Messy

Our subject this week is a troubling one.  We go to Leviticus and read about the Hebrew sacrificial system which was followed by faithful Jews for many generations.  We come to realize that the sins that we take so lightly involve an affront to God ... even the 'little' ones.  Tony Evans talks about sin in an effective way.  He describes sins as links in a chain.  We are hanging from a cliff by the chain.  Whenever we sin a link in the chain breaks.  It doesn't matter whether the sin is what we consider small or large ... the chain is still broken and we still fall.  Get the idea?
Leviticus is also about a primitive method of atonement for sin.  It is a messy atonement in that something must doe for our sin.  It begins as Adam and Eve leave the garden and animals must be killed to provide clothing they didn't need in the perfection of the pre-sin garden.  It ends an a hill above Jerusalem where a young man is executed for all of the sins before and after.  He is the lamb (the perfect, unblemished lamb) that takes away the sins of the world.  It is a messy scene.  The book of Hebrews calls this event a perfect sacrifice which is done once for all people.
As I reflect on this I can't help but think about the Levitical system where the person offering the sacrifice is in charge of placing his hand on the sacrifice, killing the unblemished animal, cleaning up the mess, guts and all.  Then, I see myself (as described by Dr. Mounce in the audio of this message) placing my hand on the head of Jesus, knife in hand.  Mine is the sin He is dying for.  Mine is the mess and the horror of that moment.  It is a sad thought and it hurts to think that someone has to do this so that I can know the presence and holiness of God.
What do you think?  How does this image make you feel?  Here are the words from Hebrews 10:8-10 "Sacrifices and burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them (although the law required them to be made).  Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will."  He set aside the first to establish the second.  And by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all."
Sunday we will go to the communion table and remember that sacrifice.  Some of us will do the routine and the liturgy and go away unchanged.  I will remember.  My messy sin.  His messy death.  My calling to never forget that my righteousness is only through what Jesus has done for me.

How Close Are You?

That's the question I ask myself often ... "How close am I to God?"  We know from Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;he rescues those whose spirits are crushed."  So ... is my spirit crushed or proud?  Do I approach God offering all I am or do I try to make God into the image I understand?  These are the questions of Exodus 33.  The people of Israel have just been found worshiping a golden calf during the time Moses was with God receiving the 10 commandments.  God is both angry and disappointed with the actions of the people.  Just a few miles from Egypt, delivered by 10 plagues and the crushing tide of the Red Sea ... brought out of Egypt ... the people chanting "we will do everything the Lord has said."  I can sometimes see how these things happen.  People are anxious about a coming event.  There is unrest in the world.  There are unknowns happening in the church.  They want to be in control.  They want decisions and events to follow their prescription because they want the future to conform to their understanding.  God, on the other hand, seems to want us to do something outside of the norm.  He desires something that doesn't trust in our wits or the natural.  Instead He calls us to trust Him and to believe in the God of the supernatural.  Why is this so hard when we have seen miracles and we claim to trust in the miracles of Scripture?  Still, we do what the people of Israel do.  We choose the golden calf over the supernatural and unpredictable presence of God.  Bible story after Bible story.  Church after church.  Christian after Christian I see this story repeat.  It is a puzzlement.  So ... what do we do?
I believe we do what we always do.  We make a choice and live in the aftermath of that choice.  The choice is this:
1) We seek God's presence and fully invest in following, giving up our expert and perfect plans for His will, His uncertain path.  We buy into His perfect direction given to us at His pace, in His way and on His terms.  This path gives up our dreams and joins in His dreams.  It is dangerous and we might lose everything we hold dear.  We will catch a fleeting glimpse of God's backside and glow with the blinding light of that glimpse.  We will be changed forever!  I hope I could say what Pastor Mike Yaconelli said, "If I were to have a heart attack right at this moment, I hope I would have just enough air in my lungs and just enough strength in me to utter one last sentence as I fell to the floor: "What a ride!" My life has been up and down, careening left then right, full of mistakes and bad decisions, and if I died right now, even though I would love to live longer, I could say from the depths of my soul, "What a ride!"
2) We do what the crowds did in Exodus and again in the Gospels.  We could stand at a safe distance, never in danger of getting burned by the light of Christ.  Never seeing the glory of God but living a perfectly and logical and safe life. Our faith would remain external ... something we can understand and control.  We might even be seen by our friends and family as being a "good Christian."
As I have pondered these two choices I ask myself the question ... "Do I desire to impress my family and friends with my faith or do I fall on my knees before a holy God and say, "I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips."
Some of you will understand that I am down with sliding into life and death with my foot on the floorboard and my hair blowing in the wind shouting at the top of my lungs, "Man, what a ride!"  Wanna come?

