The vicar and I have this ongoing debate about whether you need to include every reading in each sermon. She reckons you should, I think that if they aren’t obviously related then pick one or two and concentrate on them.
Jeremiah 8.18 - 9.1; Psalm 79.1-9; 1 Timothy 2.1-10; Luke 16.1-13
That Gospel reading seems a bit scary (and very challenging).
I will say that the point of the story is NOT that it’s OK to be a con artist as long as you get away with it in the end! NOR is it about about making our own lives more comfortable!
It IS about money and how we use it in our lives. It IS about understanding that money is neutral, it’s how we use it that makes it honest or dishonest. We’ll see that with regards to ancient Judah.
It is NOT about winning your way into heaven by bribing people.
It IS about our view of life — we are not here for the weekend, not even for retirement — we’re here to plan for eternity. To bring people into God’s kingdom. Anyway possible: our prayers, our wealth, our time, all to support God’s work.
It IS about warning us of the judgement of God.
Now that the gospel is out of the way, I’m going to ignore it (but put your hands up if you hear me refer to it later). here’s what I really want to talk about:
I’m going to go back to my music theme from three weeks ago, when we looked at pop songs. Remember God’s breakup song with Israel? His anger at their betrayal by chasing worthless idols?
Today’s pop song focus is on tears: with Bob Dylan’s song Tears of Rage (tears of grief), now I’m not certain how far I can stretch this, so bear with me. I reckon that you can see shadows of Judah and Israel in the song…
We carried you in our arms
?On Independence Day?
And now you’d throw us all aside
And put us on our way
Tears of Rage, Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel
The LORD your God who goes before you …
just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
and in the wilderness,
where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you,
as a man carries his son…?
Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God,
Deuteronomy 1:30–32 ESV
If you have a study bible you can look up the current situation in Jeremiah — it’s 99 years since the fall of Samaria and the Northern Kingdom called Israel.
Do you remember a few weeks ago we had readings from Amos and Hosea?
They were about 100-130 years before this.
God was punishing them because they were worshipping idols and exploiting the poor.
They only paid lip service to God’s requirements but would not do them:
Oh what dear daughter ’neath the sun
Would treat a father so
To wait upon him hand and foot
And always tell him, “No?”
Tears of Rage, Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel
They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words.
They have gone after other gods to serve them.
The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.
Jeremiah 11:10 ESV
In Judah (the Southern kingdom), just like the North, idolatry goes hand in hand with social injustice. :
“I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
Amos 5:21–22 ESV
They make a big show of coming to church but without repentance. They can't wait to leave and get back to exploiting the vulnerable
Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end…
Amos 8:4 ESV?
In other words, we must be scrupulously careful with how we use our wealth, we should use our money to serve God’s kingdom and not ours.
God has warned Judah over and over again but they have not turned back and his righteous anger is about to fall on them.
In other words we are dealing with God’s judgement of his people. Remember, they are God’s people and we are God’s people. God’s judgement is just as relevant to us today:
And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management’
Luke 16:2 ESV?
One day God will ask to see our accounts, have we been faithful with what he’s given us?
Our God is a righteous God and there must be justice for sin, but listen to how God feels about what’s about to come:
My joy is gone;
grief is upon me;
my heart is sick within me.
Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
Jeremiah 8:18, 9:1 ESV?
God is weeping about what’s about to happen, in fact what must happen. ?
Fast forward seventy years and we get today’s psalm:
How long, O LORD?
Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake!
Psalm 79:5, 8–9 ESV
Pretty grim Psalm isn’t it? There’s a hint though (atone for us)
The survivors or their children are begging God to restore them.
Picture yourself there, God has warned repeatedly, there is a day of judgement coming.
The question I now ask is this — does God enjoy this? The answer is of course no.
God does not enjoy judgement. His heart is wounded, his eyes are a fountain of tears.
There’s this idea that God is impassible, he’s not affected by emotions. You only need to read the Bible to know that’s no true. Do you remember Jesus crying over the death of his friend Lazarus?:
And he said, “Where have you laid him?”
?They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
Jesus wept. ?
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
John 11:34–36 ESV
And when Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem for the last time:
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!
Luke 19:41–42 ESV?
Jesus not only knew about the fall of Jerusalem in 40 years but he’s also crying over the people that failed to recognise (or refused?) to recognise the Son of God.
Keith Green wrote about this in his song Asleep in the light:
“Oh, bless me, lord! Bless me, lord!” You know, it's all I ever hear!
No one aches, No one hurts, No one even sheds one tear
But, he cries, He weeps, He bleeds,
And he cares for your needs
Asleep in the light, Keith Green?
God’s tears are not just helpless sobbing, “Oh no, what am I going to do?”
There is a plan, we read about it earlier in the 1 Timothy reading:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.
1 Timothy 2:5–6 ESV
Jesus is the bridge between sinful humanity and God:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:16,17 ESV
The problem is nobody keeps reading that John passage, it continues…
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light…
John 3:18–19 ESV
God gives us a way out, he gives us plenty of warnings (just as he did with Judah and Israel) and plenty of time to respond:
The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 ESV?
God, loved us so much that Jesus became human for us. He lived a perfect human life, he died a human death and all the righteous anger in God (for our sins) was satisfied in that death
God’s tears of rage turned into tears of grief but they can become tears of joy:
Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:10 ESV?
How?
When we turn to Jesus, we step out of darkness and into the dazzling light of Jesus, we’ve been washed clean by the saviour’s blood. ?
There is no other way, you can't buy you way into heaven.
We turn from rage, to grief, to joy, and our heavenly father weeps with joy!
But what do we have to do to get this?
It’s simple, turn to Jesus and say, “I can’t do it by myself and I need your help. Jesus you are the only way.”
And when you do it the tears that both God and you will be crying will no longer be tears of grief or of pain (we all have our own tears of pain) but tears of joy & laughter.
Do you want that? I want that! I need that!
I’m not certain where you stand, maybe you already stand in the light. Or maybe even after years of coming to church you are still uncertain. Maybe you hover at the edge of the light.
Now before we come to the Lord’s supper today, we have three opportunities (during the creed, during prayers, or during confession and absolution), just take a minute to think about where you stand.
Are you in the light, at the edge, or possibly still in the dark?
And when we come to confession let’s make today be the day when you reaffirm your trust in God, your faith in Jesus.
Or better still, if this applies to you, make today the day when you put your faith in Jesus.
Let’s make today be the day when we all stand right in the dazzling light of Jesus!
