RECALIBRATE THE SIGHTS OF YOUR FAITH
Jeremiah 26:8-15
Lent 2 – March 7, 2004
Jeremiah 26:8-15 But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, "You must die! 9 Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?" And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. 10 When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s house. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, "This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!" 12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13 Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. 15 Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, our Rock and our Redeemer (Psalm 19:14). Amen.
Dear sharpshooters of the faith,
How many of you can resist making a snowball when the snow is at that perfect wet packing stage? It is a grand temptation for myself, especially if there are a lot of moving targets around. One New Year’s Eve I was at a missionary’s house, when we got a good foot of snow. All of the missionary families were getting together to celebrate. So all of the missionary kids were at the house too. A snowball fight was irresistible. Everyone sought shelter where they could. Though it is proper to seek shelter in our Lord, one of the boys took this truth a bit literally that night, and hid behind a lighted nativity scene, using the baby Jesus as a human shield… or a divine-human shield. I don’t know which was the worse crime:
1) hiding behind Jesus, while pummeling others with snowballs,
2) drawing fire on yourself, when Jesus might be the casualty, or
3) the guy who disregarded the sacred manger, aimed, misfired and hit the baby Jesus with a snowball, knocking out the light of the nativity scene?
And to think that the guilty party was a member of the clergy… the shame of it all. What comforts me, I, the one guilty of this crime, is that Jesus forgave even those who crucified him. The moral of this story: When aiming for Jesus, do so with faith, not snowballs.
Today we want to consider how well we aim our faith at Jesus. All three readings this morning have reminded us how the majority of this world has aimed for God, but very few have leveled their crosshairs on the true God. Many hunt for God, but because their faith is misplaced and off center, their trust is of more harm than good. Like my poorly aimed snowball, instead of hitting the intended target, it knocked the light out of Christ. In the Gospel reading (Luke 13:31-35) Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Though their zeal was great, it was so often misdirected, and cost the lives of the prophets, whom God sent to them. Jesus, himself, would fall as their victim, though he came to gather them under his wing. Paul, in the Epistle reading (Philippians 3:17-4:1), admits from his own experience, “Many live as enemies of the cross” (v. 18).
How is the aim of your faith? Today we consider Jeremiah, a prophet outnumbered, called on by God to recalibrate the sights of his people’s faith. If so many of God’s people could be wrong and led astray, including the religious leaders of their day, should we not be cautious ourselves. Let us go to the courtyard of the temple to learn from this faithful prophet how to keep our sights focused and steady on our God, so that we don’t inadvertently snuff out the light that Christ has given us.
I. God is the Target.
First of all, let’s review what the aim of our faith, love and trust should be. Our target is none other than the Lord, right? Simple. How can you go wrong on that? All of you know that the true God is the Triune God. All of you know that Jesus is your Savior. It seems that enough has been said. With a rifle, normally, you don’t have to readjust the sights on your scope that often, that is unless you have been bumping it against things. In reality the scope of our faith is daily being batted about, so that we constantly need to take the time to sit down and recalibrate our sights. Paul warns us: “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall” (I Corinthians 10:12)! BEWARE, if you think that you cannot lose sight of Christ. We are always in need of God’s tools for the recalibration of our sights. Jeremiah says to us, as well as to the Jews, “Reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God” (Jeremiah 26:13).
What had happened in Jerusalem that incited God to angrily threaten to destroy his own temple? If we go back in the book of Jeremiah, we hear what God told Jeremiah to say, “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’ -- safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD” (v. 9-11). The Jews knew the name of the Lord, just as we do, but they had emptied that name. They attached it to false gods. They attached it to the temple in such a way, that they thought the mere mention of God’s name would protect them, though they had utterly turned away from the truth of that name. They thought that as long as they visited the temple from time to time, God would be happy and condone their sinful actions. This goes to prove that they did not know the God behind the name. He never condones sinful actions.
God called the prophets of Jerusalem adulterers (cf. Jeremiah 3). Sometimes God used this symbolically, meaning that they gave up their love for him, and they had committed themselves to false gods. But God also uses the term literally (Jeremiah 23:14). The false religions that these prophets followed were fertility cults, which emphasized the lusts of the body. Since that was their focus, God’s moral law concerning marriage went right out the window. They thought that the Lord would not be displeased by their lack of regard for marriage, but God says, “I have been watching!”
