COVID-19: The First Prayer I Say in the Morning; Psalm 95, The Venite

Posted on March 16, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:         The first prayer I say when I get out of bed in the morning.
Text:                Psalm 95, the Venite
Preacher:       Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:       First Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale
Date:               March 15, 2020

You may Livestream the service here.
Please note that this was a virtual service held for members and friends of
Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale due to the request of the CDC to limit
the size of public gatherings. No live services were held.

In order to better understand our psalm this morning, it is helpful to hear the background upon which is written. The background is from the Hebrews escaping Egypt under Moses’ leadership. Let’s refresh our memory.

Once upon a time, there was a group of twelve tribes from the same ancestor Jacob who lived far from their ancestral home in Egypt.  They were treated horribly there.  God chose Moses to lead the people, many thousands by this time, on a journey back east to the land where their ancestor Jacob lived in Canaan.

They were pursued by a vicious army through the desert. But God protected them with a pillar of cloud and fire before and behind.

In the chase, the Hebrews got pinned between the sea on one side and an approaching army on the other. God parted the water and all the people crossed safely over to the other side.  Pharaoh’s army was swallowed up in the sea as they tried to follow.

The Hebrews wandered in the desert and complained about their hunger and God rained down manna and quail from heaven and gave them all that they needed.

The Hebrews with their full stomachs weren’t satisfied; they began to complain against God and against Moses. They were thirsty. Moses hit a rock with his staff and water came pouring out. Once again, God provided. And the people grumbled and named the place Grumbling and Quarreling, i.e. Meribah and Massah.

This is the background for today’s text in Psalm 95. Turn in your Bible to Psalm 95. It’s also referred to as the Venite and has been used in the ancient church since the 15th century as the daily invitatory, i.e. the opening prayer, to begin one’s day and daily worship. It literally was the first prayer one said when one got out of bed in the morning! I propose to you it should be ours together as well.

The Psalm is written with two distinct parts.  Verse 1 through 6 are the voices of the worshipping community extoling God’s goodness and mercy.  The last half of the psalm comes abruptly; it pivots from praise and worship to an indictment from God that the people who forget their past are doomed to repeat it. Yet, even in God’s indictment, the Lord provides a clue to help the people not relive the mistakes and failings of the past. Let’s see if you can hear that clue. Listen to the scripture!

Psalm 95

1O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!  2Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!  3For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  4In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.  5The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.  6O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!  7For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand…

…O that today you would listen to his voice!

8Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”  11Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.” [i]

Today’s Psalm paints the picture of a step-by-step plan for being in relationship with God. First, there is a burst of praise and thanksgiving in verses 1 and 2.  Then there is a reminder of God’s greatness that beckons us to worship Him in verses 3 to 6. The people sing, they pray about God’s faithfulness and the Lord’s overwhelming Providence that will always watch out for them.  And then there is verse 7. This is where God begins to speak in the Psalm: If only they would listen to my voice this day.

The prayer to begin the day begins with thanking God for all God has done, is doing, and will do.  It then ascribes to the Lord focused worship that God is the Lord, there is no other. And then there is a call to listen for God’s voice.

In many church liturgies as they say or sing the Venite, Psalm 95, they stop right there at verse 7.  They omit the harsh part of the psalm because it is uncomfortable. Yet, even Thomas Cranmer, the great English Reformer insisted that the people sing the entirety of Psalm 95.  Why?  Because it’s one thing to offer God thanksgiving, praise and honor and a promise to listen.  It’s entirely something else to shut our ears to God’s voice. When we tune God out, when we shut out his voice, when we fail to listen, the consequences are we end up right back again at Meribah and Massah grumbling against God and one another and putting the Lord to the test and trying God’s patience.

In my Bible there is a marker at Psalm 95 as I first read and pray it every single morning.  The pages are worn there, reminding me of my daily routine.  It’s paramount for me to start the day with thanksgiving and gratitude, with praise-infused worship of God and the daily reminder to stop and listen for His voice this very day, every day. Over the years, I realize that if I don’t, I will fall off the wagon and revert to my old self – the grumbling, quarreling, doubting self, wondering if God is even here.

Friends, this week has been a week for us to easily revert back to our old grumbling, doubting ways. Our lives have been and are upended with the onslaught of the Coronavirus in our country.

People are worried about their job security because of the market instability.

Parents are struggling to find childcare now that the schools are closed.

