We've got God right where we want him

Brad Sullivan

4th Sunday after the Epiphany
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Emmanuel, Houston
Micah 6:1-8
Psalm 15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12

I think it’s pretty safe to say that we, Christians the world over, and really people of any faith are generally searching after God. We’re seeking God to draw near to God and to be ever closer to God in our lives. At the same time, I think that we in the church (worldwide) and in other religions are sometimes maybe hunting or tracking God in order to capture him rather than merely seeking God. I picture a couple of hunters going through a forest tracking God and coming to the bush where they know God’s hiding and they say to each other, “alright we’ve got God right where we want him.” Then they pull the bush, and one of them realizes God isn’t there, while the other one is just totally clueless and picks up whatever happens to be there.

“I’ve got him. I’ve got God right here.”
“Um, dude, that’s a stick.”
“No it’s God, and you have to do what I say. Ooh, and God has to do what I say. I’m awesome.”

We see this happening in our passage from Micah. God says to the people of Israel:

"With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? …He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

We all know from Leviticus that there was animal sacrifice to make atonement for sin in ancient Israel, and Micah was referring to that sacrificial system. God is basically saying “enough already with the burnt offerings. Be kind and merciful and just to one another, otherwise your religious practice is rather false.” There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with the religious practices of ancient Israel except for those who sought to control God through their religious practices rather than to be changed by their religious practices. If I follow the religious practice, then God must bless me and make me right with him, but that’s not going to do it for God. As Isaiah wrote, “…these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote”. (Isaiah 29:13).

Good religious practices become bad religious practices when we try to control God with them rather that be changed by them. We find this throughout the history of the church too, times when we’ve sought to control God through our religion. A great example is the selling of indulgences in the Roman Church centuries ago. People felt they could literally buy their way into heaven. The apostle Peter had been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven and if he forgave the sins of any they would be forgiven. So, as the religion progressed, the popes were understood as Peter’s successors. So if they forgave the sins of any they would be forgiven by God. Forgiveness of sin was needed to get into heaven, and it got to the point that if you gave money to the church, you could have your sins forgiven by the pope. Giving money to the church was a good thing, an act of charity, and it was seen as a sign of repentance. Having shown a sign of repentance, forgiveness was granted.

Unfortunately, the practice became a rule and so, in practice, you could literally buy your way into heaven, and God was understood to be bound by this. These were the rules we thought God had given, only God wasn’t really playing by those rules so he called on his buddy Martin and asked for a reformation. (Martin Luther, Protestant Reformation) Just when we think we’ve got God right where we want him, he escapes our clutches and leads us back into living lives of faith, mercy, justice, and love.

Paul was reminding the Corinthians of this in his letter to them. The Corinthians were divided as we’ve heard in recent weeks, and some of it seemed to be over their religious and non-religious pedigree.

“Paul baptized me.”
"Bully for you, I was baptized by Apollos, and he was much better than Paul, so much more eloquent. His recitation of the baptismal liturgy was flawless. God was obviously more pleased with my baptism than with yours.”

Paul is saying today, “hold on a second guys, if that’s the kind of thing God used in order to bless people, then none of you would have even been baptized. It’s not as though y’all were overly intelligent, or powerful, or particularly important by society’s standards. That’s not why God blessed you. God blessed you because he loves you so be grateful, and stop trying to control God. Stop quarreling about who’s better or more blessed.

This question about God’s blessing the question which Jesus was addressing in the beginning of the sermon we heard today. In Jesus’ time (and in our time) people assumed God’s blessing by prosperity, peace, large families, health, joy, a lack of tragedy or misfortune. The flip side is also true. People often assumed God’s blessing was withheld from those who weren’t healthy, and prosperous, or besought by tragedy.

Jesus says, “No, no. The ones whom we assume to be blessed by God are not the only ones who are blessed. Those who by all outward appearances, we would assume are not blessed: the poor in spirit, the meek, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, those who mourn, they are also blessed. Blessed as well are those who may have no outward sign of being blessed: the pure in heart, the merciful, the peacemakers, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. All of these are also blessed by God. You may have your rules,” Jesus was saying, “about those whom you believe God has blessed, but God isn’t bound by your rules. God can bless whomever God wants to bless.