Then they have the gall to say to Jeremiah, “You must die! Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh” (Jeremiah 26:9,10). Like I said, they knew the name of the Lord, but they didn’t understand who he was or what he wanted. There is always that same danger for us. Though we trust in God as the source of all good and our guide for true morality, the world and our flesh serve as the devil’s tools, warping our understanding of God’s will. Daily in the newspapers and on television, on the job and at school, we are presented with the world’s godless view of things. We are constantly exposed to a misguided morality, which is off-base and therefore stands in opposition to our Lord and the cross he bore, because, as Paul says, “Their mind is on earthly things” (Philippians 3:18,19).
Has the world affected your thinking? Consider these questions: Do you find yourself sometimes unable to answer someone who is arguing in favor of abortion? That the argument is so persuasive, that you are tempted to agree with them? Do they succeed in making you think that the rights of the mother forego the right of the living soul within the mother? God would say ‘No!’ Do you see casinos as an advantage, which could reduce the state deficit and increase jobs? Do you forget where that money comes from? Does God want jobs to be created which live off the foolishness and misfortune of others? God would say, ‘No!’ Do you find yourself thinking, ‘What’s the harm if marriage is allowed to gays and lesbians? It’s just a matter of them getting equal rights.’ Did God make a mistake when he made woman? Would another man have been just as good a partner? Did God make a mistake when he established society on the foundation of a marriage between a man and a woman, who are joyously different, who by their differences provide their children with the proper roles of man and woman in the eyes of God? No, God did not make a mistake. Do you waver on these important questions? Then, yes, you see that we are buffeted about by the world and its way of thinking. We are tempted to give our approval to things that God is displeased with. We are tempted to approve, and to think that God approves. In ignorance of God’s holy will, we are willing then to come to his house, and to think that all is fine, even though we have betrayed God’s truth and have put a basket over the light that God put in us.
II. God’s Word Tells Us When We Are Off-Target
That is ignorance toward God’s name. That is missing the target. ‘Missing the target’ is a literal translation of the word ‘sin.’ It was sin that brought our Savior to suffer and die. It is sin that leads the world astray. It is sin that lowers our sights from God in heaven, to aim our trust at false conceptions of God and his will. It is sin that brought God’s wrath on Jerusalem and the temple.
God said he would make the temple like Shiloh. It was in Shiloh where God had his tabernacle for a time, his house of worship, a house which was actually a glorified tent. God’s house was at Shiloh during the youth of Samuel, when the people had consistently failed to listen to God. The sons of the High Priest committed adultery with some of the women who served at the entrance to God’s house of worship (cf. I Samuel 2:12-25). It was from Shiloh, that God allowed the Ark of the Covenant to be taken and to fall into the hands of the enemies of God (I Samuel 4:1-11). Shiloh became destitute, a place for cursing. Shiloh was a constant reminder to all the people of Israel: ‘This is what happens when God’s people stop listening to God.’ No matter how many symbols of God we may carry or trust in, these mere symbols and places of worship cannot save us.
God doesn’t want us to miss the target. He wants us to know what his name means; to love him as he deserves; to trust him, because he has always proven himself faithful; to rest our sights on him, and him alone, and not on buildings or crosses, which have no power. True obedience to God, which can only take place from a humble and faithful heart, cannot be replaced by Christian images or church attendance. Is God pleased if we attend church, just to forget what was said, when we get back home? Is a picture of folded hands in our kitchen good enough for God, or does he actually want us to pray from our heart? Does a cross earring make our ears holy, when we refuse to listen and act upon God’s Word which is spoken to us? No.
In baptism our hearts were cleansed, made a suitable temple for the Holy Spirit. But if we refuse to use our body as God’s temple, feeding off the Word of God and acting in love toward our neighbor, than Jeremiah’s prophesy stands against us too. Our hearts will become desolate, bereft of God’s warmth. If we still claim to be Christian without listening to what God wants us to know, God will make us a laughing stock. Even unbelievers will point their fingers at us, seeing through our sham, and say, “And you call yourself a Christian! What a joke!”
