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Third Sunday After Epiphany
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, January 21, 2017


Stepping into the Eternal Story


Text: Jeremiah 3

From the time I was in the 9th grade until I graduated from high school, I was involved in dramatics. Actually, I first met Teresa when she came to a play that I was in while in the 9th grade. One of the roles that I had was in the play, The Diary of Anne Frank. I played Kraler the shopkeeper who hid two Jewish families, the Franks and the Van Daans, in his attic in Nazi-occupied Holland in World War ll. Teresa played the part of Petronella Van Daan, who was a drunk. For many years people would comment what an excellent job Teresa did in that role and how effectively she portrayed a drunk. There was a picture of her in character as Mrs. Van Daan in our high school annual that year. I think I still have that annual. I will do her the honor of telling you that she did do an exceptional job in that role as it showed the range of her acting ability, but she is not and has never been a drunk (I promised that I would make that perfectly clear).

The thing about acting is that you can play the part of a character effectively, but in reality you are still not that character. I have read stories of actors and actresses who become so immersed in a character that their personality changed, and they took on the personality and characteristics of the person they have been imitating.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for well-meaning church goers to strive to act the part of a Christian through good works and religious activity without becoming like Jesus in the power of his Word and Spirit. They become actors and actresses in the Christian drama without the benefit of the relationship with God that would make the part become a reality.

For many years I tried my best to live up to the moral and ethical standards that I read in the Bible but found that time and again I failed miserably. For the first 1/3 of my life as a professing Christian there was no joy in my life because I was missing the one ingredient that would change my role from an actor to a son of God and that was the power of Jesus Christ. For all the years that my parents made me attend church and then all the years in my early adulthood where I went willingly, I somehow missed the understanding of what it meant to have the joy and strength that came with being a son of God.

I knew what the law of God said about how I should be living but I seemed to have no power or ability to live that way. I knew that I was a poser and I hated myself for it. I wanted the reality of Jesus Christ that I saw in others, but I had no idea how to get there until I grew so desperate that I cried out to God for help and mercy. It’s a shame that sometimes people go to church all their lives and never actually hear the gospel.

I’ve told most of you my story in different ways at various times and I don’t intend to repeat that today except to say that in the process of seeking God I found that he was there waiting for me. I went from being an actor to really being a son of God who no longer had to pretend.

When you come into a relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ, it changes everything, including how you view stories in the Bible. I began to see the failure of Israel to follow God faithfully through the lens of one who had failed miserably for many years, but I also began to see through the Holy Spirit those same stories from the perspective of God. Because of that I am often moved to tears when I feel the Holy Spirit revealing to me the heart of God for his people and I sense his longing and frustration at their rejection.

One of those passages is this morning’s Old Testament reading from Jeremiah 3:19–4:4. The Book of Jeremiah was written as a warning to Judah that their idolatrous worship of foreign gods would lead to the judgment of God and the exile of the people of Israel and Judah. In the first part of the book God sent the prophet to declare the sin of Judah’s treachery and rejection of God. God was assuring them that if they would not repent and turn back to him in covenant faithfulness, he would remove his hand of blessing and send them into exile. All the land that had been given to them and the special relationship with the creator that they had enjoyed would be lost. In chapter 2:11–13 God speaks of the foolishness of their rejection,

Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. 12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

In verses 20–22,

For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. 21 Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? 22 Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord God.

Chapter 3 begins with the charge of adultery against Judah and gives King Josiah as an example of one who had been faithful to God and destroyed pagan worship in Jerusalem and throughout all of Judah. He was a very righteous king “who walked in all the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.” (2 Kings 22:2). The reading of the law of God had opened his heart to the God of the house of Israel and he rid the nation of anything that was an affront to God. Why, because he saw him for who he was, and he loved him faithfully. God through the prophet is asking his people to turn from their sin and like Josiah see him for who he is.

In chapter 3:14–15 God again makes an appeal,

Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

In other words, if you will just turn back to me I will give you all that you need to follow me and receive my blessings. I will bring you to Zion, which according to the Psalms was the city of God and the place where God would set his King, the Messiah.

That brings us to our passage for this morning and it was here that my heart broke as I heard the sadness in the heart of the Father as he spoke of the senseless rejection of his children. Let’s read Jeremiah 3:19–21,

I said, ‘How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me. 20 Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel’, declares the Lord. 21A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the Lord their God.

Have you ever known someone that you really loved who had been betrayed by someone that they loved and trusted? Your reaction is probably to want to comfort and console that person in the hope that your love will somehow make their loss a little easier to bear. In this passage we read of God’s reaction to the rejection and treachery of the those who he desired to pour out his blessings and had hoped that they would see him for who he really was, “My Father”. A term of intimacy, trust and love that conveyed the truth of who God really is but also showed the position that he was offering to those upon whom he had lavished his love and affection. He was offering them family status. He was their Father and they would be his children and all that he had would be theirs for the asking.

As I prayed about this passage and what God wanted us to see this morning I knew it was that he wanted us to clearly understand his Father’s heart. This week I found myself wanting to be near him to assure him of my love. I think in the past I would have found that weird and unusual, because God the Father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth and the King of the Universe. Why would he care about my love for him? What possible difference would it make to God whether or not I loved him? What did I offer that he needed?

Nothing whatsoever, but the fact that I would ask that question showed a complete lack of understanding of the heart of God and of the depth of his love for us. As I considered this passage I found myself telling God how much I love him and that I delight to call him my Father. I had a peace and joy come over me and the sense that I was communing with God in the way that was intended. It was so simple and yet so revealing. It’s when we come to understand the depth of the love of God as Father that everything else falls into place. Sin becomes an odious thing because it displeases and grieves our Father and the Holy Spirit, and I don’t want that. Not because of the possibility of judgment but because of love. God had longed for Israel to follow him out of love, but if not, his love for them would bring judgment in the hope that they would repent.

