Sermon March 23 2014 Don’t Question God’s Wisdom
Exodus 17:1-7
Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to
kill us and livestock with thirst?
The motif of thirst connects the first
reading with the reading from John. In
the wilderness, the experience of thirst leads to a lack of trust in the
Lord. In John, routine thirst leads to
an encounter with Jesus.
A dialogical reading of the two
passages affirms thirst as both physical deprivation and a spiritual
need (understanding thirst as a metaphor for spiritual longing). Thirst reminds the reader of vulnerability
and need, for which we should trust God.
Thirst (physical or metaphorically) can
lead to either a lack of faith or an experience of divine presence. The Church
has a responsibility to minister to people dealing with physical deprivation
and spiritual longing.
Human nature is so perfectly exhibit by
the Israelites. We tend to find things
to gripe about no matter what is going on.
“they are almost ready to stone me,” Moses admits.
Massah and Meribah is summed up as
indicating the question of the people, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Hopefully, that should be a rhetorical
question: the answer is YES. And if God
is among the people, then the people should respond with faith.
God did not abandon the Israelites to
the desert. There was manna to eat and
water from a rock.
One day at a time, with just what they
needed, they began to make their way through the wilderness. One day at a time, they got up and ate. They drank.
They lived. They breathed. Nothing
exciting or glamorous. Just one day at a
time.
Even though we may think we are walking
in circles at times. God is with us. One
day at a time.
Psalm 95 UMH 814
For the Lord is a great God.
v.8 Do not harden your hearts, as at
Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness when your ancestors tested
me, and put me to proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that
generation and said. “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not
regard my ways.
Therefore in my anger I swore “they
shall not enter my rest (Sabbath).”
At the turning point in verse 7, the
psalmist remarks, somewhat ominously, “ O that today you would listen to his
voice! The addressee changes from “us”
to “you”. The speaker does not refer to
“the Lord” but instead speaks as the
Lord in first person.
Here is where we begin to squirm a
bit. Although the psalm goes on to speak
to the ancient Hebrews who did not listen to the Lord, we know full well that
we are guilty of the very same shortcomings.
The first part of the psalm calls for
eyes to witness and voices to sing; the second part of the psalm calls for ears
to listen and feet to follow. All the
while this psalm pints to a people who have failed to follow.
If God is so good and worthy of praise,
and if we have seen God’s glory and were nodding our heads during the first
verses of this psalm, why is it that we have so often failed to listen or to
follow?
This is a good psalm for Lent. This psalm begins with a joyful noise, but
then descends into the darkness of our own guilt as we face our failure to
follow. Lent is a season of
accountability.
If we practice doing relatively small
things in our power right now, we will grow as Christians so that one day we
will be able to do those things that seem impossible to us today.
Lent is a time for us to strive to do
better. Do Not Question God’s Wisdom.
Romans 5:1-11
Therefore, since we are justified by
faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ….
For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled
to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled,
will we be saved by his life.
Through Christ, God reveals the nature
of the divine love --------a self giving love that suffered death on the cross
for us, even though we do not deserve this love.
Through faith we understand perfection
is not necessary for us to be loved by God.
We do not need to justify ourselves.
We are Loved, and that is all the justification we need.
We are in relationship with God, not
because of our efforts, but because of God’s loving action. Through faith we
enter into that relationship and discover peace, hope, and perseverance, even
in suffering
John 4:5-42
A Samaritan woman came to draw water
and Jesus said to her: “Give me to drink.”
How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink
of me, a woman of Samaria?
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the
gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me to drink,” you would
have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
v.27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking
with a woman….
Rabbi, eat something….
But he said to them, “I have food to
eat that you do not know about.
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do
the will of him who sent me and to complete His work.
This is a daring conversation for the
woman at the well: Jesus is a Jew and a man.
She and Jesus cross boundaries to talk.
Even though Jesus offers living water,
he first asks the woman for a drink. He
asks her to give him something, even as he offers the immeasurably valuable to
her. Give and take. God seeks that kind of relationship with us.
It must be a pleasure to talk with
someone who catches on so quickly! He
even reveals to her that he is the Messiah. The disciples don’t understand
him: They don’t get that he is speaking
in images when he talks about food. They
just don’t get him.
The Samaritan woman does. She goes back to the city, illuminated by
their short conversation, and she spreads the word, and it has to be with an
air of certainty that convinces people, or at least makes them curious, because
they go out to meet Jesus, and he stays and wins hearts and souls.
Even so, the next day, that woman must
go back to the well, for the regular, ordinary water needed in her household,
where she lives with whoever isn’t her husband.
The work of being alive goes on, day after day. And although Jesus told her the hour was
near, WE are still waiting.
Don’t Question God’s Wisdom!
My Word that goes out from My mouth; it
will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the
purposes for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
For the Word of God is living and active.
Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and
spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Paul wrestled with this same question. Yet his question
centered around more theological issues. Like how an intelligent person can
walk outside, look at nature in all its beauty, and walk away saying that it
was created by a big bang, billions & billions of years ago.
As dumb as it is to believe in anything apart from the
Creation story in Genesis, Paul says that's not the dumbest conclusion man has
come to. Man's stupidest conclusion is to reject the cross by saying that it
was foolish to think that God, who is spirit, could become a man, and then die
on a cross as the lowest of criminals to provide an atonement for all of
mankind's sin-v. 18.
To be saved doesn't just mean that you believe there is a
God. Salvation is not even based on if someone believes that Jesus was the Son
of God? Satan and his demons know this. The only belief that will save someone
is if they accept Jesus dying on the cross as their sin bearer, going to hell
in their place, and being raised 3 days later. Those are the 3 components that
make up the message of the cross.
Don’t Question the wisdom of God.
If Jesus is not the Lord of your life, today is the day
of salvation. Ask Jesus to come into your heart and invite Him to be the Lord
of your life. Amen
Hymn of reflection
UMH 591 Rescue the Perishing.
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