Of course we in the church then took Jesus’ pronouncement of God’s blessing available even to the unblessables, and we made new rules about it. If you want to be blessed by God, you better mourn. Remember, we’re Christians; we’re supposed to be downtrodden, so if you’re too happy, God won’t be. Dallas Willard points out the absurdity of turning the beatitudes into rules of blessedness in his book The Divine Conspiracy. If you’re not persecuted, you can’t be blessed. Wait, you’re not meet? You’re kind of bold and brave? Well, you can’t be blessed.

The beatitudes are not prescriptions by which God must bless us or ways in which we can manipulate God into blessing us. The beatitudes are rather descriptions of some of the ways in which God’s blessing is available to all, and our efforts at controlling God and forcing his hand are all for naught.

When we use our religions to try to force God’s hand or try to capture and control God, then our good religious practices become sticks by which we use to try to have people measure up or sometimes use to punish people for not measuring up. When that happens, God escapes our clutches leads us back once again to live as he intends us to live. God wants us to live lives of faith, justice, mercy, and love. Living lives of faith, justice, mercy, and love, we will find God. Oops, there’s another rule. Living lives of faith, justice, mercy, and love, we’re not going to capture God, we’re not going to contain God or control God, but we will be living the divine life, God’s life of love.

That’s what Micah was calling the people of Israel to do, to continue with the sacrificial system if so desired, but to live lives of faith, justice, mercy, and love. Paul was reminding the Corinthians that it didn’t matter who baptized them or how great they thought they were. He called on them to quit quarreling and to live lives of faith, justice, mercy, and love. Jesus was telling his disciples that it didn’t matter if they thought someone was bless or not, God’s blessing was available to all, so quit worrying about who is blessed and who is not. Rather, live lives of faith, justice, mercy and love. Live God’s life of love.  Amen.

An angry mob with torches

Brad Sullivan

5th Sunday after the Epiphany
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 58:1-9
Psalm 112:1-9
1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16)
Matthew 5:13-20

If you’ve heard me preach more than a few times, you’ve likely heard me reference this passage from Isaiah or similar passages. Just last week, we heard a similar passage from Micah, the basic idea being that our religious practices can become meaningless and will not make us righteous if our religious practices don’t also lead us to live lives of faith, justice, mercy and love as I also said last week.

Hearing from Isaiah today, he’s talking about fasting, and at first glance we think, “this would be a great passage for Lent: No Fasting!” Of course that’s not Isaiah’s point. He’s not saying that we shouldn’t fast, but that we should not think that through fasting we will be made righteous and wonderful before God. If we seek God through fasting, that’s a good thing. If through our fasting we come to a greater reliance on and trust in God, that is a good thing. The way it works is, we want whatever it is we deny ourselves during our fast.

Rationally, we know we can make it, but it feels like we can’t possibly make it through. “I want the thing from which I’m fasting, and I need it right now. Life can’t possibly be ok if I don’t get this thing that I want right now.” Then, enter a prayer of trust in God. “Lord, I don’t know how life will be ok if I don’t get the thing from which I’m fasting right now, but I’ll trust you that life will be ok. I’ll trust you that I’ll be ok without this thing.”

Through fasting in such a way, we, little by little, gain greater trust in God. Trusting in God with the little things in our lives like fasts, we may then learn to trust God in the big things in our lives. Live not only for yourself, but for others as well. Seek justice and mercy and don’t worry about your life. Those seek like pretty tall orders. The practice and habit of fasting can help us trust God in those things as well.

It’s not a fool proof plan, however, as we’ve heard in the passage from Isaiah. We can fast without overly trusting in God, but simply to hold bragging rights about who’s a better faster or whose righteousness is greater than whose.

Jesus said, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The scribes and the Pharisees kept the law, but did so in ways that did not honor God or other people. The way of life, given by God, had become for some rules to be followed and when possible navigated around. Keeping the rules in such a way does not please God.

