25-jan-09

Speaking To You The Rev. Joseph Winston January 25, 2009

Sermon Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1 Maybe you have heard a story that goes something like this. There once was this cantankerous, old man who refused to listen to any one’s advise. He did not want to know how you might take care of your yard, paint your house, or even what you could do to minimize your taxes. This reluctance to follow the suggestions of others was especially true when it came to evacuation requests. For you see, this codger lived along the Gulf Coast and every so often, a hurricane would threaten the area where he lived. This crotchety man’s constant response to the request that he pack up and leave before a storm hit was simply this, “If God wants me to leave, then God can come down here and tell me.” Of course, this attitude concerned his family and those few friends who loved him dearly. They all knew 1

Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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that one day, sooner or later, a massive storm would come and if stayed in his house, then bad things would happen. Finally, that fateful day arrived. A massive storm entered the Gulf from the Tropics. While the forecasters could not pinpoint exactly where the storm would strike, it was clear to them that the hurricane was headed toward the area of the state where that grumpy man lived. As his neighbors started thinking about what they would do if the storm came, they asked him if he would leave. “Ain’t going,” he replied. “God didn’t come down here and tell me to leave.” As the hours stretched into days, the cone of uncertainty shrunk down from the entire coastline to an area just a few hundred miles wide. Everyone agreed that this part of the state would receive both high winds and strong rains. Preparation began in earnest. Anything outside that might be blown away was brought inside. Masking tape was put on the windows. Gas tanks were filled up in case the order was given to leave. “Ain’t going to do it,” the old man said to no one in particular. “God didn’t come down here and tell me to leave.” When it became clear that an evacuation order was needed, people packed their most precious belongs into their cars and left. The last one out of the neighborhood happened to be a friend of the old man. Despite knowing what he would answer, this friend asked one more time if he would please leave. “Ain’t going to do it,” started out the last phrase heard by this dear friend. “God didn’t come down here and tell me to leave.” The evacuation order transformed the neighborhood into a ghost town. Lights were out. Windows were boarded up. Businesses were closed. The police made one swing through the area just to make sure that everyone had received the mes2

sage that a serious storm was coming. When they drove by the old man’s house, they could tell that he was still at home. The lights were on. One of them got out of the car and pounded on his door. It took a while but the grumpy old man finally opened his door and asked, “What do you want?” The response to the question was predictable as well as what the old man had to say. “It is time to leave.” “Ain’t going to do it. God didn’t come down here and tell me to leave.” When it was clear that he was not changing his mind, the patrol car left him all alone. As predicted, the storm hit the coast. Wind and water pounded the house. The hurricane took the old man’s life. On the one hand, you could say that this crusty, old man trusted God completely. After all, the codger based his decision to say in his house on the fact that God was silent. On the other hand, you could make the observation that God spoke to the old man over and over that he should evacuate during a hurricane. After all, the old man’s friends and family asked before the storm if he would leave. The forecasters told everyone that would listen that a hurricane was coming. The neighbors wanted to know if he would move out of his house and into safety. An old friend wanted him out of harm’s way. The police told him that abandoning his property was his best option. Each of these conversations could be viewed as a message from God, “Leave when the time is right.” So, which one is it? Do we listen only when God speaks to us directly or do we only expect God to reach us through other humans? You might not like the answer. It is both. God speaks to you without any other 3

intermediaries and also through other people. Today’s lessons show us how this happens. In the twenty-two verses that make up the first lesson, we heard two different but interrelated accounts of how God directly communicates with people. The first famous occurrence is found in Saul’s conversion. Saul has orders from the high priest in Jerusalem to bring back all those people in Damascus who are blaspheming God by being Christians. On the way to Damascus, Saul sees a light, hears a voice, and then recognizes that God is talking to him.2 Jesus responds to Saul’s question, “Who are you, Lord?” with a name and a command. Saul is persecuting Jesus and Saul is to continue on in his journey to Damascus where he will wait for further orders from Jesus. Also contained in this lesson is the account of how Ananias learned of Saul’s conversion. The Lord came to Ananias in a vision. Apparently, this had happened before because Ananias simply answers with, “Here I am, Lord.” Jesus then provides Ananias with Saul’s specific location along with some details that had already been revealed to Saul in another vision. Ananias would come to Saul, lay hands on him, and cure him of his blindness. Ananias protests because of what Saul has done in the past. Jesus assures Ananias that Saul has been chosen to deliver the Good News to the world at great personal cost.3 Saul’s conversion experience is briefly described in his letter to the church at 2

Although at this point in the account Saul does not know that Jesus is Lord, Saul does recognize that he is talking to the L ORD. Luke Timothy Johnson; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., editor, The Acts of the Apostles, Volume 5, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1992), p. 163. 3 The word translated as Gentiles (ἔθνος) by the NRSV in Acts 9:15 could be instead viewed as nations. This especially true when 9:15 is taken with the next verse that shows how God makes His Word known through all sorts of events. Ibid., p. 165.

