The last two weeks we have been exploring how God broke His silence and brought the news that He was sending His anointed one into the world to bring salvation to all.  For 400 years God had been silent.  The last words God spoke through the prophet Malachi proclaimed that “5 I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents” (Malachi 4:5-6).  God then broke his silence by sending the angel Gabriel to an old man, a priest named Zechariah, telling Zechariah that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son, named John, who “will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous” (Luke 1:17).  John was not the anointed one of God.  John’s mission would be to announce God’s Messiah had come.

          After breaking the silence with Zechariah, God broke His silence again sending the angel Gabriel to a young woman named Mary to tell her that through the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary would give birth to the Son of God.  Unknown to Zechariah and Elizabeth, God had acted and even before their son, John, had been born, God was bringing about the Messiah. The news from the angel to Mary was wonderful and terrifying.  Mary’s child brought forth by the Holy Spirit would be the Son of God.  This moment in time was the highest spiritual point for any human being.  And as awesome as the news was from the angel, Mary nevertheless found herself in the little town of Nazareth, in Galilee, in Judea, in Israel, pregnant and engaged to be married to a man named Joseph.  The Hebrew Scriptures were quite strict about women who were pregnant and not married.  With Mary engaged and pregnant, family, friends, neighbors, and the authorities would assume that Mary was no longer a virgin.  The Law of Moses said that such women should be “brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you (Deuteronomy 22:20). It was a difficult moment for Mary as she needed to share her story with Joseph for under the Law of Moses, for Mary’s fate was in Joseph’s hands.

          Mary told her story to her husband to be, Joseph.  Mary shared about the angel and that her child would be a king and would be called the Son of God.  But all Joseph heard from Mary was “I am pregnant.”  Joseph could not accept Mary’s story.  All Joseph knew was that Mary was pregnant and the child was obviously not his child.  Joseph chose to receive Mary’s news with despair and disbelief.  Joseph was reshaping his experience by rejecting Mary’s good news that the Son of God was to be born.  Disbelief in God’s Word always reshapes our life experiences for the worse.

          Mary, needing assurance, remembered that the angel told her that her cousin, Elizabeth, was pregnant.  Elizabeth was old, well beyond bearing children.  No one brought news that Elizabeth was pregnant.  Surely, something as miraculously as Elizabeth’s pregnancy would have been news to share.  But no such news had reached Mary because unknown to Mary, Elizabeth had been in seclusion for the past 5 months.  No one other than Zechariah, Elizabeth, and God knew Mary was pregnant.  Mary hurried to see Elizabeth desperate for confirmation the angel’s news that Elizabeth was pregnant.  Mary needed reassurance.

          Luke shared with us that Mary hurried to find Elizabeth.  When Mary arrived and entered the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary called out to Elizabeth.  “41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her [Elizabeth’s] womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she [Elizabeth] exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you [Mary] among women, and blessed is the child you [Mary] will bear! 43 But why am I [Elizabeth] so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your [Mary] greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she [Mary] who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!’ (Luke 1:41-45).  Mary received the assurance she needed that the Lord’s promises were true.

          This little story of Mary and Elizabeth is a terribly important one. Mary had a mountaintop experience with the angel, a spiritual high.  The angel told Mary she was highly favored and that she, Mary, would bear the Son of God. Then Mary shared her news.  Likely first with Joseph and she experienced a spiritual low.  Joseph rejected Mary.  Joseph’s unbelief was not only shaping Joseph’s experience but was reshaping Mary’s experience. 

Every one of us goes through moments of spiritual highs in which our faith seems so strong and then it seems in an instant that spiritual high can evaporate, and we are in the clutches of a spiritual low.  That was certainly Mary’s experience, but then Mary remembered a small statement made by the angel.  Elizabeth was pregnant.  That small statement was God’s way of letting Mary know that He had made provision for Mary’s renewed spirit.  Mary went to Elizabeth and found God’s Word to be true.  In knowing the truth of God’s Word, Mary’s spirit soared again. The same is true for us.  Even in our spiritual lows, God is making provision our renewal.  God is equipping people through the Holy Spirit to bring comfort, reassurance, and guidance to help lift us from the hole in which we find ourselves.  These people are not likely to knock on our doors and say, “I am here to help.”  They might but it is not likely to happen that way.  But the people God has provisioned for us, to bring us out of the spiritual lows, will always be found in the body of Christ, His church.

The Apostle Paul saw the reality of God’s provision through the church this way.  “27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed [God has provisioned] in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:27-28).  You and I are part of God’s provisioning for each other and for those who are in need but not yet here.  You and I are instruments being empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring reassurance of the truth of God’s Word to those who are experiencing spiritual lows.  We need to let that sink in for a moment.  You and I are empowered by the Holy Spirit to help reshape the spiritual life experience of another person.  That is an awesome thought, responsibility, and blessing.  If people can feel God’s love, a love made incarnate, full and complete, in the caring people of the church, people they see, touch, and hear, then they are assured of God’s presence.  They can know that God hasn’t abandoned them.  In you they see God.

In you those who need reassurance see and experience God’s provision.  Mary found in Elizabeth the reassurance she needed that God’s Word was true.

While Mary sought and was enjoying the presence of Elizabeth, we turn our attention back to Joseph who had rejected Mary at the news of her pregnancy.  Joseph was distraught.  The Jewish tradition of the time was that Joseph’s father, Jacob, and Mary’s father would have arranged Joseph’s and Mary’s marriage.  For girls, needed to be at least 12 years old for marriage.  For boys, needed to be at least 13 years old. We do not know the ages of Mary and Joseph but they could have been very young by our way of living today.  The two fathers would have agreed upon an amount of money Mary’s father would have received for losing a daughter to marriage. Once the agreement was settled, the couple was considered engaged but were not permitted to have sexual relations until after the formal marriage ceremony.

Mary’s news to Joseph of her pregnancy meant the marriage could be terminated.  The Gospel of Matthew said, “19 Because Joseph her [Mary’s] husband was faithful to the law [of Moses], and yet [Joseph] did not want to expose her [Mary] to public disgrace, he [Joseph] had in mind to divorce her [Mary] quietly” (Matthew 1:19).  Joseph was conflicted.  Joseph wanted to follow the Law of Moses and end the marriage but Joseph did not want to expose Mary to the death penalty of the law.  Joseph wanted to follow the command of justice but to temper justice with mercy.

Joseph remained silent about Mary’s pregnancy and the conflict within his own spirit.  In the silence of the night, and in conflict of his mind, Joseph laydown to sleep.  During Joseph’s sleep, “20 An angel of the Lord appeared to him [Joseph] in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She [Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he [Jesus] will save his people from their sins.’  22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)” (Matthew 1:20-23).  An angel had visited again.  First to Zechariah about the birth of his son John, then to Mary about conceiving Jesus, and now to Joseph concerning the baby within Mary’s womb. Each time, the angel began by addressing fear of those he visited.  The angel invited Zechariah, Mary, and Joseph to each let go of their fear.

Fear is such a powerful emotion. Fear separates us not only from each other.  Think about it for a moment.  If we are afraid of someone, we do everything we can to avoid them.  That is the human level of fear.  But fear also separates us from God.  Fear talks us out of moving forward with God and causes us to believe our best days are behind us.  Fear focuses our attention on our doubts and hurts our self-esteem.  Fear keeps us in bondage until something worse comes along. But we need to remember, we only fear things that have not yet happened.  Because what we fear has not yet happened, we can reshape our experience.  Mary reshaped her experience with fear through the reassurance of Elizabeth and Joseph’s experience with fear was reshaped by God through an angelic messenger.  Both Mary and Joseph, as well as you and I, can remain in our fear or we can accept the encouragement to life that God offers.  What will we choose?

          Matthew shared with us that, “24 When Joseph woke up, he [Joseph] did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).  Joseph had contemplated divorcing Mary quietly to avoid bringing further shame upon Mary over her pregnancy.  Now, Joseph, assured that he was part of God’s plan, decided to take Mary as his wife and thus take upon himself the shame that would have been given to Mary alone.  The Law of Moses had penalties for men who forced themselves upon virgins.  There is little doubt that family, friends, and neighbors would have heaped shame upon Joseph for breaking the engagement requirement for celibacy.  But Joseph willingly took the shame of wagging tongues and waving fingers because Joseph no longer feared.  The Apostle Paul would later ask, “If God is for us, who can be against us?... 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:31b, 33).

          What are we then to do with Mary and Joseph’s story?  Let’s begin with Mary’s part of today’s story, with Mary’s suffering and in need of reassurance.  Mary’s suffered rejection by Joseph who was to be Mary’s source of support and strength in a world that would be hostile to Mary’s pregnancy.  There are people in our lives who are suffering.  People who need reassurance.  When we participate in the sufferings of others as they wrestle with their pain, we are providing the comfort of the Holy Spirit and we model, we imitate, Jesus Christ.  It is a powerful and privileged moment to enter the suffering of another.  When we are invited into someone’s suffering, we should do as Moses did before the burning bush.  Moses removed his shoes for the ground he entered was holy.  When we entered the suffering of another we are entering holy place.  It is a holy place because when you enter another person’s suffering, you find that Jesus is already there ahead of you.  It is a supreme privilege to give to another the provision God placed in you ahead of time.  We must provide with reverence.  For the love you bring to suffering individuals is more than a mere reflection of God’s love.  It is God’s love.

          The season of Advent can be a wonderful and joyous time of year, but it can also be a time of great suffering for those who have been brought low by life’s hardships and difficult circumstances.  If you are suffering, you are not here by accident.  You are here because God led you here and we are glad you are here because God has provisioned this church to be a source of God’s comfort, reassurance, and love.  If you are on a spiritual high, the reason for that is God has equipped you ahead of time to be a provision to others.  You need to extend yourself and share the sense of God’s presence and love within you to others.  Do this not in a smothering sense or in an over-the-top “lovey dovey” sense, but in the sense of communicating to others that they are valued, precious, and loved by God.  You cannot remove the pain from another, but you can reshape their suffering. Elizabeth could not remove the pain Mary would experience from others over Mary being pregnant before marriage, but Elizabeth could remove some of Mary’s suffering.  If you are on a spiritual high, equipped by God for this very moment, then be God’s gift and ease the suffering of others.

          Let’s conclude briefly with Joseph’s part, a conflicted mind.  Joseph was conflicted between a sense of Mary’s betrayal, a desire for justice, and a deep conviction that mercy should be extended. In conflict, Joseph chose to lay down. Joseph did not act while conflicted or emotional about the situation.  Joseph paused and sought rest.  In his rest, God could then speak to Joseph and to help Joseph through his fears. This Advent, we would be wise to do likewise.  We should not exhaust ourselves by overdoing but instead we should find time to rest and allow God to work on us.  People are generally more open to the movement of the Holy Spirit during the seasons of Easter and Christmas.  But if we are in constant motion running from one task to another, we will never be able to receive what God has for us.

          Joseph lay down and rested.  In his rest, Joseph learned that Mary had not betrayed Joseph but had instead honored God. Knowing the truth allowed Joseph to reunite with Mary.  The truth equipped Joseph to face the burdens that lay ahead without concern for what others would think of him.  This Advent season, we should be open to God and take the time and let God reveal to us the truth about whatever conflicts our minds.  Once we are no longer conflicted, then we should act in the truth of God.

          It is my hope that each of us will come to know that God has made provision for us to have abundant life in the present and for all eternity through the child God brought forth through Mary and who was fathered on earth by Joseph. This is the blessing of this season. In our low points, let us receive the story and be assured of God’s love.  In our high points, let us share the story and live it out to relieve the suffering of others.  In our conflict, let the story teach us the truth that we can go forward without fear. Amen and Amen.

          Last week, we spoke about the fact that God was silent with the people of Israel for 400 years.  For 400 years, God did not speak through a prophet, priest, king, or angel.  And then God broke his silence and spoke through the angel Gabriel to a priest named Zechariah while Zechariah was refreshing the incense in the holiest place of the Temple in Jerusalem.

          The angel, Gabriel, revealed to Zechariah that the time had come for God to bring into this world the anointed messenger that God had promised.  The anointed messenger was one who would be a servant and would establish a new covenant.  And with that new covenant, God’s salvation plan would be given.

          After 400 years of silence, God spoke to Zechariah.  What a privileged experience for Zechariah.  God, through the angel, said that Zechariah and his wife would have a baby named John, who would come in the power of the prophet Elijah and announce the presence of the anointed one of God on earth. But Zechariah’s unbelief changed that experience.  Zechariah said to the angel, 18 “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years” (Luke 1:18).  Zechariah spoke as though God did not know he and his wife, Elizabeth, and their age. God knew everything about Zechariah and Elizabeth as he does you and me.  Zechariah’s question of God, “How can I be sure of this?” suggests that Zechariah may not know God as well as Zechariah thought he did.  For God is faithful, true, and wise.  Sometimes, when we pray, we may speak to God as though God does not know us, and we do not know God.  I think this is one reason why Jesus would later tell his disciples to pray beginning this way, “Our Father...”  The prayer Jesus taught us to pray reminds us that with God we are in an intimate father and child relationship.  Before one word of adoration or petition is uttered we are acknowledging we know and are known.  The words, “Our Father…” encourage us to fully enjoy and embrace the presence of God and thus shape every experience by sharing what we are going through with our father in heaven.

          Zechariah misplaced his standing with God and the wonderful privilege to have God speak to him.  And so, the angel Gabriel told Zechariah, “20 And now you [Zechariah] will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time” (Luke 1:19-20).  The angel left Zechariah in the silence of the Holy of Holies.  I can imagine Zechariah calling out to the angel, “Wait come back!”  only to be met with silence from his own mouth.  Zechariah could hear just fine but he could no longer give voice to anything he had experienced or felt.

          Luke said, “21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple” (Luke 1:21).  Outside the temple, worshippers were praying and awaiting Zechariah’s return to them.  That must have been quite the reunion.  Luke said, “22 When he [Zechariah] came out, he [Zechariah] could not speak to them [the worshippers]. They [The worshippers] realized he [Zechariah] had seen a vision in the temple, for he [Zechariah] kept making signs to them [the worshippers] but remained unable to speak” (Luke 1:22).  There is little doubt that when Zechariah returned the worshippers, fellow priests, and family knew something dramatic had happened.  Zechariah, was fully able to hear the worshipper’s questions, but he could not tell them of the wonderful news.  How different Zechariah’s reunion with those worshippers would have been had Zechariah believed the good news of the angel.  Oh, how much joy there would have been in those conversations. Instead, Zechariah’s unbelief had brought silence to those hungry for good news.  And so, it is with us.  Our acts of unbelief, when we act contrary to God’s desire, we are then not able to share the good news of our experience with God.  Our voices go silent as well.  Unbelief robs us of what our experiences might have been.

          Luke shared with us, “23 When his [Zechariah’s] time of service was completed, he [Zechariah] returned home. 24 After this his [Zechariah’s] wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months [she] remained in seclusion. 25 ‘The Lord has done this for me,” she [Elizabeth] said. “In these days he [God] has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people’” (Luke 1:23-25).  Zechariah made his way home to be with his wife, Elizabeth, unable to share with her what had happened in the temple.  Sometime later, a month, six months, or year later, we do not know, Elizabeth felt something within her change.  Elizabeth had never felt these sensations before.  Elizabeth felt was life within her.  What she felt was not just life of a developing baby but also the presence of the Holy Spirit.  How joyous a feeling it was to know that God had answered prayer and that the shame heaped upon her by her family and neighbors was lifted.

          But.  There is always a but.  But rather than immediately share what she knew to be true with others, Elizabeth waited. Elizabeth knew what was true but her body would not show that truth for some time to come.  Sharing her news now would only invite the scorn and ridicule of the unbelievers upon Elizabeth.  And so, Elizabeth waited silently in seclusion until the time was right. Elizabeth was wise and showed us that sometimes we need to wait for the right moment to share the work the Holy Spirit is doing within us or through us.  We need to take time of discernment before we speak into the unbelief of family and neighbors.  And so, Elizabeth joined her husband, Zechariah, in the silence.

          Meanwhile, God was prepared again to break His silence. Luke wrote, “26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27). The movement of God had shifted dramatically.  God had first sent the angel Gabriel to an old man, Zechariah, to tell Zechariah that his prayer for a son had been answered.  For years, Zechariah and Elizabeth had tried, hoped, and failed to have a child.  The pregnancy of Elizabeth would remove the shame Elizabeth experienced from her family and neighbors. 

Now, God had sent Gabriel to an engaged young woman, named Mary, who had never once had sexual relations. Here, God would announce to Mary she would become pregnant was well.  Only for Mary to be pregnant now would bring shame upon her from her family and friends.  The shift in scenery is breathtaking and shows us that God knows His people thoroughly.

          Luke wrote, “28 The angel went to her [Mary] and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’  29 Mary was greatly troubled at his [Gabriel’s] words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel [Gabriel] said to her [Mary], ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God’” (Luke 1:28-30).  Gabriel approached Mary who was on her own, in her own silence.  Gabriel began by inviting Mary, as he had with Zechariah, to reshape her experience with God.  Gabriel said to Mary, “You are loved by God.  Let go of your fear.”  I think Gabriel’s words to Mary are words we all need to hear and follow.  “You are loved by God.  Let go of your fear.”  The scene I see here for us is the angel is saying, “Let the presence and knowledge that God loves you overpower the grip you have on whatever is troubling you so that God can remove that fear from you and place His hand within yours.  If we could do that, if we could allow God to remove our fears, God will reshape our life experiences in whys we just could not have imagined.  “You are loved by God.  Let go of your fear.”

