Isaiah 35; John 14.15-24
Good Morning, and God’s peace to you.
It’s good to be here with you again.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to share with you in the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ, to think a little bit more about the world in which we live, the challenges and the gifts, the sorrows and the joy, the hurt and the opportunity.
It’s a big world out there … and we’re not so big ourselves … but size doesn’t matter when it comes to the church of Jesus Christ … it’s not the building, it’s the heart … it’s not the money, it’s the faith, it’s not the numbers, but the love.
With you this day, I celebrate your life, just as it is.
You have everything you need, right here, right now.
You have the people to do the work of God.
You have the Holy Spirit to guide.
You have good music, music of the soul, music to bless.
You have a building, a kitchen … you have children eager to hear of God’s love.
You have all that’s needed to be faithful to Christ.
To make a difference.
To be the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
I celebrate you this day.
I give thanks to God for the blessings of God’s peace.
The goodness of God’s love.
The hope that we have.
And the love that binds us together into the fellowship of faith, the company of the saints.
And that’s big.
That’s really big.
When this sermon was coming together, I wanted to think with you a little bit about “bigness” … how God takes the measure of someone’s soul, how God measures the work we do, and how we often use the wrong measuring stick to measure what we think is big.
We live in a world where bigness is worshipped.
Human beings are so easily misled … misled by their eyes.
Remember Adam and Eve?
They looked at the forbidden tree and thought, “That looks good.”
The eye can be misled by glitz and glamour, by power and glory measured by human standards … the fast car, the big house, the expensive yacht … from the Tower of Babel to the Towers of Trump … glitz, glamour, power and wealth.
That was one of the temptations put to Jesus … all the power and glory of the world … and then Devil’s tag line, “To get it, all you have to do is bow down and worship me!”
And to that, Jesus said a resounding, “No!”
How big is big????
In the kingdom of God.
Size matters only for vanity … vanity, vanity, all is vanity, says the writer of Ecclesiastes … we do well to heed those words, lest we be misled and deceived by our eyes.
Remember when Jesus and the disciples were in Jerusalem … the disciples oohed and awed over the Temple; they said to Jesus, Look at these big stones and all these large buildings.
Jesus said to them, “Who cares? Who cares how it looks, how big it is, and how rich it is. It isn’t going to endure; it won’t be here for long; it’s all going to be thrown down and destroyed.”
Vanity … is a problem … for the church of Jesus Christ in America.
American christians want to be big.
And when we’re not big, we’re envious.
We talk about that megachurch down the street … how big are its buildings, how many people are in attendance … envy sets in, envy wrecks us … no wonder The Ten Commandments end with envy:
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
What happens when we envy?
We no longer count our blessings.
We doubt the goodness of God.
We try to copy what others are doing.
We want what they have.
We want a big church, too.
I know … I’ve been there!
I know what envy does to the soul.
A soul impressed with size.
A soul dazzled by success …
These days, much of the church in America has been led astray by the temptations of wealth and happiness, success and power, big buildings, big crowds … and expensive shoes.
“Expensive shoes?” you say?
Yes, expensive shoes …
I recently came across an Instagram page called @preachersneakers … featuring celebrity preachers and their expensive sneakers … $2000 … $3000 … and all the accouterments of wealth - expensive clothing, fast cars, private jets, big homes …
Preachers wallowing in their wealth, and they have the gall to tell us:
Wealth proves that we’re right.
Private jets are needed for security reasons.
We’re children of the king and we outta live like kings.
God is big, and we gotta be big, too.
Have you heard that corrupted message???
And, then, they tell us to keep on giving … not to our local church, but to their “ministry” … not to local charities, but to their “mission” work … with silly promises of a “check in the mail,” or “winning the lottery” … or some other divine moment that’ll put money into our pockets.
I remember my first parish, in West Virginia, early 70s … a little tiny town on a muddy creek, beside some rusty railroad tracks, abandoned coal mines all around, poverty neck deep … a little post office in a small general store, where the men gathered to swap tall tales and and tips on coon hunting …
We could watch the postman sorting the mail, slotting it …there were no little doors on the slots - it was open, most everyone could see, and as folks gathered their mail, I saw the religious material … tons of it, flooding this impoverish town with appeals for giving and promises for wealth, health and happiness.
Religious shysters know their business … they know that poor people are vulnerable … they know how to manipulate and use poor people … with wild promises of wealth … these fraudulent preachers, these hucksters of lies, know how to fleece the flock, pick the pocket, take the widow’s two mites.
It’s fraudulent … it has nothing to do with the kingdom of God … nothing to do with Christ …
It was Christ who said to the disciples: travel light … carry no purse, no bag, no sandals … don’t even stop along the way to talk with folks.
As for the religious elite and their expensive clothing, Jesus said:
They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.
How big is the kingdom of God?
It is big … bigger than we could ever imagine … world without end, without borders and boundaries … limitless and full of love … overflowing with gladness and goodness … compassion and mercy … decency and dedication …
The kingdom of God:
a home for the homeless,
a welcome to the despised,
a gathering place for the lonely,
a voice for those have been beaten into silence …
These days, there’s a movement in the Presbyterian Church called Matthew 25 … to become a Matthew 25 Church …
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.
Right here, right now … El Monte, a Matthew 25 church … we have all that’s needed to be the church of Jesus Christ.
Maybe we only have five loaves of bread and a few fish to share … but Jesus says, “It’s enough, more than enough,” because I will make the difference …
The creator of the heavens and the earth, to whom all peoples belong, from whom comes all life, the creator takes the five loaves and the few small fish we have, and in the hands of the creator, there is enough, more than enough … the multitude is fed … and when the meal is done, and all are glad, there are even leftovers … plenty to go around, and then some.
That’s how big the kingdom of God is.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Hallelujah and Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment