Our scene opens with a view of a standard American living room in a standard American house that is within the city limits of a… standard American small town.
A…standard American family is in the … standard American living room watching the current episode of ‘Deal or No Deal’ on their… (expensive) cable network. Everyone is having fun and trying to get someone they don’t know (and who cannot hear them) to win money they will never see.
This… standard American family… has two… standard American children one of whose face turns a vivid shade of red during a commercial as they exclaim, ‘that’s not fair!’ ‘Why does he (or she) get to have the last snack!’
‘You got the last snack, the last time!’ ‘No I did not!’ ‘Yes you did!’ ‘No I didn’t!’ ‘YES YOU DID!’ ‘NO I DIDN’T!!!!’ (Unbeknownst to them, dad slinks down in his seat as a guilty look comes across his face.)
Ah, the lack of justice in the… standard American family.
‘It’s not fair!’ They are words that we hear (and say) from childhood onward when a situation takes place in which someone else (or our self) feels that we have been cheated out of something or from something and our personal standard of justice has been violated.
Now in keeping with the theme of hearing animals tell the Lenten (and thankfully, Easter) Story, I wonder what justice might sound like to them?
Being an election year, I thought ‘What if they decided to organize their own political party because they felt ‘under-represented in government?’ There were rumors about this based on a recent press release from Sesame Street.
In it Big Bird was quoted as saying, "We are not asking for animal rights per se, [w]e are just asserting our responsibility to represent ourselves as equally as we can in a world dominated by human beings."
"I don’t recall who said it initially," Bird said. "But I was having a conversation about global warming with Smokey T. Bear, Barney T. Dinosaur and that little Gecko guy, I can never remember his name… from those TV commercials, when someone said, ’Who speaks for us!? Why don’t we have our own party?’… from there the idea just grew. I mean when you look at those Coca Cola Polar Bears and how cute they are! Who is going to take their issues to Washington D.C.?"
McGruff the Crime Dog said he did not expect it to be easy to get a candidate on the ticket for the upcoming presidential elections but that perhaps with the right campaign push and enough advertising they might pull it off.’
Or what about the story of a real and really angry elephant? It seems that a family from Italy, on vacation in South Africa, visited the famous Kruger National Park and decided to take photographs of a herd of elephants when a huge elephant bull took exception to this.
According to the story I found, ‘the elephant bull rammed their Land Rover smashing the windscreen with his tusks. He then head butted the car repeatedly while the driver frantically tried to put the car into reverse and escape. Eventually the car got away with the elephant bull chasing them for at least a mile.’
The family was later found ‘walking around the Park, having left their vehicle behind which had finally broken down.’ Although none of them were injured there was ‘major structural damage to the Land Rover which had to be later scrapped.’
(I wonder if the elephant felt that his privacy had been violated by another group of paparazzi tourists.)
(Slide 1) So far this Lenten season we have been reminded (and perhaps in some instances, heard for the first time) about Jesus our homeless savior from the fox, Jesus our peaceful savior from the donkey, Jesus our warning savior from the camel, Jesus our angry savior from the dove, and Jesus our grieving savior from the hen.
(Slide 2) This morning a real character named Igor, a vulture, tells us a familiar story of Jesus the coming savior…
(Dramatic reading from Living Lent; the animals tell the story, the vulture reveals a coming savior’ by Creative Communications for the Parish © 2008)
Jesus’ use of the vulture to illustrate an important point about His return comes on the heels of His public grieving over the people of Jerusalem and their refusal (read: rejection) of Him and His desire to protect and care for them as a hen covers her chicks to protect and care for them.
We hear our text for this morning beginning with verse 1 of Matthew 24: ‘As Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, his disciples pointed out to him the various Temple buildings. But he told them, “Do you see all these buildings? I assure you, they will be so completely demolished that not one stone will be left on top of another!”
Later, Jesus sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and asked, “When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to signal your return and the end of the world?”
Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will lead many astray. And wars will break out near and far, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won’t follow immediately. The nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come.
“Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because of your allegiance to me. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will lead many people astray. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But those who endure to the end will be saved. And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then, finally, the end will come.’
Then we move down to verse 26, ‘So if someone tells you, ‘Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,’ don’t bother to go and look. Or, ‘Look, he is hiding here,’ don’t believe it! For as the lightning lights up the entire sky, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.’
I would suggest this morning that one of, if not the most asked questions by many Christian believers, is ‘When will Jesus return?’ The answers are numerous.
As I have said before, a lot of ink has been used on this subject. People get very interested when this subject comes up.
This subject was, as has been said many times, on the minds and lips of the disciples as Jesus ascend back to the Father in heaven as we read in Acts 1 and verses 6 and 7:
‘When the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, are you going to free Israel now and restore our kingdom?”
