Sermon for Sunday,  April 23, 2006

Turn Back or Turn Your Back

by

Rev. Mike Ratliff

  I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

The Israelites had a history of vacillating between obedience and apostasy.  The cycle occurs time and again throughout the Old Testament, and those of you who are Disciple students and graduates will remember the time of which Jeremiah speaks. Because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, Jerusalem falls to the Babylonians, the temple is destroyed, and the Jews begin their years of exile in Babylon.

And yet…and yet, God still loves these people. The very people who have time and again turned their backs on him are the very people for who God’s message through Jeremiah communicates undying loyalty and hope. There is a sense that God knows these people will indeed turn back to worship and obey. We find no fatalism in this passage, instead, we find the love of a parent, confident that though their child strays, they will return, and in their return, there will be a sense of great love, celebrated on the part of the people, but more importantly on the part of God, who will provide a setting where this return can take place.

So, how does this relate to living your faith 24/7 as the children’s choir professed this morning in their musical presentation, or in the theme of the Live Out Loud Weekend/24 which has focused on experiencing God every minute of the day? I believe that the experience of the Israelites is a macro view of the faith experience many of us exhibit in our faith walks.

Like our Jewish forbearers, we have periods of faithfulness that make our spiritual lives a model for transformation – a meaningful witness for those with whom we come in contact each day. We spend time in reading scripture and other resources that enhance our spiritual experience. We meet with others to pray, study, celebrate, and serve, and know the true meaning of “living in the spirit” because we are in tune with God’s leading in our lives and responding accordingly. But, it doesn’t last. We can’t sustain it. We may get sidetracked, we may loose our focus, and we may go through a period of doubt. We may just get bored because we’re in one place and not moving in any direction. Maybe it won’t happen to you, but, I can tell you that it does happen.

Last week, we had people lined up for 30 minutes to get a seat in the sanctuary…are there any seats next to you this morning? I didn’t see any lines waiting to get in either. I don’t believe that we’re broadcasting to any satellite sites this morning either. Each year, in September, we have families who make church a priority and fill the pews up here while their children squeeze into classrooms on the ground floor. As the school year goes on, distractions increase in volume, and room in our building increases at a parallel rate. We find ourselves asking each other… ”Do you have any idea what ever happened to….?” And, have you been in the 11:05 service on a Sunday when the Broncos have an 11:00 game? I can tell you that there are plenty of seats on those Sundays. Then, there are the beautiful crisp blue Sunday mornings when I drive out of my neighborhood looking at the fresh powder on the slopes and following the SUVs with the skis and snowboards on top and think – “Lord, I’d probably go too if I didn’t work for the church!” So I know the temptation! As a matter of fact, if I haven’t touched a distraction that hits home for you, it’s just because there isn’t enough time. We all experience it. The challenge is to balance the distractions with our commitment to Christ. To check our priorities and change our behaviors when we realize that we are moving us away from God.

I’m sure some of you have heard this analogy – about the frog in the kettle. If you want to boil a frog – I’m not actually sure why you would want to do that, but if you did – you have to do it in a sneaky way. If you just take a frog and throw it in a kettle of boiling water, the shock causes the frog to jump out of the water. If, however, you start with a kettle of water that is at a pleasantly cool temperature, and slowly heat the water to boiling, it is too late for the frog when it realizes what happens.

Most of the time, this is exactly what happens to us. In his book titled The Frog in the Kettle, George Barna makes the point that our world is changing radically, but not immediately. If we as the church are not continuously aware of the changes that are happening, we are threatened by becoming an enculturated part of society that looses it values and directions without a real awareness that any change has taken place. This can happen in our lives as well. I’d like to talk for a few minutes about how I believe that does happen.

I’d like to start with the concept of “INTENTION.” This is a vital concept as it relates to our faith as Christians. As many of you are aware, Jesus was continuously criticized about breaking the laws of his Jewish ancestors. While this was, to a large extent, a ploy of the Jewish authorities to rid themselves of a rogue leader, it was from time to time a concern for some of Jesus’ followers who saw his actions as contrary to their teachings about Jewish law. It seems to me that the problems associated with this issue as it relates to Jesus’ ministry can be quickly put to rest by understanding that Jesus’ actions were not predicated on the laws themselves, but the INTENT of the law.

