New Promises for a New Day

March 22, 2015 Jeremiah 31:31-40 Promises Year B Fifth Sunday of Lent Have you ever known someone who never had anything positive to say about anything? Everything was negative, gloom and doom. Everyday they gave you some warning about life. My grandmother was like that. She had a negative story for every occasion in life. Every day she would tell me a story of woa and beware. She had a warning for everything. One day I burst out and told her to just leave me alone and let me make my own mistakes. Learning from my mistakes in life was much better than having to listen to you mouth every day. I was 13 years old when that happen. There were several times that year when I would say, Grandma you talk too much, why don’t you just shut up. Today I stand here amazed that I am still alive to tell that story. Amongst her other good qualities, grandma was amazingly kind, patient and forgiving to her favorite grandchild. She never said a word to me in my outburst, she would just quietly wait for me to finish, and go on. Jeremiah was that irritating person for the Isrealite people. He never had anything nice to say to them. Everyday he had a warning about his behavior, everyday he warned them that if they didn’t get any better that the wrath of God would be upon them. He reminded the people of their own sinfulness. They did more then tell him to shut up. They persecuted him all of his life. Jeremiah came from a family of priest of the temple. He says that he was called by God to be a prophet very early in his life. He says that God put charcoal on his tongue to cleanse his words, and touched him to speak truth to the people. The thing is, people didn’t want to hear the truth. Even his own brothers beat him up for talking too much. The king would order him to be thrown out of town if he didn’t shut up. One day the people got so mad at him that they through him into a cistern, a water tank and left him there to die, but he did not die and he did not shut up. Eventually they got so tired of hearing his warnings that they exiled him to Egypt – He spent the rest of his life there, no one knows what happened to him. But his words survived. Just as now I treasure every word that my grandma said, and I wished that I had been mature enough to listen more carefully. Jeremiah became one of the most important prophets to the Isrealite people. They learned to treasure his words, and they recognized that he was truly a prophet from God. Jeremiah is one of the second most important prophets in the bible. One day things got so bad, that he realized that there was nothing else that he could say. Instead of preaching gloom and doom, he had to give the people words of hope, a word from God that punishment will only last so long, and that things will get better. Our scripture for today is known as the hope scroll. God made a promise to each of us a long time ago – a promise that he would love us unconditionally. As we go through lent season we are always reminded of God’s promises to us. THE COVENANTS Eternal covenant, Heb 13:20—The redemptive covenant before time began, between the Father and the Son. By this covenant we have eternal redemption, an eternal peace from the ‘God of peace’, through the death and resurrection of the Son. Edenic covenant, Gen 1:26-28—The creative covenant between the Triune God, as the first party (Gen 1:26), and newly created man, as the second party, governing man’s creation and life in Edenic innocence. It regulated man’s dominion and subjugation of the earth, and presented a simple test of obedience. The penalty was death. Adamic covenant, Gen 3:14-19—The covenant conditioning fallen man’s life on the earth. Satan’s tool (the serpent) was cursed (Gen 3:14); the first promise of the Redeemer was given (3:15); women’s status was altered (3:16); the earth was cursed (3:17-19); physical and spiritual death resulted (3:19). Noahic covenant, Gen 8:20-9:6—The covenant of human government. Man is to govern his fellowmen for God, indicated by the institution of capital punishment as the supreme judicial power of the state (Gen 9:5-6). Other features included the Abrahamic covenant, Gen 12:1-3; confirmed, 13:14-17; 15:1-7; 17:1-8—The covenant of promise. Abraham’s posterity was to be made a great nation. In him (through Christ) all the families of the earth were to be blessed (Gal 3:16; Jn 8:56-58). Mosaic covenant, Ex 20:1-31:18—The legal covenant, given solely to Israel. It consisted of the commandments (Ex 20:1-26); the judgments (social) - (Ex 21:1; 24:11) and the ordinances (religious); (Ex 24:12-31:18); also called the law. It was a conditional covenant of works, a ministry of ‘condemnation’ and ‘death’ (2 Cor 3:7-9), designed to lead the transgressor (convicted thereby as a sinner) to Christ. Palestinian covenant, Deut 30:1-10—The covenant regulating Israel’s tenure of the land of Canaan. Its prophetic features include dispersion of disobedience (Deut 30:1), future repentance while in dispersion (30:2), the Lord’s return (30:3), the restoration (30:4-5), national conversion (3:6), judgment of Israel’s foes (30:7), national prosperity (30:9). Its blessings are conditioned upon obedience (30:8, 10), but fulfillment is guaranteed by the new covenant. Davidic covenant, 2 Sam 7:4-17, 1 Chr 17:4-15—The kingdom covenant regulating the temporal and eternal rule of David’s posterity. It secures in perpetuity a Davidic ‘house’ or line, a throne, and a kingdom. It was confirmed by divine oath in Ps 89:30-37 and renewed to Mary in Lk 1:31-33. It is fulfilled in Christ as the World’s Saviour and Israel’s coming King (Acts 1:6; Rev 19:16; 20:4-6). New covenant, Jer 31:31-33; Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; Heb 8:8-12—The covenant of unconditional blessing based upon the finished redemption of Christ. It secures blessing for the church, flowing