          Gabriel continued with Mary.  “31 You [Mary] will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him [Jesus] the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:31-33).  The first bit of news here for Mary was overwhelming.  She would have a child, a boy, who would be a king, seated by God onto the throne of David.  What a wonderful revelation for Mary to consider that someday she and Joseph would have a son who would grow up to be king.  I am sure if we studied historical literature, there are other accounts of women believing they would have a son who would one day grow up to be king.  But there was something troubling and confusing about the way Gabriel had shared this news.  Gabriel’s words and ways made it clear that Mary’s pregnancy was not someday.  Mary’s pregnancy was today, now.  Mary wondered, “How will this be since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34).  Mary had let go of her fears and believed Gabriel’s words, but she did not understand how her pregnancy would come about.

          It was here that Gabriel revealed the news to Mary that the entire world was about to change.  In fact, nothing in the world was ever or will ever be the same because of what Gabriel had to say.  Luke wrote, “35 The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). The Holy Spirit would come to Mary. The Holy Spirit, the same one found in Genesis 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, that same one at creation was about to act and bring about Mary’s pregnancy.  That same Holy Spirit becomes part of every believer enabling the believer to properly hear God’s Word and moving and empowering the believer to act.  This is the way of God’s Spirit.  He moves and acts through people such as Mary, through you, and through me.

          Gabriel said that the child to be conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit would be more than king.  The child would be holy and called the Son of God.  To be holy is to be set aside and untouched by sin.  No one since the creation of Adam and Eve had been brought into this world sinless and thus holy.  How could this child be and remain holy?  Gabriel answered that question by revealing the boy, Mary’s child, would be the Son of God, that’s how.  The world would never be the same because the Son of God was coming into the world.

          We need to let that news sink Mary heard sink in a little bit. Mary heard the Holy Spirit would cause her to become pregnant with a boy who would be God’s own son.  That is the occasion and the news Mary received when Mary let go of her fears.  That is the news Mary was to celebrate.

          How is this moment celebrated today?  We give gifts and regift some of those gifts to family and friends.  We decorate our homes.  We say, “Merry Christmas,” or are we back to “Happy Holidays,” I forget.  We post on Facebook sayings like, “Jesus is the reason for the season.”  Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care.  We sing songs such as “White Christmas,” or “Feliz Navidad.”  But do we ever speak as directly as Gabriel did? “Celebrate, God Changed Everything.” Or do we greet one another saying, “Rejoice, the Son of God Has Come.”  We do not. But this is what Gabriel said to Mary and the power of God changed everything, not just for Mary, but for you and me.

          How then should we think about these two divergent scenes we witnessed today involving Zechariah and Elizabeth, an old couple who become pregnant with their son, John and this young virgin woman, Mary, who became pregnant through the action of the Holy Spirit with the Son of God?  Let’s remind ourselves that these things all happened because of and through just two words, “Our Father.”  Our Father, God, expressed His will and desire through Gabriel, through the Holy Spirit, through Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary.  What was God’s expressed will?  God’s will was that we would know that He loves us, each and every one of us.  And in that love God wanted to reshape every human experience we have had and will ever have.

          God wants us to see that He sends his Holy Spirit to work through those who are old, those who are young, through new born babies, and even through those who have been conceived but not yet born.  No one is outside the reach of God’s love or outside God’s power to bring good news to the world.

          God wants us to see that unbelief at his message of good news renders us mute unable to be a conduit of peace and joy to others.  We must not let unbelief rob us of what can be.

          God wants us to see that this season is not about packages, bows, and ribbons.  This season is on of rejoicing because God so loved the world that he sent his Son. The Son of God came into the world not to condemn it as some had hoped but instead to save it and thus bring hope.

          God wants us to loosen our grip on fear so he can replace it with peace.  God wants us to discard shame heaped upon us by others and replace that the sensation of the Holy Spirit working within us.  To feel the Holy Spirit within you is knowing life abundant and eternal is growing within you.

          So let us receive then all that God wants us to receive and let God take us wherever He wills.  “Celebrate, God Has Changed Everything.”  “Rejoice, the Son of God Has Come.”  Amen and Amen.

          “4 Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees, and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.  5 See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction” (Malachi 4:4-6). (30 Seconds of Silence)

          Silence.  Today, I was silent for just 30 seconds after I read the passage from Malachi.  I was silent for only 30 seconds, but that silence was beginning to feel a little awkward.  You might have asked, was there something wrong?  Did I miss something?  You might have wondered why is the pastor not speaking?  Thirty seconds of silence can seem like an eternity. We participated in that little social experiment because after God spoke through the prophet Malachi the words “or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction,” God went silent. God went silent not for 30 seconds, 30 days, or even 30 years.  God went silent for 400 years. 

For 400 years, God did not speak through a prophet, priest, king, or angel to the people of Israel.  Four hundred years was also the same amount of time Israel was enslaved in Egypt before God raised up Moses to free the Hebrew people from Egypt.

How might we think about 400 years?  Well, 400 years is the length of time between the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock and today.  A lot has happened in America in the last 400 years.  Consider that our ability to relate to the people the Pilgrims of Plimouth Plantation is marked by a single event, Thanksgiving Day feasts.

For 400 years, Israel was left to mediate on God’s final words, “4 Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees, and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.”  For 400 years, Israel was called to be faithful and wait upon the timing of God. These words from Malachi closed the composition of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we now call the Old Testament.

While all Israel waited, generations were born and died.  Battles were fought and wars lost.  Alexander the Great conquered the lands of Israel bringing with him a Greek language that would become known throughout the known world. The Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek causing the knowledge of God to be known everywhere.  Julius Caesar would later conquer the lands bringing with him Roman roads interconnecting the known world as well the Roman version of law and order.  The Jewish people were in the lands of Israel and now everywhere in the empire were able to worship and travel bringing with them the knowledge of God upon whom they were waiting.

And what were the Israelites waiting for?  Israel was waiting for the person they would call Messiah even though the formal name “Messiah” appeared nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures.  In the days of God’s silence and conquest by one empire after another, the Jews desired that God would anoint, would literally smear with oil, a new king for them.  A king, a ruler, visible and powerful endowed by God with special gifts and powers.  A king at whose coming would mark the end of time for all humanity.  The faithful of Israel would be exalted and enjoy the blessings of God’s anointed king.  And divine judgement, God’s judgement, would be upon the unfaithful, the pagan, and the profane. 

The Israelites believed that God’s Messiah would be born in Bethlehem but that his appearance as the Messiah would be sudden, and that all at once he would be there appearing as a victorious ruler.  From the day of his birth until he appeared, the Messiah would be hidden by God and then brought out of concealment with a suddenness. And so in the silence of God, all Israel waited, refining their concept and construct of the kingly and political Messiah.

God had indeed promised to send His anointed one to bring about God’s will for Israel and the world.  Moses had recorded God’s words concerning the anointed one.  “18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19).  The anointed one would speak the Words of God.

The anointed one of God was revealed to the prophet Jeremiah this way, 31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”  A new covenant, a new commitment from God would be forthcoming and delivered through the person of God’s own choosing.

The prophet Isaiah was perhaps the most profound in sharing with Israel the coming anointed one of God.  1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.  2 He will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets.  3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.  In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; 4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.  In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”  9 See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you” (Isaiah 42:1-4, 9).  The anointed one of God would be a servant.  Humble and obedient to the will and direction of God.  Unyielding in his desire to bring the God of hope into the lives of all.  And God would announce the arrival of His anointed one.  There would be no reason to wonder or guess whether God had acted in accordance with His plan.

          Finally, Isaiah gave a description of the anointed one of God, “6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).  The humble servant would indeed have divine power and authority for who other than someone anointed by God could be described as counselor, God, Father, and Prince able to bring to the people a renewed sense of wonder, power, eternity, and peace.  That certainly could not come from a king or political leader soaked in the blood of his enemies.  The anointed one of God, the true Messiah that God said would come was vastly different from the Messiah envisioned by the Jews as they sat in the silence of God.

          What can we make of the story of promises and expectations of anointed one of God for our life? Let’s consider just a couple of things. First, let’s deal with the silence. Silence, when silence comes about at our direction, can be very satisfying.  Allow me to illustrate.  I love my youngest grandsons dearly.  When they visit with us for the day, it is a high impact, high noise level occasion. So, when they go home, it is nice for my wife and I to choose to have a few moments of silence just to collect your thoughts.  On the other hand, if you are anxiously waiting for the phone to ring with news that a loved one’s surgery went well, or a loved one has arrived safely to their destination and that phone remains silent against your will, then the silence is deafening and makes us anxious.  We begin to imagine all sorts of unpleasant possibilities amid the silence. From these illustrations concerning silence, we can see that what we experience is not limited to the experience. What we experience or how we experience something depends largely upon what we do with that experience.  In the illustration on silence, we can use the silence to calm ourselves or we can use it to upset ourselves.  This means that God has given us the capacity to reshape our experience by what we do with that experience.

