Day of Pentecost - Psalm 139

Dear People of God

The Lord loves you.  That is the clear message of our text today.  Psalm 139 poetically draws out of those things that our Lord does to be with you and to have you be with him.    There is nothing that stops him or stands in his way; so great is His love for you.

The text is beautiful, wouldn’t you say? 

O Lord you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I set and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

As you read, you might get the image in your mind of two star crossed lovers.  Newlyweds.  A man and a woman who are so enamored with each other that they don’t care about one another’s faults.  They still have that newly married glow about them.  And in their love for each other they dote over one another.  They attend to every word spoken by the other.  They long to always be together.  They are deeply and genuinely concerned about and for the other.  We think of the genuineness and the purity of this sort of love.  Many of us have gotten burned by our hopes for love, taken advantage or discovered the imperfections in the one we have love.  This love is love apart from all of that cynicism.  It is love without being jaded.  It is true, honest, open and sincere.  All the best with none of the worst.  This is how our Lord loves us.

Our text tells us that the Lord discerns our thoughts from afar; in other words, the Lord knows what we are thinking.  Our text says that the Lord knows the our words even before they are on our tongue.  The Lord knows our words and he understands our thoughts.  Has it ever happened that you have not been understood?  Have you ever tried to describe what you have experienced and how you have felt because of it and no one has understood?  That is frustrating.  It is lonely. 

It happens in human relationships that even when we try to understand one another, often we fail.  A young husband does his best to read the thoughts of his bride by reading her expressions.  He knows what she is thinking by the tone in her voice or some expression on her face.  He relies on his knowledge of her tell-tale signs to know the thoughts in her head.  And he can at times be quite good at reading these thoughts.

But he is not perfect.  As any husband can tell you, no matter how well you know your wife there are those moments when you just don’t know what it is she needs.  You can try everything and still have it be the wrong thing because, we just can’t read a person’s thoughts.  We cannot perceive someone’s thoughts from afar.  We cannot know the words on a person’s tongue before she has spoken them.  Even when we try, we come up short.  But God does not.   

God knows it all.  God does know our thoughts.  There is not one thought that goes through our hearts or our heads that is lost to his attention.  He sees them all.  He knows them all.  He is attentive to them all.  Unlike that star crossed lover whose bride weeps for a reason he cannot discern, God does know.  He does understand.  There is no need for us to feel loneliness and fear because God discerns our thoughts and understands our words.

To read this and to understand this is glorious and so comforting, but it is also terrifying. Wouldn’t you say?

The Lord does know our thoughts.  He does know the deepest and darkest secrets that are hidden away in our hearts.  No matter how pure the love between the husband and wife, there are thoughts that they would each prefer to not share with the other.  There are thoughts that they are glad to keep hidden.  Moments when one’s heart is faithless, or spiteful, or resentful.  Thoughts that would hurt or anger or offended the other. 

Yet all those thoughts are laid bare before God.  As terrifying as it would be for your husband to know what you really think of his hobby that you pretend to love, as frightful as it would be for your wife to know where your eyes wandered when she was not looking, consider the fact that God does know.  God sees what your spouse does not.  God understands about you those things that your spouse does not.  And while your husband or wife can certainly cause you pain and grief and suffering, and believe me, so often they do, remember the words of the Lord, “Do not fear those who can destroy the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather be afraid of the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”  (Matthew 10:28)  Fear God.  God who knows and sees the thoughts in your head even before you know or see or understand them.  God who hears the words in your tongue even before you speak them.  Fear God.

Our Psalm is comforting.  It is beautiful.  It is reassuring.  But only with Jesus.  Only with Jesus can we find rest in these words.  Only with Jesus can we be at peace in knowing this about God; in knowing that God knows these things about us.

