Who Do We Worship?

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 29, 2018.  The Bible verses used are 1 Kings 18:20-39.

            As we continue our sermon series on Humor in the Bible, today we hear about a contest.  On one side is Baal and all of his prophets.  Four hundred fifty of them.  And on the other side is the Lord God with one prophet.  Elijah.

            This is one of those periods, as happens repeatedly in the Old Testament, where the people of Israel have abandoned God.  It really is a regular cycle in the Old Testament.  God helps the people, and things are going well.  After things go well for a while, the people abandon God and worship other gods.  God leaves them to their fate, and the people get into trouble.  The people repent and ask God for forgiveness.  God forgives them and helps them.  Things start going well again.  After things go well for a while, the people abandon God again.  And the whole thing starts up all over again.  Not that much different from how things are today, when you think about it.

            So this is one of the periods in which people have abandoned God.  And things are not going well.  There’s been a severe drought, which is something that Elijah had prophesied back in Chapter Seventeen, which we did not read today.  And because Elijah had prophesied it, the king and lots of other people were blaming Elijah for it.

            So, Elijah had been on the run for a while.  But then, God told Elijah to go back, and that when he does, God will make it rain.  So now he’s back, and the king is not exactly pleased to see him.  The king still blames Elijah for this.  But Elijah says the reason for the drought is that the king and everyone else has abandoned God. 

And so, Elijah proposes a contest.  Baal and his prophets versus the Lord and Elijah.  They’ll each get an offering ready.  They’ll cut up a bull and put it on an altar.  They’ll get the wood already to be burned, but they won’t set it on fire.  Instead, they’ll each ask their god to provide the fire.  The prophets of Baal will call on Baal, and Elijah will call on God.  Whoever provides the fire is the true god.

Everyone agrees.  Elijah says the prophets of Baal can go first.

Now, to see the humor in this, you really have to try to picture it.  They start in the morning, and until noon they’re calling on the name of Baal.  Four hundred fifty prophets.  And at first, they’re probably fairly calm.  They’re confident.  They truly believe in Baal.  They’re praying “Baal, answer us.”  And nothing happens.  And nothing continues to happen.  So they get louder.  “Baal, answer us!”  And still nothing happens.  And they get louder.  They start shouting.  “Baal, answer us!”  They get desperate.  They start dancing around, frantically trying to get the attention of their supposed god who’s not responding.

So now it’s noon.  And nothing has happened.  And Elijah starts mocking them.  Elijah is having a great time.  He knows what’s going to happen.  He says, well, you just have to call out louder.  I mean, Baal is a god, right?  So, he’s probably just lost in thought.  Or maybe he’s busy.  Or, hey, maybe he’s out of town.  Maybe he’s traveling someplace.  Or wait, I know.  I’ll bet he’s asleep.  Just yell louder.  Wake him up.  I bet that’ll do it.

I mean, Elijah’s having a great time with this.  It was maybe not the kindest, most loving thing for Elijah to do, but you cannot really blame him, either.  He’d taken the blame for this drought, he’d seen the people worshiping this false god that did not even exist.  I mean, Elijah’s getting even, and he’s loving every minute of it.

Meanwhile, the prophets of Baal keep going.  They keep yelling louder and louder.  They get more and more frantic.  They’re dancing like crazy people.  And nothing happens.  Finally, evening comes.  No response from Baal.

So now it’s Elijah’s turn.  And this is funny, too.  Because he says, I’ll show you how great God is.  We’re going to make this even harder for God to bring this fire.  Soak all the wood with water.  Then do it again.  Then do it again.  Make sure all that wood is just completely, soaking wet.

And you heard the rest.  Elijah prayed to God.  God sent the fire.  And the people all believed in God again.  And in a part of the story that we did not read, God eventually did end the drought and bring rain.

So okay.  There’s some funny parts to the story.  The prophets of Baal frantically dancing around and shouting, Elijah mocking them, all that.  But we’ve said before that everything in the Bible, even the humor, is there to make a point.  So what’s the point of this story?  What are we supposed to learn from it?