          It was not a surprise to God that God gave all Israel a period of silence.  In preparation for that silence, God said, “4 Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees, and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel” (Malachi 4:4). It would appear that God wanted Israel to use the period of silence to draw in his words of promise and life found in the Hebrew Scriptures.  It was not God’s intention for Israel to anxious or to fill the silence with new words and new thoughts about how God would end His silence in the manner Israel came to desire, with a Messiah king, political leader, and warrior.

          I think everyone of us has experienced silence in our life with God.  Perhaps we have prayed for something specific, and God did not answer our prayer in the manner we desperately wanted.  If this is our experience, it is a profound experience. But our experience is not just what we experience.  Our experience includes what we do with our experience.  For example, we might then conclude from our experience that God is no longer speaking to us, God is silent, and so we reshape our experience by going silent ourselves with God.  Or we might, as the Israelites did, and start filling in the gaps in our experience from our fertile minds.  Either way, we are actively reshaping our experience to be more inwardly upsetting than it started out to be when our prayer seemingly went unanswered.

          What then might we do if we feel God is silent toward us?  Perhaps if we dove into God’s Word, we might see how others reshaped their experiences when faced with similar circumstances.  For example, we might read in 2 Samuel 12 that David had a son by Bathsheba.  David’s child had become gravely ill.  Scripture says, “16 David pleaded with God for the child. He [David] fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground” (2 Samuel 12:16).  But the child died.  When David learned of his son’s death, “20 David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he [David] went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he [David] went to his own house, and at his request they [David’s servants] served him [David] food, and he ate” (2 Samuel 12:20).  David reshaped his profound experience of silence from God by worshipping God and taking care of his own needs.  There is little doubt that David was hurting at the death of his son, particularly so since David’s own behavior led to the child’s death.  But David, in his grief experience, reshaped that experience by turning ever closer to the God who seemed silent toward him.

          Are you experiencing something that is having a profound effect on your life?  How are you reshaping your experience?  Is God involved in reshaping your experience?  I would encourage you to think this week about how God can and will reshape your experience.  If you are not sure how to involve God, ask a trusted Christian friend or give me a call.  You are not alone in this experience because ultimate through every experience God wants to reveal the hope that He has for each and everyone.

          It was hope itself that caused God to end His silence that began at the end of Malachi.  God promised he would announce His plan before He started it.  We read earlier today the full account of God’s first announcement since Malachi captured for us in the Gospel of Luke.

          In Luke, that first announcement from God came about in the place the Jews believed that God and earth comingled, in the Temple of Jerusalem, in the Holy of Holies.  An old man, a priest named Zechariah, was at the altar of God to refresh the steady burning of incense.  For Zechariah, to burn incense in the altar, was a once in a lifetime experience.  Luke wrote, “11 An angel of the Lord appeared to him [Zechariah], standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him [the angel], he [Zechariah] was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him [Zechariah]: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah” (Luke 1:11-13a). The angel, a messenger from God, was inviting and encouraging Zechariah to reshape his experience with a divine messenger first by letting go of his fear.  That is such an important message for us today and such an important message of the Advent season.  Let go of your fears and let God speak to you.

          The angel continued with Zechariah, “Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him [your son] John. 14 He [John] will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his [John’s] birth, 15 for he [John] will be great in the sight of the Lord. He [John] is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he [John] will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is [John] born. 16 He [John] will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he [John] will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:14-17).  The angel confirmed to Zechariah that even though God had been silent these past 400 years, God was nevertheless attentive to prayers, including those of Zechariah.  Moreover, the angel assured Zechariah something great was about to happen through Zechariah’s son, John, for the angel repeated God’s last words from Malachi in which God promised, “5 See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.  6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents” (Malachi 4:5-6). God had chosen John to come in the power of Elijah and bring joy, delight, and rejoicing because God’s salvation plan was unfolding in their time.

          What an amazing experience for Zechariah! But.  There is always a but!  But Zechariah chose to ignore the words of the angel to let go of his fear and instead chose to reshape his experience with doubt in God’s plans, timing, and God’s selection of Zechariah and his wife.  “18 Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years’” (Luke 1:18). Isn’t it amazing.  God spoke after 400 years of silence and all Zechariah can say is, “Are you sure you have the right guy?”  And so, Zechariah’s unbelief reshaped his experience of this divine announcement.

          “19 The angel said to him [Zechariah], ‘I am Gabriel!  I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you [Zechariah] and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you [Zechariah] will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time” (Luke 1:19-20).  The silence of God broken by the voice of the angel Gabriel would return because of Zechariah’s unbelief.  Unbelief silenced the good news of joy, delight, and rejoicing that was possible.  Unbelief shapes our experience in life, but never for the better.  God designed us to be in fellowship with Him and for us to know that He always hears us and desires ultimately for us to receive good news from Him.  Unbelief changes that experience.

          What then do we do with these scenes that bridge 400 years from the Old Testament to the New Testament and ends one silence and starts another?  I would like us to consider and remember this is the season of Advent.  This is the season in which we read stories about God ending His silence and bringing forth good news.  This is a season of stories of prayers answered and a season of coming joy, delight, and rejoicing in God’s salvation plan.  But here is the question.  Will we allow what God has done to reshape whatever we are experiencing this season?  Or will we be like Zechariah and turn away from God’s announcement by saying, “Are you sure this good news is for me?”  Whatever our choice this Advent, we will reshape whatever we are experiencing by how incorporate or lay aside the good news of God’s unfolding plan.  God’s plan was and is unchanged.  God’s plan is to bring us hope.  Let God’s hope reshape your life so that, “The God of hope may fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).  Amen and Amen.

          Sabastian Maniscalco is a comic who likes to poke fun at everyday life.  One of Sabastian’s comedy sketches describes the difference between the way we respond to an unexpected knock on the door to their home today versus 30 years ago.  Sabastian observed that 30 years ago, a knock-on door was a cause for excitement and happiness within the home.  Everyone in the family went to the door to see who had come for a visit.  Folks opened the door and hoped that it was company that they would like to welcome into our home.  There was a desire to share hospitality with the unplanned arrivals.

          Now when our doorbell rings or there is a knock on the door, everyone goes quiet in the house.  Who could that be at the door?  Folks spend effort now to see who has arrived.  A check is done on our phones and see if the doorbell captured on video who is standing on the stoop.  Folks peek out the side window to see if the person is familiar to us or if they are someone we want to receive.  This is, of course, if the house is not in a gated community or in a building that has security before anyone can reach our door.

          I make mention of this distinction because the words from Jesus we read earlier today, “7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7), are immediately at odds with much of our contemporary culture. In culture of Jesus’ day, families, villages, and tribes of people needed to work together to ensure their mutual survival.  We spoke last week about being thankful for the provision of the daily bread.  Food, gathering enough to eat, was the central task for each and every day.  Hospitality and sharing with others of your immediate family, extended family, village, tribe, and even traveler passing by was expected.  However, in our culture, virtual every household has food in a refrigerator and pantry and as many as 40% of American households have two or more refrigerators or freezers.  We live with a great deal of self-sufficiency and independence.  As a culture, we don’t expect anyone to knock on our door to asking or seeking much of anything.

          In the Gospel of Luke, we would gather some insight into the idea of dealing with the unexpected knock on the door.  Jesus told this parable, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need” (Luke 11:5-8).  A friend traveling through knocks on a neighbor’s door seeking shelter and something to eat.  The person receiving that friend had no food to offer but would not stop until he found a friend who had some to share.  In Jesus’ day, people asked, sought, and knocked to fulfill their needs.  So, Jesus words to his audience had immediate meaning.  We tend not to ask, seek, and knock these days. We tend to point and click.  We let Amazon, Grubhub, Doordash, UPS, and FedEx fulfill our needs.  Independence in life feels very empowering and is very much the hallmark of success in our culture.  But there is a downside to an independent lifestyle.  In our independence in living, we can develop a lack of reliance on God for anything.

