Jeremiah lived in a time not unlike our days-a time of uncertainty, uneasy, a time of transition from what had been to a new future, a time when you can easily become overwhelmed.
Like Jeremiah who lived 2600 years ago, we live in an age and a culture here in America, where stress is high and since September 11, emotions have run low with many if not most, sensitive Christian disciples have experienced a sense of being overwhelmed and a deep sadness with most of us running a low-grade depression.
Some of the warning signs of depression can be identified with a simple test which if you answer yes to five or more of the following questions, the chances are that you are depressed and need some form of help-which can vary from a conversation with a friend to medication to professional counseling to hospitalization:
(shall I proceed or have you reached your five)
You are going to have to work on some of these on your own, but this morning I want to help you with the one where you might feel hopeless about the future.
For you see, Jeremiah who was the prophet of Judah in the 6th Century, which was the time of the Babylonian Exile, was one who never lost his hope. His belief in God was such that saved him and saved his people in an uncertain time and this same belief or inner confidence has saved God's people of every age.
In the midst of an uncertain time, Jeremiah spoke with a sure voice quoting God as saying: "I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
The prophet had already pointed out to them that their Nation’s destruction was happening because of their sin. They had not kept the Sabbath, they had used God's tithe, they had not trusted in him but in national alliances which had gone bankrupt and now the people would pay a price. They had not shown justice to the poor and the needy. The nation would falter and fail, and the Babylonians would take the Jews into exile.
But Jeremiah said in the final analysis: "God has plans for us!" In every age we search for God's plan. We ask: "What does God want me to do? What does God expect of the nation? The church? My family? Where does God want me to be? Am I to take this job, study this or that? Live here or there? Love this person or that person? Give this or that?" These haunting questions, which shape our lives, are ever with us.
Those of us who have been Christians for some time, are privileged to be able to read the Bible from the back forward and consequently, we know that God would fulfill his promise to the Hebrews and bring them back to the land. We know the end of many of the Biblical stories.
When you read about Jesus' betrayal by the disciples, his trumped up court trial, his crucifixion and death, you do so from the inner knowledge of where this story is leading, which is the resurrection. So you read the story from the back forward Crucifixion tempered by Resurrection.
So also do you read of the slavery period of the Hebrews down in Egypt, from the perspective of their Exodus and the freedom they would enjoy in the Promised Land. Slavery tempered by Freedom.
So when you read the Lamentations of Jeremiah, written in the Babylonian Exile, you do so aware that this too will come to an end, the pain will stop, the suffering will end. Exile tempered by Restoration.
I wish sometimes our foresight could be as good as our hindsight. Especially right now in the year 2001. Although I cannot see ahead, I do believe. And without a doubt I believe that right will prevail over wrong. That good will wins over evil. That security and peace will once again rule in our land. Hitler was successful for a time, Napoleon was successful for a time, when the Bin Ladens' of the world are successful for a time, when they are groaning from the abyss and soon, very soon, things will change and right will prevail, justice will fall hard and heavy, hope will overcome despair. Resurrection follows death. Always.
And the reason? Because the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, the God of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Jesus has said it will be so.
God has plans for us.
II. This is the message of the Bible and this is the message of nature:
The Biblical prophets had the ability to see beyond what was, to what is coming, which is affirmed by nature, that tragedy will give way to fulfillment. Despair will give way to hope. Hate will give way to love; death will give way to resurrection
III. So, what plans does God have for us? The same plans he has always had for us:
1. First, God plans for us to be like a light to the nations, an example of Godly living, of integrity, of sobriety, of truthfulness, of justice and compassion. To return good for evil, go beyond the second mile, turn the other cheek. These are the ways God's plan is fulfilled.
2. Secondly, God plans for us to be somebody.
The apostle Peter once wrote: "Once you were nobody, but now you are somebody, you are God's own people, chosen to be as a light to the nations, a Holy Priesthood."
The Apostle Paul writes: "As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Are you getting the picture?