from the Abrahamic covenant (Gal 3:13-20), and secures all covenant blessings to converted Israel, including those of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants. This covenant is unconditional, final and irreversible. On first Sunday when we have communion – we repeat the words of Jesus when he says that this is the new convenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ is the new covenant – the new promise. The Old Covenant made provision for sin to be covered, whereas the New Covenant cleanses it. It's the same difference as covering a dirty shirt with a jacket or having it totally cleansed. God does not look at us through Christ so that His blood covers our sins. Rather, Christ's blood completely removes our sin. ________________________________________ You're in the middle of dinner, about to go out to a special function where you are the guest speaker. You spill tomato sauce all down your front. You have two choices: you can either put on another shirt, or you can just wear a jacket to cover up the stain. The blood of bulls and goats that were such a prominent feature of the Old Covenant, could never do anything to the stain of sin except cover it up. But the blood of Jesus cleanses that stain completely. Now you may ask, what makes the new promise of God so different than the old promise of God. Afterall a promise is a promise. And God did indeed promise to love us. God did indeed say that he would do all of the hard work of the promise and all that we had to do is to follow along and do what he said. Accept his love and life our lives with his love in mind. God didn’t break his promise to us – we broke our promise to God. We didn’t hold up our end of the bargain. So God made a new covenant with us. The difference this time is that God gave us the ability to be faithful. He paved the way so that we could actually keep our promise and live in the new covenant of Jesus Christ. He did that by forgiving us, by evening the playing field. So that we did not have to live in the consequences of our own actions, we could know that we are forgiven and have a chance to start all over again. This time the laws of God are not things out there that we have to obey, they are things in here that keep us going and guide our actions. Jeremiah says that the laws of God will be written in our hearts. We don’t remember them we can live them. We’ve talked about the eternal and daily nature of our covenant with God. The problem is that while we can understand the reason behind the covenant, as long as we are deciding what to do in our minds, we won’t make changes to live out the covenant. That is why the prophesy explains that God will write the new covenant on our hearts. Only when we move from our brains to our hearts will we become the Christians God is calling us to be. Author Ray Bradbury says: “If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” When we hold something in our heart – we treasure it. It affects our feelings and our being. For the ancient jews, the heart was the center of you whole being. It represented who you were as a person. You don’t fall in love with your mind, you fall in love with your heart. Last night Darnell and Gwen Brown renewed their marriage vows and celebrated their marriage of 18 years. And we are grateful that they made this service an important part of their wedding and invited so many guest to be present today. This story of marriage reminds me of them. There was a couple who had been married for some time, when the husband went away to war. When he returned, he decided that their marriage was over and that he wanted to enter in a relationship with another woman. Devasted, his wife explains that she married him because he made her a promise. And that promise made up for all of his faults. And that she too made a promise to him and that promise made up for everything that she did wrong. The husband was not convinced and still wanted to leave. And she still asked him to hold on. She told him that he had to get that promise back. They made a promise to be together for better or worse. So it was not comfort that they were looking for, they had suffered together. It was the promise that they were looking for. And it was that promise that brought them back together. And they were able to make their marriage work. Just as in marriage, the love of two people can overcome a multitude of sins. The love of God can overcome anything that we have done in life. God is saying it is okay, I forgive you. All I am asking is that you remember the promise that I wrote on your heart. Remember you first love in life. Remember that I am the center of your being and of all that you do. You don’t have to do anything just allow god to love you. God transforms our hearts from the inside out. There are some people who remember every bad thing that every happen to them. God is not one of those person, he forgets it all – so that we can have a chance to start again. Amen. Children’s Sermon What do I have here – a heart. We also have a hear inside of us – do you hear it beating. When you think of hearts like this, what does it remind you of? Love Usually we hold the things that we love in our hearts. What are some things in life that are near and dear to our hearts? Usually when we care about something we also say that we know it by heart. Many of you have learned the Lord’s prayer by heart. What are some other things in life that you know by heart? The scripture for today says that we will know the love of God by heart, because God’s rules will be written on our hearts. How many adults know the Lord’s prayer by heart? Some of us do and some of us are still learning just like some of you. But one thing that we do know is that God loves us and that God shows us his love in so many ways. So it is important for us to know God by heart. Let us pray….

