sermon - What Does Require?

“What Does God Require?”

            Over the summer, we have journeyed through our Scriptures one covenant at a time.  Our God is a God that connects to humanity through a relationship.  With each of these covenants, God gives a promise to the people:  God will never again destroy the world through a flood, God will bless Abraham and his offspring to be a blessing to others and promises them a land, God gives the law to guide God’s people in living holy lives, God promises that David’s throne will be over an eternal kingdom, and in Jesus Christ, God promises to forgive our sins and love us with abundant grace.   

            In each generation, the people of God had to discern what it meant for them to be a people of the covenant.  Would they trust in God’s promise?  Would they choose to live holy lives?  Would they follow the law or worship the idols in the cultures around them?  A life of covenant was not easy for God’s people and again and again they fell away from how God called them to live. 

            In the first passage we heard today, the prophet Micah declares that God does not desire sacrifices that are being made with empty meaning.  The people have fallen into rote behavior, they do what they do because that is what they have been told to do.  The “why” behind it has been lost.  Why do we sacrifice to the Lord?  Do we do it because that is what God requires?  And so the prophet proclaims, that God desires this people of the covenant to do justice, love kindness and to walk humbly with their God.  This is the “Why” behind being a people of the covenant not sacrifices.  God connects to God’s people in order for God’s people to be compassionate, to be justice oriented, to be kind, and to walk in the ways of God. 

            What does God require of us?  The rich young ruler had the same question.  He came to Jesus and asks:  What must I do to have eternal life?  Basically he is asking:  What does require of me to be saved?  And Jesus responds to him with the Law, the covenant given through Moses.  And the rich man responds, yes, I have been doing these things since I was a child.  Then Jesus takes it a step further, and tells him to sell his possessions and give everything to the poor.  And the man goes away sad because he has great riches. 

            What does it mean to be a person of the covenant?  Does it just mean to have faith and trust in God?  In today’s world, that may sound like enough of a challenge.  Does it mean just be a good person and follow the rules?  Or does it require more of us?  We believe that in Jesus Christ, God’s promises have been fulfilled and we proclaim that in the sacrament of communion Jesus gave us the new covenant, the cup of salvation.  As a covenant people are we to just gather and break bread and share the cup together?  

            God works with God’s people through the gift of the covenant.  What does that mean for us in today’s world?  What would Jesus say to us if we were the rich young ruler that asked:  What must I do to inherit eternal salvation?  Would Jesus say:  Just believe in me?  Would Jesus say:  Go and sell your possession and give to the poor?  Would Jesus say:  love your neighbor?  What would be the response to us? 

            I came up with a huge list of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. 

·         We are to drop everything and follow

·         We are to abide in Jesus and bear fruit for God

·         We are to Go and make disciple

·         We are to Go into the harvest and labor

·         We are to deny self and take up the cross

·         We are to be like children

·         We are to feed, clothe, visit, and heal the least of these

·         We are to be a blessing

·         We are to forgive each other

·         We are to be obedient

·         We are to be peacemakers

·         We are to be salt

·         We are to be transformed

·         We are to be like the teacher

That is a rather large check-list. 

If I had to use one piece of scripture to summarize what it means to be a people of the covenant given to use through Jesus Christ, I would use 2 Corinthians 5

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^[d] not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

           

In Christ, God has given us eternal forgiveness, not just eternal salvation.  We are forgiven and we are to be a people that lives out forgiveness.  Loving one’s neighbor is to live in such a way that it exudes forgiveness.  To be a people of the covenant, we are to be agents of reconciliation in the world.  Just as God brings us into God’s presence through Jesus, we are to bring God’s love and grace to others.  We are not to judge others, but simply show them God’s love.  As a people of the covenant, God is working through us.  This is a holy and sacred task, one we should not take lightly. 

