Rev’d Jonathan Gale
Isaiah 49: 8 – 16a
Zion’s Children to Be Brought Home
8 Thus says the Lord:
In a time of favour I have answered you,
on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant to the people,*
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages;
9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’,
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
They shall feed along the ways,
on all the bare heights* shall be their pasture;
10 they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
11 And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
12 Lo, these shall come from far away,
and lo, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Syene.*
13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his suffering ones.
14 But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me,
my Lord has forgotten me.’
15 Can a woman forget her nursing-child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
1 Corinthians 4: 1 – 5
The Ministry of the Apostles
4Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy. 3But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. 4I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.
Matthew 6: 24 – 34
Serving Two Masters
24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.*
Do Not Worry
25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,* or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?* 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God* and his* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
What is the agenda of God?
It is surely to rescue a creation broken by sin
But this rescue is so much more than the salvation of our souls. It involves the recreation of earth, its renewal, and ultimately the loving rule of God on earth.
What this means (loud and clear) is that God cares for us. It means he takes an interest in every single thing we do because everything we do has an impact on ourselves, others and his creation and he is the Lord of all. There is nowhere we can hide from God. There is nothing that we do that is not known to God.
And God does not take the Marxist approach of the end justifies the means (as in kill these people now because ultimately it will be for the good of the Peoples Republic of Whatever) No! God’s loving care is evidenced in his dealings with us in every aspect of life. Everything.
The problem God has (which is also his greatest opportunity) is that we have free will. That free will makes mutual, voluntary and therefore meaningful love possible but it also makes sin possible
God of course has found a way round that through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
It was David who said By Thee have I run through a troop and leapt over a wall. (Psalm 18: 29 and 2 Samuel 22: 30). David had picked up one of God’s strategies. You don’t run through a wall. You find a means of getting over it, and in the work of Jesus he did just that. In Jesus God paid the price for our sin.
So what is God’s agenda? It is what has become known by some Public Theology theologians as human flourishing. Jeremiah 29: 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Or as we heard Isaiah say this morning, 9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’,
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
They shall feed along the ways,
on all the bare heights* shall be their pasture;
10 they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’, No one can be fed and watered safely if they remain hiding in the back of the cave. You first have to reveal yourself,
9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’, Coming out into the scrutiny of the light is always uncomfortable, but it is only frightening if there are things we are trying to hide. That gnarly old heresy of Gnosticism says it’s the salvation of the spiritual part that is important. Flesh is inconsequential so you can do what you like as long as the eternal bit of you is saved.
This, says the Gnostic, is because spirit is good and matter evil.
‘Rubbish!” roars God. I made every single aspect of creation and every aspect is good. Every aspect of your life will be saved, restored and made beautiful in Jesus, but you have to come out first and expose yourself to the searching light of God so that you may be healed.
So stop parcelling off your life in little sections and presenting one bit to God, another bit to your friends and another bit to yourself. Integrity is about integration, where it all is consistent, transparent, trustworthy, and given over to God. All of it.
Faith and I have, with mixed success, been farming Monarch butterflies. A fraction of the eggs laid make it to caterpillar, chrysalis and finally butterfly stage. The reason is the presence of wasps. A relentless supply of hungry wasps bent on disrupting the process at all stages of development.
Buy even if the odd butterfly does emerge it has to pump up its wings and expose them to the light of day before it can function. If any bit of the wings remains crumpled and hidden from the searching light of day, the butterfly can’t function. There is a world of feeding, flying, breeding and laying of eggs out there to enjoy but for that to happen everything needs to be exposed.
When Moses was informing the tribes of Gad and Reuben that they had a duty to help their brothers west of the Jordan river, he said,
23But if you do not do this, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 23: 32)
In this case it’s not so much your sin will find you out as it is they’ll miss out on all that is good from God. 9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’,
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ Because it is then that They shall feed along the ways,
on all the bare heights* shall be their pasture;
10 they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
Some people get nervous when they come across the Gospel passage that includes the words It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God – or from this morning’s reading, You cannot serve God and wealth.* What? You think you’re wealthy?
Hah!! You don’t know what wealth is.
I began today by asking what the agenda of God was, and stating that It is surely to rescue a creation broken by sin. But that this rescue is so much more than the salvation of our souls. It involves the recreation of earth, its renewal, and ultimately the loving rule of God on earth.
As Paul says to the church in Corinth, But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2: 9)
God has the most glorious future prepared for them that love him. The idea of hiding aspects of our lives from God in case we are depleted by exposing them, is sad. And it’s sad because it’s mistaken.
Because you’re not going to miss them if they are taken. God wants us to flourish. If we are blinded by sin into thinking God intends to deprive us, we need to expose ourselves to the light that we might be healed, our understanding restored and the wonder of God’s provision made ours abundantly.
In parts of Africa they capture marauding baboons by hollowing out a gourd (or pumpkin) which they allow to dry hard and strong. They carve a smallish hole into it and chain it to the ground, after placing in it some fruit. You can guess how the rest of the story goes. The baboon squeezes his hand in and gets hold of the fruit. His balled fist now can’t fit back through the hole. But he will simply not let go, even as tribesman with spear in hand approaches. He’s that sacred of losing the fruit, even though he has his life to gain.
Let go of the inconsequential. Ask God what is preventing you from exposing your beautiful wings to the light – wings that God wants to see pumped up and ready for action.
Emerge from your hiding place. Give yourself over to God. He has a wealth of healing joy to share with you.
I’ll end with Jesus’ words from Luke 6: 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Amen.