          So, we need to step out of our culture to think through what Jesus was saying to his audience when he said, “7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).  Jesus was, of course, talking to his audience about adapting their habits of survival of the body and follow the same approach for their spiritual life by placing reliance on God to meet their spiritual needs.  Jesus was saying, “Take the mindset that you have in which you ask, seek, and knock as part of your everyday habits with each other to sustain life, and apply that mindset toward your relationship with God as you pursue righteousness from God.”  7 “Ask and keep on asking and it [God’s righteousness] will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7 AMP). Jesus wanted his audience to see that seeking God’s righteousness was even more important to their lives than asking or seeking the next morsel of bread and that God alone was the source of that provision.  No matter how “good” our family is or how nice our neighbors appear to be, we cannot receive the righteousness of God from another other than God.  “6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

          Jesus’ words are strange to our culture today as we discussed because of our independence and Jesus’ words are strange because many believe they are a “Good Person,” and do not need God.  If you don’t believe that someone is a “good person,” just ask them. They will tell you.  In the Gospel of Luke, we would read Jesus’ response to the “Good Person” argument. “18 A certain ruler asked Jesus, ‘Good Teacher [You who are essentially and morally good], what shall I do to inherit eternal life [that is, eternal salvation in the Messiah’s kingdom]?’ 19 Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is [essentially and morally] good except God alone’” (Luke 18:18-19). Since God alone is good, then for us to be good in any sense, we must ask, seek, and knock for that goodness from God alone.

          This is why Jesus told his audience on the hillside, 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).  Jesus was not talking here about getting anything or everything from God.  Jesus was talking about being filled with the righteousness from the kingdom of God.

          To illustrate to his audience the wisdom and generosity of God, Jesus offered this illustration.  “9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil [sinful by nature], know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11).

          Jesus was saying to his listeners, “You are sinful by nature but not so sinful that when your children are hungry and ask for food you will give them stones to eat.  You know enough to give your children bread or fish to satisfy their hunger.  If sinful people know that, how much more will God, who alone is good, give good gifts to those who seek him?”  Jesus had promised earlier in the sermon, “6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

          God is prepared to give good gifts to those who seek his righteousness and his kingdom in the now.  What might those gifts include?

God gives salvation, the forgiveness of sin, and the promise of eternal life.  Moreover, we learn in the book of James that, “5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind” (James 1:5-6).  So, God is prepared to give us pure wisdom.  God gives us “the fruit of the Spirit [which] is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23a). These are just some of the good gifts that are available to us from God, but we must ask, seek, and knock.

          Asking for, seeking out, and knocking to access the good gifts of God makes us more like Christ.  Having the grace and wisdom of Christ, we are then able and qualified to share the good news of what we have received, how we received it, and from whom we received it.  This is what Jesus was emphasizing to his audience.

          Jesus then concluded this part of his sermon with these words, “12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12). As children we were taught to refer to Jesus words here as the Golden Rule, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” 

The Golden Rule has existed in many different expressions throughout history.  In ancient Egypt, the rule was, “That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another."  In India, the rule was, “Do not do to others what you know has hurt yourself.”  In ancient Greece, the rule went like this, “"What you do not want to happen to you, do not do it yourself either.”  In ancient Rome, the rule was, “Treat your inferior as you would wish your superior to treat you."

          But there is a problem with the Golden Rule as we were taught it as a child or as developed in other cultures, ancient and modern.  The abbreviated version of Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount we were taught, “Do onto others as you would have them do to you,” and the other versions all make the individual taking the action the sole determiner of what is good or not hurtful.  Nowhere is God found in the Golden Rule regardless of its form or origin.  Jesus never said we should determine what should be done.  Jesus never said anything like that, in fact, Jesus said the opposite.

          Jesus made his statement after encouraging and commanding his disciples to seek an understanding of goodness and righteousness from God alone.  With the wisdom and righteousness of God, Jesus followers could then know the perfect will of God.  Knowing then the perfect will of God, Jesus’ disciples were equipped to do onto others as you would have them do to you [as though they also knew the perfect will of God.] In this form of the Golden Rule, the actor is not the determiner of what should be done.  Instead, God determines what is good.

          To emphasize the point that God determines what is right and good, Jesus said in full, “12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”  To do what God desires means that the actor has fulfilled the entirety of the ethical behaviors of the Old Testament.  Jesus had said a bit earlier in this sermon, 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).  Jesus came to fulfill the promises of God’s Messiah and to fulfill the Law and the Prophets in their ethical treatment of others.  Jesus, God in the flesh, was the actor in treating others in the true righteousness of God.  Jesus is rich in the wisdom and grace of God and thoroughly able to exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit with “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22) was showing and treating people with the grace of God.

          The Golden Rule as it is taught to children and sold on various forms of merchandise is nice but it is incomplete because as presented it eliminates God from the equation.  That was never Jesus’ intent nor is it a viable way for the followers of Jesus to live.

          In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus would teach his disciples and us something about the righteousness of God that would go far beyond what any follower could ever do.  Then, one evening, years later, Jesus showed what God’s righteousness looked like in full bloom.  Just before Jesus was arrested, Jesus took bread, and he blessed the bread.  Jesus gave that bread to his friends and said, “I want you to take this bread and eat it because the bread is my body.”  The disciples were hungry for righteousness and Jesus wanted to fill them as had been promised.  So, Jesus gave them the bread as a reminder that their desire for righteousness, their hunger, could be satisfied by taking in all Jesus ever said and did.  Jesus was fulfilling the sum of the Law and the Prophets by blessing those who hungered for righteousness.  In a similar manner, Jesus took the cup of wine and blessed it.  He gave the cup to his disciples who were thirsty for righteousness.  Jesus quenched their thirst with his own life-giving blood.  Jesus did things for his disciples that we would never do for others.  Jesus did these things as a way of expressing the depth, breadth, width, and height of God’s love.

          In a moment, we can participate in Jesus’ gift of the bread and the cup.  But to participate, we must be humble of enough to ask, to seek, and knock upon the door to Christ.  If we do, we will receive good gifts from the good God through our savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.  Do not feel like a stranger to God.  He is home and will be excited to hear you knock on His door.  Let us pray.

          How do we spend our time?  What is it in life that consistently, daily, occupies our minds and hearts?  The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics asked such questions in a 2021 survey of Americans.  In that survey, the statistics of an average Americans were also compared against the average for those who actually participate in a particular activity.  For example, when it comes something like sleeping, the average American sleeps 8 hours out of every 24 hours.  The participation rate in sleeping is 100%.  Everyone in America sleeps at some point, even if it is less than the average of 8 hours.  Let’s look at another example, when it comes to working, the average American works about 3½ hours per day.  But not every American works.  In fact, only 43% of all Americans participate in work.  We all participate in sleep but only 43% participate in work.  Now, of those Americans who do work, the average workday is not surprisingly 8 hours long.

          Let’s consider how time Americans spend on religious and spiritual activities per day.  The statistics there suggest that the average American spend 0.11 hours per day on religious activities.  That is about 6½ minutes per day.  But only 8% of all Americans participate in religious or spiritual activities every day.  Eight percent (8%) of Americans have a daily practice of participating in the continuation or development their religious or spiritual life.  A great many more people attend a weekly church service and then do not participate in any religious or spiritual development after the service concludes.

          Here is the good news.  Since you are here or you are listening online to this sermon, you on this day can become part of the 8%.  It does not matter if you have not been in church for a long time or not.  The past is the past.  Today you are part of the 8%.  The hope for each of us is that tomorrow and each subsequent day, we will remain part of the 8% who daily participate in our faith journey by praying, reading the Bible, reading devotions, listening to Christian music, playing Christian music, singing Christian music, reaching out in the name of Christ, writing cards of encouragement, and the list goes on.  Faith is a daily exercise.  Faith has never been about convenience or occasion.  A few minutes ago, we prayed the Lord’s Prayer and we said, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  We are praying for and seeking God’s provision daily. We did not pray, “Give us this day our weekly bread.”  Faith is daily.

          Faith is a continual step by step lifestyle.  And through that daily faith journey we are fortunate people who get to enjoy and experience the presence of God daily.  We know that faith is a daily exercise and that we are fortunate people through Jesus’ words on the Sermon on the Mount.  We have been studying these words for a few weeks now.  The core of the message from Jesus’ sermon was coming to understand what it means to live a life based upon living daily through the righteousness of God.  Jesus said when we empty ourselves and make ourselves hungry and thirsty for righteousness, God will fill us.  Here is the thing though.  We know our bodies hunger and thirst for food and water.  And so we eat and drink to satisfy that physical hunger and thirst. Then, some time later we are hungry and thirst again for food and water.  The same is true for living in the righteousness of God.  When we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God fills us but as we live out our life, we are depleted.  We need to be refreshed and refilled by God on continuous basis.  While we are saved once we need a constant refreshment of righteousness.

          Because we need to be continually refilled, Jesus said we need to do some very specific practical things.  Jesus began with praying.

          Matthew recorded Jesus’ words on prayer beginning this way.  5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:5-8).  Jesus told his listeners to pray for their needs but to do so in a private, non-showy way, and with sincerity, simplicity, and brevity. Jesus was telling his listeners make your petition direct to God and ask him for what you need the most.  In righteousness, express to God what you need from him.

