Suinday Sermon

 

A Righteous God

Isaiah 51:13

Have you forgotten the Lord who made you, who stretched out the skies and made the earth? Why are you always afraid of those angry people who trouble you and who want to destroy? But where are those angry people now?

Our little homestead is in a battle with a very dangerous foe that I never thought of as anything more then a nuisance. This year we learned how destructive mice can be to everything. We have had mice chew through car parts and I think they ate more chicken feed then the chickens ate. Dealing with mice is a problem everyone has had but it never seemed to be a threat to us like is has been this year. The problem with mice is you don’t see them and when you do you only see one or two. And don’t even talk about how cute they are. There is a reason a mouse is the most famous image of a very large entertainment corporation. Mice just seem not to be a problem until they are because what you don’t see is the dozens of mice eating everything. As I sit and think about mice it occurs to me that often we have spiritual mice in our lives too. Often we don’t notice how destructive those little habits are or when we do see that something might be eating our spiritual lives it does not seem to be that big of deal. Those habits when seen individually may even seem cute and fuzzy but under the surface those habits are eating us alive and I want us to begin to look at our lives and thinking about the battles we need to fight. Small habits can lead us into some dark and evil places that will wreck our lives and the lives of people around us. A powerful part of our faith is the wisdom that God gives us to guide our lives by and that is such a help. God knows what is right and wrong and He does not hide that information from us which is a real help as we live our lives. The thing we have to do is take the time to learn what God has to say about right and wrong and understand how critical even the smallest parts are to our spiritual well-being. Often we don’t really think about how being honest is a central part of being spiritually healthy. It seems so simple to tell little lies and to not be as honest as we should be but those little lies eat our souls and we don’t even notice that we have drifted into dark and destructive places. God wants us to know about right and wrong for a reason. The commands God lays down are not to make our lives hard but to make us healthy. Just like eating right and getting exercise is not easy but it is healthy for us the same is about doing the small things in the way God tells us. Our God is interested in us being healthy people and God has worked hard to tell us what that means and how to go about being the healthy people He longs for us to be. What hope we have that our God is a righteous God who teaches us and explains to us the wisdom and knowledge we need to be the people God wants us to be.

The Christmas theme this year is “Following the Star” and it is one of my favorite stories about the birth of Jesus. But there is an issue in this story that troubles my heart every time I read it. You might already know that the issue I am thinking about is when king Herod has all the children two and under killed. Being a father and grandfather, I cannot tell you the level of horror that I feel every time I read those words. What is worse is that they are said as if that is just how things are. Thinking about this has troubled me for years and then I began to think through what is going on. First is why does Matthew have this in there? If we want to make God look good why would he write about something so terribly? Next is the question of what does this tell us about God and the human condition? The question of why would a good God allow this evil act to happen and allow so many people to suffer has to be considered. For me the starting place was that Matthew writes about this because it is true and that is what a righteous God does. We have a God who is the truth and so nothing is hidden from us. That means there is more here and I want us to think about how evil reacts to the truth, righteousness and love of God and then add in the fact that the answer to all sin has come into the world in the form of the baby Jesus. We find here the level of evil in the human condition and opposing it is the length God is willing to go to when it comes to our sin. Facing the revulsion that this act brings makes us look at our own lives and think about the destructive nature of sin in our lives. The birth of Jesus stands in stark reaction to the level of evil that Herod does. A righteous God is so different then the evil of humans and this is why we worship the living God. As people of faith we need to embrace the righteousness that God teaches us because the evil of sin is so dire.

The evil that is represented by what Herod does magnifies the need for Jesus to be born and to fix the broken world that would allow such evil things to happen. We follow the star that leads to Jesus because nothing else explains the evil of sin and then gives answers to how to over come such terrible things but a loving and righteous God. What Herod does makes Jesus more important and tells us why we need Jesus. That we have a God who explains right and wrong and sets the standard is so hopeful and tells us about the God we worship. In our verse we have this conversation from God about both God’s power and what that power means as we live our lives in the middle of a sin filled world. Finding the answers we want about what Herod does starts in verses like this. Our faith is based in the power of God. Right and wrong are established by God because He is the creator of all things. It needs to be clear that knowing right from wrong and seeking the God who has all the power will not keeps us from suffering but it does help us to cope with the evil that is around us. This verse reminds us that no matter what is going on God is in control and that helps us face the terrible evil that some people do. Before we go anywhere else we have to build a deep trust in the God who is the creator and judge of all the world. The horror and pain that Herod inflicts is answered by God telling us that Herod will answer for his evil. God comforts those who suffer with a promise that justice will be administered and all people will answer for the evil they have done. All of this foreshadows the price that Jesus pays for all the evil and sin in the world. Hate and evil are answered by the cross and we have to hold onto the idea that the all powerful God does not forget but waits for the right time. The power of God is pitted against sin and God wins that battle but it will take faith to trust in this God and it will mean we have to deal with the evil around us like Jesus does. God calls to us to be righteous and loving people not when things are good but when things are hard and it will cost us something. Let us remember God is in control and His power saves us from our sin just as it saves others from theirs.

Reading through the verse we are considering gives us an idea of what it means to be human. Following the Star is not about avoiding dealing with evil but about knowing that God has the answers to the struggles in life. In the later part of the verse God asks two questions and they are based on the principles that the first question God asks. By looking at these questions we find who God is and how God thinks. From the questions that were asked we get the idea that God knows we are going to have problems because of the sinful nature of other people. God never says we will not have pain or suffer but God says He is there in those moments. The question starts out with the idea that trouble and even destruction is part of the human situation. But what we should see is that God is asking us why we are afraid when we face these things. When we follow the star we are going to have to face evil and sin and God does not hide that from us but He tells us to not fear this and that we need to trust God in the middle of those struggles. Do we have the faith to trust God when we have problems and evil seeks to harm us? Building that kind of faith does not come easily but must be built from the ground up. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that if we don’t dig down and find the rock of Jesus we will not be able to face the storms of life. Then God makes a point by asking the second question. Where are those angry people now? This offhanded question tells us so much about God and how He thinks. We are told over and over that people who reject God will not stand in His presence and the idea here is that God wants us to know seeking to do the right thing even when it brings pain is worth the effort. Evil is a part of this world and we are told that in every heart there is evil so we should not be scared of evil but know that it is Jesus Christ who is the answer to evil. It will take learning who God is and then trusting that God to have hope even when evil is doing terrible things. Knowing what is true and what is right and what is loving will build a faith in God and then the strength to live our lives with hope and joy. We follow the star not because it is easy but because the star leads us to the one who gives lives worth living even in the middle of evil and pain.

The God who created the universe does not leave us in darkness and that is one of the reasons we worship Him. Just as the wise men were given a star to follow, Jesus also lights our lives with His glory and directs us in the way we should go. God’s light does not have us avoid evil but takes us through the evil things in life and tells us how to thrive as we work through the troubles we find in life. In the end the star guides us to the God who saves us and now fills our lives with meaning and that is our hope. Let us learn to follow the star of Jesus not when it is easy but knowing that we have hope and strength in the name of Jesus that will get us through all things in life. We hope in Jesus because He is the real star that will show us how to be what we were meant to be and that is why we give glory to the living God.