Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost Reality Check
Theme: Worship is not an escape from reality, but a full participation in reality. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Today’s Epistle from Hebrews 12 divides into three parts. 1.The first part—the first paragraph—speaks about the things “you have to endure” in your life. This first part explains to you why your life is sometimes horribly difficult, and why your loving God would allow you to pass through such hardships. Like it or not, “God is treating you as sons.” 2.The second part—that is, the second paragraph—speaks about the things that God requires you to avoid in your life: conflict with others, sexual sins, bitterness and resentment, and anything that else will make you unwilling to hear God’s Words and believe. Avoid living for the moment, as it were. Esau did that, and it ended badly: “When he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected.” 3.The third part of this Epistle—third paragraph—is your real “moneymaker” so to speak. Here God explains to you how it is possible for you to endure many hardships (part 1) and how it is possible to avoid the things that will destroy you (part 2). Stated another way, the third part of today’s Epistle explains to you the vital importance Sunday morning holds for your everyday life: For you have not come to what may be touched… But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and [you have come] to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and [you have come] to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Dear Christian friends: In His book of 2 Kings, God tells you about a certain young man, the servant of the prophet Elisha, who saw something that brought him immediate terror and despair. This young man had come to spend the night in the small city of Dothan along with his master Elisha. Elisha had been helping the King of Israel in his war against the King of Syria, so the King of Syria decided it was time for Elisha to die. “He sent there [to the city of Dothan] horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city” (2 Kings 6:13-14). Frustrated by Elisha’s successes, Syria’s king intended to kill the prophet along with anyone who dared to stand in its way. Elisha’s young servant was the first one out of bed the next morning. Shock and the fear seized him when he went out and saw “an army with horses and chariots all around the city” (2 Kings 6:15). This was probably the same sort of shock and fear that a mother might feel when she sees her son’s motionless body in a car accident; the same immobilizing wave of disbelief and incomprehension that hits people when they get the bad news of a serious illness or catastrophic loss; the same nauseating despair that people feel when they realize there is nothing they can do to prevent what is about to happen. Gripped with panic, Elisha’s servant called out to beloved his master, “Alas! What shall we do?” (2 Kings 6:15). Elisha did not even blink at the bristling horde he saw gathered around the city. Elisha calmly replied to his servant, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see” (2 Kings 6:16-17a). Essentially, Elisha was praying, “Dear heavenly Father, give this boy a reality check.” “So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17). Salvation. Deliverance. Hope. An enfeebled enemy now dwarfed by the overwhelming power and resolute intervention of a friend. Grief traded for joy. Terrible fear instantly replaced by relief, comfort, and peace. You might think this miracle is the sort of thing that happens only to important people, such as Old Testament prophets, and not so much to people like you. God your heavenly Father does not want you to think that way. On a somewhat different note, you might think of your Sunday morning worship as a chance to flee from reality for a while; a chance to put your Monday-to-Friday preoccupations out of your mind for a few minutes; a chance for you to disengage from real life and to escape. God your heavenly Father does not want you to think that way, either. God wants you to know that your congregation’s worship is NOT your escape from reality, but rather, your worship here is your reality check. Your worship here is your DOSE OF REALITY. Your worship here is your chance to see that real life is much bigger than the hardships and the struggles you experience during the week. God your heavenly Father wants you to think of your Sunday morning worship as the opening of your eyes—just as the eyes of Elisha’s servant were opened—so that you may see “the mountain… full of horses and chariots of fire all around” (2 Kings 6:17). To be sure: You have not come to what may be touched… But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and [you have come] to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and [you have come] to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Today’s Epistle does not speak about something you will have someday, when God finally lets you die and go to heaven. Today’s Epistle speaks about what God promises and gives and reveals to you TODAY. The writer does not say, “You shall eventually come…” The writer of this Epistle says to you, “You HAVE come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.” 1. It is no secret that many of you have suffered various hardships in your life as a result of God “treating you as sons.” Your struggles are NOT imagined and they NOT fabricated. Your struggles in life carry serious consequences. Your struggles are as real and as deadly as the army Elisha’s servant saw besieging the city of Dothan and I will not minimize the threat they pose to you. I WILL promise you this, as Elisha promised the young man: “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). 2. “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood,” but many of you have resisted long enough and persistently enough that you feel as though your hands are drooping and your knees are about to buckle. Despair is a constant temptation for those who “strive for holiness” and have “sought it with tears.” It is not hard to think that tears of despair must have likewise blurred the vision of Elisha’s servant when he also cried out, “Alas! What shall we do?” (2 Kings 6:15). What was the comfort and consolation God gave to those young man? The same comfort He likewise gives to you in the liturgy, the preaching, and the holy Sacraments of the Christian Church: “The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17). God has not given you Sunday morning so that you can have an opportunity to escape the reality of things that you endure and the things with which you struggle. God has given you Sunday morning to show you that reality is much bigger than you what you can see or touch. Think of your struggles—complete with sharp edges and barbs and malice against you—think of your struggles as being like the Syrian army that encircled Dothan. Then let your Sunday morning worship be your reality check: You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and [you have come] to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and [you have come] to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. What, after all, happens here in worship? 1.Here in worship, we gather “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” (Preface to Holy Communion). That is to say, the Christian liturgy marks our here-and-now gathering together with “innumerable angels in festal gathering, and… the assembly of the firstborn of heaven,” awaiting the resurrection with all those who have died in the Christian faith. 2.We gather here, not merely in the presence of one another, but in the living presence of “God, the judge of all” who has clothed you in baptism, forgiven you all your sins, and already counted you among “the spirits of the righteous made perfect.” 3.Here in worship, we receive a new sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28), which “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Abel’s blood cried for vengeance (Genesis 4:10); Jesus blood intercedes for you, cleansing you from every sin and every injustice. “Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,” dear saints! “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). Whatever your temptation; whatever your hardship; whatever the source of your grief: by comforted God’s promise that we gather here with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven. Do not think of worship as your escape from reality, but as your God-given vision of the reality that goes beyond what you can usually see. “Behold, the mountain [is] full of horses and chariots all around” (2 Kings 6:17). This is your heavenly Father’s reality check, given to you for each time you feel yourself overwhelmed by your enemy: “you have come… to the city of God.” The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at: Rev. Fr. Eric J. 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