A little book called “Kids’ Letters to Pastors” provides some fertile ground this morning for us to begin thinking about getting on God’s agenda. You see, you and I know the words we are supposed to say, whether we mean them or not. But kids say what they think, without editing.
And so I suspect that Loreen, age 9, might be where many of us are when she sent a little note to her pastor, “Dear Pastor, I think a lot more people would come to your church if you moved it to Disneyland.” You might be right, Loreen, because a good many of us do think that church is for entertainment, church is fun and games, church is sweetness and light. You might be right, Loreen, because we do judge church by whether it makes us feel good. Never mind that a whole lot of the folks who are not in the church think it is already Mickey Mouse! Disneyland with a steeple.
And then there was this insistent, determined, impassioned note to the preacher of the day from Eleanor, age 12, who still had not heard what she came to church to hear, “Dear Pastor, I liked your sermon where you said that good health is more important than money, but I still want a raise in my allowance.” Yes, Eleanor, we are right there with you. We want what we want when we want it. No substitutes accepted. And you can talk all you want about God’s priorities, but hey, what about my wants and wishes, what about my lifestyle, what about me? We are right there with you, Eleanor.
We are pretty sure that God is busy doing something. Just what we may not always know. But we are pretty sure God has an agenda, a plan and a purpose. It’s just that, if it isn’t too inconvenient, Lord, could you take care of us first? Could you just set aside the plan of the ages and attend to my little hurt, my little wish? Getting on God’s agenda? The trouble is that we want Him on our agendas.
Sometimes at the close of our worship we will sing that folk anthem, “We shall overcome”. Most of us thrill to it when we do. “We shall overcome, we shall overcome some day; oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day.” That’s good stuff. But do you know, I get a little uncomfortable when we go on and sing another verse, “God is on our side; God is on our side; God is on our side today.” That troubles me a little. I would rather that we sang about our being on God’s side than His being on our side. I would prefer that we sang about our doing His work rather than His doing our work. I would be happier if we were less concerned about what we want from God, and got more concerned about what God wants from us.
Getting on God’s agenda? We don’t set the agenda; God sets the agenda. We don’t decide what God ought to do; God decides what God ought to do. And more, God decides what His church ought to do. The question is not whether God is on our side. The issue is are we on God’s side, do we know what He is about, and have we gotten on board of His agenda?
When Israel was in Egypt’s land, it became very clear indeed what God’s agenda is. Centuries ago, in the single most important event in Israel’s long history, God laid out His agenda for humanity and, at the same time, created the means by which it would be carried out. You know something of the story already -- how the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt; how God reached out and touched a man named Moses and appointed Him for leadership. And you know, I suspect, that Moses was just like a lot of us: he had doubts. He had qualms. He was scared of the risks. And there were some things he’d rather have first. If not Disneyland, at least peace and quiet. If not a raise in his allowance, at least the assurance that his hard work would pay off. He was afraid to get on God’s agenda. But God would not let Moses go. And, I believe, He will not let us go either, because we are called to get on God’s agenda.
I
First, notice with me that God’s agenda is to give freedom to the oppressed and enslaved. God’s heart goes out to those who are in trouble, and His purpose is to give them their freedom. If you want to know what God’s agenda is, just look around at anybody who hurts, anybody who is less than they could be, anybody who is captive to something damaging, and you will know where the heart of God’s love is directed.
I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the Israelites, ’I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
God says that He has heard the groaning of His people, and that He will free them from their burdens. God’s infinite love is about bringing people into completeness. God’s love is about giving people the tools they need in order to live their lives in joy before Him. God’s agenda is to free us from the things that shackle us and hold us back.
You and I know a little about liberation. This nation was born because a generation of Americans could not tolerate the oppression of the British crown. They believed that God’s agenda was for them to gain their freedom. You and I know a little more about liberation. This nation’s second birth came when the conscience of America could no longer tolerate the terrors of slavery. Those who fought for its end knew that was on God’s agenda. You and I know a whole lot about liberation, because this nation was tried in the crucible of the civil rights movement, because the generation so many of you represent groaned, and God heard your cry. God’s agenda is freedom. God’s agenda is to let His heart of infinite love respond to the groaning of His people, whether they be crushed in poverty, whether they be deprived of education, whether they be starved for food or banished from homes or cheated of dignity. God has heard their groaning, and He will deliver.
In fact, most of all, God has seen that His people are perishing because they do not know Him, because of sin. God’s heart has heard the groaning, because we turn to false and foolish things. Most of all, God has heard the groaning of the spiritually starved, and He wants to deliver them and forgive them. That’s God’s agenda. Freeing His children from whatever presses them down. God’s infinite love seeks to bring them out from their Egypts and them back to Himself.
II
And, what is more, right there next to God’s infinite love is God’s infinite power and will. It is not only that God has heard the groaning of His people, but it is also that God has determined that He will deal with the situation. There is no doubt at all of God’s infinite will and power. God will not be stopped. God will get on with His agenda. Listen to the determination in His mind; no less than six times in just a few verses He proclaims what He will do, no doubt about it:
I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.