“The Father sets those dates,” he replied, “and they are not for you to know.’
We ultimately do not know when Jesus will return, but we do know, and believe that He will return.
In fact, in both Acts 1 and our Matthew 24 text, Jesus turns the focus away from the event of His return to being prepared for His return. In Acts 1 he says, in essence, ‘go be witnesses. Go make disciples. Be about my business.’ In Matthew 24 He says, ‘conflicts and war will continue, natural tragedies will occur, and you will be arrested, persecuted and even killed for your ‘allegiance to me.’
And what we have heard read this morning has taken place in human history and it will continue to take place until Jesus does return. In fact, the Temple was destroyed about 40 years later in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed it. Only one wall is now left of the templewhich today we know as the Wailing Wall.
(Slide 3) But as I prepared for this morning, my thoughts turned to the question of ‘Why will Jesus return?’
The answer to that question is found, in part, in the book of Romans and chapter 2 where we read beginning with verse 2 and concluding with verse 11: ‘And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. Do you think that God will judge and condemn others for doing them and not judge you when you do them, too? Don’t you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see how kind he has been in giving you time to turn from your sin?
But no, you won’t listen. So you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself because of your stubbornness in refusing to turn from your sin. For there is going to come a day of judgment when God, the just judge of all the world, will judge all people according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who persist in doing what is good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and practice evil deeds. There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on sinning—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.’
Why will Jesus return and a final judgment take place? God’s justice requires it which brings me back to our average American family and the cry of ‘it’s not fair!’ Someone’s sense of justice was violated when a hoped for snack did not materialized and someone else got the snack.
But there are many other things that are unjust which cause us to cry out to our government, our society, our community, and to God, “It’s not fair!” And these things are more serious than the lack of a snack.
There has been the injustice of the massive genocide and murder of people simply based on ethnic differences and conflicts.
There as been the injustice of poverty, especially on children when we could do so much more.
But the injustices that have visited us are not the large ones that our media reports. The injustices that hurt us sometimes have been the injustice of being misunderstood and not having the chance to be understood.
Or the injustice of not being listened to and instead being ignored.
Or the injustice of being judged on the basis of appearances instead of more important qualities that are dismissed.
Such injustices have caused us to murder, become prejudicial toward a person or a group of persons, withhold respect and dignity from certain people, or reject someone because they did not measure up to a selfish and unfair standard. We have been both the recipients as well as the perpetrators of such injustice.
So we make laws to punish such behavior but has it made any difference? It has made some difference but it really has not stopped our ability to inflict injustice on others; it has not stopped the cry of ‘It’s not fair!’
The problem is that it is our spiritual nature that is the problem. It is our sinfulness that causes us to be unfairly discriminatory. (I say ‘unfairly’ because being discriminating is some ways is essential for safety and health.)
In Romans chapter 1 Paul addresses in verses 18 - 32 what happens to people who decide to turn their back of God and live life their own way:
‘When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving.’
Is this a just and right way to live? No! Think about the various injustices that living this way creates.
Many people don’t like to think about these things and they don’t want to be told that these things are wrong. But they are! And they cause us problems that we try to solve in all sorts of ways but one – confessing and repenting (or turning away from) these things and asking God to forgive us.
God hates these things. God loves us. God hates our disobedience and our refusal to follow Him. But He welcomes us back with open arms when we turn away from this and to Him!
But it won’t be that way forever…
A day will come when all of us will stand before God and He will not be calling on our friends, family, or enemies to testify either for or against us and neither will we be called upon to testify either for or against someone. He will be judge and jury.
This is why Jesus will come back! He will be tired of our disobedience and the injustice of our world because of it and He, at some point, will say… ENOUGH! How will it turn out for you?
That’s why there is Good Friday and Easter! That is why there is Christmas and Pentecost!
That is why the Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9, ‘The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.’
Like the alcoholic or the drug addict we have to admit the truth about ourselves in order to have the honesty to want to change. Now you might be saying, ‘Jim, I resent being labeled an addict!’ I understand that and I apologize if you are offended.
But, we are addicted. We are addicted to sin and it is only when we admit our sin and that only God, not our good works, or our church attendance or our religious heritage, can change us that real change can begin to take place.
One day, the personal injustices that we have experienced, and… the personal injustices that we have perpetrated, will be dealt with and they will be made right… on God’s terms and in God’s way.
Let us be ready now for that day, today by confessing our sins and repent of them and making whatever amends are necessary so that we will one day hear the voice of Jesus say, ‘Well done good and faithful servant.’ Amen.
Aminal political story is found at TheSpoof.com/ Talking Animals to Start Political Party funny satire story
Tourist story was found at morticom.com
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘030908slideslent’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