Well, when I look around at society, it seems to me that we worship a lot of little--and not so little--gods, rather than worshiping the real God.  And I don’t want that to sound like I’m so superior to everyone else.  I’m susceptible to worshiping some of these other gods, too.  I think we all are.  

A lot of times we don’t intend to.  A lot of times we don’t even realize we’re doing it.  It may not be a conscious decision we’ve made at all.  The thing is that what we worship is revealed in the casual conversations we have.  It’s revealed in the small decisions we make.  It’s revealed in the way we live our lives.

One of the ways what we worship is revealed is what we spend our money on.  It’s been said that if you really want to know what a person values, go through their check register.  These days it’d be their credit or debit card receipts.  But regardless, the ways we spend our money shows what we value.

Another way what we worship is revealed is by what we spend our time on.  Think about how you spend your day.  A lot of it, of course, is spent on our work, and that’s natural and normal.  We need to work.  But how about our leisure time?  What do we spend that on?  The way we spend our time, again, shows what we value.

Another way what we worship is revealed is by what we think about.  When we have some time to just sort of let our minds drift, what do we think about?  Do we ever think about God?  Or do we always think about something else?  What we think about is something else that shows what we value.

So, what do you value?  What do I value?  What are you worshiping?  What am I worshiping?  Is it God?  Or is it something else?

This is not an easy question.  It’s not intended to be.  It’s easy to say, well, of course I worship God.  But do you really?  Do I really?  When we think about how we spend our money, how we spend our time, what we think about, does it show that we worship God?  Does it show that we’ve put our full faith and trust in God?  If we say yes, would an objective person agree with us?  Or would they look at these things and decide that we’re really worshiping someone else or something else?

Now, don’t take this the wrong way.  I’m not saying we should spend one hundred percent of our money or one hundred percent of our time or one hundred percent of our thoughts focused on God.  That’s not practical or realistic.  I don’t think it’s what God requires of us, either.  Also, I know a lot of you have and continue to give a lot of money and a lot of time to this church.  I know it’s important to you and you think about it a lot.  None of this is meant to be critical or to point fingers at anyone.  And again, any finger I’m pointing goes to me as much as it does to anyone.

What I am saying, though, is that we really need to think about this questions.  Because, as the people of Israel found out, false gods cannot hear us.  False gods cannot answer us.  False gods cannot save us.  Only THE God, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, the God of Jesus Christ, only that God can hear us.  Only that God can answer us.  Only that God can save us.  No one and nothing else can.  Only God.

So let’s all think about where our money goes.  Let’s think about where our time goes.  Let’s think about, well, what we think about.  And each of us has to do this for himself or herself.  No one can do it for us.  Take the time to think about these things.  If each of us can honestly say that these things show we worship God, then great.  But if we cannot say that, well, then, then obvious question is, what are we going to do about it?

When the people of Israel realized that their gods were false, they cried, “The Lord--he is God!  The Lord--he is God!”  May each of us realize that the Lord--and no one else--is God.  And may the way we live our lives show that we truly believe that the Lord--and no one else--is God.

A Little Piece of History

I’m going to tell you a story.  It may sound like something you’d make up--in fact, if it was made up you probably wouldn’t believe it.  But I promise you it’s true.

First, a little background.  My mother’s father--my grandfather--was named Joseph Nadenicek.  He passed away on January 1, 1929, when my mother was three years old.  She has no memory of him at all.  She was told some things, obviously, but she has no personal memory of him at all.  They had been living in Ohio, where my grandfather was a pastor in the Presbyterian church.  Some years after he passed away, Mom’s family moved to South Dakota, where they had relatives.  Eventually they settled in Yankton, where Mom grew up.

So last week I got an email from my cousin, Jon Nadenicek.  His wife’s cousin lives in Yankton, and recently they had a city-wide clean-up day.  You’ve seen them--it’s a day where everyone can haul all the stuff they don’t want out to the curb and the city will pick it up for them and haul it away at no charge.  So, Jon’s wife’s cousin was driving around Yankton on the city-wide cleanup day and saw an old trunk that was going to be hauled away.  She thought “That would be a good prop for our community theater group”.  So she stopped, picked it up, and took it home.

