Second Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 7th, 2015click here for past entries
Loving God, our hearts are restless until we find our home in you. Strengthen us in faith and love this day by the power of your Spirit, and help us to live our days to your praise and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This week I was part of several conversations about the kinds of things that we praise in our culture. In these conversations, a number of different things were suggested. If you happen to be a good athlete, we praise that. In fact, if you win a Stanley Cup, we’ll have a parade for you. If you happen to be rich and famous, we praise that. If you are particularly good looking, that will get you lots of praise - and perhaps even some unwanted attention along the way. If you sing popular music, or are part of a popular band, we praise that. If you’ve built a business empire and made lots of money, we praise that. Are there other things, that I’m not even thinking of?...
One thing about a lot of these things that our culture praises is that they don’t last. Good looks will eventually fade as you get older. Athletes past their prime fade out of the limelight. No matter how much money you make, any number of things can happen to drain it all away. And, things tend to happen so that those who are famous are suddenly in people’s bad books, and no longer as praise-worthy as they once were.
Another thing that we can say about many of these things that we praise is that they take up an incredible amount of our time and energy. Whether it is pursuing our own athletic career or watching others, how much time is spent on sports? How much time and energy is spent, not only trying to become rich and famous, but watching those who already are? How much time goes into trying to look your best, and keeping away those wrinkles, and wearing all the latest fashions, and doing anything we can not to look older? And how much time and energy goes into always trying to make more, and do more and be more, so that finally, we will have made it!
The Psalm that we heard today proclaims, “Who is like the Lord our God?” (Ps. 113:5). Indeed, a musical adaptation of this Psalm says, “There is none like our God in the heav’ns or on earth” (Ron Klusmeier). As the Psalm calls us to praise God “from the rising of the sun to its setting”, it also invites us to think about all of the other things that fill our days.
The thing is that right from the beginning, in Genesis, we have yearned for something more. Even those first human beings had a space inside that could only be filled by God. Yet, they, too, tried to fill it with other things. The man, at first, had only the animals as companions, but none of them were suitable to fill the void in his life. Once he and the woman were together, it was a little bit better, but still, they were looking for more. They looked to that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thinking that it might do the trick, but it led them even further away from God.
They looked to everything else except God in order to satisfy the longing within them, not realizing that in that relationship with God they would have had everything that they needed. And then throughout the rest of the Scriptures, people continue to turn to idols, or even to other people, instead of turning to God, while at the same time God continues to call those same people into relationship. Today, in spite of the fact that Jesus has opened the way for us to have that life-giving relationship with God, we continue to fill up all of the spaces in our lives with everything else.
A number of people have commented to me lately that they often have days where it is hard to pause long enough just to take a deep breath. Many people are busy all the time running from one thing to the next. And some people are constantly at work, with e-mails and texts showing up on their phones at all hours of the day and night. We have managed to fill every moment – often with everything except God.
And so, today we are invited to put all of that other stuff aside for a while and to ask the question, “Who is like the Lord our God?” Are the people and things that we praise actually praise-worthy? Is it worth it to put all of our time and energy into things that will perish in the end, rather than into the one who gives eternal life?
It is interesting that many of the things that are praised in our culture are quite opposite to the God who is revealed in the Scriptures. While our culture tends to say that you need to look a certain way or make a certain amount or be good at certain things in order to matter, the people who matter the most to God are the ones who are poor and needy.
Our God is most concerned about the least of these. Our God stoops down to serve and to wash feet. Our God stoops down in order to lift up the poor man and the barren woman and to treat them like royalty. Our God comes down among us, living, serving and dying among us in the person of Jesus. Our God sweeps the house and searches and doesn’t stop until she has found that one lost sinner who needs to repent.
The truth is that every person who is here today matters to God. And every person who has not yet come here matters to God. In fact, not only do we matter to God, but God has acted to save us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Having been washed and saved and forgiven, we have been set free to have that life-giving relationship with God, just as God always intended. Rather than spending our time and money on that which does not satisfy, we are invited to fill our hearts and minds with the one who is the bread of life and the source of living water.
And so, praise the Lord. Praise the one who stoops down in order to lift up. Praise the one who has given his life for ours. Praise the one who doesn’t forget about the lost, but searches and sweeps until she finds them. Praise the one who loves us, and who fills our hearts with that same love. The way has been opened to us through Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Pentecost 2 (NL summer) Psalm 113
June 7, 2015 Luke 15:8-10
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison
© 2015 Lynne Hutchison All Rights Reserved
|