Churches worry if people will continue to give to the ministries that are still going on even though the people are not here on Sunday morning.

Loved-ones have been physically cut off from one another because of visitation restrictions to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and hospitals.

People are resorting to stockpiling and fighting over toilet paper in grocery stores aisles!

Schools are being closed; special events are cancelled; the beloved collegiate Sweet 16 is cancelled along with the NBA, NHL, MLS, and now the threat to America’s pastime, baseball.

Beloved, it is so easy to get caught up in the dour, frantic frenzy we are living in today. It is easy to resort to grumbling, arguing, fighting and fearing one another. The antidote for COVID-19 is the Venite, Psalm 95, as you get out of bed every morning.

It’s a call to be thankful for all we have.

It’s a call to be in awe at the loving, gracious Providential Presence of God providing for us in the midst of hardship.

It’s a call to intentionally still ourselves and listen for the Lord’s voice speaking to each of us, to this church, to this community each and every day. Jesus is talking with us in this apocalyptic feeling moment in time; the Psalm invites us to be intentional in our listening. It invites each of us to live more intentionally with God and with our neighbors.  It invites us to re-examine our spiritual walk during this Lenten season and learn more about ourselves and our God in ways we have never learned before now.

Friends, I’m bullish right now.  I am hopeful right now.  Yes, these are swirly times but I believe God is working in a large way in the midst of all this Corona mess. Just maybe, if we take this psalm seriously, we will hear God’s voice as people, as a church, and as a nation and spiritual revival will blow through once more.

Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[i] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Lent #1: Lent. On Purpose – The Blame Game, Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

Posted on March 3, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        Lent – On Purpose: The Blame Game
Scripture:     Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Date:             March 1, 2020, Communion Sunday

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

15The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die…”

  3.1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. [1]

Today is the first Sunday in our season of Lent and all the lectionary texts for this morning deal with the issue of sin and temptation. Matthew’s gospel focuses on the temptations Jesus had to face while left alone with the devil. Our Romans piece reminds us that just as sin entered our human sphere through one person, our sin’s consequences are rectified through the work of one person, the Christ. Today’s Story in Genesis gets to the root causes of temptation and sin. Perhaps, just perhaps, if we can come to better understand the root causes of temptation and sin, we will have a better idea of how to faithfully respond to it.

For those of you who are theologians, and that my friends, means all of you, we need to come to an understanding of what sin is in the first place and our story in Genesis lines it out for us.

Thus far the storyline in Genesis is pretty tight. God creates the heavens and the earth. God creates humankind whose sole purpose is to till and work the land. We get distracted and chase after other fancies instead of what we are called to do which causes broken relationship with God and each other; ironically, however, humanity, in destroying relationship with God, turns about and creates a new relationship with the anti-god, the serpent, as well as with its own overly developed sense of self-importance and pride. So, our text today gives us a pretty good idea of what sin is all about.

Sin is our willing violation of a boundary set by God for our behalf (You can eat everything but not from the Tree of Knowledge). Sin is personal (Eve ate the fruit) but sin is social as well; sin and its effects impact others (so Adam joining Eve with a snack). What our text does so well is to remind us how subtle sin is and can be. We confuse real sin with the big-ticket items like hit-and-run drivers who plow into tourists on A1-A or horrible ax-murderers and the likes. The big-ticket sins are pretty easy for us to shy away from. It’s the seemingly innocuous ones that tend to get us into trouble. Let’s look at our text and see.

In verses 15-17, we read how God gives humanity just one job to do. You have heard that saying people say today, “You only had one job to do!”  Well, our job was and is to till the soil, cultivate this Earth we have been given, to care for it, and refrain from eating this one fruit. We only had one job and we messed it up. Today we have human waste in our waterways, warming of the world’s oceans and arctic areas, and sea rise. I could spend an entire sermon or more on worldwide Church members’ failure to tend to the Earth and care for it and our spiritual, ethical demand that we do but I would be getting ahead of myself.  Suffice it to say that we had one boundary to respect and not violate, one job to do and we messed it up.  Why?  We got distracted by other things instead of God. Like my daughter’s one-year-old Golden Retriever puppy who has the attention span of a gnat, we get distracted by seemingly innocuous things and find ourselves in a mess. Our inability to harness our focus and attention can lead to serious consequences. Who would think that checking a text on Federal Highway would cause such a thing as vehicular homicide? What are the distractions in your life, my friends, that pull your attention off of God’s single purpose in your life?