Later, she got home and opened the trunk.  Inside it was a suit with the date of 1918.  On the label was a name:  “Jos. Nadenicek”.  In the pocket were some business cards, with my grandfather’s name on them, listing him as the pastor of the Slovak Presbyterian Church and giving an address and a telephone number.

Naturally, the wife’s cousin called my cousin Jon and asked if he wanted these items.  Mom is the last of my grandfather’s children to survive, so Jon asked if she would like to have them.  Of course she said yes.  So, soon, we will have that suit and those business cards.

It’s an incredible thing.  I assume my grandmother must have brought the suit with her when they moved from Ohio.  Why would she have done that?  Was there something special about it?  Had he gotten married in it, or gotten ordained in it?  Had she kept it thinking it would fit one of her sons eventually?  And even assuming that’s true, my grandmother Nadenicek passed away over forty years ago.  Where has the suit been all that time?  Did my Uncle Paul keep it?  And even if he did, Uncle Paul passed away over four and a half years ago.  Where has the suit been?

If you wanted to, you could write all kinds of speculative stories.  You could also endlessly speculate about whether there was some sort of divine purpose in bringing that suit back to our family now, all these years later.  If there is, I don’t know what it is, but perhaps that will become clear at some point in the future.  I don’t know.

What I do know is that some little piece of my grandfather, whom I never knew, has been returned to the family.  And that’s pretty cool.

Being Angry with God

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 22, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Jonah 3:1--4:10.

            We’re continuing our sermon series on Humor in the Bible.  Today we’re looking at the story of Jonah.

            Now, Jonah is one of those Bible characters that a lot of people have heard of.  They’d say, “Oh, yeah, Jonah.  He’s the guy that got swallowed by a whale.”  Now, as you heard, the Bible does not actually say a whale, it says a huge fish.  But whatever.  A lot of people at least have some idea what happened to Jonah.

            Now, as fewer people know, the reason Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish is that God had called him to go Nineveh and preach against it because of the people’s sins.  Jonah did not want to do that, so he ran away.  But of course, you cannot run away from God.  If you think about it, that idea alone could be an example of humor in the Bible.  The idea that we could run away from the all-seeing, all-knowing God.  The idea that we could hide from God, that we could go somewhere that God would not know about it.  A pretty funny idea, when you think about it.

            It did not work for Jonah, of course, any more than it would work for you and me.  God kept after Jonah.  Getting swallowed by the fish was just part of God’s plan to get Jonah to come back and do what God wanted him to do.

            That’s where we pick up the story.  Jonah eventually goes to Nineveh.  He tells them that God is going to wipe out the city because of their sins.  And, surprisingly enough, the people of Nineveh listen to Jonah.  The king himself calls on the people to repent of their sins and ask God to forgive them.  And God does it.

            And that’s where the story starts to get funny.  I mean, okay, the idea of getting swallowed by a huge fish is kind of funny already.  And the verse right before our reading today, where it says, “The Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land”--that’s kind of funny, too, in a gross sort of way.

            But think of this.  Jonah told the people of Nineveh what sinners they were, and the people actually listened!  And they actually repented of their sins!  And they asked God for forgiveness!  I mean, that’s pretty much every preacher’s dream, right?  Everybody, even the king, listening to you, and asking for forgiveness, and promising to change their ways?  You’d think Jonah would’ve been on top of the world when that happened.

            But Jonah was not happy at all.  In fact, we’re told Jonah was very angry.  He knew what he wanted God to do.  He did not want God to forgive Nineveh.  He wanted God to punish Nineveh.  He said to God, see?  This is why I did not want to come to Nineveh in the first place.  I knew you would never go through with it.  I knew you’d never do it my way.  I knew you’d forgive these people.  That’s not what I wanted at all.  I’m mad.  I’m mad at you.  I’m so mad at you I wish I was dead.

            What’s that sound like?  It’s a little kid throwing a temper tantrum, right?  You never let me have any fun.  You never let me do what I want.  I was gonna have fun watching you destroy Nineveh, and now you’re not gonna destroy them.  You never let me have my way on anything.

