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 the
warning 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. It is our hearts that can be led astray, such
that the thief can break into our hearts and blind us from the things of God.
This happens all the time.
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 we need to deal with, and we think that we will get back to what God has
called us to do after we’ve dealt with these things. I would never advise anyone to do anything
different, but before these things happen, be aware and praying for
protection, because this is how the enemy works… while we are busy taking care
of those things, the call of God becomes increasingly more distant. Throughout those times, we need to be
bringing those 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 through every tough time as we will 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 how the enemy works… there is an element of assurance because of
the rituals, but God has always said that we are justified by faith…. In other
words, it is our hearts towards God, that matter.
You may have 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 believed in God, prayed to God. Kind of made God to be into an image that
suited them. Much like the false Gods to
whom you gain your reward by some action, these are people are 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 the prophet’s message was to get their attention and to cause change. The point of the message was for the people
to change their ways. In fact, the
reason for the harsh message is God’s mercy.
God saw that they 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. We
need to seek justice, but I have noticed some activities that need warning… we
still need to examine ourselves with God’s searchlight. Is it more about being seen to be seen and
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 Dr Jereth
Kok, 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. Many of these 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 it is worth
examining our motives, because it just might be that we’ve made those
activities 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 these activities 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 go because we want to prove how good we are. We need to be going where God leads us 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, other-wise, we are also simply 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.
It needs to be our faith that informs all our actions. Faith is being SURE of what we hope for, and
it is being 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 that are important. In the
Kingdom of God there is mercy and 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. Just like 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.
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