Before you become the ridicule of those who have no fear of God, keep God’s Word in your daily life. It is the perfect target which shows you when you’re aim is off. God’s Word, like any other ‘target,’ is an impartial judge. If you are off target, God’s Word will say so. Targets don’t measure effort, but precision. We may be shooting at the bullseye with all our skill, but if the target says we are still hitting to the right, something has to change. We have to recalibrate the sights of our faith. Jeremiah told the people not to put their faith in the temple or the temple prophets, because the prophets were lying. The Law of Moses was the true target which they were supposed to use. The Law of Moses clearly said, “You shall have no other gods.” Their faith was like a shotgun shooting at the air. Their faith was in everything but the bullseye – the Lord God Almighty.
III. God’s Word Puts Us Back On Target.
There will always be temptation in the world. God has a true and sly enemy who is constantly tricking us into putting our trust into something other than God. But in order to throw our aim off, he first has to convince us that target practice is a waste of time. He doesn’t want us to hear or read God’s Word, because the Bible will tell us when we are off-target. He will put up other targets for us: public opinion, philosophy, open-mindedness, selfish ambition, blind love which satisfies human desires, etc. Shooting at his targets can be quite satisfying because they’re not hard to hit. It doesn’t take effort, and there is no sense of failure.
That reminds me of a king, who went out hunting one day. In the forest, he was surprised to come across several trees which had targets painted on them, and in each of the targets, perfectly in the center, there was an arrow. “I must find this incredible archer and make him part of my special guard.” So he and his hunting crew went in search of their new quarry. Before long they came across a boy with a bow and arrow, just stepping away from another bullseye, perfectly struck.
“Come here, my boy,” called the king. “Did you really shoot these arrows, or did you simply stand next to the tree and drive the arrow in from close up?”
“I swear, my King, I shot from 100 paces.”
“Indeed! Then please join my hunting group, for you are an amazing shot! Please, tell me, how did you learn to aim with such precision?”
“I simply look squarely at the tree, hold my breath, and let the arrow fly… Then I walk up to the tree and paint a target around the arrow.”
It’s simple logic, if we want to hit the target perfectly every time, we put the target at the spot that we are hitting. But this kind of tactic will never improve our aim. God gave us his Word, so that we could improve how we live our lives. The Bible is our tool to see: “Is God really first in my life?” When we regularly review our life based on the Ten Commandments, we see how well we are aiming. “You shall not murder” reminds us not to even hate our neighbor (cf. I John 3:15). “You shall not commit adultery” reminds us of the sacredness of marriage (cf. Hebrews 13:4). “You shall not steal” reminds us that God holds us accountable for the ways in which we use the gifts he has given us (cf. Matthew 25:14-30). This law cannot change. As a target, it doesn’t move in order to satisfy our desire to succeed. If we want to hit the target we have to keep practicing with our aim, and then checking the results.
Of course, we never will hit the target perfectly, because we are sinners. If sin means ‘missing the mark,’ then sinners obviously are ‘those who miss the mark.’ It is a sad truth, when we read God’s Law and see how poor we are at shooting acurately. We are so easily distracted by the joys of this world, that we sometimes miss the target completely. Thanks be to God, that his Word also reminds us, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (Titus 1:15). Jesus came to save those who miss the mark. Jesus lived the perfect life, always hitting the center of the target. Then Jesus even allowed himself to become a target, the center of God’s anger and wrath. Not only was Jesus pierced on the cross by nails, but the Father struck Jesus with the full weight of our sin. The most unlikely target of God’s anger was his own beloved Son.
Though God’s Law does not change so that it is easier for us to hit the bullseye, Christ’s sacrifice, which brings us total forgiveness before God, makes it seem as if we never ever missed the mark. Christ is our Robin Hood, firing arrow after arrow right in the center, splitting one arrow after another. This perfect aim of his is accounted to us, as if it were our own achievement. We appear before God as sharpshooters, thanks to Jesus Christ. May this gift of Christ help you as you make the regular effort to recalibrate the sights of your faith. Place your sights always on the true target – Jesus Christ. Listen to God’s Word, so that you can tell when you are straying with your aim to the right or to the left. And let God’s Word be your guide, so that you can bring your aim back on target.
Don’t give up on practice. Daily aim and fire. Check your target and draw your arrow. Target practice won’t be over, until you are no longer sighting God in with faith, but are actually seeing him face to face. Amen.
May the Lord’s Word always remain a lamp to our feet, and a light for our path (cf. Psalm 119:105). Amen.
