The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for March 15th
Ex 20:1-17
Ps 19
1 Cor 1:18-25
Jn 2:13-22

The Shepherd’s Voice – Sermon Audio

Just a little refresher regarding the theology of glory versus the theology of the cross.

A minister, a priest and a rabbi die in a car crash. They go to heaven for an orientation. They are all asked “When you are in your casket, what would you like to hear friends and family will say about you?” The minister says, “I would like to hear them say that I was a wonderful husband, a fine spiritual leader, and a great family man.” The priest says, “I would like to hear them say I was a wonderful teacher, and a servant of God who made a huge difference in people’s lives. The rabbi replies, “I would like to hear them say, ‘Look he’s moving!’

Frederick Buechner a well known author in the 1900’s who was lauded by critics for his writing of fiction and admired by the religious community for his ability to portray the human condition in his more theological writings, was also a Presbyterian minister, and a well known Harvard lecturer. He writes: “In terms of human wisdom, Jesus was a perfect fool. And if you think you can follow him without making something like the same kind of fool of yourself, you are laboring not under the cross, but a delusion.”

I must conclude that since you came here this morning, since most, if not all of you call yourselves Christians, you worship someone who died on a cross over 2000 years ago, you must be delusional.

Paul tells the Corinthian Church, we read it in our Epistle lesson this morning “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.”

Paul quotes Isaiah (Is 29:14) when he says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Or another way of saying it is I will obliterate, demolish, annihilate the big ideas and thoughts of people with PhD’s who think they are so smart and I will diminish those scholars who think they have all the answers.

Perhaps one example of this is all the discussion in our world these days about the Ten Commandments. People say you can’t display them here, we don’t want them on this college campus, we are enlightened. Our secular world tells us it’s foolish to think we can follow God’s law or meet God’s expectations. In fact, many say there is no such thing as God’s law. If we’re adults we should be free to do whatever we want.

Is there no such a thing as God’s law? We don’t have to go too far to see what the writer of Exodus (Ex 20:1-17) has to say about God’s law. From our first reading this morning we see God brings Abraham, Isaac, and Jacobs offspring words to live by. God said, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” (Pg 1160 in ELW)

Sometimes we call this the 1st commandment.
What does it mean?
It means we are to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. It means we can’t honor or love anything else above what or how we honor God. I’ve seen some survey’s say that up to 90% of Americans believe in God. We must live in a society where most people are good, loving, always doing the right thing then.

Also from our first reading we see that God said, “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit (set free) anyone who misuses his name.”
Well what does that mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we do not curse, swear, practice magic, lie, or deceive using God’s name, but instead use that very name in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give thanks to God. I’m sure your perfect at keeping this commandment as well, I’m sure we all are. None of us here ever lie or put “things” in front of God, right?

Another commandment we find in our first reading, God said, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.” This means we are to fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching or God’s Word, but instead we keep that Word holy and gladly hear and learn it. Just by the shear numbers of people here this morning we see how openly our community believes this commandment. I think more people showed up for the Coaster Run this morning than honored this day as God’s holy day.

How about learning scripture – did you spend time learning a new Bible verse this past week? How many of you are despising my preaching right about now? I bet there’s a few who don’t want to hear what God is saying to us today. The law as C. S Lewis says is hard as nails. It’s impossible to keep all aspects of the law.

Some of us try to think our way around the law, part of the wisdom of this age. In fact I bet there’s a few people saying to themselves right now I didn’t murder, rob, or beat anyone up this past week, I’m not all that bad. Worse behavior can never be used to justify less worse behavior. That’s called rationalization…..

What’s foolish in our world is often rationalization about what God expects of us. We’re all basically good people right? I’ve heard that said hundred’s of times, perhaps even thousands of times at this point in my life.

When you compare yourself to what is expected under God’s law you will always lose. We haven’t even gotten to the other seven commandments yet and I know I haven’t been good at keeping the first three.

Stealing someone else’s idea and calling it my own. Lusting after another person physically, when that person is not my spouse. Bearing false witness – have you every said something about someone else that you haven’t observed first hand and maybe embellished the story slightly?

It’s foolish to think we can keep the law. Some people don’t even try. They say ‘well I’m already bad so I might as well break all the law then.’ After all didn’t Martin Luther say “Sin boldly?”

Paul goes on to say “we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, (that would be most of us here today) but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, (we, Paul proclaims) Christ (is) the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Following Jesus is such a foolish idea. Who are you that you think you know how to follow the perfect one? Is your spiritual piety such that you always have all the right answers? Do you always do everything right? I’m afraid I don’t.

There is a story about a man who visited a church. He parked his car and started toward the front entrance. Another car pulled up nearby, and the irritated driver said to him, “I always park there. You took my place!”
The visitor went inside and found that Sunday School was about to begin. He found an adult Bible class, went inside, and sat down. A class member approached him and said, “That’s my seat! You took my place!”
The visitor was somewhat distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing. After Sunday School, the visitor went into the sanctuary and sat down in an empty pew. Within moments another member walked up to him and said, “That’s where I always sit. You took my place!”
The visitor was troubled, but said nothing. Later, as the congregation was praying for Christ to be present with them, the visitor stood, and his appearance began to change. Scars became visible on his hands and on his sandaled feet. Someone from the congregation noticed him and cried out, “What happened to you?”
The visitor replied, “I took your place.”

The foolishness of the cross is all about someone taking our place. It’s about a God who knows better than we know about what’s required in this world and has given us some suggestions to ponder, NO! Has given us some guidelines to think about, NO!
God has given us some commandments to follow – Love God and love our neighbor, honor the Sabbath, don’t lie to one another, don’t covet what you don’t have, God says keep them or there surely will be consequences.
The price of breaking the law, of not keeping God’s commandments is death, ultimate separation from God for all eternity.
God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. The foolishness of the cross is that God in his infinite mercy has offered us a gift of grace, a gift of a new life, but many of us don’t believe it’s real.

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
Will Willimon has posed these questions, “What kind of sense does it make to worship a God who, instead of rescuing us out of trouble, rescues us by entering into the trouble with us?” A God who, instead of helping us to avoid pain, heals us from our pain by entering the depths of our pain with us? A God who, instead of fixing things for us, addresses them by becoming weak with us in our weakness?

When we lift high the cross it will seem foolish to those who are perishing, but God meets us in that pain. When we lift high the cross we find ultimate victory over sin, death, and the power of evil because God walks along with us, at our side. When we lift high the cross we can see Jesus once again in the face of everyone we encounter.

Be foolish today and lift high the cross of Christ.

Amen

Podcast (audio_feed): Play in new window | Download