We believe the Bible to teach that God is omniscient – that he knows everything.  We believe the Bible to say that God is eternal – that he has no beginning and no end.  We believe the Bible to say that God is transcendent – that he is not bound to time and space but fills all of time and fills all space.  We say that God is omnipotent – that he has all power in heaven and on earth.  These things are affirmed by our text.  And the implication is that if truly eternal and if he is truly all knowing, then God knew your sin long before you were ever born.  He was aware of the thoughts in your head and the struggles of your heart long before you even had them.  And it was for this reason that the Lord sent to us His only Son Jesus. 

Jesus is the solution for humanities sin.  Jesus is the solution for all the suffering of the human race.  Jesus is the solution for the evil that happens in the world around us.  Jesus is the solution for the evil that happens inside of us – in our hearts and minds.  Between you and me and us and our relationships with each other.  Jesus is the solution for those sins that turn newlyweds into old married people.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day; a national day of remembrance for our soldiers who died to sacrifice themselves for us.  These men and women have served honorably in a God pleasing vocation.  But this is a stark reminding for us of how far the human race has fallen.  In order for there to be peace on earth among governments and nations there must be that threat that we stand ready to go to war.  We must be ready to kill and we must be ready to die.  To take away the our armed forces is to invite violence. So far has the human race fallen away from God.

And it is precisely for this reason that the world needs Jesus.  There is violence and death in the heart of man.  God perceives it from afar.  Not only that, the Lord hears the words on our lips and he hears us breathing out violence and murderous threats against each other.  He sees the hatred in our hearts that we have against each other.  And so He sent Jesus.  He sent his only son to be the sacrifice for that sin, for that hatred, for that violence. The Lord comes to pay for that sin that creates war between nations but also that violence and hatred that leads to disruptions in our homes, in our marriages, in our friendships.  There is violence in our hearts and so the Lord pays for it with violence.  Violence against his son. Violence against Jesus.  Jesus is beaten and bloodied.  Jesus is broken and abused.  Jesus is murdered and slain.  And the Lord has done this for us.  The Lord has permitted us to do this to him so that he could save us.  So that he could save us from each other and so that he could save us from ourselves.

And so this is done.  The work of forgiveness is accomplished and sin is washed away.  Its price is paid and its guilt atoned for.  And having accomplished the work of salvation, the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven having conquered sin and death, having overcome the things that overcome us.  He took his place on the throne of heaven and the first thing he did was send to us His Spirit.

On the day of Pentecost the Lord sent His Spirit to his disciples so that they preached and their preaching led to baptizing and faith and to new Christians and to a new church.   And the number of the Lord’s faithful grew.  Because now, the violence and sin that separates us from each other and from God has been done away with and a new fellowship could arise.  Fellowship with God and fellowship with each other as we all gather together around the gifts of the Gospel.  God’s Word, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper that tie us to the Lord and that tie us to each other.

Love is a wonderful emotion, a wonderful feeling, a gift from God that he gives between friends and family; a husband and wife. Yet sadly a gift that is misused and undone by the violence and sin that lives in the heart of each one of us.  This sin breaks apart the unity and the fellowship but God restores it.  He rebuilds it.  He recreates it in Jesus so that this love is once again ours to enjoy.  And with Jesus our relationship to each other, but also and especially with God is remade to the specifications of our Psalm. 

                O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

                You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

                                you discern my thoughts from afar.

                You search out my path and my lying down

                                and are acquainted with all my ways.

                Even before a word is on my tongue,

                                behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

                You hem me in, behind and before,

                                and lay your hand upon me.

                Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

                                it is high; I cannot attain it.

(Psalm 139:1-6 ESV)

Easter 6 - John 15/1 John 5

We have two texts before us this morning - both of them written by, John the Apostle.  Both address the topic of Love.  In his Epistle John talks about the Love of God that is shared between Christians.  He says that "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him."  In other words, within the gathering of those who have come to know God and believe God as he has been shown to us in Jesus, there is love between them; love that unites them and ties them together.  God gives love, we receive love, we show love.  That is the Church.