Dr. Lawrence Kholberg’s theory of moral development derived from his work at the Harvard Center for Moral Education sets forth a meaningful way to understand individual’s actions as they relate to moral decision-making. Jesus undoubtedly was operating in the top stage of the theory put forth by Kholberg. This “Principled Conscience” stage moves beyond the letter of the law to decision-making based on the principle that undergirds the law. In other words, a person making a decision operating at this level would make their decision based on the intent of the law rather than the letter of the law. THIS, I believe is why many struggled to understand how Jesus interpreted and acted on the law. We experience the same dilemma. Interpreting our world and acting on our interpretation causes us to value our world and our actions in a particular way.  Kholberg’s “Law and Order” orientation would suggest that our world is black and white, and that every situation has a right and a wrong interpretation or solution.

Several months ago, I was at CSU to meet with some of our college students. In a conversation with one of them – Alan Anderson – he said, “You know Mike, I’m sure that I have really hurt some people with the judgmental attitude that I’ve had about my faith and the faith of others. I thought everything was black and white and what I’ve come to realize is that it’s mostly gray! I know now that it is really about love, not judgment.” This summer, Alan will be spending 12 weeks with an engineering ministry program working in Uganda and our Superbowl Sub sale is helping to fund his mission.

Alan is an example of a person who has grown to a place of understanding that the intent is the foundation for our actions. You know, I’ve heard the saying “the road to Heaven is paved with good intentions” all my life. Oh, wait, did I get that saying wrong? “the road to__???____ is paved with good intentions?” Are your intentions those of Jesus? Are they the intentions that Alan Anderson has discovered? Are they founded in love? How do they set a stage for your ACTIONS? 

As a matter of fact, ACTION is the next concept I’d like to talk about. Our intentions can be totally pure, based upon our Christian commitment and our understanding of what it means to be a follower of the example Jesus provides, and our actions can still be out of step with those intentions. An example for us is again the Israelites. In I Samuel 8, the Jews ask for a King “so they can be like the other nations.”

Even though they were seeking to be obedient to God. Even though they were striving to live out what it meant to be the chosen people of Yahweh, they were still influenced by the way others live. As we can see throughout the Old Testament, being like the other nations was not a blessing to the Israelites. Sometimes, it was because of the way they acted as a people, sometimes, it was because of their lack of action in response to God in their midst. 

I’m sure all of this is very clear to you if you have been a part of our Disciple Bible study program. If you haven’t, let me encourage you to consider making Disciple a part of your life in the coming season of classes – many will begin in the Fall and you’ll have an opportunity to indicate your interest soon as we celebrate Disciple Graduation. 

Our actions are not always in sync with our intentions. One of the challenges associated with this is the scope of our actions. In confirmation, we use a story about God that illustrates this. It talks about how some of God’s followers begin to hold hands as they travel down life’s road. Unfortunately, soon, those on each end of the line of people holding hands realize that one of their hands has nothing to hold, so they join hands. This creates a circle. Now, I like circles, but as this story goes, the circle is so large that those holding hands keep moving without realizing that they have created a circle – which is where they are traveling and so all forward motion is lost. We are surrounded by gargantuan issues whose scope eclipses what we can grasp. And yet, as Jesus’ followers and as people who are called to value all of what God created and all of those who are a part of God’s creative energy, are we making responsive decisions? Last week, Harvey showed you a house we built in Forest Home, Belize. The principal of the Methodist school and her four children are excited about moving into this home of less than 600 square feet. Florence, the mother, lost her husband who was a fisherman in an awful boat accident a year and a half ago and they have been sharing a home with her mother since.

I don’t know about you, but I would feel extremely cramped in a house of 600 square foot. I stay in hotel rooms that are larger than that! And yet…how do I factor that into my lifestyle? How do I make decisions that take someone on the other side of the world into account as well as someone on the other side of the street? I do believe that on some level, we are all holding hands, and that we are each a part of God’s good creation. I struggle with translating those beliefs into actions and know that I stumble along the way chances are you do too. I count on the places where I am in Christian community to help inform my decisions and shape my actions. Hopefully many of them will connect with the intentions I strive to live.

  Sermon Library