Sliding to Genesis 3, we see a second issue that generates and perpetuates sin and brokenness in our lives: Doubt and suspicion. Verse 3.1 says the serpent was more crafty than other animals.  ‘Crafty’ can also be translated as subtle which is a great reminder to us that it’s not just big-ticket issues that always get us into trouble; oftentimes is the subtle benign things that do.  So, the serpent asks Eve, “Did God REALLY say you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?”

Did you hear what the serpent did?  What led to humanity’s Fall from grace was not the act of eating the proverbial apple; what led Eve and Adam to totally go off the rails was the introduction of suspicion into their relationship with God.  The serpent introduces doubt into their minds which began their questioning whether God really knew what God was talking about and could God’s word be trusted.  It is through the subtle inference that God really can’t be trusted that prompts them to discover for themselves the deep things of God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

Beloved, what voices are you hearing that are asking you to subtly challenge the veracity and truthfulness of God? What are the underlying issues that cause your suspicion? Are our thoughts and feeling more about what God has or has not done in our lives or our own sense of disappointment we carry because life did not go our way?

So, what causes us problems is that we are easily distracted and turn our eyes away from all that really matters. When we get distracted and lose our focus, we begin to question the character and the stability of God’s character. And this leads to the consequences of that distraction and mistrust: Shame.

Verse 7 tells us that as a result of Adam and Eve’s mistrust of God, the attempted to know the mind of God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge.  The problem was, they lacked the capacity to handle the awareness they received after eating the fruit! They realized their inadequacy which resulted in shame.  Shame leads to alienation from God and others because we do not think we are good enough, worthy enough, or loveable enough. Friends, whenever you feel shame, not guilt but shame, you know it’s from the anti-god. Guilt is that inner compass that reminds us to adjust our spiritual and ethical course. Shame is the overwhelming sense of unworthiness that we are not worth the oxygen we are breathing. Guilt brings new life and opportunity. Shame brings the death of self and stifling, crippling self-absorption.

This morning, we come to the Table prepared by Christ. It comes today as a reminder to keep our focus on that which matters. It serves as a that God can be trusted because God came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. It’s a meal whose power takes away our shame and lovingly lights the path we are to follow.

Out of her distraction, from the depth of her suspicions of God and God’s provision, Eve hauntingly utters words that Jesus would later use. Eve took the fruit, gave it to her husband and they ate.  The result? Alienating shame. Today, God with us stands at the Table and takes himself, gives himself to us, encouraging us to eat and live in communion with God and the saints before us.  Whose voice shall we listen to, friends?

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Pastoral Prayer for Transfiguration Sunday

Posted on February 24, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Father of Tender Mercies, we come as your people today expecting to meet you in this place and at this time. As you greet us, our lives will reflect back from your countenance the depth or shallowness of our lives grounded in you. Dear God, use this time to deepen us, strengthen us, and illumine us in the shadowy dark places of our soul and restore us to your precious side.

Jesus, we come to this Transfiguration Sunday and pray you will reveal your true and full glory to us. Help us to see nuances of you and the Gospel we’ve never experienced or understood; in doing so, enlarge our hearts towards our neighbor and their plight and to the injustices in our world we willingly or unwillingly perpetuate. Please reveal to us our own complicity in the evils of bigotry, consumerism, environmental exploitation, or political rancorousness. Let us see the faces of sisters and brothers in the world versus opponents, competitors or enemies.

Spirit of Life and Love, fill and transform us from the inside out this day. Enable each of us and this church as a whole to be Light in a world of shadows and ambiguity. May we truly live so that people will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Breathe into us your illumined understanding to life’s vexing problems and concerns; fill us with your Presence that we may faithfully love the unlovely, that we may be attentive at the bedside of those who are ill, that we will have the right touch and the right word to those who are facing fear from medical conditions or who are suffering the loss of a loved one. Help us, Spirit to see beyond ourselves and to see your working in the lives of those around each of us. Grant us awareness as individuals, as a Church, as neighbors and fellow citizens to the power of our words and how they can bring life or cause death in another’s soul.

We come, Triune God, this day and place our lives, our needs, our hopes, and dreams before you.  Hear us as we silently pray.