The Gospel text also talks about the love that Christian share among them.   The words of our text are spoken by Jesus himself.  And he says that love is God’s command.  He says that we love one another as He has loved us.  We should recognize that God’s commandments here have gotten stronger.  Jesus commands are tougher than the ones God gave through Moses.  Thou shalt not kill is easy enough to follow.  Thou shalt love thy neighbor is a much bigger challenge…

Our texts are about love.  Today is a good day to talk about love.  After all, today is Mother's Day.  Today is a day that we are encouraged to honor our mothers, to show them our thanks and gratitude for the way they love us.  And our mothers do show love.  Our mothers show us their love in the way they care about us; after all who else would so gently and lovingly clean a skinned knee or wipe a tearful eye? Who else serves the way a mother serves; cleaning up our mess, making sure we do our best at school, giving us advice on life's tough questions.  A mother's love is one thing that we can count on to be steady and secure in the unsure and unforgiving and hard world.  Moms love no matter what.  Today is good day to talk about love.

Or what about that other “love” that everyone has been talking about this week.  Twice the news has had headlines addressing national opinions about married love – who is eligible and who is not.  North Carolina passed a marriage amendment to legally define marriage as between one man and one woman.  Yet on the flip side, President Obama has publicly stated that he believes marriage should be open to anyone who loves anyone - the whole topic of "gay marriage".  Those who Mr. Obama agrees with tell us that this is all about love.  They tell us that if we don't agree with them then we do not love, that we are anti love.  You and I have been attacked as bigots in the media.  Some say this is an issue of love.   But Paul tells us that “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”  (1 Corinthians 13:4-6 ESV) 

We have seen those who claim to be champions of love doing those things that love does not do – insisting on their own way at all costs, rejoicing and celebrating that which is wrong, lashing out and attacking those who hold opposing viewpoints.  This issue is not about love.  It is about power. 

           

With all this discussion of love in the news and of course love as it relates to our mothers, it is easy to lose sight of what true love is and what true love should be.  We are tempted to think of love as something that we do.  Love is the way a man loves a woman and a woman loves a man.  Love is the way a mom loves her child.  Love is the way that child returns her mother’s love.  Sure, these are all examples of love, these are places that we see love and that we experience love.  But this is not love.  Love is not something that is created in us or by us or that simply flows out from us.  Love is entirely of God.  It is something that begins in God and that ends in God.  Love is something that God does and that God gives and that God creates.  When it comes to our love and the love that we might have for each other, the best we can hope to do is just to imitate love or be a reflection of God’s love as it given in God as much as we are able, even if that is only a little bit.  Love, true love, real love is what God does for us. 

Our Epistle text gives us a means to measure our love.  To know if love is there in the things that we say and do.  John says that "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments."  John adds on that "His commandments are not burdensome." 

Now this is good.  It is good to have a point of comparison.  Our love is measured by whether or not we keep the commandments.  Our love is measured by those things that we find written and recorded for us in the Scriptures.  We don't define love, God does.  We don't decide whether or not we have demonstrated love, whether or not our love has been sufficient, whether or not our love has been true and pure.  God does.  God measures our love by the commands of His Word.  And when we use the Word of God as the measuring stick for our love, we find that it  falls short.  The type of love matters not.  A husband's love for his wife, a mother's love for her child.  All have fallen short, all have missed the mark. All human loves falter or waiver.  Our love is not perfect love.

But, and here is the problem, generally speaking, we are okay with that.  To err is human after all... Right?  We well ourselves that is ok.  Sure, we might go off track every now and then, but who doesn't?  We are all sinners.  We all have our moments.  That’s okay as long as your heart is in the right place.  Right? 

