions, but there is a fine line.  We don’t do Good Works because we want to prove how good we are.  We do Good Works because of God giving us his own heart.  We go where God leads, because his Spirit is in us and we know his heart for those matters, and so we go where he calls us.  God is first and foremost and our actions flow from him.  otherwise, we are also forming empty rituals, that serve to make us feel like we are good, (pat on the back and a clap, clap, clap), but are not actually doing what God requires of us.  Our faith informs all our actions.  Faith is being SURE of what we hope for, and it is CERTAIN of things we can not see.  To paraphrase many verses in the Bible, it is our faith that saves us, not our works.  Those people to whom Isaiah prophesied were counting on their works to save them.  Good people who do good works, might make the mistake of thinking that they will get into heaven by their good works.  The Bible also says that without faith it is impossible to please God.   Faith in God!  It is because Abraham believed God that God credited it to him as righteousness.

 

In the Kingdom of God, it is GOD FIRST, and love and relationships with each other next.  In the Kingdom of God there is mercy, love and life.  God gave us free will because he wants us to freely choose to love him.   We choose His kingdom, by choosing a relationship with God, through Jesus, or we freely choose not to.  We wouldn’t go to live in a stranger’s house, but we have the key to our own home or our family home, where our loved ones also live, so too we can only live in God’s Kingdom through relationship with him.  The choice is ours, but we can’t get into this kingdom without that relationship, and the key is faith.  The price that Jesus paid by his life, death and resurrection is beyond what any of us could ever achieve.  Faith in God, acceptance of Jesus is the only condition of our salvation.

 

Faith…. What is it?  I have faith that a chair will hold my weight.  My faith is part of the reason I sit in the chair, but if the chair is worthy of that faith, it will hold me.   God is more than able to hold us.  We look at those great people of faith, who trusted in the Kingdom of God, and we see that they experienced the faithfulness of God in their lives and reached a point where they knew their faith was SURE of things hoped for and CERTAIN of things unseen.  Faith might be a leap to begin with, but only because we are just beginning our understanding of God.  He is faithful.  He is reliable.  He is good.  His Kingdom will have no end.   His kingdom is full of people who care for the widows and the orphans, and the subjects of his kingdom seek justice.  That is why we must too – not because by doing that we earn a place in heaven…. We can never earn that place by our deeds, but we do these good works because this is who we are; we are a royal people, royal children of God with a duty to the Kingdom of God, who carry out these works because we have the heart of God, and the Kingdom of God taking root and baring fruit in our lives.  Our treasure is our Salvation and the Kingdom of God.  It is not just tomorrow, but it starts now, just as soon as we say, “Yes”, to God and walk in the reality of His Kingdom come.  We are prepared by continuing to walk in this way. .. Loving God first.