            And then there’s the deal with the gourd.  Jonah’s sitting just outside of town, hoping to see Nineveh get destroyed.  Jonah’s using this plant for shade.  It’s referred to as a gourd--we don’t really know what kind of plant it was.  But it gave Jonah shade, and he liked that.  But then the plant died, and Jonah was left in the hot sun with a strong, hot wind.

            And again Jonah throws a tantrum.  God, I at least thought you could do this one little thing for me.  I came all this way to Nineveh.  I did not want to do it, but I did it.  And I told the people what you wanted me to tell them.  And then you went back on your word and did not wipe them out like you promised you would.  And now, all I wanted was one little plant to give me shade.  And you could not even do that for me.  There was one little thing I felt like maybe was going right, and you took that away from me.  You could not even let me have that one little thing.  I wish I was dead. 

Think about that.  Jonah was sitting there, hoping God is going to wipe out this city of a hundred twenty thousand people.  All those people dying does not bother Jonah at all.  In fact, he thinks they deserve it.  But he’s upset because God kills off this plant!  I mean, how ridiculous is that?  And God, again very patiently, points that out to Jonah.

            Now, I’ll grant that this is not laugh-out-loud funny.  But it is pretty silly, right?  I mean, here’s this guy, this grown man.  We’re not told how old Jonah is, but he’s clearly not a kid at this time.  He’s an adult.  And here he is, this grown man, basically throwing a fit every time things don’t go exactly the way he wants them to go.  Going so far as to say he’d rather be dead every time he does not get his way  I mean, the only thing missing is for him to say he’s going to hold his breath until he turns blue.  You can just imagine him, waving his arms, stomping his feet, whining and crying and saying “You never do things my way” and basically making a fool out of himself.

            It’s easy to see how childish Jonah is.  But think about this.  Have you ever had a time when you thought you knew exactly what God should do?  You had no doubt about it?  And then--God did not do it?  How did you react?  Did you just accept it?  Or did you get upset?  Did you even, maybe, get angry?

            And have you ever had a time when you felt like things were not going the way they should, and then one more thing went wrong?  It might not even have been a big thing, but it came on top of a whole bunch of other things that were not going well?  How did you react to that?  Again, did you just accept it?  Did you just say, well, okay, no big deal?  Or did you get upset?  Did you even, maybe, get angry?  And did you even, possibly, get angry with God?

            I said last week that we make a mistake when we think we’re better, or smarter, or more faithful than the people we read about in these Bible stories.  Here’s another example of that.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve had times when I’ve gotten pretty upset when things were not going the way I thought they should.  I’ve gotten pretty upset when a bunch of things were not going right and then one more thing went wrong.  I do not usually just accept those things calmly.  I get mad about them sometimes.  And sometimes, I even get angry with God for letting them happen.  Maybe some of you do that, too.  I don’t know.

            But when we do, I’m pretty sure that God sees us as being just as silly, just as childish, as Jonah was.  But the good news is the way God reacted to Jonah.  God never returned Jonah’s anger.  God never got upset with Jonah.  In fact, God shows incredible patience with Jonah.  When God heard Jonah go on all these rants, there were all kinds of things God could’ve said in response.  But God never said any of them.  God stayed perfectly calm throughout the whole thing.  God just asks Jonah a simple question.  God asks Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

            “Is it right for you to be angry?”  Do you really think, Jonah--do you really think, Jeff--that you have the right to be angry with me just because I did not do what you wanted me to do?  Do you think it’s right for you to be mad at me just because I did not do things your way?  Do you really think you have the right to tell me what to do?  Do you really think you know better than I do?

            We know the answers to those questions, of course.  But sometimes, in our anger, in our foolishness, we react like Jonah did.  We say, “Yes!  It is right for me to be angry!  I’m so angry I wish I was dead.”

            And God again does not get angry.  God does not get upset.  God continues to show incredible patience.  God tells Jonah, you’re just concerned with this one little thing that affects you.  I’m looking at the big picture.  Yes, the little things are important.  But if it’s right to be concerned about the little things that just affect one person, should we not also be concerned about the big things that affect lots of people?