The love for the Father causes the invitation of the gospel to make more sense than ever before. Our Gospel reading from Mark 1:14–20 comes into sharper focus when seen through the lens of the Fathers love for us. Mark 1:14–15 points us to the time where God was fulfilling his promise to restore his creation and those who would long for his love,

… Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus came at the request of the Father and the Good News (Gospel) was that God was coming to the rescue in spite of the fact that he had been rejected over and over again. The Kingdom was at hand and God was going to make a way for those who had walked away to return to him that they might say to him, “My Father”. 1 John 4:14–15,

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

Jesus’ mission was to be “the way, the truth and the life” and the only way to the Father (John 14:6), that is the goal. He wanted us to see that the greatest treasure was that we might be with the Father and know him with the same intimacy that Jesus did. Jesus longed that the disciples would see the truth about the Father’s love through him. This is the one truth that Israel never could understand. The Father was offering them relationship with himself and that was an even greater gift than all of creation. Jesus made it very clear that if you come to him you get the Father and the Holy Spirit because this was the Father’s desire and will.

For those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, everything must be seen through the light of the love of the Father. Our goal is not simply Heaven or the new Heavens and the New Earth but union and unrestrained fellowship with God. In our gospel passage from Mark 1, Jesus invites the disciples to follow him and he will make them fishers of men. That doesn’t sound compelling at all unless it is seen as Jesus inviting them on the adventure of accomplishing the will of the Father with the reward of knowing him intimately.

When you continue reading the gospel account you eventually see it dawning on the disciples that what Jesus is offering wasn’t anything like what they were looking for or what Israel had been expecting, but it was exactly what God had been offering all along, intimate relationship. What was being offered was inconceivable and seemed impossible. How could the God who was so holy that they wouldn’t even speak his name be interested in knowing them intimately? It wasn’t until the disciples finally saw what God in Christ was willing to do on their behalf at the cross and then seeing the resurrected Savior, that the love of God came into sharp focus for the first time.

Sometimes I think that we speak of the sacrifice of the cross with such familiarity that we lose the intensity, the wonder and power of the love of God revealed in it. It should never fail to leave us awe struck, and with humility cause us to commit the entirety of our lives to the loving service of the one who gave all for us. Our prayer should be that God would open our hearts to the depth of his love for us and that we would bask in the joy of his delight.

In our Epistle reading this morning from 1 Corinthians 7:17–24 Paul is encouraging those who had come to faith in Christ to not become tangled up with trying to figure out the changes they needed to make in their lifestyles now that they were Christ followers. Certainly, sinful practices should cease but changes in status didn’t really matter. In the first part of the chapter he encouraged those who were married to stay that way, even though they may have unbelieving spouses. If they were single they should feel free to stay that way or to get married if they wanted.

Our passage today begins with 1 Corinthians 7:17–20,

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. 18 Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. 19 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. 20 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.

Paul’s point is that God’s calling was not in reference to their social position but that conversion from death to life had taken place. They had moved in status from being enemies of God to children of God. Whatever their position whether it be marital status, economic, or social it didn’t matter. Paul’s point was that they weren’t called because of their position but because of the love of God for them. The response to that love was to keep the commands of God out of love and devotion to the one whom they now could call, “My Father”. Paul makes the point that if they were a slave or servant when God called them, then it was fine to stay in that position, although if they were offered freedom by all means take it. Either way they had been set free from what had really enslaved them and now they were free to know and experience the love of God.

Each of our passages this morning points us to the motivation for our relationship with God and the reason for covenant faithfulness, love. Psalm 130 begins with, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!” There is in that opening statement the deep seeded need for a response from God. Psalm 130 is seen as a penitential Psalm, a cry for forgiveness. The Psalmist is acknowledging that there is forgiveness with God and the only way that there will be peace within his heart, and things made right, is by God showing up in love. Verses 5–8 show an understanding of the relationship that God wants us to have with him. The Psalmist is calling us to see God for who he is:

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Long ago I discovered how easy it is to act the part of a Christian. I could go to church and pretend that everything was just fine between me and God but in truth I was empty on the inside. I would read of Jesus chastising the Pharisees for being “white washed tombs, clean on the outside but full of corruption on the inside” and I would inwardly cringe. I knew that was a great description of me too. It was when I cried out to God from the depths of my misery that I found the love of the Father through the cross of the Son. The gift of a relationship with God had been mine for the asking all along and the gift of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit sealed the deal. It was wonderful, and it changed everything.

However, our relationship with God is like our relationship with our spouses, you don’t just get married and then stop working on the relationship unless you want it to grow stale. Coming to faith in God is the beginning and we must build and develop the relationship daily. God can pour out upon us the gifts of the Holy Spirit but unless we pursue Christ daily they can become idols instead of tools for his glory. We can let life get in the way and the joy and freshness of the relationship can begin to wane and before long it seems like only a memory and we find ourselves telling stories from long ago.

I’m afraid that to often that is what happens in the lives of many who call themselves Christians. The idea that God is Father becomes something that is acknowledged as true but there is no longer that joy and passion that was once there. As I said last Sunday, if you no longer hear from God it is probably a sign that this has happened. If the passionate desire for God’s word and for daily times of prayer and praise are gone, then perhaps it’s time to join with the Psalmist and cry out from the depths of your soul, O Lord, renew my passion and desire for you. Help me to once again find joy and delight in calling you, my Father.

This morning I want to take a few minutes before we go any farther for us to pray and ask God to renew our passion and desire for him. Unless that happens, we don’t really have a story of hope to tell those without hope. Let’s pray.

©2018 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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