 

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What do you see when you look into the mirror? Some thoughts on Salt and Light, Matthew 5:12-15

Posted on February 12, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Scripture:     Matthew 5:13-15
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:             February 9, 2020

This week we are reading from what is often called the Sermon on the Mount.  It begins with the recitation of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and extends to the end of chapter 7 with Jesus’ teaching. The Beatitudes outline for Jesus the characteristics of the people who comprise the Kingdom of Heaven.  Kingdom people are gentle, pure in heart, humble, meek and will be persecuted for what they believe. Turn in your Bible with me to Matthew 5.13 and following.

Matthew 5.13-15

13 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.[1]

Most people can remember the great commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel where the resurrected Jesus tells his disciples that they are to go out into all the world, preach the Good News, and baptize people in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What most people do not remember is that the Great Commission occurs much earlier in Matthew’s Gospel in today’s text.  Our three verses in Matthew 5 is Jesus’ commissioning his followers to go out and change the world. He is telling them to go live into their identity as people of God. How? They are to go and be salt and light to the world. Scholar Dale Bruner from Whitworth University calls our text the vitally important “You ares!” of Matthew’s gospel.[2] These “you ares” shape our identity as God’s people.

So far in Matthew’s story, Jesus has been baptized, he has been tempted, and he has assembled a team. Jesus has provided them an outline of what it means to live in God’s realm with the Beatitudes. Today, Jesus gives his first marching orders to the Church: You are salt and light to the world. These marching orders are where the church finds her identity.

You and I are the salt of the world. We live in a world where salt is discouraged and we are encouraged to live a low-sodium diet. The challenge is that Jesus is calling us to live into our identity as high-sodium disciples flavoring the world. Salt enhances flavor. Salt is used to preserve things like food. Salt is necessary for our bodies to function metabolically. Salt in and of itself is not a bad thing but too much of it is. If you go to Fresh Market and buy a beautiful standing rib roast and slather it with too much salt and serve it up, you will not be able to eat it! It becomes a wasted culinary moment!

The same can be said for light.  Light is a good thing.  It lights up shadows, it helps us navigate. It gives the body needed vitamins and helps produce positive chemical levels in our brains. And yet, too much or too little light is not good for us or others.  Too much light pointed in a concentrated area can cause blindness. Exposure to too much light can cause damage to the body in the form of skin cancers and melanomas. And yet, too little light is a problem, too!

I never knew until I lived in the Pacific Northwest that there is such a thing as Happy Lights but after living there one full winter, I understood why they were on sale in the stores!  In the PNW winters, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark because the days are so much shorter; it starts to turn dusk at 4:30 in the afternoon.  Add to that the rain, the clouds, and the cold – at times it feels claustrophobic. For nine months residents of the Puget Sound region suffer through dark, dank, dreary weather. If by chance the sun makes its way out during those nine months, people flock out of their office buildings and go sit in the sun to get a sun break. It can be thirty degrees outside but people are out sunbathing getting as much vitamin D as they can! People crave the light! So, someone figured out Happy Lights which you place in front of you for an hour a day and they keep you less depressed. I had a coworker bring her dog to work one day because it was feeling sick. I looked at the dog and said, “So she’s depressed?” My friend shot back, “Oh yes! How’d you know?”  I pointed to the Happy Light she had placed on the floor in front of her dog’s face. I may be from Georgia but I sure can pick up on the signs!

Members of the church are called to an identity of being salt and light to the world.  We are to enhance people’s lives. We are to season the culture with the virtues listed in the Beatitudes.  We are to shine a light on injustice and hatred. We are to reveal the Good News about the wonderful reign of God in our lives so others can experience the same. We are to shine hope where there is despair. We are called to be salt and light: That is our commission!

Yet, sisters and brothers, we are to use our saltiness, our light strategically and not wastefully or carelessly.  As we have noted, too little or too much salt and/or light can be a bad thing, too. We live in a culture that believes if a little is good, then more is obviously better; however, in the case of our Christian commission and the way we season and light the world with the flavor and colors of Jesus, it matters how much we use.

Think for a moment with me of those Christians you know that are too salty and too bright for people to taste and see the Lord is good or can see Jesus for who he is. They use all the right Christian words, dress a certain way, and have a sense of personal piety that smells like a woman who has sprayed on way too much gardenia perfume!  Overly salty Christianity, a Christian walk that’s “too bright” for others to look at, smell or experience, is not what Jesus is praying for us to demonstrate. Fundamentalism in any form from conservative or progressive is a misuse of Jesus’ high sodium discipleship and light. Salt and light are to be used strategically.