Connecting the Dots

Sometimes we read Scripture and think that these are a collection of stories that have some common themes but are not interrelated to one another.  Our story this week is one that shouts out this connection and demands to be heard through the centuries.  There is the announcement by God that He has a purpose ... "to bring you to myself [Exodus 19]." Then God offers the gift of the 10 Commandments that are rules for living in harmony with God and community.  Deuteronomy affirms this in the one rule that all Hebrews are to learn and teach, the Shema,  "The Lord your God is one God, the Lord alone.  And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength! [Deut. 6:4-5]."  Jesus repeats this as the commandment (the Great Commandment) that will enable you to keep all the commandments in Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34 and Luke 10:25-28.  He includes the command to love your neighbor as yourself.  Do you see this connection of the dots from the first giving of the law to Jesus re-giving the law as a hard-and-fast principle?  God is serious about these rules for living in harmony with Him and His people.
Here is where our problems begin.  First ... we do not seem to like all of these commandments.  The "do not kill or steal" we are pretty good with.  We understand that these cause immediate and permanent disorder whenever they occur.  But the first four commandments ... does God really want to be first in our lives?  As we live out our lives before God we seem to say ... "take a number and get in line!"  Do we live our lives in a way that trivializes God?  And does God really want us to worship Him on His terms ... not in our convenience?  I mean "I got things to do, places to go, people to see!"  That adultery command seems to be prudish in a society that is oversexed and under-principled.  So what if I want the things my neighbor has?  And honor my parents?  They are out of touch and if you knew the mistakes they made you wouldn't have any reason to honor them.  And lastly, we love to gossip ... why can't I take a few liberties with talking about my neighbor ... you should see the things that go on over there!
For all of the societal discussion about the 10 commandments what I (and I think God) would like to see most is to have us live them out.  They need to be displayed prominently in our hearts and in our lives ... then they would be displayed in a way that honored God.  After all ... God wants to bring us to Himself!
Those are my thoughts.  What about yours?

A Strange Love Story

My friend, Neil told me he was preaching on selected love stories from Scripture for next Sunday, the day before Valentine's Day.  When he asked me what my sermon would be about I told him, the plagues of Exodus. I know, I'm a hopeless romantic ... or are we missing something?
Through much of the Old Testament God makes promises and vows to his people.  Some of these are covenants which spell out the rights and responsibilities of God and God's people.  God will be their God and they will be God's people.  In Jewish wedding tradition there was a pre-wedding agreement called the ketubah.  It was and ornate and very elaborate agreement entered into between the groom and the father of the bride.  It spelled out the rights of each party in the wedding agreement.  When this agreement was made the bride and the groom were considered married even though they were not living together for quite some time.  This time was used by both parties to prepare for the wedding and subsequent wedding ceremony.  God consistently speaks of Israel and then the New Testament Church as a bride.  So let's imagine a love story here.
Bad people have taken the bride of God (Israel) into slavery and they even threaten the existence of the bride.  The groom has taken all he will take and sends his representatives to rescue the bride from evil men.  The groom is very powerful and has control over all of the natural, physical and spiritual world.  But the bad men refuse to release the bride, even killing the children of the bride.  They respond to the representatives of the groom by making the bride miserable.  So the groom exerts his authority and protection over the bride, causing great harm to the captors.  When they refuse all attempts to force the release of the bride the groom does what they have already been doing to the children of the bride.
Sunday we will take this love story even further.  For in the end, the groom initiates the greatest act of love in history to finally free the bride from captivity.
The "reproach of Egypt" is costly, even to God.  But the faithful groom will stop at nothing to make sure that,when the father calls, the bride will be brought to a place of freedom, safety and provision.
Now THAT'S a love story!