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Galatia. Paul simply says, “I received it (in other words the Good News) through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Here Paul tells us of his direct communication with God. The final example of how God communicates directly with us is located in the lesson drawn from the Gospel according to St. Luke. Here Jesus tells His disciples that signs of the end will come and that these events will provide them with a chance to witness. You might not notice it right away, but these words from Jesus are also spoken directly to you. The reasoning goes something like this. First, since we still are here it is safe to say that the end has not yet arrived. This means the teaching still applies to us. Next, all the occurrences of the pronoun “you” are plural.4 This means that Jesus is speaking to everyone, including you.5 These lessons from the Acts of the Apostles, the Psalms, Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and the Gospel according to St. Luke all contain the second example of how God commentates to us: through others. Everyone here will have to admit that they are not Paul, Ananias, the disciples, or even the men that accompanied Acts 9 12 πρὸ δὲ τούτων πάντων ἐπιβαλοῦσιν ἐφ΄ ὑμᾶς (Accusative Plural) τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν καὶ διώξουσιν παραδιδόντες εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς καὶ φυλακάς ἀπαγομένους ἐπὶ βασιλεῖς καὶ ἡγεμόνας ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματός μου 13 ἀποβήσεται ὑμῖν (Dative Plural) εἰς μαρτύριον θέτε 14 οὖν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν (Genitive Plural) μὴ προμελετᾶν ἀπολογηθῆναι 15 ἐγὼ γὰρ δώσω ὑμῖν (Dative Plural) στόμα καὶ σοφίαν ᾗ οὐ δυνήσονται ἀντιστῆναι ἢ ἀντειπεῖν ἅπαντες οἱ ἀντικείμενοι ὑμῖν (Dative Plural) 16 παραδοθήσεσθε δὲ καὶ ὑπὸ γονέων καὶ ἀδελφῶν καὶ συγγενῶν καὶ φίλων καὶ θανατώσουσιν ἐξ ὑμῶν (Genitive Plural) 17 καὶ ἔσεσθε μισούμενοι ὑπὸ πάντων διὰ τὸ ὄνομά μου 18 καὶ θρὶξ ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς ὑμῶν (Genitive Plural) οὐ μὴ ἀπόληται 19 ἐν τῇ ὑπομονῇ ὑμῶν (Genitive Plural) κτήσασθε τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν (Genitive Plural). 5 In some English versions such as the NRSV and the RSV, you would get a hint of that understanding in verse 14 because the word translated as minds is plural. Actually, the word in the Greek is a form of καρδία or heart in English. The NRSV and the RSV made the decision to translate this as mind. But that is not the case in the NIV. The translators decided to make the indirect object singular. 4

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Saul on his trip to Damascus. We have learned about Saul’s vision through the words of an intermediary. This hold true for what happened to Ananias. Someone else has given us the account. The same can be said of Paul’s letter. He dictated it to a secretary. The author of Luke recorded what Jesus said to the disciples. In many ways, we are like the author of today’s psalm. We know that God blesses us because we see what God has done here on earth. We deeply misunderstand Christianity when we forget that God speaks to all of us both directly and indirectly. That grumpy old man in the introduction had plenty of warnings to leave his home before the hurricane devastated the cost. He chose to ignore the fact that God communicates to us through others. Another very serious problem occurs when we leave out indirect forms of communications. More times than not, when Christians begin to rely only on personal revelations from God they forget how God has decisively acted in the past.6 With nothing else to base our trust in, we pick and choose what we want to believe. The result of this behavior is catastrophic. We quickly invent a new religion that is not Christian. The early Church had a name for this behavior: heresy. On the other side of the coin, we also must remember that God speaks to each of us directly. If this were not true, then we could not say that the Scriptures apply to you. You then would be a special case, exempt from all the requirements placed on each of us and unable to receive any of our blessings. If God cannot speak to us as individuals, then we cannot receive any of God’s blessings. This would mean 6

God pays attention to what is happening and does take sides in what happens in this world. Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, (Fortress Press, 1978), p. 24.

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that you would be fully responsible for all your shortcomings, that God the Father could not adopt you into His family, that Jesus cannot be with you, and that the Holy Spirit could not comfort you. Despite all of our deliberate attempts to break off communication with God, God still talks to each of us. This is the Good News contained in today’s lessons. When we ignore God’s one on one dialogue, God does not give up on us. The Holy Spirit continues to come to you and places in you all those thoughts and feelings that are designed to drive you back to God. These ideas and emotions are found in the beautiful sunrises that make you wonder if this all could happen by chance. These judgments and guilt are present in the despair that you feel when you have failed. They are part and parcel of the question, “Will anyone ever accept me again?” The Spirit is in every one of our moments including the most depressing ones, reminding us that this tragedy is not the end of our story. There is some One else that speaks your worth. It is God that makes this final decision. He will love you because of what Jesus has done for you. The same thing can be said for all those individuals that bring us God’s Word. God continues to send them to us no matter what we have done. Friends, family, and even complete strangers serve God in this way. In the good times of life, God has surrounded us with people that we can share our joy. In their own way, they remind us that God wants us to stay in conversation. When we fall flat on our face, it might be more difficult to see those individuals that God has sent to us. But they are there. Jesus has promised not to abandon us and we take Him at His Word. It might be a coworker, another person at church, or even a close friend. God sends 7

these individuals to you so that you can be reminded of your worth to God. These type of people all made an appearance in that grumpy, old man’s life. In the fictitious illustration, we learned of friends, family members, weather forecasters, and police officers. Each of them brought the old man that one word that would have saved him from the storm: leave. The codger ignored the messages sent from God and paid with his life. Today on the Conversion of St. Paul, the Church remembers the miracle that was given to Saul. Jesus came to Saul and turned him around from a persecutor of Christians to one of the most articulate defenders of the faith. In all the celebrations about what happened to Saul, it is easy to forget that God comes to you. God speaks to you directly and through the works of others. “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”7

References Brueggemann, Walter, The Prophetic Imagination, (Fortress Press, 1978). Johnson, Luke Timothy; Harrington, S.J., Daniel J., editor, The Acts of the Apostles, Volume 5, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1992).

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Philippians 4:7.

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