Sunday Sermon

 

Sheep

Isaiah 53:6

We all have wandered away like sheep; each of us has gone his own way. But the Lord has put on him the punishment for all the evil we have done.

My training as a historian has caused me to do quite a bit of reading. If I want to understand a particular time, I spend a great deal of effort learning not only the big things about that period but also the small stuff. Reading personal journals can give more information about what is going on in the time I am studying then any five hundred page history books. Learning what people thought and how people felt about what was going on helps shape how I see the big picture stuff like the stories of kings or the wars that happened. With more information I get a better understanding of the time and place. The fact is that information is critical to anything we do in life. Raising chickens has required that we learn about animal husbandry and though some of the things we have learned were from books a lot has been from making mistakes and learning how to do things right. When it comes to our faith in the living God this reality is no different. God has given us all the things we need to know to make our faith what it should be and all we have to do is learn the lessons God teaches. What I like is that God gives us grace to learn what we need either the easy way or the hard way. Think of a person like Abraham because we get a good idea of how God works. When God talks Abraham does not always listen and so Abraham has to learn the hard way. God tells Abraham to leave everything behind even family but Abraham takes his cousin Lot even when God says not to. As it turns out Lot is nothing but a problem for Abraham and so Abraham learns to listen to God. We as people of faith have to learn that God knows what He is doing and we need to trust what God tells us even when we are not sure about it. The wonderful thing is that God gives us all information we need, we just have to learn it and then live it. For me this concept that God gives us the material we need to make our lives what they should be tells me about the God I serve. There is nothing that says God has to tell us anything but that is not the God we have. Our God warns us and wants us to know how the universe works. From the very beginning God wants us to know things. God tells Adam and Eve not to each the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil because God wants them to know the danger that they faced. Being protected by God is a good thing and one of the ways God protects us is to give us the knowledge we need. It is then up to us to choose if we want to listen to God or to ignore God and learn the hard way about how the world works. Humans need information and we have a God who does not hold back but gives us all the stuff we need and that is one of the reasons we should worship the living God.

An important thing to remember is that God does not just give us information. The information God gives us is more then just stuff we need to know but that information forms a system of instructions about God and life. This is one of the great things about God. We humans don’t have to guess about how our lives are to be put together because God has laid out how to build a life that will fill our lives with joy and that will give us strength when we face hardships. And these instructions do not force us into a one size fits all system but actually when the instructions are followed allows us to each find who we are in the best way possible. Our God knows what our lives should look like and wants to help us build the lives we were meant to have. Anyone who has bought something from Ikea will know that if you don’t follow the instructions right the furniture you bought may work but it will not be what it should be and that is how things work when we ignore the instructions about our lives that God gives. We may have functioning lives but they are missing the things that make life worth living for and that give us the real hope and peace we long for in our lives. It cannot be considered anything but a blessing that God wants to teach us how to live our lives because God is the maker of the universe and He knows how things should work. God does not have to teach us but he does and that is such a wonderful thing about our God. The question to us is are we willing to obey the instructions God gives. No one is ever forced to live as God tells us but we have a God who loves us enough to warn us what happens if we don’t listen to God. A powerful thing about the Bible is it shows us what happens when we ignore God and what we find are some ugly things. I bless God that He warns us and tells us what happens to us because He wants good for us not evil. Learning to follow God is not easy but it is worth the effort.

An interesting fact has come my way that intrigues me. I have learned that humans cannot walk in a straight line without some kind of input from our senses. This concept first came to light when I was watching a program on another subject but a side effect of what they were doing showed how it is hard for people to walk in a straight line if they are blindfolded. As much as the people want to and tried to walk straight, they would end up going in all kinds of crazy directions and even circles. Most importantly is that the people would not know they are going in circles. Every one of them thought they were going straight. When I was watching this our verse came to my mind. Our verse talks about how as sheep we have wandered away and that we have gone our own way and I think this experiment is a great example of how we need input from outside of ourselves if we are to move in a useful and purposeful direction. Without input from God we are just not able to walk the kind of life we want. God knows that we are not able to move right without His guidance and so God gives us all the information we need so we don’t wander off and go around life in circles. The question to us is, do we want input from God? Are we willing to take the directions God gives us? It seems so much easier to just ignore God and to lead our own lives but over the history of all humanity that never seems to work out. People that seek righteousness seem to look to God even if they do not know it is God they are looking to. It is curious that even atheist are now looking at the wisdom of God and thinking that the wisdom God gives really does work. Without God we are so lost in a universe that is huge and complex and yet we some how think we can figure things out on our own. The whole point of the Bible is that God knows we are lost and that without God’s help we will end up in places that are painful and damaging to us. This verse tells us so much about who we are and even more about the God who loves us and I want us to begin to trust God to direct our lives in ways that we have not yet done. There is a reason God thinks of as sheep and God is not wrong about it. Let us learn to trust the Good Shepard to lead us in life.

If the only things that happened to us from being lost is that we did not have the lives we should and we do not understand the world the way we ought we might get away with ignoring God’s directions. It is only when we get to the second part of the verse that we realize the terrible magnitude that not choosing to learn from God has. We need to grasp just how terrible our sin is and the cost that must be paid for our sin and this second half of the verse makes it clear the price of sin. There is only one cost for sin and that is death. Often we think that we can just skate by and pretend that we are not sinners but God makes it clear to us that rejecting God only brings death. Rejecting God is our choice and God will not force us to accept His authority over us if we don’t want it but it also means we reject the source of life which is God Himself. With God being the author of life means that to reject God means we reject life itself and the only result is then death. All humans are condemned not by God but by our own choices to death. To get around that problem means that someone has to die and that is where we get the good news. God loves us and wants us to live and not die so Jesus comes and dies for us so we can then be reunited with God in the way we should be. And look carefully at this verse because the words here mean things and the words that standout most are found in the second phrase of the verse. The words “all the evil we have done” makes things very clear. Every human has done evil and deserves death and we need to let that sink in. Just because God wants to save us from the death we have chosen does not mean we can avoid acknowledging that we have done evil and should we be grateful that God teaches us about how life should be. Celebrating Jesus is a wonderful thing but we also are in need of thinking about why Jesus comes to save us. Making the choice to follow the teaching and directions of God is the greatest hope we have and we give glory for the God who does that. Learn from God and trust in what He tells us because it is a life or death issue that we cannot avert and must face if we are to be the people we should be.

It never ceases to amaze me who God is and how He operates. This verse is such a great example of the wonder and joy we find in God. The truth that is in this verse is clear and hard, there is no flinching or fainting, God tells us exactly what is going on and calls what and how we have lived with the label that it deserves, evil. What is astounding is that God does not do this because He wants to destroy us but He does it to save us from our own sin. That is what the second part is all about. We have a God who is willing to suffer our punishment so we can go free. What kind of God is this that will do that for us? God tells us the truth because we need to know the truth so we can make the right choice and that choice is to learn the wisdom God teaches us. A God who speaks the truth because He loves us and then is willing to take our punishment is a God I want us to listen to and learn from.