Oct 31

Jesus Shows God Does Not Fit in a Box

“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.  [Luke 4:25-26 (NLT)]

Last Sunday’s sermon was noticing how God breaks out of any boundary we try to impose on him.  Solomon said that the Temple in Jerusalem was a place for those outside of Israel.  This week’s story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:1-16) shows God’s provisions beyond the borders of Israel.  This was so significant that Jesus noted it in a sermon at his home synagogue in Nazareth.  His inclusion was so radical that his hearers took him out of town to push him off a cliff. 

That is often the reaction that inclusion provokes from even the faithful church attenders.  But this is not a “them” problem (the people opposed to inclusion), but it is a “us” problem.  We fall into this trap too often.  We have our views of who God loves, and who is doing it the right way, and those who don’t do it the right way, we judge and even condemn. 

When we practice getting God out of the box, it calls us to have compassion on those who are demanding God get back in the box.  I see that only God can change their hearts and their attitudes.  We must have an inclusive attitude toward them too.  This calls for humility.  Only through humility can we throw away all the boxes we demand God to fit into and allow God to do the amazing work of grace in this world.

Pastor Greg

Oct 25

Promise for All Nations

1 Kings 8:27-30, 41-43

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27)

This question, asked by Solomon in his prayer of the dedication of the Temple, pushes our human understanding of God.  In early 1 Samuel, the idea was that God was only present with the Ark of the Covenant.  That is why the Ark was taken into battle, and eventually lost to the Philistines.  Now the Temple is built, the Ark is in its place, and we are told that God is not just there, God cannot be contained by the highest of heaven.

That challenges us today in our understanding of God.  What limits do we place on God?  There is a passage in 1 Kings 20, where the Syrians were trying to pin God to a certain area of operations.  They concluded that the Lord is a God of the hills, so they wanted to battle against the Israelites in the valley; where they thought the Lord would not be able to help them.  How many times do we put such limitations on God?

No, we do not say the Lord is the God of the hills, but maybe we say that God is only for my private life.  We do not acknowledge God, nor God’s truth in our public lives.  The God that is the Creator of the Heavens and the earth, that cannot be contained in the highest of heavens, nor does the sovereignty of God limit itself to matters of religion.  God is not the God of just the inner life, God is the God of our morals, our relationships, our work, and our opinions.  The Syrians wanted to put God in a box, and they learned that could not happen to their own peril.

Also, Solomon addressed the issue of who is God for.  He anticipated the foreigners would come to seek the Lord and to pray at the Temple, and God would hear them.  Because God is not just the God of the Israelites (or Christians).  God is the God of all people, whether they conform to our expectations or not.

We do not push our understanding of the God that Paul presented to the Athenians: “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ (Acts 17:27-28)”

Jesus, talking of the Temple in Jerusalem agreed with Solomon, “‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.’ (Mark 11:17).  We need to get God out of the box we have created for him, stop restricting him to only a narrow area of influence, and discover the God that speaks to all of life and human existence. Pastor Greg

Oct 17

Perpetuity’s Promise

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Although David made a promise to God, God had other plans and made a much bigger promise to David: David’s descendants would forever be on the throne of Israel, and they would be the ones to build the temple for God. God’s promises and plans are so much bigger than we could ever conceive. 

David saw his palace of fine cedar then noticed that the Ark of God was in a tent.  David felt that God deserved a better place.  But God wanted to give David a better place.  Not a new palace, but a house or family that will last forever.  The same Hebrew word in 2 Samuel 7 is translated “Temple, “House” and “Household or family.”  There is a word play going on here, and God turns the desire of David to build a house for God into a promise that God will build David’s House (family.) 

That promise is reaffirmed when the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and delivers the news that she will bear the Messiah.  Luke 1:31-33, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

David wanted to build a temple for God, but God had other things in mind. It would not be David, but his son, Solomon, who would eventually build that temple. Even when we seek to do God’s will, sometimes we try to make decisions that are God’s decisions to make. Despite our best intentions, God’s plans come through for good.

Pastor Greg

Oct 10

When You Feel Inadequate

1 Samuel 1 & 2

Messages are being screamed at us every day.  Messages that we are inadequate, unworthy, and even unlovable.  These not-so-subtle messages affect our fundamental image of our self.  “What good am I?  Something’s wrong with me?  I don’t measure up?” 

The story of God’s salvation all nations picks up an old refrain in the beginning of 1 Samuel.  Additional dissonant cords are in this story of Hanna and her plight with childlessness.  Even though her husband constantly affirmed his love to her, her culture and even elements in her home were mocking her for not having a child. 

There are many ways people choose to face their inadequacies.  Drugs, alcohol, radical cosmetic surgery, even suicide are just a few examples.  When we dwell on our inadequacies we are unable to receive love because of the lie that we are unlovable. 

Hanna went to the right place, and laid out her distress before the Lord.  “She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.”  But she did not just wallow in her distress and anguish, she took on a purpose in her life.  She dedicated herself to doing the will of God and doing something vital for God.  Then Samuel was born, and through him David was anointed, and the Jesus Christ comes into the world. 

From our deepest despair can come hope.  Hope comes to us when we dedicate ourselves to doing the will of God and making the sacrifices that purpose calls us to do.  A sacrifice is giving up something of value today for a better tomorrow.  Hanna gave the sacrifice of her son, and from that comes the Messiah.  In despair, God brings hope; in distress and bitterness, God works to bring deliverance; and from our sacrifice, God blesses the entire world.

Pastor Greg

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