          Jesus was challenging listeners to avoid appearing like the pagans or those who are insincere in their prayers.  Insincerity and rote repetition in prayer had been a problem in Israel and it remains one today in our own Christian circles.  In the book of Isaiah, we would read a critique of the Hebrew prayer life and religious practices centuries before Jesus.  God said to Isaiah, 1“Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.  Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1).  That is not a good opening line for Isaiah’s listeners to hear God express.  God was upset and wanted all of Israel to know it. But what was God upset about? God, through Isaiah said, “2 For day after day they [Israel] seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.  They [Israel] ask me [God] for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them” (Isaiah 58:2).  God was expressing here that the prayers life of Israel was formal but insincere.  There were the motions of prayer and the appearance of wanting God but in their hearts, they had no real desire for God, on God’s terms, to come near.  Jesus said don’t be like the hypocrites who act formally in public like they want God but do not live as though they want God. Instead, Jesus was saying, in desiring righteousness, seek God privately with sincerity, simplicity, and brevity and seek him like you really want him.

          To show his listeners how to speak to God, Jesus gave an example, a model of how we should pray.  9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  11 Give us today our daily bread.  12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one’” (Matthew 5:9-13).

          The prayer Jesus offered was sincere, simple, and brief.  It was interesting that Jesus began with the word, “Our,” and not the word, “My.”  If I prayed, “My Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,” that might be just fine, but it suggests that I am on my own with God.  But when I pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,” whether I say it with other people or I say it alone, the word “Our” reminds me that I am not alone.  I am part of the body of believers.  And that together, we can all enjoy the presence of God.  That is one of the great things about being part of the 8%.  We are reminded daily that we are not alone and that together we can enjoy the presence of God.

          Beginning with the words, “Our Father in heaven,” Jesus encouraged his listeners to acknowledge God is over all things and that God’s name, everything God stood for, is holy and set apart.  God is hallowed, meaning God is incorruptible and unblemished.  Secondly, the prayer sincerely asks that God to draw near, so near, that all the kingdoms of earth would be conformed to the likeness of the kingdom on heaven in which God’s word is absolute.  But until that happens, we give thanks for God’s daily provision for our life.  Until the day all earthly life and heavenly life is indistinguishable, we pray that God refreshes us in righteousness by forgiving, by treating others, as God has treated us, with forgiveness and mercy.  Until we are no longer tempted by sin, we pray that God keeps us from sin and shows us the way out of sin so that we are never found to be corrupted.

The Lord’s Prayer is a model of prayer.  We can use the exact words Jesus used or we could say similar words if we wanted to do so.  But whatever we do, we want our words of prayer to reflect sincerity, simplicity, and brevity and a genuine desire to be in the presence of God.  This is the idea of prayer.

          Coupled closely with the words of prayer is the act of fasting.  Fasting is the voluntary abstinence of food for a period to be humble before God and to seek God’s presence.  Fasting, like prayer, had been a problem in Israel.  From Isaiah Chapter 58 again, we see the fasting scene in Israel played out from God’s perspective.

          Isaiah began with God’s view of the voice of Israel, 3 ‘Why have we [the Israelites] fasted,’ they say, ‘and you [God] have not seen it?  Why have we [the Israelites] humbled ourselves, and you [God] have not noticed?’” (Isaiah 58:3a).  The Israelites were complaining, “God we fasted as an expression of our religious practices but you, God, don’t seem to notice.  God, if you are not going to notice, why should we fast?”

          God offered his response to Israel’s lament this way.  “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. [They were hangry].  You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high” (Isaiah 58:3-4).  The Jews were forgoing food and saying, “God, why haven’t you done what we wanted?”  But the truth was the day of fast was not spent with God, it was spent at work. The day of fast was not spent being refreshed in righteousness, it was spent in fist fights and bitter words.

          God said, “6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7).  Fasting was supposed to break down the formation of barriers, refill people with God’s righteousness, develop a sense of joy in being in the presence of God, and to help people become more merciful, like God, not more warlike.

          Apparently, fasting among Jesus’ disciples and the crowd behind them had become problematic, rote, and insincere.  Jesus said to them, “16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 5:16-18).  Fasting, like prayer, Jesus said must be a positive experience done to improve the relationship between the individual and God. It was not to be done for theatrical purposes or notice and the applause of others.  The fast, the voluntary creation of hunger, was to serve as a reminder to be filled with the righteousness of God.

          In two different and related ways, prayer and fasting, Jesus had addressed to his disciples and the crowd behind them that a continuous filling and renewal of God’s righteousness was available and necessary.  But the behaviors to have such renewal must be genuine and sincere.

          What can we learn from Jesus words here?  Today, we are part of the 8% of Americans who are enjoying the presence of God daily. We are active and alive in worship, song, and hearing the word the God.  We are acknowledging that God is over all things and that we desire his forgiveness, and we desire the grace to forgive others.  We are part of the body of believers.  All these things make for a wonderful day.  All of these things make us want to come back next Sunday and do it again.

          But…what about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday?  Jesus was saying, “Do not give up these days as well to enjoy the presence of God.  Do not give up these days to be refilled and refreshed in and with the righteousness of God. Pray.  Fast.  Read the Bible.  Engage in Bible study with someone or some group.  Worship.  Work through a devotional.  Journal about how you are experiencing God.  Serve in and through the body of Christ to others who are struggling.  Sing songs of praise to God.  Meditate on God’s Word.  Be fed daily by the presence of God.

          Everyone here is on the right road and the right path to be part of that 8% who enjoy the presence of God daily.  We all have a perfect track record for this week.  Let’s keep it up.  Amen and Amen.

          We began our series on the Sermon on the Mount a few weeks ago with the postscript to Jesus’ sermon provided by our gospel writer, Matthew, who said, “28 When Jesus had finished saying these things [finished the Sermon on the Mount], the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he [Jesus] taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Matthew 7:28-29).  Jesus amazed and astonished the disciples and the crowd.  Jesus’ words carried such power that people’s minds and hearts were being changed.  The hardness and the self-serving nature with which they were born and developed through living an unforgiving world was changing.  Jesus was breaking their hearts not with sorrow, as happens in grief. Instead, Jesus was breaking the hardness and indifference surrounding their hearts so that the love of God could be felt and experienced.  Jesus is still breaking the crust surrounding hearts and mending the brokenhearted.  It is a beautiful thing to witness the hardness surrounding a heart being broken and a broken heart being mended.  That is the delicate power of the amazing and astounding Savior and Lord who is here among us today.

          Jesus amazed and astounded his listeners because they heard of the possibility and promise of being in God’s presence in the now and for eternity.  You know, too often in life people narrow each others possibilities. Too often ask one another, “Do you want this, or do you want that?”  Life choices are presented as an either/or option, “this or that.”  Jesus was offering the “and both” option.  I like “and both” options in life.  Jesus was asking his listeners, “Do you want to have God’s presence both now and for eternity?”  For those listening, Jesus’ words of possibility and promise were startling.  Many of Jesus’ listeners thought God would only bless people in the present, in mortal life.  When life was over, many believed that there was just a shadowy eternal existence separated from God.  That was their either-or view, God now and then never after death.  Today, I suspect many people think they live in a shadowy existence without God and hope that there is a better life after death with God. That is today’s either-or view, a reversal of the view in Jesus’ day.  Jesus said both views are missing the true joy of having God now and for eternity. That was and is astounding news.

          Jesus had begun his sermon of possibility and promise with the list of blessings, expressing the fortune that awaited those who walked the path he had come to walk.  Of that path, Jesus said the fortunate people, the blessed people, would have both blessing now and the future.  We might read that list of blessing this way, “The fortunate people will have the kingdom of heaven (future), they will be comforted (now), they will inherit the earth (future), they will be filled (now), they will be shown mercy (now and future), they will see God (future), they will be called children of God (now), and theirs is the kingdom of heaven (future).  I am sure there are other ways to construct the list, but the point is Jesus was talking about God in the present and for eternity, the “and both” option.

          Having set in the minds of his listeners a view of God now and the future, Jesus wanted his listeners to see that they could live their lives in the now very different.  And Jesus began to explain that difference beginning again with something the people knew. Jesus said, “38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’” (Matthew 5:38).  Jesus was quoting the Mosaic Law that established rules for compensation for damages incurred in life.  The Law was established primarily to prevent excessive retaliation from occurring.  If someone knocked out your tooth, you had the right for compensation equal to but no more than your own loss.  For the loss of your tooth, you could demand something of as valuable as a tooth such as a tooth.  You could not demand someone lose an eye or hand or their life because they caused you to lose a tooth.  The law was there to limit excessive retaliation.

