As I read the readings for today, I got to realise the assumptions that we make as people. I once asked my nine-year-old grandson why he comes to church and he said “I come to church to see you Gogo”. It was an honest answer from a child. Before becoming a priest, I used to come to church to impress God. I made sure I never missed a Sunday so God can be proud of me. Now I know that people come to church for different reasons. Some of the reasons we can list here:
• Some come to church because they are going through something
• Some come to church because they are driven by guilt (they don’t want to anger God)
• Some come to church because they have been asked to.
• Some come to church to feed their souls.
I know there are more reasons than these. I realised that we as people would rather make assumptions about what is right instead of listening to the bible. We make assumptions because we don’t know. We don’t know because we don’t ask. When we ask we hear answers we are not ready to hear. So we let our circumstances tell us when to go to church and when to stay at home. We let circumstances dictate our faith and not the law. Why is law important? Law is important because when the law was formed it was formed by the Holy Spirit. Taking into consideration all the circumstances we may go through and I mean all. The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit is our helper. Meaning the laws were formed to help us. For example, when the law says to love your neighbour as you love yourself, it has taken into consideration the different circumstances we could go through.
I often hear people say “When God made that commandment, he didn’t know my neighbour”. Like their yoke is heavier than the law. The law is created to carry the yoke. The law makes the yoke easier because it was written out of love for you. The law was created to progress you and not hold you back. Rejecting the law is rejecting love. God is love.
Most people remain stagnant in their faith because they don’t apply the laws. They reject the laws for many reasons. They don’t trust them. some say they are outdated. The laws cannot be outdated because God doesn’t change. It’s what makes faith easy. You always know what God expects from you; there is no need to wonder because times are changing. God won’t change. He can be trusted because He doesn’t change. Circumstances change the law doesn’t. Judgement will be based upon being led by circumstances and not being led by law. If you go back to the beginning of the bible, in Genesis, Adam and Eve followed circumstances and abandoned the law. God chased them out of the Garden of Eden because they could not live by the law.
To simplify the entire Bible, there is law and circumstance. The law always comes first the circumstances come second. If you meditate on that you could see that it’s telling you to uphold the law – it must come first in your life. The circumstances are secondary. Yes, I must be honest and agree that some circumstances can seem pressing as a matter of life and death. But I assure you that God would never let down a person who chose Him over circumstance. He did not let Abraham down when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac.
I don’t want you to think of the circumstance as a bad thing. Think of circumstance as a way to strengthen the law within you. It’s giving you a chance to prove to God how much you love Him. The moment a circumstance comes it could turn out to be a point of sin or glory depending on your choosing. The circumstance is a point of power. Jesus says “If you love me Keep my commandments”. The great thing about God is that He doesn’t judge a man until his last day on earth. Giving you the rest of your life to repent.
But the mystery is that nobody knows their last day on earth. If we knew we would gallivant and indulge in sin and when we know it’s our month to die we repent and start doing things right. But our last day, the bible says, is hidden even from the Angels – Only God knows it.
In escaping living according to the law, men created their own rules for life. Man became concerned with circumstance and feared circumstance more than God. He came up with a new way to respond to circumstances. As man became more concerned with his ego and pride he naturally grew apart from God. God says, “I resist the proud”. At any moment when you want to show people who YOU are, or when you want people to know you – you have moved away from God.
Psalm 15 was really powerful and it needs no further explanation. The Title in the New King James Version of the bible reads “The Character of Those Who May Dwell With the Lord”. Character not personality. David asks, “Lord, who may abide in your Tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill?” And it’s as if God himself answers him. I like to read it in Xhosa because it brings so much meaning to my heart “Yehova, ngubani na owophambukela ententeni yakho? Ngubani na owohlala entabeni yakho engcwele?
Ngohamba ngokugqibeleleyo, esenza ubulungisa, Othetha inyaniso ngentliziyo yakhe.
Ngongahlebiyo ngolwimi lwakhe, Ongamenziyo into embi uwabo, Ongamngcikiviyo ummelwane wakhe;
Odelekileyo, ecekiseka, kwawakhe amehlo, Obazukisayo ke bona abamoyikayo uYehova; Ofunga, angajiki, nokuba kubi kuye,
Ongayinikeliyo imali yakhe ukuba adle abantu ngayo, Ongenakugaqelwa ngaye omsulwa. Okwenzayo oko akayi kuza ashukunyiswe naphakade.” You can re-read the English version at home.
Jesus invites us to overcome this world so we can sit on His throne. How do we overcome this? By living according to the law. Jesus lived according to the law all the days of His life and He sat on the throne next to His Father. Revelations Chapter 3 verse 20 – 21 say “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
I am reminding you of these things because I need you to remember that you are in church to learn ways in which you can increase your faith. To grow closer to God. You need to make a habit of at least practicing for 7 days what you learn the previous Sunday to the next Sunday. You don’t have to agree with everything that the preacher is saying to start practicing. As you listen to the sermon listen for just one idea and work on that. Start living according to the law and not according to circumstances. There’s a trick the devil plays on us that we must both understand and agree with EVERYTHING a preacher says for us to listen and apply.
It’s a trick because once you understand and agree with everything that is said, the devil plays another trick on you: you want to see if the preacher is living according to what they preach. If they are living like that then you say “That’s his life”. If they are not living like they are preaching, you say “He must live like that FIRST so we can see that it can be done”. All those things don’t push your faith forward they tie you down to sin. It’s devil talk and it must stop. The book of Corinthians that was read today says; “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” You first have to seek to be saved for words of sermons to have power over you. When you feel righteous and all-knowing, God cannot reach you. Paul warns us about the wisdom of the world, he asks, “Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world?”. We don’t hit the core of faith as a priest because we want people to stay by only telling them what they want. We try not to offend and upset. We censor sermons and only deliver what makes people comfortable. We deliver messages about blessings and rewards. Today’s scriptures got to me that we are hurting God by sinning.
He says in the first Reading “O My people, what have I done to you?
And how have I wearied you?
Testify against Me.
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
I redeemed you from the house of bondage;
And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.”
We hurt God by not living according to the law. It’s like being a parent. You love all your children, but you prefer the ones that listen to you. The last verse speaks a million.
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you?
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
All I ask is that you listen to one idea each week, and you go practice this one idea. This idea is not only something that will make you happy, if it makes you feel shy, or make you feel like you must change, or make you feel angry: that’s a sign that you need to work on that thing. Most often the thing you want to criticize the preacher for is signaling your point of growth. Please don’t try to do too much or try to be perfect. God is looking for your progress rather than your perfection. So take one idea and work on it. Then move on to the next one and work on it. When you try to work on everything you will not be successful.
Return God’s love by living according to His law or living a godly life. Pray often, and read the bible often. Make Jesus a personal friend whom you tell everything. There are so many points to start. Start where it’s easy for you and grow from there. Start exactly where you are.
