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Sermon - God's Thoughts and Our Thoughts - 11th March 2007
Saint Aidan’s West Epping 8:30am
Readings: Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-9; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:31-35
You may have noticed that there’s an election coming up!
During the week, I read a letter to the editor which got me thinking. This is what it said. “NSW Labor has enjoyed windfall revenues for more than a decade, yet our state is in a shambles and ALP is such a dirty word it is withheld from its election propaganda. The polls say Labor will be returned in a landslide... The Federal government, despite inheriting an economic shambles from Labor, succeeded in extricating us from Commonwealth debt and has provided an extended period of relative stability and prudent management, so we will oust it at the federal election. We truly are a weird mob.”
Now there are a lot of ideas in this letter that you or I may agree with or disagree with. The thing I want us to notice is what seems to be the underlying presumption of the writer. He believes that it would be weird to keep a government that seems to fail in economic management, and that it would be equally weird to oust a government that has handled the economy well, and provided relative stability.
Are we a weird mob? Perhaps. But there seems to be something crucial ignored in the letter’s argument. A government is responsible to manage the economy wisely and honestly. But that is not its only job. And there will be times when people recognize a government’s inadequacies in the financial area, but choose to vote for it anyway because of other important factors. And at times people may feel that a government has handled the economy well, but other reasons lead them to vote against it. Economic issues are not the only things which matter. There is a bigger picture.
Who am I going to vote for in the state election? I probably wouldn’t tell you even if I had decided. I try to keep in mind the big picture. But every time I lean in one direction, something happens which makes me wonder whether the other party is perhaps the better option! We certainly need to pray that those elected will have great wisdom and integrity.
Sometimes we make decisions based on a limited perspective. We choose what is easier or more convenient or more pleasant, rather than getting the big picture and making a genuinely wise decision. We ignore the opportunity to do good, because it may be difficult. We reject the opportunity to follow the call of God because it may be demanding. The little picture, the small option, the limited worldview so easily wins.
But in our reading from Isaiah we are called to a different way. Here God says to us: “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways”.
The prophet speaking in the Lord’s name saw God’s people doing it tough. Life was a struggle, but in many ways that struggle was of their own doing. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” Sadly there are too many people, particular the victims of addictions, who do just that today. But I don’t think that was the prophet’s point. The people were ignoring the big picture. They were caught up with the mundane issues of life and forgetting the spiritual realities which were even more important. It was very much like the woman Jesus met by the well: caught up in one relationship after another, she had been seeking security and significance and acceptance and love, and constantly failing to see where true support and refreshment were to be found. In Jesus she found true significance and direction in life: it was he who gave her living water.
At the market people could pay what money they had to buy bread, wine and milk. But the Lord was offering spiritual sustenance without price: it was gratis, free. And it was not merely survival rations, it was good food, even rich food. It was all one could want.
The Lord was offering to renew with them his covenant with David, giving them the assurance that he would always be with them to bless them and care for them. They would always be his people.
But the Lord was going further: not only would people of Israel be able to receive these blessings, but people of other nations would also be able to share in the blessings, just as centuries before God had promised Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed.
And so the call comes: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” But we must seek the Lord wholeheartedly, the prophet continues. The wicked must forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts.
These may be part of commonplace behaviour; these attitudes and priorities may be what most people do, but they come between us and God. If we seek God, we must also seek God’s ways, and be open to God’s message.
God’s welcome is free, God’s forgiveness is free, but if we are to be in relationship with God, there will be demands, for we are to seek to live God’s way.
It was the same with the Israelites in the wilderness, to whom Paul refers in our reading from 1 Corinthians. They had been rescued from slavery in Egypt; they had gone through the terror and the wonder of the Red Sea; they had a leader who was clearly and wonderfully called and empowered by God; they were guided through the desert and amazingly provided with food day by day; and they had the wonderful assurance of a home in the promised land to which they were journeying. They had been given so much, so wonderfully.
But how did they respond? As the covenant was being given they chose to construct an idol, a god they could see and try to control, instead of the true God who made himself known, but was too great to be seen. They rejected the opportunity to enter the promised land when they arrived at the borders: it seemed too dangerous and risky, and they would not trust the Lord who had saved them from the Egyptians.
They grumbled and complained. They threw themselves into an orgy with a pagan race: ignoring the covenant and the commands they had been given, and despising the significant gift of sexual love.
God had done so much for them, yet they threw it away. And they missed out on so much of what they could have been given. And why?
They had gone for the small picture. They concentrated on the difficulties of the present rather than laying hold of all they had been given and all they were promised. The cheap empty excitement and pleasure of the moment rather than the joy and depth of faithful and committed love. The little picture of a useless and undemanding idol rather than the true reality of the Lord.
But it is the human way. And Paul says to his readers in Corinth, don’t take your Christian standing for granted. It’s not enough to say “I was baptized, I was confirmed, I’m an Anglican, I made a decision for Christ.” If you think that you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.
Remember that living as Christ’s follower is an ongoing commitment. A disciple is a learner: there is always more for us to discover, on earth there is always further along the path for us to go.
And if it sometimes seems tough and demanding, that is the normal experience. Stuff happens, and we can call it testing or we can call it temptation. But God is with us through it all. He will help us to see the way to go, and if we are willing, he will help us to go the right way.
Jesus in our Gospel reading called Herod a “fox”. When we use the term today, it is usually about a “sly old fox”. But in those days, it was rather more critical: a person who was hard to trust, hard to respect, hard to take seriously. That was a fair description of Herod. Power and pleasure seemed to be the things that mattered to him: not people, not justice, certainly not God!. If he could see a miracle from Jesus, that would entertain him. But listen to the important things Jesus had to say? Of course not! No wonder Jesus had nothing to say to him when he was arrested.
Our readings challenge us to a bigger picture of God. We dare not laugh him off like a Herod. We must not take lightly the call to discipleship and obedience, as Paul warns us: faithfulness to God’s call is not always easy. As Jesus said, it involves taking up a cross.
Above all we must open up to God who graciously offers us his presence, his love, his forgiveness, his gift of life. He freely offers us spiritual food and drink, as we turn to him in humble faith and repentance: of course the eucharist points us to it. But if we simply go through this service by rote, we miss the point. In thankful faith we open up to the true bread of heaven, the true cup of salvation. As we share in this service, may we then seek to take in the big picture of what it is all about.
There is always more of God’s truth for us to take in, always more of God’s reality to discover, as we follow Christ. Let us never settle for a little picture: a little picture of God, a little picture of God’s call. There is always more to discover: more truth to understand, more loving discipleship to express, more wisdom to learn. May we have it as our aim to be growing Christians. Let us not be satisfied with a little picture of God: let us keep looking for opportunities to take in more and more of the big picture of God. Amen.