          Now in on this hillside, Jesus was sharing with his listeners a new life with the righteousness of God within them now and forever.  Jesus said, “38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ [That is the known] 39 But I tell you, [This is the unknown] do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, [instead of slapping their right cheek] turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, [instead of countersuing or arguing over a trifle of life] hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, [instead of complaining about it and threatening to get even] go with them two miles” (Matthew 5:38-41).  These words from Jesus were intended to show how God treated them.  God treated them with tenderness and in  a hope of breaking the hardness of hearts.  For in the economy of God, the wages of sin is death.  Sin is a slap in the face to God.  So under the Mosaic principle of an eye for an eye, God was entitled, had the right to the wages of sin and take life for sin.  But righteousness expressed through mercy was being displayed by God, not assertion of rights or retaliation.  Jesus wanted his followers to treat others the way God treated them.

          In a very small way, I saw the essence of this standard of turning the other cheek played out in of all places at the end of a long line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.  Now going to the DMV never seems to bring out the best in people.  On this day, I arrived to get in that long line at the same time as two other gentlemen. I think each of us had equal claim as to who was there first and should be next to enter the end of that long line. I dropped out of the competition very quickly and decided to take the last position.  The pending competition was just not worth it to me.  The other two gentlemen were not going to budge for the apparently coveted next to join the line position, and soon words started between them as to who was entitled to that next spot.  Tempers flared, swear words exchanged, and for a moment I thought fists were going fly.  After a moment, one of the two men, we will call him Bruce, pushed his way ahead of the other man, we will call him John.  Bruce was adamant he was going to be ahead of John no matter what.  John was angry but seemed to accept that Bruce was going ahead of him.  A few minutes later, I looked down at the floor and noticed that Bruce had dropped his license.  I thought for a moment, I wonder how Bruce is going to react when he finally gets to the clerk at the DMV window and discovers he does not have his license.  I quietly picked up Bruce’s license from the floor.  What to do? I cannot say why, but I felt I should not return Bruce’s license to him.  Instead, I got John’s attention and gave Bruce’s license to John.  It was a risky move.  John looked at the license for a moment and chuckled.  Then John tapped Bruce on the shoulder and handed Bruce the license and said, “Here, you dropped your license.”  Bruce looked at the license for a moment and then must have realized that John, instead of retaliating against Bruce, extended kindness to him.  Bruce thanked John and then offered John to go ahead of him.  It is a beautiful thing to see a hardened heart break, even just a little bit at the DMV.

          Jesus’ words meant that with God in your life now and forever, with His righteousness, with God’s own example, hurt and harm can be met with generosity and grace.  For actions expressing mercy from righteousness, lead to the conviction of the other’s unrighteousness and sets the conditions for reconciliation.  “Do not resist the evil person by exercising your right to retaliation, instead, allow the Holy Spirit of God working through you to overwhelm them with grace and break the hardening around their heart as well.  Be an instrument of God’s blessing.”  In short, show the grace you have received from God by extending mercy and grace to others.

          Jesus had given his listeners some very specific examples of withholding their rights to retaliation and giving grace.  Jesus then went a step further and said, “43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48).

          I can well imagine Jesus’ listeners began to murmur among themselves.  “Did he just say love our enemies?  Does he seriously want us to love the Romans, the tax collectors, and the pagans?”  There is ample historical evidence that the Jews of Jesus’ audience hated the Romans for conquering their lands.  The Jews hated other Jews who served as tax collectors for the Romans.  The Jews hated the pagans and their disgusting habits. But it was hard to argue with Jesus’ words.  God did, indeed, causes the sun to rise on the good people and on those who were evil. God did, indeed, allow the rain to fall upon the crops of the good people and upon the crops of the evil. God was gracious toward all. Jesus had said, “9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Now Jesus said again, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44b-45a).

          These are some of Jesus’ most challenging words.  To withhold retaliation from someone who slapped you is one thing.  You could walk away holding your anger within and hatred from such encounters.  But now Jesus wanted his followers to proactively respond to their enemies with love and prayers made on their behalf.  Jesus was pointing out that God had not given up on those who were his enemies. God provided for their needs as an expression of his desire for a right relationship with them.  God has not given up because he is perfect.  Jesus said do not be “half perfect” by loving only those who love you back.  Follow God’s example and be righteous towards all.

          As I said, these are some of Jesus’ most challenging words.  Love your enemies and pray for them.  Let’s think about Jesus’ words this way for a moment beginning with prayer. What does it mean to pray?  What is prayer?  A prayer is a request we make to God, sometimes on our own behalf and other times on behalf of someone else.  Although it may seem as though there is great variation in our prayers, the foundation of every prayer we make is for peace.  When we pray for someone’s health we are asking for the restoration of peace within their body.  When we pray for someone who is depressed, we are asking for the restoration of peace within their mind.  When we pray for someone experiencing a difficult family situation, we are asking for peace with family relationships.  When we pray to God, we are giving our concern for that person to God and asking God to give that person peace in the manner and timing of God’s will. To lift someone up in prayer and ask God to grant them peace, in whatever form our prayer is offered, causes us to think differently about that person.  We are beginning to express concern, care, and compassion for that person, all of which are necessary for us to come to love them.  Love your enemies and pray for them.  It is life changing for you and your enemy when we begin to pray for their peace because it cracks the hardness surrounding our own heart.

          Before we close on Jesus’ thoughts today, I want to briefly add Jesus’ words that follow these but are found in Chapter 6 of Matthew.  I think they belong with the subject of expressing righteousness through mercy. Jesus said, “1 Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).  As we discussed last week, righteousness shapes our motives. Here, Jesus was cautioning his listeners not to express mercy to those who had slapped you and those who are your enemies and then crow about it.  “Look at me and what I did.  That man right there slapped me on the right cheek, and I offered the left and God convicted him in his heart.  And then there was this guy who was such a miserable person toward me.  I prayed for him, and God gave him peace because I asked.” To brag to others Jesus said, would reveal personal motives for the praise of other people and the blessings God had promised would disappear because the applause of others was what was sought and received.

          So what do we do with Jesus challenging words, words that caused his listeners to be astounded.  I think there are three things for us to consider.

          First, everything Jesus said begins with a hardened heart that has been broken.  Righteousness from God cracks the hardness that can, will, and does surround our hearts.  When that hardness is cracked, we are then able to feel the movement of our personal relationship with God.  We need to let God crack the hardness that surrounds our own hearts.  I can assure you it is a beautiful thing to behold.

          Second, Jesus called us to let the Holy Spirit be the instrument through which He can crack the hardness of others.  When people can see God’s love working through you, someone they can see, hear, and feel, God’s love becomes real and becomes an experience they can hold onto. The more we allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us the more perfected our relationship and understanding of God becomes.  The more we allow God to shine through us, the more we come to realize how much grace God has extended to us.  When we realize that, more of the hardness surrounding our own heart is broken and removed.

          Third, Jesus called us to be light on the hill and let our light shine before others and Jesus then said be careful not to crow about what you have done.  There is no conflict in those commands.  We are to let the light of God shine through us to another person, but we are not then to brag about what we have done to our friends and family. Shine and let God have the glory.

          It is a beautiful thing to witness the hardness surrounding a heart being broken.  Let us then go forward enabled by the Holy Spirit to be an instrument of God that allows others to feel the love and peace God is offering as freely to all as He does the rain.  Amen and Amen.

          A church worship service, like the one we are experiencing, is a phenomenon, a remarkable thing.  Once a week, across the land, millions of people come together, and they assemble in buildings that none of them personally own, even though many of them have keys to those buildings.  Once inside, they greet as friend those they know and those who they never have met.  The people gather in a room that is set aside for a specific use, often that room is used only once a week.  Once together, someone begins to lead the group with announcements about what has happened, is happening, and will be happening.  Not too many people listen to that part of the service.  Then the group rises and prays in one voice to God.  You would never see that sort of thing in a local shopping mall.  After the prayer, musicians start playing the instruments and the people begin to sing. In some places, the words being sung a quite old, like seraphim and cherubim.  Those words only get said one time.  In other places the words sung by the group are everyday words, like love, soul, and praise.  Those words are repeated in the song, seemingly without end.  Then after singing, someone gives a sermon, a message, or a homily. Sometimes those speaking do so for 10 minutes, and others go for an hour or more.  Sometimes the speaker’s words leave the people feeling encouraged, or challenged, or deflated, perhaps on occasion terrified, and sometimes the people are left bored.  After the speaker goes silent, the people sing a couple more songs and then leave to resume their normal activities of life until the next Sunday when the people gather again to repeat the phenomenon.

          Why do the people participate in this phenomenon? What are the people’s motives in participating?  Perhaps you have not thought about this question before or for a while.  I thought I might share my answer to these questions.

When I was a kid in the Catholic Church, my family participated in the phenomenon, frankly, because we were afraid not to do so.  We feared being sent to hell for not at least attending.  Fear of going to hell was the same reason we ate fish on Fridays.  Our motives were self-serving based on fear. 