            We talk about having a personal relationship with God, and that’s right.  We should have a personal relationship with God.  Jonah had a personal relationship with God.  Jonah’s relationship with God was strong enough that even when Jonah disobeyed God, even when Jonah got mad at God, even when Jonah threw a tantrum at God, God still loved him.  God still stayed patient with him, and God continued to work with him.  That’s important.

            But God sees all kinds of things that we cannot see.  God knows all kinds of things that we cannot know.  God has all kinds of plans and purposes that we know nothing about.  That’s one of the great things about God.  God is great enough to take care of things on a cosmic scale, to take care of the entire universe, to take care of things in the past, the present, and the future all at once.  And yet, God can come down to our level and have a personal, individual, one-to-one relationship with each one of us, with you and with me.  God can do both of those things at the same time.  That’s more than just important.  That’s incredible.

            God knows how imperfect we are.  God knows how ridiculous and silly and childish we can be.  And yet, God loves us anyway.  God loves us so much that even when we rant and rave at God, God still very calmly and very patiently keeps working with us.  God calms us down and reminds us that we’re not the only important person in the world.  We’re still important--everyone is important--but the world does not revolve around us.  Maybe the reason things did not happen the way we wanted them to is because there was some other consideration that was more important at this moment.  That can be true whether we’re aware of that other consideration or not.

            Jonah thought he knew more than God.  Sometimes we think we know more than God, too.  But we don’t.  So when things don’t go the way we want them to, let’s trust God.  And let’s be grateful that, no matter how childish we are, God will keep loving us and keep working with us.

Detachment

You know by now that the United States launched a missile attack on Syria last week.  I’m not going to tell you what to think about that.  I’m not even sure what I think about it.  Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, obviously.  But it just seems to me that there are a lot of things having to do with this that I don’t know.  And that makes it really hard for me to have an opinion about it.

What I want to talk about, though, is my reaction when I first heard about it.  If you’re not interested in my reaction, feel free to stop reading.  Go on to the enclosed sermon, which has nothing to do with this.  But my reaction, when I heard about the attack, was basically, “Oh.  Okay.  Whatever.”  And I went on with what I was doing.

Understand, I’m not saying this was a good reaction.  I’m certainly not saying it’s the reaction you or anyone else should have.  I’m pretty sure it’s not the reaction I should have.  But if I’m honest, that was my reaction.  And to be honest, a week later, it still pretty much is my reaction.  I just have a feeling of detachment about the whole thing.

Why?  Well, part of it is simply my powerlessness in this situation.  I have no way to influence what we do in Syria.  I have no way to influence what Syria does in response.  Things will happen as they will.  I can pray about it, and I do and have.  I’m sure lots of other people have, too.  But what, if anything, God will do in response to those prayers is up to God.

But part of it, I think, is that I’m losing my ability to be very concerned about anything I hear on the news any more.  It seems like every day--for months now, maybe longer--we’ve heard something on the news that we’re told we’re supposed to be really, really concerned about.  And sometimes I truly have been concerned.  But I just can’t be concerned about everything.  Maybe I should be able to, I don’t know.  But I can’t.  I’m not sure anyone can.

It’s like I’ve become numb to it.  Or maybe immune is a better word.  If everything is a major concern, then nothing is really a major concern.  And then, when something comes along that I probably should be really concerned about, I just can’t do it.  It becomes just noise, part of the constant noise of daily living.  It’s not that I’m ignoring the current situation.  But I’m watching it with, again, somewhat of a detached feeling.

Again, I’m not promoting this as a good attitude.  But I don’t know what to do about it, either.  I don’t think it’s possible to force yourself to feel something you don’t actually feel, even if you think you should feel it.  

So I guess what I’ll try to do is what I’ve said before.  I’ll try to affect the things I can affect.  I’ll try to help the people I can help.  I’ll try to be there for the people I can be there for.  I’ll try to show love to the people I can show love to.  And I guess I’ll just have to put the rest of it in God’s hands.

But at least those are pretty good hands to put it in.

Creating Our God

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 15, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 32:1-8, 15-25, 31-35.