3. Thirdly, God plans for us to help the needy. By our lives, “We proclaim a healing gospel in a fragmented world and sometimes we use words.”
Our national objective in this most recent world crisis is to deal with evil, to search out and destroy it in any forms it presents itself. Evil people will be found and finished.
Our President, who has demonstrated exceptional statesmanship, raised in one of his recent statements an important issue before us. President Bush said: "We must reexamine our relationship to the needy of the world." He thinks like a Methodist.
His coupling of humanitarian aid with military firepower is recognition of the need to help the needy. Both our President and the prime minister of Great Britain have been very articulate and deliberate to identify that our conflict is not with Islam, but with an embarrassing minority of the Islamic people who will use violent means to achieve political objectives and governments who will provide them safe harbor.
Less we get to a self righteous about this, let us acknowledge that we in the Western world have had similar distortions in Christianity over the years:
Our President and other world leaders have been correct to identify that our problem is not with Islam, but with this ill informed, violent abrogation of a very small group in the Islamic People. I suspect that the clerics of Islam are really struggling just now and there are heated discussions around the dinner tables after their sermons on their holy day which is Fridays. The real question for Islam today is whether they will join the modern world, which will not tolerate violence that has been a way of life for the Islamic people for thousands of years. Their dilemma is further complicated with the demands of a pluralistic society which demands acknowledgment of the rights of all people, male and female, Jew and Christian, and Muslim. The dilemma for Islam is do they want to live in the modern world that is going to be pluralistic and diverse?
One day, with the help of God, we will awaken in the light of a new day, a day of reason and righteousness, a future which God has planed for us all, male and female, peoples of all colors and nationalities, all God's people.
This morning, half way around the world, the sun is setting on the slopes of Adrian Mountains in Afghanistan. It is cold and windy as winter is setting in. There is ice in the air. There is a four-year-old child huddled beside his widowed mother, shivering and cold, without shoes, wrapped in tattered, dirty blanket. The name of this child is "Hope." I pray she will not die disappointed.
The Covenant relationship between God and His People has shaped our lives since the days of Father Abraham, his son Isaac, and his son Jacob—for thousands of years…
A covenant is a solemn and binding agreement. Our Bible is composed of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant or Old Testament and the New Testament. A Covenant, whereas God promises to fulfill in and through us all that he declared to Abraham and in Jesus Christ. We on the other side of the covenant, stand pledged to live no more unto ourselves but to be obedient to the ways of God.
In times past and even to this very day, we have not always been faithful to the covenant. A covenant is a solemn and binding agreement to do or to keep from doing specific things.
Now the scripture today comes from the writings of the Prophet Jeremiah who lived 550 years before the birth of Jesus near the end of the 70 years Babylonian Exile. the prophet declared Judah's unfaithfulness to the Covenant, but then near the end of the Exile announces the good news that God is offering a new opportunity, a new beginning, a new start, a new covenant which he will write on the hearts of the people and they will be God's people and God will be faithful and restore them to their homeland. A new covenant, a new beginning, a new opportunity to get it right.
Some of the words of scripture which I have underlined and highlighted in my Bible and set to memory are the words of this prophet who writes in the words of God: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.
This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will place my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
We, like the Jews of the Exile, are living in a transition time, a time from what has been and fast moving toward what will be. And like the Jews of Jeremiah's time, we also have broken the covenant.
1. We have broken the covenant of truthfulness. A man is only as good as his word and there are many who are not good. Well, how truthful have we been?
2. The covenant of marriage, it has to be based on trust, faithfulness,” Will you be truthful to each other is a question we need to ask the young couples who are married here at the church.
Paul Tournier writes: "This is what marriage really means: helping one another to
reach the full status of being persons, responsible beings who do not run away from life."
Our divorce rates have come down some, but we are still over 50% or one in every other couple winds up in divorce. Are we being faithful to the covenant of marriage?