Wrong.  The standard we have for ourselves and for each other is not the same standard that God has.  Remember the commandments.  Moses says don’t kill, Jesus cranks up the expectation when he commands that we love one another, even our enemies!  For us the standard is good enough.  For God the standard is perfect.  God says that we have sinned. God’s word says that we have failed.  We are like the prisoners in Plato's cave – chained to the wall in a dark cave all their lives they so that all they have seen is darkness and shadows.  When they are finally released to go out into the light, they could not bear it.  It was not what they were used to so they went back in and lived where they were comfortable, in the shadows.  That’s like us.  We have lived all our lives in the darkness and corruption of sin.  We are used to seeing it and living with it.  It’s there when read the news or pick up a magazine or go to the movies.  It is all around us.  We see how bad the world has become and we have never known the world without it.  Our normal is not normal.  Our normal is sin and corruption.  We can’t even imagine a world without sin.  And so when we judge ourselves we see in ourselves the same sin that is in everyone else and we assume we must be okay.  We are measuring with a crooked ruler.  Only God’s Word gets it right.  Only God’s Word draws the line correctly.  And God’s Word says we are sinners.  God’s Word says that we don’t show love.  We don’t even know what love is.

But God does.  God knows love.  God is love.  God shows love and God  gives love.  “Greater love has no one than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends.” 

These are words of Jesus.  Words that are exemplified by Jesus.  He not only says them, he does them.  There is no greater love than to give all you have to give, even your life, even your death for the life of others.  Jesus gave that gift.  Jesus gave his life, laying it down for you.  There is no greater love than the love of Jesus.  There is no greater love that the love of Jesus for you.  And Jesus has called you friend.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:14-17)

We live in a world where we do our best to love, where we do our best to understand love and define love and live love.  Mom's love their kids, kids love their moms, and sometimes it seems that love is as close to perfect as one could hope to expect.  But our love, our loves, are only shadows, imperfect and poor reflections of the true love, the great love, the greatest love that anyone could have or show and that is the love of God, the Love of Jesus for you as he gives his life for you, life for life, death for death, so that your sins could be washed away and so that you could be forgiven.

Jesus gives that love to you.  Jesus gave that love today - to Nevada.  She was washed, she was cleansed, she was raised to new life to new faith and to new hope that won't perish spoil or fade.  this is God's love in action, given and demonstrated perfectly and flawlessly.

Amen.

Now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ jesus,

Amen. 

