A Homily for Quinquagesima Morning Prayer
Deuteronomy 10:12-11:1

I currently use a Franklin Planner with pages that have a little cartoon at the bottom to keep up with my schedule.  On one of the pages is a cartoon entitled, “Corporate Compassion in a Recession”. It depicts a frazzled looking character outside an office building window on a sizable ledge, toes over the edge, tie loosened, shirt unbuttoned, hair tussled, obviously considering a jump.  The other character in the picture is a man in a suit and tie properly done up leaning out of a window holding out a sheaf of documents to the man who is about to jump asking, “Would you mind filling out these liability disclaimers and dropping them off at personnel on the eighth floor?” 

Obviously, the suited character suffers from a distinct lack of love for his fellow. Unfortunately, although the norm in our culture is not this extreme, I am afraid in many cases it is not too far off.  Think not?  Consider this …

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The book of Ecclsesiastes wisely states:

9 That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.  10 Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us.  11 There is no remembrance of former things, Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come By those who will come after.

This explains a lot of what we see in our Church today, where there is a battle raging, a battle that has been raging since the beginning of the Church, the battle over the identity of Christ. 

One day Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” 

14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.  18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 

This Rock, the faith that could only be revealed by our Father in heaven, is the foundation of Christianity.  This answer, that Christ is the Son of the Living God, is not the answer of men, but of God and those who truly follow Him.  Without Jesus being who Scripture claims Him to be, we are all lost.

That same question could be asked today, “Who do men say that I am?” Jesus asks it to His disciples still.  We should never forget that He also asks of us in our worship and in our very lives, to continually live out our answer to that question.  What is our answer and how does that compare to the answers of men?

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The Second of Two Lenten Sermons

Last week, we glimpsed in on the prophet Ezekiel, who God was instructing as to the expectations the Lord had of His prophets.  This week our reading takes us to the book of Jeremiah chapter 20.  Here we encounter Jeremiah, not so much in a theological sense, as in a personal one.  We find Jeremiah, newly released from a day in the stocks and in the throes of a bout of depression.  The Geneva Bible notes for this section of Scripture merely state:

“In this appears the impatiency which often overcomes the servants of God when they do not see their labours profit, and also feel their own weakness.”

That Jeremiah might be depressed should be no surprise.  See, Jeremiah, like Ezekiel, spoke to a people in decline.  A people much like ours.  These people did not want to listen to the Word of God, much less obey it.  They placed other gods above the Lord God. They defiled the Temple with a refusal to repent. They oppressed one another, and their religious leaders led the charge.  So it is in our nation today.  So it is that the godly speak the messages of God and hardly any listen. 

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This is the first of two Lenten sermons done this year.
Many of you have probably seen or heard of the motivational posters that are often displayed in offices.  Most all of them have some pretty photograph taking up most of the poster and then below the photo in large colored print on a black background is a word that exemplifies some attribute or quality that the purchaser of the poster wants to emphasize, like teamwork, character, vision, etc.  Under that is some statement, quote, or often humanistic platitude that is designed to engender the appropriate response in the reader.  For instance under the large word vision you might find, “If you can conceive it, you can achieve it.”  It is interesting that if you search on the internet for motivational posters what you will find up near the top of the list a site which specializes in “demotivators”.  One of their posters depicts a coastal scene with a gorgeous sky, a peaceful sea –but out of that sea juts the bow of a ship which has either sunk and is stuck or else is in the final throes of its journey to the deep.  Underneath the picture is the title “Mistakes” with the tagline “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”

Some days Ezekiel’s life probably felt a bit like that.  He would be right.  Not that his life was a shipwreck, or a mistake, or that his life would serve as a warning to others because of its disastrous nature, but rather he was called to be a watchman, a warning to his people of eminent danger they faced for their faithlessness.  It was he who spotted the enemy coming and put out the call to prepare.  Consider his first day on the job of being a prophet…

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