Today we celebrate our Scottish heritage as a church.  Presbyterians emerge from a down-to-earth, common sense, practical understanding of faith.

As Presbyterians we don’t believe in checking our brains at the door of the church but that God gave us an intellect and a faith that can stand up to any intellectual probing we apply to it.

As Presbyterians, we are known as people of the Middle Way; in other words, we are known for prayerfully studying the scriptures to determine the way and will of God.  You see, we believe we can better discern God’s voice through the many as opposed to just the one.

As Presbyterians, we embrace that God is God and is sovereign and that we are not; therefore, we commit everyone and everything to God’s Providential care and oversight.  We may not be able to understand the “whys” to cancer, depression, or assaults on culture’s most innocent, but we Presbyterians do believe that God has all those knots and problems in the midst of His hands and is sorting them out in ways we both cannot nor understand.

As Presbyterians, we are known as a people who are focusing on Jesus first, issues second; at least, it used to be that way. Nowadays, though, Mainline Churches have let social agendas determine the course of the Gospel.  We have removed Christ from the center, the Head of the Church and have displaced him with our personal cause. We forget that it was our Scottish ancestors in the Presbyterian Church who sought and fought to maintain the separation of the Church and the State and here we are in the 21st century America wrapping the two back up together again.

As Presbyterians, we know the world and its issues cannot be easily separated into white and black, this or that, or conservative or liberal; Presbyterians are comfortable with the uncomfortability of wading into the graywater of life and its murkiness in order to find solutions to problems.

I think of our beloved city’s woes with its sewage systems. I can never get out of my head the picture of the scuba diver who put on his helmet and air hose and dropped below the water in the Himmarshee Canal as the broken sewage pipe was spewing god-only-knows-what into the water.  It is a dirty job and not many people would line up to do what that diver did, but someone had to do it. In order for the pipe to be fixed, in order for the sewage to stop spewing into our city’s waterways, someone had to get wet and smelly under the water to set things right.  As Presbyterians, we are like that diver in Himmarshee Canal[3]: the majority of the people in culture are standing on the side of life’s problems, critiquing what should’ve been done, what needs to be done, and whose fault it is and was, to begin with, but unless someone has the courageous humbleness to wade into the gray-water, to wade into the sewage, nothing is going to be addressed and nothing will be fixed. That’s why I am proud to be a Presbyterian. We may not always be popular, but we realize that to be salt and light in our contemporary world means strategically going to address broken pipes in our world that others will not touch.

Beloved, today I ask you to go home and look in a mirror.  Who do you see? Are you a flavor enhancer? Are you a grace-full light bearer? Let’s live into our heritage. Amen.
Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
patrickw@firstpres.cc
patrickhwrisley.net

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Dale Fredrick Bruner, Matthew, Volume 1, The Christ-Book.

[3] Please see https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/sewer-line-ruptures-in-himmarshee-canal/2167505/.

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Shaping Our Identity, Micah 6:1-8

Posted on February 4, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        Jesus asks no more from us than he gives of himself
Scripture:     Micah 6:1-8
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:              February 2, 2020, Communion Sunday

Living in a village west of Jerusalem some 800 years before Jesus was born, lived a minor prophet named Micah. Micah has spent five chapters outlining the specific problems God has with Israel. The people’s living faith has morphed into a dead shell of religion very similar to an empty cicada shell that is left on a tree: The outside shell is pristine but the inside of it is empty and vacuous.

Today’s scene is a courtroom. God is leveling charges against the nation of Israel and is reminding the people of how he saved them from slavery and led them to the Promised Land. It’s there the people turned their back on the Lord. Israel gets defensive against the charges leveled against her and shakes her fist at God in effect crying, “What else do you want us to do for you?” God’s reply is simple and straightforward:  Quit playing at religion and start living a vital faith.  Hear the Word of the Lord!

Micah 6:1-8

6.1Hear what the Lord says:
Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,
and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the Lord has a controversy with his people,
and he will contend with Israel.

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?
In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and redeemed you from the house of slavery;
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,
what Balaam son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? [1]

Scholar Carol Dempsey writes, “The people seem to have forgotten their “story” (and identity), and, in doing so, have forgotten their saving God. Thus the people have fallen out of “right” relationship with their God and consequently with one another because of a lack of mindfulness.”[2] Friends, our scripture paints the picture of what a true disciple of God in Christ looks like. Micah answers the central question of “What does it looks like for you and me to live a holy life?”