Who do you trust? God or the world?

March 8, 2015 Year B 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Who do you trust? God or the World? Third Sunday of Lent Lent is journey to cross We have to be reminded that lent is our journey to the cross and its power to change our lives. We have to be reminded that lent is our reminder that it is time for a serious change in our lives. But in order to truly change what is wrong with our lives, we have to truly face it, understand its affect on us, and come to terms with the fact that things don’t change because we want, but because of the power of the cross. Before we can live in the light, we have to face to the darkness in our lives. That is the journey of lent. We are all sinners, we are all in need of salvation, and the cross is the only thing that can transform the world. The cross is a very powerful symbol in our lives. The power of the cross There was a catholic priest who went to do some missionary work on a tropical island. He preached to them many times about the power of the Christ. One native man refused to listen to the priest and the message of the cross. When he heard the priest preach, he ran into a tree. Not to be defeated the priest followed him out of the church and started to pray for him under the tree. After the prayer, the priest looked up at the man and made the sign of the cross, as catholics are taught to do. The man immediately ran down from the tree and said that he would follow Jesus. The priest was excited and said that his prayers worked. The man said no, it was not the prayer but the sign he made. The sign of the cross, yeah said the man, as he made the sign of the cross. You told me to come down from the tree – or you would cut my head off. The cross is a powerful sign, and it brings about powerful changes in our lives. The cross is our call to action – the cross challenges us all to come down out of our trees of complacency and to step into the life of Christ. The sense of the world Lent is a time to remind us that if we are not careful, if we are not intentional about our relationship with God, that it can be easy to start to make sense of the things that we see in the world. I am amazed at how much money Mcdonald’s will spend on lent commercials. They photograph that fish filet sandwich just right, so that it looks so good, that we can be fooled into thinking that honoring lent is about going out to spend money at Mcdonald’s to buy the perfect fish sandwich. Or lent is about watching finding Jesus on CNN and not about finding Jesus in the word of God. The world knows that we as humans have an incessant need to make sense of the world. And they play on our need to make sense in order to put money in their pocket. Lent is our reminder that sometimes we have to unplug from the world in order to truly make sense of the world. Riddles Let me test your need to make sense by asking you some questions. Smith and Jones had an oyster eating contest, to see who could eat the most oysters. Smith at 90 and Jones ate 101, how many more oysters did Jones eat? Here is another one – There are16 earsof corn in a barrel. A rabbit carried 3 ears off each night, how many nights did it take him to empty the barrel. If you make sense of what I said. – when I said that jones at 101 you heard a number. You did not hear me say Jones ate 100 and won – won. And when you heard me say the rabbit carried 3 ears, you forgot that the bunny carries two ears on his head all of the time, so he would only carry one ear of corn in a night. Just like we get caught up in riddles, we get caught up in the reasoning of the world. Until we come to understand that God does not make sense, things will never change. The world we live in teaches us to make sense. The cross teaches us that the actions of God – don’t make sense. You see when Paul is talking to the Corinthians, he tells them that what is foolishness for the world, is wisdom for God. And what is wisdom in God’s – is foolishness to the world. To the world the cross was foolishness. Only a criminal who was a menace to society would be crucified on the cross. If you had a family member who died on the cross – your family lived in shame. Even the bible says that those who die on a tree are cursed. To the world, the cross does not make sense. In order to know what the cross really represents you have to know the power of God. God turns the world upside down First comes Jesus’ willingness to sacrifice his human life for eternal life. First comes the gift of weakness that overwhelms the “human” power of wisdom and strength. First comes “we” rather than “me.” This is the Christ “meta-narrative” — the BIG Christ story — the story of love and sacrifice that over-trumps the “me-only” soliloquy — the separate, solo tale that so many of us live by. The BIG Christ story, the ridiculous road that Paul offered by proclaiming a Savior who was weak enough to be crucified and yet strong enough to redeem all who follow The Way, offered strange, “nutty” directions: The way up is down The way in is out The way first is last The way of success is service The way of attainment is relinquishment. The way of strength is weakness The way of security is vulnerability The way of protection is forgiveness The way of life is the way of death. Taken from Leonard Sweet’s sermon “The Outlandishness of Lent” NUTS for God The truth is, God’s invitation for those of us, who take the cross seriously is for us to be nuts in the eyes of the world. Nuts are those who never underestimate the spirit. Corinthians reminds us that the foolishness of God is wiser them human wisdom, and that the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. The cross is a reminders that the divine was willing to take on human flesh, human problems, human sin. In order to give us a chance to a better life. Things don’t change, until we stop trying to make sense of the world, and accept God’s amazing grace for our life. Paul says that the message of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved. This lent, let the cross be your call to action. The Cross—A Call to Action “And they crucified him.