If we are at all interested in getting on God’s agenda, we’d better figure out that God is not fooling around! God is not playing games. God means business. God is going to do what God is going to do, and, frankly, against those odds I’d rather be with Him than against Him! I’d rather be working for Him than trying to resist what God will do! Many a person who thought he was powerful, above God’s justice, has been found out and exposed to public shame. Many a nation which thought it would last for a thousand years, building on oppression, has crumbled into the dust, done in by the judgment of God. And many a church, some right here in our own city, has splintered and split, withered and died, just because they thought they could do their own thing. They thought they could build Disneyland and put a steeple on it. But they didn’t do anything for anybody, they didn’t heal the wounded or convict the sinful; they didn’t feed the hungry or counsel the distressed. Many a church has died, and richly deserved to, because its agenda was comfort and convenience, a raise in their allowance. They thought they could slip that past Almighty God. But they didn’t reckon with the grand “I will.” They didn’t think of the sovereignty of our God. “I will free, I will redeem, I will take, I will be, I will bring, I will give.” I will! God wills!
And you and I can either get on board, or we can step out of the way, but we will not stop God’s redemptive purposes. God is going to do what God is going to do. Just as God’s agenda to free His people from everything that holds them back is motivated by His infinite love, so also God’s determination to do for them what He wants to do is driven by His infinite power and will.
III
But here is the interesting part. Here is the stuff that intrigues me. Did you know that despite God’s infinite love, and even in the face of God’s infinite power, God can be frustrated? Did you know that there is a way to hold off God’s agenda, at least for the moment? Did you know that God’s work is frustrated not by His enemies, but by His own? Isn’t that intriguing? But it’s true. It’s true because God’s people are so often afraid to take risks. We are afraid to trust God or to trust ourselves, because we haven’t really accepted all that God wants to do in us. Listen to this pregnant phrase:
Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.
The good news came, but they did not listen to it, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery. What a profound word that is! You and I do not even accept the magnificence of what God wants to do, because the sin that so easily clings to us damages our faith. You and I do not even imagine what God intends to do through us, because our spirits are damaged from all the garbage we’ve taken in over the years. We are more impressed by what we think cannot be done than we are by the power of God to get it done. We cannot imagine a future that is different from what we’re stuck in now. If ever I saw a definition of sin, that’s it: sin is the unwillingness to believe that God will do in us what He says He will do. If ever I saw a picture of faithlessness, that’s it: we fail to imagine what we might be if we were to let God have us, totally and completely. “They would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.”
You may have heard the story of the evangelist Dwight L. Moody, a generation ago, who one day heard someone say that the world had yet to see what God could do with one person completely dedicated to God’s purposes. Moody vowed that day, that by the help of the Spirit, he would be that one person. Understand that Moody had no particular theological training; he was a salesman. He had no financing; he was a working man. Nor did he have much of an education. He had just about nothing that tradition said he ought to have. I guess he couldn’t have gotten a job in our church, by the way! But out of a heart of dedication and a mind of openness to the Spirit, Dwight Moody created an evangelistic thrust that reached countless thousands, that established new institutions, and sent missionaries. All because he just accepted what God had done for him. All because God can do something with just one person completely dedicated to His agenda, one person who lets God redeem his brokenness and fill up his emptiness.
Our church needs to dream new. You and I need to feel the infinite love of God for the people surrounding us; we need to see how much God wants to fight the crime, end the prostitution, heal the broken homes, raise the neglected children. We need, most of all, to see that God wants to save the sinful. We need fresh dreams and dynamic imagination. We need to get on God’s agenda.
We need to dream about what to do with our giftedness. We need to dream a new dream about all this property we hold. It needs to do something redemptive. It cannot just sit there any longer. We need to dream a new dream about how to make this church building a welcoming place for those who need it. Our giftedness needs to pick up on God’s agenda.
We need to dream about what to do to reach out to those who hurt. It’s not good enough just to shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, they know where we are if they want a church.” We need more than a handful of people out there sharing Christ. We need outreach programs in the neighborhoods and apartment houses around us. We need a new worship experience, with a different style, a different slant, for those whose spirits are so broken they cannot feel what you and I feel on Sunday morning. We need to extend God’s agenda beyond our convenience and get to those who hurt.
We need to dream about how to support those who are ready to be freed from whatever holds them back. It’s not enough any more just to slap folks on the back and tell them we’ll be there for them when they get up to par. It’s time to provide support groups and in-depth counseling and spiritual training for the journey. God’s infinite love demands no less.
And God’s infinite power will do this. The cross tells me that God will deliver, God will redeem. The cross tells me that God’s love will bear whatever burden and pay whatever price is needed. That’s not even in question. But He may do it without us, if we are not open and imaginative; He may do it without us, if we cannot see a future that looks different from our past. He may do it without us, if all we really want is Disneyland in Takoma and a raise in our allowances. The cross tells me that deliverance is rooted in God’s infinite love, the empty tomb tells me that deliverance will be done. He is on our side. The issue is whether we are on His side, on His agenda.
