Sermon preached by the Rev. Joseph Scalisi
The Church of the Redeemer / Sarasota, Florida
16 November 2008

So, what did you think of that first reading?

“At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.’”

And later in the reading…”I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.

Sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it. It’s generally not what we want to hear when we come to church. In fact, it seems to point out a contradiction in what we are so used to hearing and so desire to hear…that God is love. Don’t we want to hear that God is love? Sure we do. If we hear too much of this punishment and wrath stuff, I just don’t know if we can take it.

But it’s right here in the bible, so what are we supposed to make of it. Well, we have to start by being honest. If we don’t understand it, then we must be free to admit that we don’t understand…but we cannot deny it. After all, the prayer we offered to God just before this very reading was this…”Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.”

If all Holy Scriptures were written for our learning, even the parts that speak of wrath or the parts we don’t like, then it’s no wonder we’re confused. I mean, which is it, is God love or is he someone that wants to ground us into powder if we don’t do what he says?

I want to try to answer this question by posing another question. Have you ever seen a child start to move toward a hot stove on top of which were pots of boiling liquids? Can you see this in your mind? What was your reaction? I suspect the immediate reaction is to yell as loud as you can ‘NO” while rushing to head off the terrible consequences that are only seconds from being unleashed on the child.

Odds are that you have warned the child many times before… “don’t touch the stove, it will hurt you”. And I would venture a guess that this was a command “thou shalt not touch the stove” as opposed to a suggestion or a request. And when crisis had been averted and the panic began to subside, what was your next impulse? Was it relief? Was it thankfulness? Did the whole scene play out in your mind realizing all the terrible things that could have happened but didn’t?

After you gathered your composure, what did you do? Did you have words with this child? Perhaps even punish him or her? Why did you do this? Was it out of a desire to ground that child into powder or was it to help your child remember the mistake in hopes that they would not do it again?

What type of parents are we for doing these things?

Do we, all the sudden, become bad parents because we get panicked and then angry? Are we somehow unloving because we wish to teach our child a lesson in hopes they will not hurt themselves? Of course not…so why do we put these conditions on God? To demand of God that you are either one way or the other, while we know in our hearts that you cannot be a good parent unless there is a capacity for both.

This first reading can be seen as God shouting as loud as he can “NO” don’t touch that stove! If you do, something horrible will happen. But instead of shouting his warning at a toddler, it is toward his people who are complacent in their relationship with their God and are committing idolatry by worshiping things, as evidenced by how they spend their money and their time. And instead of warning them about pots of scalding liquids on the stove, they are being warned of the collapse of their entire way of life as Jerusalem was only a few decades from eventual destruction.

In other words, they had been warned, time and time again by a loving God who wanted them to live well and not to get burned. But they did not listen…and now there will be consequences.

This does not sound very different from what we find in the New Testament. Last week, in the parable of the ten virgins, we heard a warning to be ready. Five of them were ready and went in to the feast when the bridegroom came. The five that were not ready reaped the consequences of being locked out.

Today we have another warning. In the parable of the talents, we are told that we must do something with what God has given us, and not just for ourselves and our comfort. Instead, we must realize that what we have is from God and He expects it to be used for His purposes. But we keep falling back into the wrong position that believes that what we have is ours and to be used as we please. Meanwhile, God keeps telling us differently. Those who take what was given by the master and hide it out of fear or use it for themselves out of selfishness will discover the consequences of their actions, and He is warning us not to make that mistake.

But what would it look like if we were following His instruction? If we realized that what we have, our time, our abilities, our money, they are all from Him and to be used for Him, what would we be doing? Because everyone has their own abilities, personalities, and modes by which God works with us, so it is difficult to prescribe something as a blanket statement from the pulpit. But there are things that we all share…capacities that we all have.

We all have time and energy, it is how we choose to use it that shows God how important or unimportant He really is to us. There are a number of possibilities I could suggest, but instead I’m going to make it very simple by just mentioning one. We all have the ability to pray, so why don’t we use that common ability to pray for one person…not ourselves…not our family…but pray for your enemy. Ask God to bless the one person that really drives you crazy.

Is your love for God and the desire to follow His ways more important than the animosity you feel toward this person? If not, hear the warning that Jesus has given… “from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away”. But if your love for God stirs you to action and for your heart to grow then you are putting what God has entrusted to good use. This is your challenge and your spiritual exercise for this week. Let’s see what comes of it.