            We’re in the second week of our sermon series on Humor in the Bible.  We talked last week about how God has a sense of humor, and I still believe that.  The thing is, though, that not all of the humor in the Bible comes from God.  Some of it comes from human beings.  And unfortunately, a lot of that humor comes from some of the dumb things we human beings say and do.

            As always, we need to put these stories in context.  At this point, Moses had led the people of Israel across the Red Sea and into freedom.  He went up on Mount Sinai, and God gave him the Ten Commandments to take to the people.

            But what we forget is that that’s not all God gave Moses on Mount Sinai.  God gave Moses a whole lot of other rules and regulations for the people, too.  God also gave Moses some detailed instructions for how tabernacle was supposed to be built, as well as the things that are in the tabernacle.  So Moses was up on Mount Sinai for about a month and a half, getting all these instructions from God.

            But while Moses was up on the mountain, the rest of the people were down at the bottom, waiting.  And they waited, and they waited.  And Moses did not come back down from the mountain.  And eventually, they got tired of waiting.  And they gave up on Moses.  We’re told that they said, “As for this fellow Moses, who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

            That, in and of itself, would’ve been bad enough.  I mean, it sounds like the people of Israel were not very grateful for what Moses had done.  They’d been slaves in Egypt for generations.  And here’s Moses, going to the great and powerful Pharaoh, and defeating him, and leading the people of Israel to freedom.  But now, what appears to be just a handful of months later, they’re referring to him as “this fellow Moses”, as if he was just some guy.  And they’ve given up on him.

            But the really bad thing is not that they gave up on Moses.  The really bad thing is that they gave up on God.  Because Moses had told them, and they knew, that it was really God who had defeated Pharaoh and led the people of Israel to freedom.  And in fact, just before Moses went up the mountain, in Chapter Twenty-four of Exodus, we’re told that all the people said, “Everything the Lord has said we will do” and “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

            Apparently those were just words.  They may have meant them at the time, but they had no commitment to them.  Because now they say to Moses’ brother, Aaron, “Come, make us gods who will go before us.”

            Now that’s sad, but in an absurd sort of way that’s funny.  I mean, think of it.  “Hey Aaron, make some gods for us.”  Make a god.  The definition of a god--not the God, not the God we worship as Christians, but just a god generally--is “a superhuman being or spirit worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes”.  They want Aaron--a human being, the brother of Moses--they want Aaron to create a superhuman being that has power over nature and has power over their lives?

            I mean, what would make them think Aaron could do that?  What would make them think any human being could do that?  How in the world would someone go about creating a god?  It’s ridiculous.

            But, Aaron does it, or at least tries to.  He takes a bunch of gold and melts in down into the shape of a calf.  And he puts the calf on an altar and tells everyone this is their god, the god that brought them out of Egypt.  And apparently, the people go for it.  I mean, this is ludicrous, They actually believe that this thing Aaron made, this thing that wasn’t even around when they were brought out of Egypt, is the god that rescued them from Egypt.  If you were there watching this, what could you do but laugh at it?  It’s beyond belief.

            But that’s not the funniest part of this.  The funniest part is when Moses comes down off the mountain and asks Aaron what in the world he thinks he’s doing.  Aaron says, “They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us’...So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’  Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf!” 

Is that not hilarious?  Think about what Aaron is saying.  He basically says, hey, don’t blame me.  I don’t even really know what happened.  I took a bunch of gold, threw it in the fire, and--shazam!  All of a sudden this calf was there!  It was nothing to do with me.  I did not do it.  The calf was just--there!  Who knows how these things happen?  It just did, somehow.

            Is that not the dumbest excuse you’ve ever heard?  Little kids do better than that, don’t they?  What can you do but laugh at that?  It’s just such an outrageously stupid thing for Aaron to say.

            I have to think Aaron knew how stupid that sounded.  I think Aaron probably knew, deep down, that what he’d done was wrong.  I think he probably knew it while he was doing it.  But he’d convinced himself that it was okay.  And now, when everything came crashing down around him, the flimsiness of his reasons because obvious to him and to everyone else.

            But as we’ve said, the humor in the Bible is there to make a point.  What’s the point here?  Well, let’s think about it.