For a modern Christian example, look at the way we do confession in the church. Jesus taught us that if we’re bringing an offering to the altar, that if we have a complaint against someone, we should first seek to be reconciled to that person and then bring our offering to the altar. Over the centuries in the Roman church that became translated to, “confess your sins to a priest, and then you can have communion.” As a way of life, that can be helpful. As a rule, it can be destructive.

A man came to be seeking to fulfill that rule one time before communion. He told me he was angry with someone and that he had to have confession or else he couldn’t receive communion. I kept telling him otherwise. “Go ahead and have communion and then seek reconciliation afterwards.” He refused, and I finally consented. The problem was he didn’t seem overly sorry, he was just angry and needed to hear that God would forgive him. I was caught short by the fact that this man seemed to want to fulfill the rule without actually seeking reconciliation.

I then found, however, that having heard the assurance of God’s forgiveness for those who repent, this man was able to forgive. In that time he was able to let go of his anger and come to communion in peace. There was a problem going on that this man felt that the rule must be followed, at the same time, the way of life intended by the rule also helped heal this man. So, we have a little of what Isaiah was preaching against and what Isaiah was preaching about both going on in this story.

What then, does any of this have to do with Jesus’ statement to his followers, “You are the salt of the earth”? What he actually said was, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.” Jesus was preaching to his disciples, a group of Jews, God’s chosen people. They were the salt of the earth because they had been given faith in God and a way of life by God in order to be a light to the world.

“Let your light shine before others,” Jesus said, “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Fulfill the law, Jesus telling his followers, but don’t live the law the way the scribes and Pharisees do. Fulfill the law in the way Isaiah preached. Fulfill the law in such a way as to bring about justice and mercy. ‘We have a beautiful way of life, Jesus was saying, a way of life centered around faith in God love and reconciliation and justice and mercy. Much of the world doesn’t live this way, so let your light shine so that others may see and come to know God and the beautiful way of life he has given us.

Israel was created to be that light to the nations, and we in the church are part of that light. We have been given faith in God and a beautiful way of life. We too are asked to let our light shine before others that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven. We’ve been formed to be a city on a hill, or a light shining in the darkness. Unfortunately in the history of the church, we have at times turned even this image of light bearer into a rule which must be followed.

There were times when the church was going to “Christianize” the world. We’ve had forced confessions and baptisms. We’ve fought wars and threatened people with eternal fires of everlasting damnation, all in the name of being a light in the darkness to lead people to God. Even today, we still have, in various parts of the church, evangelism as threats of hell, scare tactics, condemning and belittling those who do not believe. I view such times in our history and such behavior today not as a light on a hill but as people carrying torches forcing their way into people’s lives and home, burning much in their way.

We weren’t called to force our faith or way of life on anyone, but to offer to people our faith and way of life. We were called to continue in our way of life, faithful to God, seeking justice, mercy, love, and reconciliation. We were called to remain salty in our way of life, like Isaiah called Israel to be. Do fast, even during Lent. Practice your faith. Keep the way of life you’ve been given no to give yourself a pat on the back but to seek God, justice, mercy, love, and reconciliation. Then be a light to others. Let folks know about your way of life.

Thinking again about the sacrament of reconciliation, for example, many outside the church see it as confession to a priest that must be done in order to be forgiven by God. Such a view is untrue and blinds people to the beauty of being able to confess one’s sins in a safe place, to receive counsel, and to hear God’s words of forgiveness declared by a human being. It is a way of life that can bring about reconciliation. There’s no magic about it, no incantation or rule. It was a way of life that can be helpful.

Now, imagine next time we see or hear about confession as this oppressive rule, or see an image in a movie or book about the oppressive rule of confession, imagine giving an explanation of the sacrament of reconciliation as a beautiful way of life. Now that would be a light shining in the darkness. Imagine fasting come Ash Wednesday and explaining to someone why you’re not eating lunch, not as a rule to be followed, but as a way of life in which we might come to greater dependence on and trust in God. That’s being alight in the darkness. Sometimes our lights are not so much torches that we carry in an angry mob, threatening people, but a beautiful way of life that we follow, a beautiful faith that we have that we can then share with others, as a light in the darkness and a city on a hill. Amen