In a small church, what does it mean for us to be a people of God’s covenant?  Do we feel we are living into God’s purpose for us?  Is there a “Why” behind who we are?  If we are gathering to worship without a why, then we are empty.  If we gather to worship because we love God, desire to praise God, and desire to be a people of the covenant, then we start to answer our “Why”.   Through New Beginnings, you all named your why as:  Partnering with our community near and far to joyfully spread the message and love of Jesus.  As agents of God’s reconciliation, you all have a mission to partner with others, such as Roxbury Social Services, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Habitat for Humanity, the Rec department, Faith Kitchen, and Family Promise.  They cannot do what they do without the support of others, and we do what we do because:  We partner with our community near and far to joyfully spread the message and love of Jesus. 

I want us to let go of our financial concerns, committee responsibilities, and even our historical presence in this community and really think about what it means for us to be a people of the covenant.  What does God require of us?  A people called by God to be agents of reconciliation in the world, ambassadors for Christ.  In the book:  When the Saints go Marching out, Art Beals states:  pg. 3

            So good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal heaven?  What does God require of me?  Of us?  But to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.  What does God require of us?  To be a people of the covenant, to be agents of reconciliation, to be ambassadors for Christ.  Let us continue doing what we do, focused not on the doing, but on the “Why”.  We do what we do as Ambassadors for Christ, agents of reconciliation, people of the covenant.  Amen.  

Sermon: God is FUN

“God is FUN”

            So, most of you know, that three weeks ago I traveled with 200 plus high school youth and adults to Indiana to attend a youth conference called Triennium.  42 of us were from Newton Presbytery and over 4,000 of us gathered for five days of worship, play, prayer, conversation, and mission.  I am going to steal the theme of one of the sermon’s that we heard while there.  The pastor told us:  God is FUN.  Well, when you are gathered with over 4,000 youth, I expected her to take a few jabs at how boring church can be for our young people and how a life of faith with God does not mean being bored or being boring. 

God is FUN and when you worship with 4,000 young people, worship is FUN too.  There was liturgical dance, there was dramatic interpretation of scripture including a giant puppet type of figure of Moses.  There was praise music with guitars, drums, and a keyboard.  No hymnals, no Bibles, everything was up on the screens and the kids actually lined up early to get into worship.  One of the youth from Newton presbytery said: Pastor Carie, I know how to get young people to church, we need to buy these led lights.  Worship is bigger than life: lights, beach balls, kids dancing, Christian Rock music blasting, iphones used as flames in moments of sacred response.  Worship was FUN.

The direction I thought this pastor was going to take, is not the direction she took.  She did not take a jab at our current style of traditional worship, she did not push the button on how, yes, boring, young people find worship.  Instead, she shared three important statements about God.  God is FUN: F – God is Forgiving, no matter what we do, no matter how hard we fall, no matter what mistakes we make, God is forgiving.  She talked about King David and how he really messed up with Bathsheba and instead of dealing with his mistake he tried to cover it up and only made it worse.  David made a mess of things, but God is always forgiving, and God forgave David. 

The Sunday before I left, we examined the covenant God made with King David: that the throne of David will be an everlasting kingdom.   Because our God is a forgiving God, through David comes the Messiah, who we proclaim is Christ Jesus, and that his is the promised Kingdom, the Kingdom of God.  If God was not forgiving, if David had messed up so badly, then God would have had to have designed God’s plan for the Messiah to come to God’s people.  Our failures are not the end of God’s work in us and through us. 

God is FUN and F is for forgiving.  U is for Understanding.  God understanding.  I honestly can’t remember her example for this, but God understands us.  In Jesus Christ, God enters our world, and lives out our lives.  God understands us, God created us, God is present with us, in our joy and in our sadness, God understands us.  This ties right in with my Covenant Sermon series.  God understands us and that is why God creates these covenants, God wants to be a part of us and wants us to be a part of God’s beautiful plan on our we can live together in community.  God gives us covenants as a way to help us understand God and God gives us signs to these covenants because God understands us and knows we need reminders. 