            When the people of Israel could see that God was actively working for them, they were all in with God.  Yep, Lord, we’ll do everything you want.  You’re our God.  We’re your people.  You just tell us what to do, and we’ll do it.  We’re with you God.  All the way.

            That’s what they said when they could see God actively working for them.  But then Moses went up the mountain.  And the people could not see God actively working for them.  God was working for them--God was giving Moses all kinds of instructions for what they should do.  But the people could not see that.  They could not hear it.  They could not feel it.  And they could not trust God enough to believe that God was still working for them even when they could not see it or hear it or feel it.  And so, within about a month and a half, they turned away from God.  They turned away and worshiped something they had created themselves.

            Do we ever do that?  It’s easy for us, too, to follow God when we can see God actively working for us.  But when we cannot see it, when we cannot feel it, do we still trust God?  Or do we turn away and worship something we’ve created ourselves.  Probably not a golden calf.  But material wealth, maybe?  Or pleasure, or leisure time?  Or maybe we worship our own skills and talents and abilities, rather than trusting God?  Or maybe we follow what society tells us to do, rather than trusting what God wants us to do?  Do we ever create our own “golden calf” to worship, instead of trusting God?

            And when we get caught doing that, when things come crashing down around us, when something happens where it feels like God comes along and asks us what in the world we think we’re doing, do we ever do what Aaron did?  Do we ever say, well, don’t blame me.  It was not my fault.  I had nothing to do with it.  It just--shazam!  It just happened.  I don’t know how.  It just did.  Do we ever respond to God like that?

            I said I think this is funny story, and I do.  But at the same time, any time you and I start to think that we’re smarter, or better, or more faithful than the people in these Bible stories, we’re setting ourselves up for a fall.  It can be hard to trust that God is still active in our lives when we can’t see or feel what God is doing.  It can be very tempting to give up on God when that happens.  And sometimes, you and I can give in to that temptation.  We turn away from God.  We start thinking we have to do things ourselves, that we have to take care of ourselves.  It can be easy for us to give up on God, and to create our own “golden calf” to worship.  And sometimes it does not take very long for us to do it.  

            We know, deep down, that we should not do that.  But we do it anyway.  And we convince ourselves that it’s okay.  And then, when things come crashing down around us, the flimsiness of our reasons become obvious, both to us and to everyone else.

            Is there a golden calf in your life?  Is there one in mine?  If so, let’s get rid of it.  Let’s destroy it, burn it, grind it into powder the way Moses did.  Let’s trust God.  Let’s trust that God is active in our lives, even if we don’t see that or feel it for a while.  God has promised never to abandon us.  God has a plan, even if we don’t know what it is.  If we’re not hearing from God, it could be that God is waiting for the right time.  Or, it could be that we’re just not listening, because what God is saying is not what we want to hear.  But God is still there, whether we’re aware of God or not.  And God works everything for good for those who love God.

            Let’s get rid of our golden calves.  Let’s trust God.  Let’s be faithful to God.  Because we know God will always be faithful to us.

All the People Living for Today

I’ve told you before how much I love the music of the 1970s.  Recently I was listening to my favorite satellite radio station, The Bridge, which plays that sort of music.  The song “Imagine”, by John Lennon, came on.

It’s a simple, beautiful, well-crafted tune, but it’s the words I want to talk about.  Maybe you know them.  In case you don’t, or in case you’ve forgotten them, here’s the first verse.

            Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people living for today

As I was listening to the song, a thought struck me.  We really don’t need to imagine this any more.  Don’t get me wrong, I certainly believe there’s a heaven and a hell.  But we don’t need to imagine a society in which people don’t believe that.  We don’t need to imagine people who are living only for today.  We don’t need to imagine it, because we’re living in it.

Polls show that a large number of people in this country do not believe in heaven.  An even larger number don’t believe in hell.  We do have a large number of people who, as the song says, are living for today.

Has it made society better?  Do we have this utopian society that John Lennon thought we’d get?  Well, that’s a matter of opinion, I suppose.  But I don’t think so.  I don’t think a lot of people do.  Certainly there are some ways in which society is better than it was in 1971, when this song was written.  But there are a lot of ways in which it’s worse, too.  And to the extent that society is better, I think you’d have a hard time making the case that the improvement was caused by a decline in religious belief.  