… And sitting down they watched him there” (Matt. 27:35–36). Like those Roman soldiers, many of us merely lapse into inaction. But the cross of Christ is infinitely more than a showcase, an exhibit to arouse curiousity. It is a clarion call to action, commitment, and discipleship. Confession andPardon Amen. Children’s Sermon…… A Green Couch For God by King Duncan Passage: 1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5 • Lectionary: Lent 3 Item 10 of 28 | Back to Results Object: Two colorful socks that don't match Boys and girls,Choosing Christ at the Crossroads, #2 What do I have here? I have two socks, don't I? Notice that I did not say I have a pair of socks. These socks don't match, do they? One is green and one is red. I started to wear these two socks to church, but I was afraid someone might see them and I would feel very foolish if I people saw me with two socks that don't match. Our Bible lesson tells us that God did something that many people think is foolish. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of the world. To people who don't know God, that sounds like a very silly thing to do. But we know it is not foolish. God wanted to rescue us from the power of sin and this was the only way it could be done. So what seems like foolishness to many people is very important to us. It reminds us that God loves us enough to look silly to the world. Extra Illustrations Text Illustration: Knowledge is exploding at such a rate—more than 2000 pages a minute—that even Einstein couldn’t keep up. In fact, if you read 24 hours a day, from age 21 to 70, and retained all you read, you would be one and a half million years behind when you finished. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40—and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20? (Campus Life, Feb., 1979). "Maybe it’s time we reconsider what it means to be intelligent,” says David Brooks of the Weekly Standard. After being questioned about his experience and smarts for the job as President, George W. Bush has amazed us during these troubled times. Experts are confounded. “Why is George W. Bush, the ‘simple-minded president’ getting everything right? He’s got something the pointy-heads don’t understand. “ It’s his Faith--his faith has made the man. His faith brings confidence--"God has chosen me for this moment in time.” His faith brings humility--he can be a good judge of character because he is not absorbed with himself. His faith provides good judgment—he has a standard by which to weigh right and wrong. So if faith seems un-intellectual to you-- if you believe faith is un-necessary and obtrusive in the government of America-- think again. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” SOURCE: SermonCentral Staff. Citation: 1 Corinthians 1: 25, AND David Brooks. “You Gotta Have Faith.” 3/01/2002. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/ Priorities To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth, that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through. What else will do except faith in such a cynical, corrupt time? When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word. What is the last word, then? Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things: through cooking and small talk, through storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through sports, music and books, raising kids - all the places where the gravy soaks in and grace shines through. Garrison Keillor, We Are Still Married, New York: Viking, 1989. From the essay: The Meaning of Life. __________________________ 1996 One Thing God Can’t Do A Sunday school teacher was examining her pupils after a series of lessons on God’s omnipotence. She asked, “Is there anything God can’t do?” There was silence. Finally, one lad held up his hand. The teacher, disappointed that the lesson’s point had been missed, asked resignedly, “Well, just what is it that God can’t do?” “Well,” replied the boy, “He can’t please everybody.” —Together 1996 One Thing God Can’t Do A Sunday school teacher was examining her pupils after a series of lessons on God’s omnipotence. She asked, “Is there anything God can’t do?” There was silence. Finally, one lad held up his hand. The teacher, disappointed that the lesson’s point had been missed, asked resignedly, “Well, just what is it that God can’t do?” “Well,” replied the boy, “He can’t please everybody.” —Together The Cross—A Call to Action “And they crucified him.… And sitting down they watched him there” (Matt. 27:35–36). Like those Roman soldiers, many of us merely lapse into inaction. But the cross of Christ is infinitely more than a showcase, an exhibit to arouse curiousity. It is a clarion call to action, commitment, and discipleship.