Hello Hebrews 3 And 4

I recently read that church websites need five things, one of which is the pastor's sermons. Oh my! I don't write out my sermons, not even notes, so that presented a conundrum, because I do want my church website to be all that it can be. So after some serious pondering, and there is no other kind for me, I decided to reflect on Monday what I preached on Sunday.

For the record I haven't written a sermon since 2003 except when one was required to hand in for a class. I do write wedding and funeral sermons out, but not the week-to-week ones. There's a reason though and it's not because I'm cocky. There have been way-too-many-to-count Sundays that I got in God's way in the pulpit and I wished I had a written text to fall back on...but alas and alack. I read, I study, I pray. I do everything I'm supposed to do to get ready for Sunday. I just don't take pen in hand or sit down at a keyboard. God had a time, a long time ago, that He put a stop to that. And it took a while, but I finally understood. It was absolutely necessary for me to learn to hear His voice above all others and trust Him in all situations. For me, that written sermon was a prop that I relied on so I wouldn't have to grow in those ways. One week God kicked that prop out from under me and it has been gone ever since. Rats. But it is what it is.

And so here I am at the start of a brand new blog. I'm a lectionary preacher, meaning I preach on the prescribed texts (Revised Common Lectionary) as established by the The Consultation on Common Texts. The United Methodist Church supports the lectionary, though we are free to preach on whatever texts we feel God calling us to preach on. While the lectionary is recommended, it is not mandated. But I do it. There are four weekly readings and, in my church, we read all four during the service. I may expand on what is recommended and that is what I have been doing lately. I just finished preaching the entire Book of James and am now preaching the Book of Hebrews. The lectionary gives some verses, and not from every chapter. We're taking Hebrews two chapters at a time and reading all the texts.

This is the only post I'll give such a lengthy intro on. But I did want to state the whats, whys, and wherefores of this blog.

Yesterday we read Psalm 22: 1-15; Job 23; Mark 10: 17-31; and Hebrews 3 & 4. I read from the New Living Translation.

I preached on Hebrews but worked in the Mark reading. My musings and recollections:

It's easy and natural to want to go back to the old, the comfortable, the familiar. I can smell fresh cut wood and I go back to my granddaddy, who was a sawmill man. We can long for the house or community we remember with fondness. Churches can long for their glory days when attendance was at its highest and there were wall-to-wall children. The writer of Hebrews knows the people he is writing to are being tempted to go back to their comfort zone, the good old days before they became Christians who were being persecuted. He warns them about that though, over and over, in this book, which was originally written as a sermon.

Our rich man Jesus encounters in our Mark reading, turned back. He couldn't leave his comfort zone. He couldn't push ahead and do what was required for him to follow Jesus. He wants to follow and Jesus goes over some of the commandments with him...which to his credit, the rich man says he has kept. He keeps the last six of the ten...the ones that have to do with our relationship with others. He keeps the ones most people of faith keep. He hasn't murdered anybody. He hasn't committed adultery. He hasn't knowingly stolen, intentionally lied, or cheated anybody. He honors his parents.

It's those first four commandments we mess up on the most and it's where this man, standing before Jesus, is messing up. Go back and read Exodus 20, particularly the first four commandments. No other gods before God, no idols of any kind, no misuse of God's name, and keeping the Sabbath holy and as a day of rest. This man has set up his possessions as his god, his idols. Jesus tells him to to what it takes to dethrone them from that position in his heart and life...be as drastic as it takes, and for him it means selling them all and giving all the proceeds to the poor. Pretty tough love and drastic action. But it's what Jesus knew this man would have to do. If he kept his fine belongings, they would entice him to keep worshiping them. There's an order to what Jesus tells him. Go, sell, give, have, come, follow. We may try to follow and not keep to that order, but it won't work. We have to go confront our god(s), get rid of them completely, give to others from out of that...others are to be blessed when we get rid of our false god(s), that's when we discover the true treasure we will have in heaven, and then we are free to come to Jesus and follow Him. His words, not mine. We cannot truly follow him any other way. As long as our worldly god(s) are in the way, we won't be completely following...we'll always have that compulsion to go back.

In this fellow's case, he couldn't do it. He blew his "today" moment we read about in Hebrews. He had the chance "today" to hear God's voice, but his heart was hardened and it remained hardened "today." Did he ever get another chance? We aren't told.

Today, as you read the Word, pray the prayers, sing the songs, hear God's voice. Today, don't harden your hearts towards Him. Today, listen to God. You may not get a tomorrow. Bu you do have "today."

Today you can enter God's rest. "God's rest" has two facets. One is that eternal rest. But there's also the rest we can know today. That rest that comes when we are in right relationship with God, when we trust the work God is doing over and above our own work, when we rest in His faithfulness, when we know His peace. The heart disease may still be there. The cancer may still be there. We may still be growing old with the challenges that come with that, but we can know God's rest today, during these times, when we obey Him and walk this walk His way and not our own. Today.

He tells us in His Word how to have that right relationship with Him and that's a Word we can rely on. It's a Living Word that encourages and convicts. It exposes and reveals what we try to hide from others. What we even bury deep within and hide from ourselves.

God says, "I've been there. I've been tempted and tested. I understand what you're going through and dealing with. I've lived it and seen it. I can handle it and you don't have to try and hide those things you're ashamed of and hiding. You don't need a fig leaf with me. Let's bring this baggage out in the open where we, you and I, can deal with it. Clean it up. Wash it away in my Living Water."

Come to the Throne of Mercy and Grace. Find that Help when you need it the most.

Just like we have, or have had, a daddy we could go to and say, "Daddy I need..." so too, we've got a Daddy we can go to now, today, and say, "Daddy, I need." And we can expect Daddy to come to our rescue.

If you never had a daddy like that, I'm telling you you've got One.

Today, hear your Daddy's voice, trust what He says, do what you have to do to soften your hearts and follow.

Be blessed.