“All the people living for today” does not automatically lead to everyone loving each other and caring for each other.  In fact, in many people, it leads to a sense of drift, a sense that life has no purpose and no meaning.  That, in turn, can lead to all sorts of bad behaviors, because if life has no purpose and no meaning, then it really does not matter what we do.

Is religion perfect?  Is the church perfect?  No and no.  The only one who’s perfect is God.  As soon as you get humans involved, no matter how good their intentions, things get messed up.  There has been harm done in the name of religion, and in the name of the church, and I neither deny nor defend that.  But I think most of us would say religion, and the church, do a lot more good than harm.  In fact, even some atheists have been forced to admit that religion is, on the whole, a good thing for society.

But there are always ways in which we need to do better.  So let’s focus on opening our hearts and souls to God’s Holy Spirit.  Let’s so our best to follow God’s will.  “All the people living for today” is not the way to utopia.  But all the people living for God just might be.

What's Really Important

I wrote this on Easter Sunday.  Easter, as with all of our major religious holidays, has taken on a secular tone these days.  And I’m not going to be a Grinch and say that this is all bad.  I have fond memories of coloring eggs when I was a kid.  I remember Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets.  Chocolate bunnies were awesome.  And I’ve already told you how much I used to love Cadbury Crème Eggs.  I was not a huge fan of the marshmallow Peeps, but hey, you can’t have everything.

And of course, we always had a big meal on Easter.  We’d have the traditional Easter ham, but we’d have lots of other things, too.  My mom loved to cook.  We usually have another kind of meat as well as ham, especially if we had company coming, just in case someone didn’t like ham.  We’d have potatoes, of course.  We’d have corn and beans, and maybe another vegetable as well.  There’d be one or two fruit salads, at least.  There’d be fresh bread or buns or crescent rolls, or a combination thereof.  And of course, there’d be at least four or five different desserts.  And after the meal, we’d usually turn on the radio and listen to the ball game.

So, I have a lot of good memories of all the secular things about Easter.  But at the same time, in between getting our Easter baskets and having the big Easter meal, we would always go to church.  Always.  We would always get there early, and we would always stay late.  We’d stay late so Mom and Dad could visit with people.  My brothers and I would go play in the grassy lot next to the church or, if we were told not to get our good clothes dirty, we’d wait in the car, rather impatiently, for Mom and Dad to finally be ready to go home.

But the thing is, we did not just make a point of going to church at Easter.  We went every Sunday, without fail.  Dad was a farmer, and he always had work to do, but he always made sure he took the time to go to church with the family.  I could probably count on one hand the number of times Dad missed church, and it was inevitably because cattle had gotten out and had to be rounded up.  And Mom would never miss, ever.

I realize the world is not like that today.  For one thing, there are a lot more things to do on Sunday than there used to be.  For another, people travel a lot more than we did when I was growing up.  My point here is not to criticize anyone.  The world I grew up in no longer exists, it’s not coming back, and it does no one any good to live in the past.  We have to live in the world that actually exists, not the world that we wish existed.

The point is that my parents raised me with the idea that church is important.  And in doing that, they raised me with the idea that worshiping God is important.  And kids need to be raised with that idea today just as much as they needed to when I was young.  Maybe more.

Again, I understand that I grew up in a different time.  I have no way to know how my parents would’ve raised me if they were raising me now.  But it’s still important to raise kids with the idea that church is important, and that worshiping God is important.  And if, for whatever reason, you don’t take your kids to church regularly, then you need to find some other way to raise them with those ideas.

If there’s a way that I can help with that, let me know.  I’m open to ideas.  I’m open to doing anything I can to help you with this.  Not because I want a bigger church, but because this is one of the most essential things for a church to do.  Raising kids with the idea the church is important, and that worshiping God is important, is one of the most significant things we will ever do.

If you enjoy some of the secular things life has to offer, that’s okay.  But remember what’s really important.  Make sure you, and your kids, keep God as the most important thing in your life.