|
Sermon for
Proper 19 - Trinity 16 - Morning Service
Exodus
32. 7-14
Luke 15. 1-10
A God who changes
his mind - and maybe has second thoughts when he has a chance
to calm down a bit...
A God who loses
things - but searches for them diligently and then rejoices...
Have we made
God in our own image I wonder?
I ask this
because I doubt there is anyone here who has not done similarly.
When was the last time you lost your temper with someone or something....
?
Did you act on that anger immediately, or - when you had time
to calm down and maybe reflect on the course of your actions,
did you think better of it and decide to do something different?
And how many
of us have had the experience of losing something? Keys? Spectacles?
Wallet or purse? - Happens to me all the time.... all the time.
But let's think
this through a bit further.
I've been watching
the Paralympics on and off this week - since Wednesday at least.
But I admit my viewing is sporadic and I tend to dip in and out.
I find this has the effect of making certain phrases used by
the commentators or the competitors suddenly stick in my mind
and crop up again at other times.... I remember a man who had
just won a medal for weightlifting. I think he had managed to
shift something like 30 stones even though he only weighed about
8 stone himself and had both legs amputated. His torso had to
be strapped to the press bench - because lacking legs and feet,
he was unable to brace himself against the weight any other way...
He said that the only way to shift such enormous weights was
to be really, really angry and to channel that anger into his
determination to succeed. We can probably all understand that.
So maybe what
the conversation between Moses and God serves to illustrate for
us is not so much that God changes his mind, but that through
this exchange God begins to channel his anger not just to be
destructive, but to persevere with his "stiff-necked"
people, to fulfil the promise made all those years before to
Abraham, Isaac and Israel? It is a heavy load to bear - but
drawing on all his resources, God is able to lift this people
and redirect them in the ways that he wants - not just once,
but over and over again - and for all we know he is still doing
so to this day, - feeling furious with us for the ways in which
we mess up; - our lives, our relationships, this wonderful world
he created for us to live in, but channelling it to help us achieve
creative solutions when we turn and work with God.
And the passage
from Luke helps us to see that while God is again compared to
human nature - searching for that which is lost. God goes so
much further and is not so discouraged as we might become. He
just refuses to rest until that which was lost is found.
And if you think of the example of St Paul - God will pursue
not just the lost sheep, but the wolf that is harrying the flock
and convince it to turn vegetarian!
Why such persistence?
Well, I don't know about you, but when - yet again(!) - I find
myself searching for something I know perfectly well I left ....
there (because I always leave it there, that is where it lives!)
.... and yet for some reason it has gone missing ... I cannot
call out "have you moved my xxx?!" - because, unless
one of the dogs has grown paws with opposable thumbs, I know
that in my house nothing can move unless I move it or put it
in the wrong place.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that I get really angry with
myself! Anyone else recognise that feeling, or is it just me?
But storming
around the house throwing things rarely seems to work somehow!
If I want to find the missing article, I have to channel all
that frustration and anger. Slow down. Take a deep breath and
try to remember when I last used or had said article. That way
I might just find it and then can begin the great rejoicing -
if not in heaven, then at least in the vicarage.
When you think
of the many ways that human beings get lost; take the wrong path,
ruin everything good and wonderful that God has made for us,
it is astonishing that he doesn't just lose it and sweep us all
away without another thought. But thankfully God is made in God's
own image after all and not in ours.
So God - Jesus
- will go out of his way to eat and socialise with the unsuitable
people. God goes out of his way to confound the image we try
to build of him and the judgements we try to make about what
is good and what is proper. God is so much better than me - or
you - at channelling his righteous anger and the weight of our
wrongdoing and disobedience that he can lift from our guilty
hearts and minds is truly staggering. And when we turn back to
him - every time we turn back to him, God invites us to celebrate
at his very special party, where the bread and wine flow free.
Come and celebrate with him.
Amen.
|