Today, we celebrate the sacrament of Communion.  God understands us and God meets us in our humanity, giving us these reminders of bread and cup, reminding us that we need sustenance for our daily lives and sustenance for our spiritual lives.  People are so hungry: we are hungry for success, we are hungry for love, we are hungry for acceptance, we are hungry for things.  God wants us to be hungry for God, to be hungry for our spiritual growth, for our faith development, and God wants us to hunger for justice and peace in this world.  There is hunger everywhere and God understands us and provides us this holy meal to feed us, to sustain us, to remind us that we are to be fed upon God’s forgiveness and love and that we are to go and be God’s servants of justice and peace. 

We are fed to then go and feed others, we are feed to go and then love others, we are fed to go and then name the injustices that are caused because people are filling their hunger with the wrong things.  God is understanding, God understands us, and in the life of Jesus we are given the directions, the tools, to understand the hurts of the world around us. 

God is forgiving, God is understanding and God is N -never too busy.  We live in a world of business.  I’ve always said, I don’t want to be one of those pastors where people feel they cannot come to me to talk because they are afraid I am too busy.  Sorry, pastor, I don’t want to interrupt, I know how busy you are…  God is never too busy, and we should not be either.   Again, I can’t remember the preacher’s example she used on this, but if we, as a people of faith, use a spiritual lens in which we view the world, we can name all the ways in which God is at work in us, through us, and around us.  In Oct. the presbytery will be hosting a workshop on announcing the Kingdom of God.  This workshop will be giving us hands on ways to name where God is at work in our lives and in the world around us.  God is never too busy, and if we have the eyes to see, we can name all the ways in which God’s love is breaking into this world. 

I’ll share one of the many God moments that happened while at Triennium.  One of our youth had an injury and found it difficult to do all the walking that we needed to do.  I just happened upon her when it was time for our next event to start.    The golf carts that they had to transport people was not available, so she did not know what to do.  I stayed to sit and talk with her while Pastor Rebecca went on to the next activity.  As Rebecca was walking, she just happened upon a cart not transporting anyone – so she sent it to us.  When it arrived, they would not transport our youth unless an adult over 18 was with her.  If I had not stayed, and had walked on with Rebecca, the cart would have been sent but she still would not have had a ride.  God moment?  We can ask that, and I will respond, absolutely yes.  God is never too busy.  God moments are all around us if we are able to see them. 

So, the question I have to ask is, why are we too busy for God?  We do we just try to squeeze in church?  Why do we commit to other activities but not to the One that is never too busy for us?  And maybe it is that we don’t really understand how much FUN God really is.  Maybe we don’t really understand the covenant life we are supposed to be living in God’s embrace. 

I don’t think the answer is as simple as making worship more fun but rather, reconnecting to what the covenant really means for us and our modern lives.  For over four thousand years, God has been connecting to humanity through covenants.  God has been connecting to humanity through human leaders, kings, prophets, and a messiah.  God has been connecting to humanity through forgiveness, understanding, and never being too busy.  God hears us, God is present with us, God feeds us, God meets us in every one of our needs. 

But what does the covenant mean to us?  Is it enough to just be a people of faith, or do we need to be a people of the covenant, a covenant of love that God proclaims in Jeremiah will be written upon our hearts?  And if we are a people of the covenant, what is it we are agreeing to be a part of?  Are we willing to be more than just individuals that gather together but rather, a faith community, a people that worships together, learns together, and serves together?   The main theme of Triennium was:  Go.  We came to Triennium to learn about God and we were sent home to Go.  To go and serve the world in the places of injustice, hurt, loss, and oppression.  But we cannot Go alone, we must Go together, together with our congregations, together with other people of faith, together as people of the covenant.  So remember, God is FUN – forgiving, understanding and never too busy, and we are called to be fed through the sign of the covenant of communion and then we are to Go together and serve.  Amen.