The answer from today’s courtroom scene is a definitive and hearty “NO!” to the notion of living with an overly developed sense of personal piety; on the contrary, we are told that what is required is both a personal and communal transformation of how we relate with God and with other people and even creation itself.  The people have already demonstrated their inability to live a holy life. A ‘holy life’ is best translated to mean a life that is visibly different and separate from the rest of the world and is intentionally seeking to live according to God’s way at the core of who we are as human beings. It’s not a question of what we do to earn God’s love and attention; the issue is how we have let our lives be transformed and shaped by the Spirit of God in each of us and in this community.

It does not matter how many calves, goats, rams, or bulls we sacrifice to God; that will not prove our love.  It does not matter how many gallons and rivers of oil or sacrificed blood flow before the throne of the Lord; the fruit of another’s life will not prove our love to God. You see, God is telling Israel that it is way too easy for them to sacrifice something else to show their love to God. It’s easy to sacrifice your goat or ram as it doesn’t require you to sacrifice your own blood; it’s easy to throw in what’s in your pocket for an offering and say, “That’s all I got!” instead of developing a heart for radical giving in all aspects of life. God is telling the people, “Remember who you are! Remember how I have rescued you! Remember the price I paid for you! Remember, you are a beloved, chosen children of God!”

You see, beloved, Micah is having them remember their identity as beloved children of God and springing from that sense of identity, emerging from who they are as God’s chosen and beloved, is how they are to live out their life.

Their identity as children of God means they are to intentionally seek out ways to live justly.  Dempsey writes, “Justice is a transformative virtue that seeks to establish or restore the community, while aiming to balance personal good with the common good.”[3]

Their identity as children of God means to love God and others from the center of who they are! Loving-kindness is more than showing affection to God and neighbor, it is an ethical love physically demonstrated to them.

Their identity as children of God means they generously allow God to be God; in other words, the people know their place – they are the created and not the Creator. This humbleness allows them to give themselves, the sum total of their lives, generously to God.

I love what Old Testament professor, Patricia Tull says when she writes, “What God sought from the Israelites, what faith says God still seeks from us, is to cultivate capabilities we have seen in our Maker, capabilities we who are made in God’s image already possess: a warm heart for all, a passion for fairness, and the flexibility to learn as we go in this complex matter of seeking grace alongside justice.”[4]  This is why, my friends, the message title today is, “Jesus asks no more from us than he gives himself.”  Jesus treated people justly. Jesus shared loving kindness to all he met. Jesus walked humbly before His Father and generously gave himself totally so that all might have life.  Isn’t this what the meal before us demonstrates?

Where do you derive your identity, Church? This past May, your Session began crafting its identity of who we are as a church. Your elders believe this church is called by God to share the Good News of Jesus and that we are to be an inspiring Christ-centered presence in this community, transforming Fort Lauderdale and beyond. Did you hear that? Our identity is to be sharing, inspiring, and transforming people. You do, notice don’t you, that this identity of who we are is all “other” directed. It’s all about who we are in sharing, inspiriting, and transforming those “others” out in the larger community. If this is who we are as a congregation, then how are we going to achieve that?

My dream as your pastor is that we will live into our identity as a sharing, inspiring, and transforming congregation by following Jesus’ model for transforming our personal self and this very congregation by

Living intentionally;
Loving unconditionally;
and Giving generously.

Living intentionally is our growing our faith and Christian character through the Thirty Core Competencies; it’s in building micro-Christian communities that are incubators for ministry in the world.

Loving unconditionally means we are to reach out to society’s “Other” whoever they are; we are to be the serving hands and feet of Jesus in and around this place; we are the voice who addresses systems of injustice and intolerance.

Giving generously means we shall give our time for missional work; it means we each use our spiritual gifts for the larger good of the Church; it means we understand that all we have belongs to God and we place it humbly before him to do Kingdom of Heaven work.

Faith comes alive doesn’t cut it. It needs to be fleshed out. How does our faith come alive? Well, by

Living intentionally.  Loving unconditionally.  Giving generously. This, my beloved, is how we shall share the good news, inspire others, and transform our world. This is how we will do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. This is how we are going to live like Jesus has already lived himself.  And all of God’s people say, Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

patrickw@firstpres.cc

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) (Kindle Locations 10505-10507). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[3] Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) (Kindle Locations 10526-10532). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[4] Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (p. 211). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

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