3. The covenant of faithfulness to the church:
We pledge to support the church with our prayers, presence, gifts and service, and both the church needs and you need spiritually to be faithful to that covenant in all four ways.
Prayers, presence, gifts, and service.
Prayers: Jesus taught the power of prayer: "When you pray, believe that you have received what you ask for, and it will be yours. Ask and you will receive, knock and it will be opened to you, seek and you will find."
One of the illustrative stories of Jesus about prayer is the one about the woman who was persistent in prayer. …There was this woman who went to this judge demanding justice and kept coming back and coming back, until the judge said: Okay. Okay, not for justice sake, but to get her “off of my back". The Lord's apparent intent in this story was to encourage persistence in prayer. Keep coming back to God with the same petition and you will see how in the white hot heat of the presence of God it will stand up. Some things are not worthy to ask God for. Others are right on target.
Eva Scott has served on the Methodist Homes for the Aging Board for 25 years and she has dreamed for years of having homes in the Pensacola area and on this past Thursday evening, we opened the home on 12th and Summit. The beginning of a dream of many years. Dottie Sarver for years raised money to provide proper schooling for special children, and through her persistence has made a difference.
What are you really praying about? Asking God for? Prayer is more than getting things from God, it is more like focusing ourselves and coming to know inside what is expected, desired by the Creator. When you spend time in prayer and in worship, you will begin to know who God is and what God desires.
An Open mind and an Open heart will welcome the guidance of God into our lives. A principle within of a watchful God by fear.
We pledge or covenant to be faithful to the church with our prayers, presence, gifts and service. Maybe you have prayed, been present, volunteered for some job in the church and in the community, but don't give financially. On Nov. 11, we will have our Stewardship Commitment Sunday, which we have every year. …We ask every member to reevaluate their lives and to renew their covenant commitment to God and His Church and sign a card of commitment. A new member said of that day a couple of years ago, well "this divides the sheep from the goats." And it does.
Can you image riding in a car that has 3 good tires. It takes all four, and it takes all four dimensions of loyalty to feel the joy.
When a person is faithful in all the ways, which the church expects: prayers, presence, gifts and service, their lives are full and more meaningful. You don't miss the time because time in worship makes the rest of the day sacred. You don't miss the money, for that which we give away, is the only thing, which we retain. The reason is because it is invested in God's Kingdom work and that is an investment which pays dividends.
You don't miss the time, for there needs to be time for lots of things in our lives, time to play, time to worship, time to work, time to eat, and if you don't give your body and your mind that balanced diet, things break down.
One of the old stories about a church in rural Alabama in the soybean era is about how a church treasurer, who owned the local grainy and harvested and marketed the soybeans for all of the farmers, just deducted 10% of every load and gave it to the church. The farmers didn't know they were giving and they didn't miss it, but the church thrived. The sad part was that the individuals didn't have the pleasure of participating in the joy of giving. Are you missing out on the pleasure of participating in the Kingdom's work?
The truth is these covenants in our lives, these important relationships, our marriage, the church, the covenant with self; we have broken most all of them at one time or another. The truth is, we are sinners before God and we have been disobedient to the covenant and we need God the Holy Spirit, to rewrite his covenant and this time to write it in our hearts, to bind us to himself in such a way that it is sealed for the rest of our earthly life, so that never again, will we have to apologize, to hide in the darkness, to keep secrets, to be sorry.
In Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God offers a new chance to us, a new covenant opportunity. God stands ready to fulfill all of his promises.
Summary: On September 11th, we discovered that there were men, who we have identified as terrorists who were willing to die for a crazy cause. Is there anything you are willing to die for? When you make this decision, you will perhaps discover what you are willing to live for. And God wants you to live and to live abundantly. God stands ready. He offers us a covenant – a relationship for abundant life.
God stands ready on one side of the covenant to do and fulfill all that he promised to Abraham and in Jesus. On the other side, we stand pledged to no longer live unto ourselves but unto him who is the way, the truth and the life.
