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.
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