In my late 20’s, my motives for going participating in the phenomenon we call a church service changed.  I participated not out of fear.  I participated, again frankly, because I was asked to attend by the woman I was dating. That woman later became my wife. Once church with her, my motives for participating soon changed again.  At church, I came to realize that something, someone, was missing in my life, namely Jesus Christ.  I did not know in any real way who Jesus was and what he had done for me. I was someone who knew him not.  As I got to know Christ, I gave my life back to him, and my motives for church changed again.  I continued to attend because I wanted to remain close to Christ and to his living body in this world, the church.  For in this fellowship with Christ and his followers, there is closeness to God, there is opportunity to reform my behaviors to become more like Christ, there is an opportunity to serve others, and an opportunity to be encouraged in times of trouble.  I guess my motives still sound self-serving, so I suspect God has some more refining to do with me.

Our motives in life matter because motives reveal much about our inner life, our thinking, and our heart.  I have given my testimony as to the changing motives I have experienced in life for participating in the phenomenon of weekly church services.  There are other motives that play heavily in our life. Consider for a moment our motives for sinning.  Say what? When we sin, we comfort ourselves with the motives that caused us to sin.  Motives console us.  We justify ourselves by conditions that preceded the sin.  Consider a childhood example.  “It is not my fault!  He hit me first!  I was just defending myself when I hit him in the nose!”  The child was saying, “I would not have sinned had he not hit me first.” We are comforted with our motives for sinning, in that example, someone else’s prior behavior caused me to sin.  We learned that sort of answer from the Bible. Consider when God asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3:11).  Adam answered, ““The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12).  Adam was saying, “If you had not given me that woman and had she not given me that fruit, I would not have sinned.”  We always seek motives for sin.

Our motives, whether for positive activities in life or negative behaviors, are important to us even if we do not think about our motivations. Our Scripture reading today from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is about having our motives shaped by righteousness.

          Jesus began teaching his disciples and the crowd behind them about motives again by citing something that the people knew.  Jesus said, “27 You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery’” (Matthew 5:27).  That is number 7 on God’s top 10 list of commandments.  The command is very straightforward.  Sexual relations are to remain between a married couple.  The people Jesus was speaking to understood that.  That was the known part of the discussion.  Jesus then said, “28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).  You can almost sense a little stirring in the audience and a bit of body shifting going on as people began to think about the implications of Jesus’ words.

Jesus’ point was that righteousness expressed in marriage is to be motivated by a faithfulness.  To be faithful to a spouse is a very human way to see, experience, and model the faithfulness between God and his people.  In the Old Testament, adultery was often used to describe Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. There is some hint in Jesus’ words about faithfulness coming from righteousness found in the first of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shall have no other God’s before Me.”  In the New Testament, Jesus is often described as the bridegroom and the church his bride.  So to look at other women and dream about sexual relationships with them, is a break in the motivation of human faithfulness and a break in the model of faithfulness to God, and it is in some ways a form of idolatry.  Faithfulness then comes from righteousness in which the person is motivated by a pure heart.  Jesus had just told his audience, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).  Purity in heart, purity in motives guided by righteousness is the avenue to God.

You can almost hear the wheels turning in the minds of his disciples as they thought about this situation of faithfulness to their spouse while perhaps in the company of other women who they found attractive.  As those wheels turned, Jesus added these words, “31 Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery” (Matthew 5:31-32).  Jesus’ words meant, “Guys, if you do find yourself attracted to woman other than your wife, do not think you can divorce your wife and be free to pursue a new wife and therefore be innocent of lust!  For if you did that, your motives would not only be an expression of unfaithfulness, but your motives would be the cause of many to sin by being wrapped up in adulterous relationships.”

Faithfulness is a motive fueled by righteousness.  Faithfulness in marriage is an expression of our human capacity to maintain a faithful spiritual relationship with God.  This thought is presented to the church this way, “11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12).  Our motives matter.

Jesus then continued to express the matter of motives more broadly and applicable to everyone whether single or married. Jesus again started with what the people knew so that he could share with them what they did not know but needed to know.  “33 Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ [That is the known.]  34 But I say to you, [This is the unknown.]  do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:33-37).

The issue Jesus was taking on was righteousness in our motivations for speaking and giving testimony.  Here too, there are some hints about commandment 9 of 10, “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor,’ and commandment 3 of 10, “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.”  Let’s look at this just a bit.

First, Jesus said that people were not to take an oath by those things that are of God.  Do not swear by heaven for that is God’s dwelling place.  Do not swear by earth for that is God’s creation.  Do not swear by Jerusalem for that is God’s city.  Oaths based upon God and what is his are all ways of taking the Lord’s name in vain, using God’s name in a useless and non-worshipful manner.  Then Jesus added, and don’t also do something ridiculous by swearing upon your own head because you are not your own creation.  You cannot, on your own, change the color of even one hair, but God can.  So do not swear upon your head as though you have some power like that of God.  Jesus’ point was do not use the Lord’s name in vain to prove that you are not being false witness.  Righteousness will never demand that you break one commandment to prove you are keeping another.

In my prior occupation with the federal government, I interviewed hundreds of people for various reasons.  Sometimes it was to collect information.  Other times it was to confront someone who had been suspected of engaging in unauthorized or illegal activities.  When I interviewed the latter group, those who it was believed had been engaged in wrongdoing, I always knew we were getting closer to the truth when the individual I was interviewing spontaneously took an oath in the interview. Let me give you an example.  When asked directly about the alleged wrongdoing, the person would say, “I swear to you, on my mother’s grave, or on my children’s life, or as God is my witness, that I did not do it.”  Almost without exception, we would later determine that the behavior being denied under that spontaneous oath did, in fact, happen. Why was there such a correlation between the use of an oath and the commission of a lie?  Because an oath is perceived as a bit of sacredness.  Using the sacredness of your children or God to encapsulates a lie causing the hearer to not want break what is sacred to examine the words within.  Jesus was saying righteousness, not some made up or spontaneous oaths, must shape our motives for our testimony.

Secondly, Jesus said, “Let your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No” be “No.” Well, what does that mean?  Think of it this way.  Why might we take an oath?  We might take an oath when we go to court where a court officer may ask, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”  And as a witness, we would be expected to answer, “I do.”  The idea behind an oath is that from the moment someone takes an oath, until they have completed their testimony, their words will be and must be the truth.  The implication is that prior to taking the oath or after giving testimony, telling the truth is optional.  There is a hope that we and others would tell the truth but there is no requirement to tell the truth and no penalty for lying.

Jesus was saying in righteousness, with a purity of heart, you must always speak the truth by saying “Yes” for “Yes” and “No” for “No.”  If you always tell the truth, then there is no reason or cause for you to take an oath.

Lying, with its many motives, is a widespread concern in our country. Studies have shown that nearly 96% of American adults admitted to lying about something either as a kid or as an adult. I think the remaining 4% lied in the survey!  In one survey, 40% of those surveyed admitted to having lied within the past 24 hours.

I teach a ten-week class in Christian Ethics.  One of those weeks we look at the Christian life and lying.  There are some Christian writers who argue that as a Christian is permitted if one of three things is true.  The lie is for a good cause.  Or the lie arose out of necessity.  Or the lie was “medicinal,” meaning the lie is necessary to correct a larger problem.  Do you see how motives can lead us to do what we think is noble even if we must break a commandment or two to be so noble.

The ancient theologian, Augustine, had a very different view about lying. Augustine said, “God is the Father of the Truth, and His Son communicated the Word of Truth.  Lying, regardless of the motivation, stands opposed to the truth.” Therefore, Augustine said, “to lie is to abandon God.”

I think Augustine was on the right track.  God is Truth and so to is His Son.  Jesus said simply, let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no.”  Just tell the truth.  Lying makes for a bad witness to unbelievers.

Jesus confronted his audience with a known commandment of God, “Thou shall not commit adultery,” which is the seventh of the ten commandments.  From that opening, Jesus revealed to his audience and to us that at is core, adultery involved deception, lying, and unfaithfulness not just toward the spouse but toward God.  Righteousness whether for married or single people requires that there be no mixed allegiances.  We must be faithful to God for He is faithful to us.  We must not be adulterous in our relationships with others for those relationships model the intimate faithful relationship God desires with each person.  We must not be deceptive or lying in our words or make others believe our words are true by stating them with an oath. Instead, we must be faithful and true in our words, always.  We must let righteousness shape our motives so that we are pure.  We must not break one commandment to prove our faithfulness to another one.

Jesus came as the truth, and the life, and the way.  Jesus came to forgive my sin and not to endorse my motives for sinning.  Jesus came as the righteousness of God that I am be filled with Him and be righteous as He is righteous with pure motives in my heart.  Let us be pure of heart and motives following Jesus’ words and example. Amen and Amen.