The title of this morning's sermon, "The Unnecessary Pastor" is probably not what you might think it is nor what some of you may want it to be. It is certainly not a way of self-effacing myself or another minister on our church staff or in our community for I appreciate the importance and crucial contributions of the pastor as a servant leader in every church and I genuinely feel that I and anyone else who may chose the ordained ministry as a professional choice, has made one of the greatest decisions of his or her life. It is a wonderful job!
The title "The Unnecessary Pastor" comes from a book by Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson in which the authors in a study of the writings of the Apostle Paul in general and the specific books of Ephesians and Timothy, are careful to remind the reader of what has become the secret of the growth of the Christian movement for 2000 years and our church in particular over the last 180 years.
The truth here affirmed is that every baptized Christian shares the work of the ministry of Christ and the ministry, which we perform, is God's work, not "our" work. We are in partnership with each other and with God, to do the Kingdom's work, not "the lone ranger" against alien natives.
So, the ultimate success of the ministry of every believer rests on the shoulders of God not ours. Here is a truth we all need to remember.
Just as you can't hire a doctor to be healthy for you, or a banker to be responsible for your irregular spending habits, or a teacher to learn for you the multiplication tables, or a dietitian to eat healthy foods for you, neither can you hire a preacher to be religious for you. It is your task and your task along with the help of God to fulfill your ministry.
In the 16th century, there was a stirring of the spirit of God throughout the world, which introduced the modern era of a new way of life. In this first year of the new millennium I have often wondered if this year is not a lot like what those who lived in the 16th century must have experienced.
It was and is a transition time from what was to what is coming, a transition from the past to the future. In the 16th Century in Western Europe, it was a transition time from what was called the dark ages to a new way of viewing and doing things. Martin Luther, who was a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, was used by God to awaken the world by a movement called "The Protestant Reformation". It was the time in history when there was an explosion of church diversification that would give birth to such strange sounding new religious groups as Lutherans, Calvinists who would later become Presbyterians, Baptists, and Anglicans, many of which would later become known as Methodists. One of the main tenants of the Protestant Reformation was what was called "The Priesthood of All Believers."
It meant and means to this very day two things: First, that every baptized believer has the privilege of direct access to God. You don't have to approach God through a priest, he is unnecessary, nor do you have to approach God through Jesus' mother or your mother or my mother. The lines of communication between each person and the Creator of the Universe are open to you— to you! Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me and you and all you have to do is claim this great privilege. God stands ready for His people, you are not alone, God stands with you. The "priesthood of all believers" means first of all that you, who are, because of Jesus Christ, a part of the Holy Priesthood that you can walk with confidence into the holy of holies, into the presence of the mystery of life.
And secondly, the "Priesthood of all Believers" refers to the responsibility of each and every baptized believer to share the faith with others. Sharing the faith is not the sole responsibility of a professional, He or she is unnecessary, but such sharing is the privilege of every one of us. I wonder, have you said an affirming word about God or about the church to someone who has been struggling since say Sept. 11th?
We are to be partners in ministry. I have tried to convince you of this truth for 18 years from this pulpit, but some of you are yet slow to get it, while others have claimed the joy of sharing their faith and that's why our church is growing. We don't have one, or two or three or four ministers, we have 2761 ministers of Jesus Christ who meet together on Sunday and then scatter to do the work of Christ in every nook and cranny in this community every week. In every school we have a minister, because you are there!
Let me take another shot at this or better yet, let me allow Paul in his letter to Timothy to take another shot at it. Timothy was not a seminary trained pastor, as was Paul, but was simply a layperson whose heart had been captured by Jesus Christ and he wanted to share this newly discovered faith with others. So in the last years of Paul's life and ministry, probably written from jail in Rome, the Apostle in a letter instructs young Timothy:
"Always be steady
Endure suffering,
Do the work of an evangelist
Fulfill your ministry."