Easter 5 John 15:1-8

I would make a terrible farmer. As I was reading on line about keeping orchards and fruit trees I discovered that it is tedious work. I like low maintenance gardening, put a seed in the ground and maybe water it a few times and hope for the best. Vine dressing is as much art as it science; training the branches to grow in the direction you want them to grow, making certain there is not an overgrowth that stifles maturity, removing the dead and diseased branches. There is work involved in maintaining an orchard or a vineyard. Constant continuous work that requires and demands a dutiful agrarian to get the utmost in production, but also beauty out of his plantings. Dear friends, this is our Lord. One who tends and shapes but who also prunes us the branches so that we grow into full maturity and so that we produce good fruit. This is the devoted care our Lord gives to his vineyard. But our Lord who tends and cultivates and nurtures also prunes. Those branches who are dead and diseased are not left on the vine to corrupt the whole vine. They are cut off then gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned. There is judgment in our text. The question is, are you an unfruitful brach? To answer that question we must understand this: what does it mean to be unfruitful? St Peters second epistle offers us some insight. In chapter one we read this: For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8 ESV) To remain in Jesus begins with faith, faith that hears the Word of God, that receives the good news of God’s salvation – Jesus dead on the cross and raised to new life to the glory of the Father – faith hears that Word and says Amen! That Word is for me! And so we are members of Jesus the true vine. So that is faith. But faith gives way to love. And love includes that list that we heard from Peter. Virtue, knowledge, self control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, love. Peter says that these things keep you from being unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So to be fruitful is to be virtuous, knowledgeable, self controlled, steadfast, godly, filled with brotherly affection, and love. If we truly desire to please our Lord we are wise to meditate on these qualities and characteristics. And so you might ask yourself, am I virtuous? By virtuous our text intends to say that we are moral in our lives but also in our thoughts, not tolerating sin-filled thoughts. Zeroing in on honesty and purity in all that we think, say, and do. Putting away from ourselves all the ways of the world. Are you virtuous? Are you knowledgeable? Of course we don’t mean knowledge of general truth; we mean knowledge regarding the truths of scripture. Have you devoted yourself to understanding the Word of God and have you studied it and meditated upon it? Have your turned it over and over in your mind to glean from it every truth that it has to offer? Are you knowledgable? Are you steadfast? Once you have latched on to that truth do you hold on to it at all costs? Do you stand firm in the face of temptations to sin or temptations to dilute God’s Word with man-made conventions? Are you one who will stand firm even when you are challenged to let them go? Are you steadfast? Are you godly? Do you meditate on God’s Word day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment so that God’s Spirit permeates your life, your heart, your mind and so that the Words you speak are words of mercy and grace and love the way God speaks with you? Or are your words harsh and judgmental or crass or rude? Are you godly? Is your godliness matched to brotherly love and affection? Do you reach out to others with the same love that you have received? Are you eager to overlook the faults of others, eager to help and eager to serve? Or are you unkind? Are you steadfast, not in God’s Word but in your own will to power? Do you display brotherly love and affection? If you meditate on these things, if you pray that the Spirit open your heart to understand what these things entail, you will know that you are not. You will pray and you will repent. You will beg the Lord for his forgiveness and you will ask that he not hold your sins against you. Why? Because that is what a Christian does. Because that is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. The alternative is to be too busy. The alternative is to be too offended. The alternative is to be too self righteous. The alternative is to be a withered branch. Jesus tells us that those who remain in him, that is to say, those who receive his Words with gladness, who take them to heart and pray for the Spirit’s active instruction for them and in them, those who pray with David, “Lord search me and know me, see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23) those who pray that prayer will be rewarded with the thing they seek. The Lord will give his Spirit abundantly (Luke 11:13) and you will be like a branch that is grafted in to the vine. The refreshing and rejuvenate Spirit of God will flow to you so that you will bear fruit. That is the image of the vine, is it not? A branch that is grafted to the vine will be lush and green, fed with living water (John 7:39) that carries nourishment for each branch to be fruitful. So that a harvest can be found growing on its branches. But the sick and diseased branches, the dead branches who care nothing for the water of life flowing from the vine, they are snipped off, they fall to the ground, they shrivel up and die. They will be gathered up and thrown away, burned in the fire. Jesus here tells us of God’s judgment against the unrighteous and their destruction in hell. So what is the Christian to do? Remain in Christ. How do you do that? Receive His Word. Jesus gives to you his word. Receive it. Be nourished by it. Our Bible class is studying Deuteronomy. Last week we examined chapter 6. We read a passage that the Hebrews refer to as the great Shema; the great “Listen”. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV) We are to keep the scriptures close by. Keep them always with us and always beside us and always on our hearts and minds and on our lips. We are often in danger of treating our Bibles like an encyclopedia. We don’t use encyclopedias much any more. These days we have the internet at our finger tips, but it used to be that the encyclopedia was the place you would check when you had a question. A big bunch of information that was otherwise obtuse and unnecessary, but it could answer the occasional tough question. Sometimes that is the way we treat the Bible. Information, handy as an occasional reference. The Word of God is not information. Those words are truth and they are life. Jesus tells us that it is by the Word that we are grafted in to the vine. And it is by the Word that we fed and nourished. It is also by the Word that we are pruned. To be pruned is to have the dead leaves cleaned off. The leaves that hinder growth and that get in the way of the fruitfulness of the branch. To abide in the word is to be clean. It is to have those dead leaves cleared away so that the only thing that remains is good and green and growing. Jesus cleans you. He takes away your sins. He takes away your poor thoughts, your dead works, your selfish ideals. And he replaces them with those things that are fruitful, that result in virtue and knowledge and self control and brotherly love and affection. This is what God does for you. On our own we are branches destined for destruction. But God has picked us up and grafted us into Jesus the true vine. And by that vine we receive life and faith and we produce fruit and a harvest that is useful to our Lord and Master. He prunes us. He makes us grow. He cleanses us so that we are useful to him. May the Lord find you fruitful and growing and alive as you remain in Christ and as He remains in you. Amen.