See our memory verse in the bulletin “always be steady.” The new Revised Standard Version translates this statement, "Always be sober." The phrase simply means, "Keep your eye on the ball", pay attention, and keep your focus. Put first things first. Keep your eye on what you are doing.
The other day, early in the morning, I received a 911 call from a grandson who had missed the school bus, and needed a ride to his school. I jumped in the car, picked him up and we were on our way, racing the sound of the opening school bell, but we found ourselves behind a lady in a Subaru on the way to the same school. Although I have seen a number of people doing more than one thing before, this lady was pushing that morning for a world record. She was driving, I assume she was for she was sitting behind the wheel, she was putting on her eyelash makeup with her left hand, talking on a cell phone captured and held in place with her raised left shoulder, listening to the radio, eating a piece of toast for breakfast, steering the car with her knees and I assume for she was correcting one of her kids' home work problems with her right hand while leaning over into the back seat.
I started to use my cell phone and call the Guinness Book of World Records to register her tag number, for I just felt surely I was witnessing a new world record in the making.
No wonder we have wrecks, and sometimes we are a wreck, no wonder we don't accomplish anything of significance or experience the depth or savor the joy of doing one thing, for we are to often doing too many things. We are not steady with one thing and become overwhelmed with so many self-imposed trivial demands.
We must return to a style of life of putting "First things First,” keeping our eye on the ball, or covering the holy priorities of our life. This is why Jesus said: "Seek first the Kingdom of God." And Paul says: "Always be steady," stay sober, focused.
There is a sad verse in this morning's scripture where Paul, with tears on his letter, asks Timothy to come to him soon, for Verse 10-“Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me." It's easy to become confused in a world with so many choices, unless we keep steady, by "Seeking first the kingdom of God" and keeping other things in proper order. Keep steady!
II. Endure suffering-accept the hard times along with the good.
Now this is interesting in that it came to Paul's mind to instruct young Timothy. Granted Paul was in jail in Rome and he had suffered with what he had called "a thorn in the flesh", but he was writing to a young man and encouraging him to "endure suffering."
Maybe Paul has prophetic foresight and felt he should properly warn the young Christian before he hit the hard times.
For sure, Paul's advice to "endure suffering", is a clear acknowledgment that we will all be challenged in life. We will all encounter times when we will suffer, when you will feel the pain. Being a Christian does not exempt one from being hit by a car, or a divorce or the death of a loved one, or a downturn in the stock market, or being on the wrong plane at the wrong time. Jesus suffered. He was despised and rejected and deserted and died a painful death, and He was the Son of God. It happens to the best of us!
So Paul says: "endure suffering." Also from prison in Rome, he would write: "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope-and hope in God will not disappoint us".
Remember the apostle is writing some of his last words before his death. He senses that the end is near and he is not wasting words. He doesn't have a lot of time. When my brother lay dying, the day before his death, a wonderful hospice nurse said to him and the family, “Give some time when you are with him one on one, he may want to say something just to you.” And so when I sat beside his bed, just the two of us, nervously I said: Can I pray?” And he said, “Yeah, but before you pray, let me tell you this, when you know the end is near, you select carefully your choice of words.” I don't remember the words of my prayer, but I do remember his words to me.
The words of the Apostle were also carefully chosen and he said: Endure suffering, always be steady, do the work of an evangelist and thus fulfill your ministry-do your job as God's servant!
When we speak friendly to a stranger, when we have an open mind and create space in our lives for another human being, when we share our faith in God with another person, then we fulfill our ministry and we all have a unique ministry. God has created us uniquely, individually, and endowed us with certain gifts, do not neglect the gifts you have received, for you are in partnership with the Creator of the Universe.
In Summary: There is not only in Paul's letter to Timothy words of instruction but also encouragement. It is found in the final Verse 18.
Since Sept. 11th, I have been more acutely aware than ever before of the phrase in the Lord's Prayer: "Deliver us from Evil".
In verse 18, Paul writes: "The Lord will rescue me from every evil and save me for his heavenly Kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen!