Sunday, October 25, 2020
Sunday, October 18, 2020
QUARANTINED OUTCASTS - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, someone once told me that leaders are readers so I am trying to read. I am going through a lot of of audio and electronic books, I have been reading some about Racism and race relations (The Radical King by Cornell West, White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, So You Want to Talk About Race by Olu Ijeoma, and The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Dubois), I have been reading business books (Leadership on the Line by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger, Switch by Chip Heath, The Coaching Habit Micheal Bungay Stanier), and I have also been reading a lot about psychology (The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, It’s Not Always Depression by Hilary Jacobs Hendel, and the Joy of Genius also by Gay Hendricks). The Psychology books have been great and I have noticed a theme among them and the professional athletes I have seen interviewed lately. Gratitude and Mindfulness, focusing on the situation at hand and being thankful for the present, not worried about the past which you can’t change, not worried about the future which you can’t control either but being in the moment you are right now and being thankful for where you are. Lots of books out there on mindfulness and gratitude, but the fact is there is nothing new under the sun. Mindfulness and gratitude have been around for quite some time. In today’s passage from Luke, Jesus is on a road trip, going between Samaria and Galilee on his way to Jerusalem. As he enters a village, 10 lepers approach him and call out from a distance, raising their voices in together yelling, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They were calling out from a distance because they had leprosy.
Leprosy was a major issue back then, Leviticus had 2 whole chapters on Leprosy. The ailment called “leprosy” in the Bible was different from the disease we know as “leprosy” today (properly called “Hansen’s disease”). Hansen’s disease is a serious disorder caused by bacterial infection, whose symptoms are ulcerations, loss of feeling in certain nerve regions, or loss of fingers and toes. This form of leprosy is worse than to the leprosy in the Bible. The term “leprosy” recorded in the Bible could mean a variety of skin diseases, which probably ranged from simple blemishes to serious rashes to more serious fungal and bacterial infections. Lepers were, therefore, somewhat common. While we do not know exactly what was going on when someone had leprosy in the Bible, we do know that they would be considered unclean. Being considered unclean meant that they had to announce themselves wherever they went, yelling out “unclean, unclean!” Leprosy meant they were ostracized, they were outcast from the community, the people were scared that the sickness they had could spread to surfaces, and to other people so that meant they had to be quarantined. The people who had the sickness understood that and did what what was needed. It is not hard to imagine a sickness ravaging your body and no one wanting to be around you because of it. No one wanting to come in contact with you, or even touch the same things you touched because of the sickness. That is a horrible place to be in, and in that horrible place is where the men saw Jesus.
I. THE MIRACLE (17:11-19)
A. The request of the ten (17:11-14)
1. The circumstances (17:11-12): Jesus is met by ten lepers.
Some translations say ten lepers but other more literal translations say 10 men with leprosy, we have to be aware of when we label people. Their condition, their beliefs, their political affiliation even, is not all that they are. You may have sinned, but you are not a perpetual sinner, you may have messed up, but you are better than that. Just like we can’t just only call these men by their condition, we cannot think of other people like that either. What if you were only known by a condition that you cannot control, or only known by your worse mistake? We have to watch how we treat people because if not for the grace of God, there go I. We are all a couple of decisions away form our whole lives being turned upside down. Some of us are not a couple of decisions away from it some of are a couple of things being exposed that would change up our whole situation. We are all so called Lepers and Samaritans in our own ways.
2. The cry (17:13): They call out to him for help.
The men with Leprosy knew they had come into contact with the one that could help them, they said Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. That was not the normal cry for those with Leprosy during those times. They would have normally been crying out that they were unclean, after letting everyone know they were unclean, the next thing they would have done in those times would be to ask for alms. Money, some sort of temporary support to get them through the day, but they knew they were in the presence of the healer and instead of asking for something to change their day they asked for something to change their lives.
3. The command (17:14a): He tells them to present themselves to the Temple priests.
Jesus told them to go the priest, time and time again in the Bible when there is a miracle there are some instructions to follow. There was a protocol to going from unclean to clean, Leviticus tells us that the Priest determined when a person and Even Jesus told them once he healed them to go to the Priest. In the midst of a miracle there were still some instructions and some protocols. Jesus did not heal them in spite of of the protocols in place, he healed them and still instructed them to follow the protocols. Leviticus 13 tells us to
4. The cleansing (17:14b): Their leprosy disappears en route!
We serve a savior that can move in our lives immediately when we take our stuff to him, while we are still moving around the healing and the cleansing can take place. While we are praying about it the prayer can be answered, while we are fixing our mouths to say Lord what am I going to do? What needs to be done is getting done and the same power that healed the men with leprosy is the same power working through us today.,
B. The return of the one (17:15-19)
1. Who he is (17:16b): He is a Samaritan.
That is important because while we have taken these bible stories and applied different meaning to them being a Samaritan wasn’t popular during those times, we call somebody doing a good deed a Good Samaritan because of the parable but people from Samaria were not on good terms with the other people. The Romans liked them, and they liked the Romans, but if you were from one of the other areas being oppressed by the Roman government you would not like them.
2. Why he comes (17:15-16a)
a. That he might give testimony to God the Father (17:15)
b. That he might give thanks to God the Son (17:16a)
The proper response when God moves in your life is to be thankful, show some gratitude, understand where your help comes from and give them some credit for doing it. Our purpose on this Earth is to worship. Worship the one who created us, worship the one who was and is and is to come, worship the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end. The man who had sense enough to turn around and come back to say thank you is our example in this thing called life. Understand that we didn’t get here by our own power and we ought to be thankful.
Look at me, I'm a testimony,
I didn't make it on my own,
I'm not standing here all alone.
It is Jesus who gave me this opportunity,
look at me, I'm a testimony.
3. What he finds (17:17-19)
a. The sadness of Jesus (17:17-18): The Savior expresses regret over the nine who do not return.
Jesus would want all to be healed and Jesus would want all to be thankful but that is not always the case. Everyone does not have the right mindset and you learn that when times get better for them. Some people are only humble because their circumstances are making them act that way. Jesus healed 10 people but only 1 saw fit to come back and say something about that.
b. The salvation from Jesus (17:19): Jesus tells the Samaritan that his faith has resulted in healing of both body and soul!
Your faith has made you well, just tarrying a little longer the tenth man with leprosy not only got some healing for his body but he got some healing for his soul. That little bit extra went a long way.
I am so glad that Jesus healed the men with Leprosy but I am even more glad about the one who came back, because not only did we learn about his condition but we also learned about his location. We all have some unclean things in our lives, it may not be sickness or disease, but it is there, and we all can be on the wrong side of something but Jesus still saved them and we ought to be thankful.
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
I DIDN'T START THE FIGHT, BUT I WILL FINISH IT Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr
Joshua 10:9-15
9So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal.
10And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who inflicted a great slaughter on them at Gibeon, chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.
11As they fled before Israel, while they were going down the slope of Beth-horon, the Lord threw down huge stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died; there were more who died because of the hailstones than the Israelites killed with the sword.
12 On the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the Lord; and he said in the sight of Israel,
‘Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.’
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in mid-heaven, and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.
14There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded a human voice; for the Lordfought for Israel.
15 Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.
Growing up I did not like to get in trouble. I tried to learn the rules and follow them as best as I could as long as they made sense to me. I would try to go months if I could without getting a whooping…I mean getting in trouble. I would clean my room, make sure to wake up as soon as I heard my mother say get up its time to get dressed and go to school, I kept my nose clean. I had some siblings, won’t call any names but it seemed as if some of my other siblings didn’t feel like the day started off right unless they got in trouble. I didn’t like getting in trouble but most of the time when I got in trouble I understood why I got in trouble, I didn’t wash the dishes when I was supposed to, I didn’t take out the trash when I was supposed to. That I understood, however there were times I didn’t agree with getting in trouble, I was the oldest male child on both sides of my family for my whole generation. So that meant when other cousins were acting up and got some of that 80’s and 90’s kid discipline, I had to get that too. Why apparently because I was the oldest and I should have done something to stop them. I would also get in trouble if I started a fight, I wasn’t supposed be going around putting hands on other people. But you know what else I got in trouble for? Not finishing a fight, it would be one thing to fight someone unprovoked, but if someone started something with me or one of my family members I was under the obligation to finish it, I couldn’t come home and look my mom and dad, aunts and uncles, grandparents in the eye and tell them that someone had messed with me or mines and I did nothing about it. If something like that happened I needed to be prepared for two things, to either be heading back out to finish that fight, or be prepared for another one inside the house. I was raised not to start fights, but I was raised to finish them.
Joshua was a finisher, Joshua who was first mentioned in Exodus 17 and is now making moves in a book of the Bible named after him was a finisher. There are those that call this generation the Joshua generation, Moses was not able to enter to promised land, Joshua had to take up the mantle and lead the people into the promised land. We are all Moses sometimes and we are all Joshuas, we just have to recognize that and treat the people right that we deal with. You have to be careful how you treat people, you never know where God is going to elevate them later. In Exodus 17, Joshua gets told what to do for others, by the time we get to the Book of Joshua, Joshua is now the leader. You have to watch how you treat people because the same people you see on the way up may be the same people you see on the way down. God elevated Joshua and just like God elevated Joshua he can elevate you. Zechariah 4:10 tells us not to despise small beginnings. Matthew 25:23 tells shows us that if you are faithful over a few things the Lord will make you ruler over many. Just keep putting your hand to the plow and your time will come. Just keep working on yourself keep improving yourself and your time will come. But understand that when you try to get better, you are going to run into some opposition.
a. The pagans in Chapter (10:1-5): we learn that Five kings determine to attack the Gibeonites for signing a peace treaty with Israel.
These Gibeonites were trying to improve their land, signing peace treaties, getting travel pathways created so they could trade supplies and grow they were trying to get get better and the five kingdoms didn’t like that. People like you when you are on their level or worse off, but let you try to get a little promotion, let you try to go back to school, let your relationship with your spouse improve, let you try and buy a new house. Let your children start doing real good for themselves, let you try and start a new business, you will see who your real friends are, they will show their true colors. The Gibeonites were minding their own business and that made them a target for attack. I would have trouble trying to understand if I wasn’t in this world today, minding your business sleeping in your bed can get you shot now, somebody thinking you gave them a fake 20 bill, telling someone to put their dog on a leash, eating ice cream in your own apartment, people minding their own business and they are targets for attack. School to prison pipeline target for attack, redlining and white fight, target for attack, predatory lending, target for attack, disparities in medical care for people of color, target for attack, food deserts, target for attack, trying to take apart the voting rights act, target for attack, trying to send people back to work before their is a vaccine, consensus on treatment, or any new advances in the fight against this virus, target for attack, purposely ending negotiation for another round of stimulus until after the election target for attack. The enemy is out here forming alliances against you just because you exist.
b. The plea (10:6-7): The Gibeonites appeal to Joshua for military help.
When the trouble comes you have to be willing to ask for help and ask for the right kind of help. We have to go to people who have are best interest in mind, not those who hang around us just because they want feel good about themselves. We need to be able to ask for help. I said in my sermon last week that the enemy wins when we keep our suffering a secret. We don’t know everything and we can’t do everything ourselves we have to be willing to ask someone else to help us in our times of trouble. Pride comes before the fall, and there are plenty of people with dreams unfulfilled, challenges that are not conquered, all because they did not want to ask someone else for help.
c. The promise (10:8): The Lord reassures Joshua of victory.
You know when you have asked the right kind of help, when your help is willing to take to the Lord. The Gibeonites needed help, and Joshua did what good church folk say they are going to do all the time. “Well I’m praying for you” and that might have been the prayer right there. But Joshua actually went and talked to the Lord. The Gibeonites went to Joshua for help in verses 6-7 and he started talking to God in verse 8. When we need help we need to talk to God and talk to friends who talk to God. When someone comes to us for help we need to talk to God. No matter what the situation is, if we want to conquer it, if we want to finish it, we need to talk to God.
Isaiah 55:6 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
Matthew 7:7 New King James Version (NKJV)
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Philippians 4:6-7 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Oh what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pains we bear All because we do not carry, Everything to God in Prayer
Joshua got the promise because he was willing to go to God in prayer.
d. The provision (10:9-14): The Lord gives the Israelites victory by sending a hailstorm upon their enemies. He also miraculously lengthens the day to ensure total victory.
Once you have that divine support you have to be willing to take the fight back to them. I didn’t start the fight but I sure can finish it for you. Joshua and the army marched all night so they could get there that much faster. You have to be willing to work as well. Joshua didn’t say lets wait this out, didn’t say give me a few weeks and I will get back to you. God gave him the promise and they went right then. They marched all night, you may not have an army in the physical to march all night but you do have an army in the spiritual, you may not be be able to march your feet all night long to you reach the enemy camp but you can march the fruit of your lips in prayer all night long until it reaches the ears of God. The Lord will fight your battles for you, you just have to be willing to some work on your own. Joshua and the army started to defeat the enemy, they went into a panic, there are going to be some well crafted plans made and when the enemy tries to execute them, they will seem as confused and unorganized as they can possibly be. The text says that the sun and moon stood still, some scholars think that might have been an eclipse, others have different opinions. I don’t care, what I say to that is the enemy came looking to start a fight and that made a long day for them. When kids used to talk trash about how they were going to beat me I would tell them bring a lunch, you going to be here a long time then. The people fought and the sun stood still and the day was long.
And on top of all that once the Israelites fought, the enemy started to run away, but God caused the hail storm and large rocks to finish the battle. The work that God did was greater than the work that the people did. God doesn’t need your help to defeat the enemy, God wants to see if you are going to be a participant in your own deliverance, God is here take your natural and put some Super on that natural for supernatural work. the Bible is full of miracles and when you see those miracles there are instructions. God told Moses to pick up staff, the widow with Elijah had to find some jars, Abraham had to get out of his country, Jesus told the people when he turned water to wine to bring him some barrels of water. Miracles in the Bible
Are you willing to participate in your deliverance? I will ask my children sometimes to do some things I know they can’t do all by themselves, I ask because I want to see them try, if they are willing to put in the effort, I will help them finish it. And by the time it is done I will have done more work than they did, but I want them to get in the mindset of putting something into it so they don’t just take the help for granted. The hard work is already done by the Lord.
Sunday, October 11, 2020
THE SOCIAL DILEMMA - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.
Exodus 32:1-14 New Revised Standard Version
32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” 6 They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
7 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Recently Netflix released a documentary/drama called The Social Dilemma, the movie talks about in their words, "the dangerous human impact of social networking.” In the movie they interviewed technology experts and former executives of all the social media companies. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, and so on, and so on. What they say is that the algorithm, the mathematical equation used to track and predict your behavior on social media, has had some negative consequences. The goal of the algorithm is to keep the device in your hand as long as possible. The negative consequence is that people get addicted to the like, the comments, the tags, the shares, the notifications. Social media did not start with the intention of getting people addicted but as the algorithms progressed, these things evolved into something addictive. The goal of every social media platform is to keep your face in front of that device, continuously scrolling, the social media companies have figured out how to keep on longer is by showing you only what you want to see, regardless of if it is true or not, and then the companies sold that time to advertisers. What has happened because of this is that people have become more divided, more prone to argue, and not even see the other side as human. People get caught up in their own little echo chambers and don’t believe anything outside of it. Everything that doesn’t fit your view of life is wrong and now you have people who don’t know each other, and certainly wouldn’t talk like that to each other’s faces cussing each other out over the internet across multiple apps. The algorithm has created echo chambers where people only hear what makes them feel good, and the wrong people have taken advantage of it. In The Social Dilemma all these tech experts and former executives talk about the dangers of these social echo chambers that are created, where people only hear what they want to hear.
The people of God experienced some negative consequences of an echo chamber in Exodus. Moses had gone up the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights to talk to God. That left the people down at the bottom of the mountain on their own to do what they wanted. The text in verse 6 they rose up to revel, the people had their fill, they self-indulged, some translations say they rose up to play. They did what they felt like doing.The people wanted a god to thank for getting them out of Egypt and because Moses took too long talking to God for their tastes, they went to Aaron and asked him to make a God, and Aaron did it. Was he trying to play both sides? Was he jealous of Moses? The people started talking among each other and got riled up, and no one was there to stop them, or if they were, the people were not paying attention. A lot going on there but once the golden calf was made, everybody said that this golden calf, and not Yaweh was the one who brought them out of Egypt. The Israelites were caught in their own echo chamber with miss-information, it caused them to make some horrible mistakes. The people of God had violated the first and second commandments, I and the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, you shall have no other gods before be, and the second about not making carved images to worship. The people of God violated the first and second commandments and threw a party to do it. The people of God had built an echo chamber without Moses and started spreading the fake news that the golden calf brought them out of Egypt. They did it so much that even Aaron was spreading the fake news too. God saw this going on and got mad, God said he was about to destroy them all and start over, God was going to give the promise he gave Abraham, over to Moses. It was not looking good for the people all because they started to believe what they wanted to believe and nothing else. It is amazing to watch people get caught up in that kind of behavior.
The President tweeted, posted on his own twitter account that he was going to hold off on stimulus package negotiations until after the election. One of my friends quoted the President’s tweet on Facebook and one of her friends, I use the term loosely there immediately commented, in all caps, “this is Demon Democrats lies and propaganda” people have been in their echo chambers for so long that anything they don’t like has to be fake news. I have posted articles, and people have come on my page questioning the validity of the article because of what news source I posted. I have heard people say if it didn’t come from Fox News I don’t believe it. I would encourage people to look for a memo titled a plan for putting the GOP on the news. It is a memo written in the 70s to President Nixon about how to get a news source out there that reported what the GOP the Republican Party wanted the people to hear. Fox News followed this plan and started reporting what certain people wanted to hear and doubled down on that. Other news stations like CNN and others doubled down on what their people wanted to hear, so now everyone only trusts the news that comes from their favorite source and everything else is a lie, even when all the news sources report the same thing. People still believe their source tells the truth and everyone else is lying.
People have created their own echo chambers and had their fill of what they want and what they like and began to believe it. Some websites and advertisers have doubled down on this and intentionally spread miss-information because the miss-information brings more people to see what they are talking about, brings more advertising, brings more engagement. Fake news spreads 6 times faster than the truth. Being influenced by fake news is why someone would believe that Comet Ping Pong, a Pizzeria in Washington D. C. was a front for a pedophile ring and go bust into it with semi-automatic rifles. Thank God that man was arrested before anyone was seriously hurt. Being influenced by fake news and your own little echo chamber is how some people in Michigan could decide they have had enough of the Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s protocols for COVID-19 and try to by weapons and explosive looking to kidnap and kill the Governor. Thank God that the FBI stopped the plan before they could complete it. Allowing something to influence you to the point that it takes over your life is dangerous. I understand the irony of coming onto a social media app to talk about the dangers of social media. But I believe this is a tool, a tool that can help me spread the word of God faster and farther than I ever could physically by myself. But tools are neither good nor bad, it is how you use it that matters, and where you place your value. Value...The people of God had gold, how did they get it?
Exodus 12:35-36 New King James Version
35 Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
It was the favor of the Lord who got them this Gold, the same Lord that brought them out of Egypt and now they are saying God did’t do it. Money can’t open red seas And have them walk on dry land, God can. We have to know where our help really comes from if we don’t want to get caught up in the echo chamber being influenced by the wrong stuff. Moses realized that when he was talking to God. You see a good leader thinks about the welfare of the people they have to lead and not just themselves. God had just offered Moses a pretty big promise in giving him the promise that he gave Abraham but Moses focused on the people. Moses didn’t say sucks for you down there, I am about to come up, Moses pleaded for the welfare of his people.
First off Moses reminded God of what God said, when you are talking to God it is a good idea to bring up what God said. When you pray it is a good idea to get some scripture in that prayer if you can. I know sometimes all you can get out might be a Lord have mercy, or a help me Jesus, but in your other prayer time it might be helpful to be like Moses and say what God says instead of saying what you want. The prophet Isaiah learned that in Isaiah 55:11 when God said that his word does not return void. Joshua understood in Joshua 1:8 when God told him to keep the Book of Law on his lips and meditate on it day and night. Timothy had something to say about it in 2nd Timothy 3:16 when he said that all scripture is inspired by God and full of truth. What is in scripture, what is in the Word of God will come to pass. Moses used God’s word to keep God from wiping out the people.
Secondly Moses pointed out that the Egyptians were still watching. Moses brought up that the Egyptians would have said the Israelite God brought them out of Egypt just so he could kill them himself. I say this time and time again, as believers we are the only Bible some people will ever read, and the only sermon some people will ever hear. You have to watch how you treat people, as a believer you are someone’s definition of a Christian. The Egyptians were watching then, the whole world is watching now. Do you think they want to know more about your God based on your behavior? Do you think they want to know about Jesus Christ and the pardoning of their sins based on how you act as a Christian?
Friday, October 9, 2020
Sunday, October 4, 2020
A MESSED UP VINEYARD - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr
Psalm 80:7-15 (New King James Version)
7 Restore us, O God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
9 You prepared room for it, And caused it to take deep root, And it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with its shadow, And the mighty cedars with its boughs.
11 She sent out her boughs to the Sea, And her branches to the River.
12 Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?
13 The boar out of the woods uproots it, And the wild beast of the field devours it.
14 Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine
15 And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, And the branch that You made strong for Yourself.
There is a game I like to play on my iPad, Homescapes, where there are games within games on it. The game has you match there objects in a row or more to score, but another part of the game is that you get stars each time you beat a level and the stars let you complete tasks to help the main character renovate his parent’s house. The house and garden, and other parts have fallen apart. I get frustrated when I play the game because the work is never done. You fix something and it falls apart again, or somebody comes up and says, “oh you forgot to add this to it” over and over, the work is never done. I get frustrated a the idea because I get frustrated at the same concept in life. I would like things to be simple, not easy, but simple, I would like to know who the bad guys are upfront, if they are hard to beat so be it as long as the path is clear. If I know the cost of something and I can’t afford it, that is ok with me as long as all the terms were given upfront. I like simple, and I am doing the work on myself to understand that life is not simple. There is dementia, there is depression, there are broken relationships infidelity, suicidal ideation, financial troubles, physical health troubles, there are pandemics, economic collapses, systemic racism, class warfare, poverty, hunger, and wars, just to name a few, things are not simple and it is hard to deal with. There are times where we celebrate and there are times when we lament.
Psalm 80 is a communal lament, used in ancient Israel when a national calamity had occurred. Scholars are split on when exactly this could have been written because Israel was attacked often. Psalm 80 could have been written possibly around 605, 597, 586, 582 b.c. when Nebuchadnezzar invaded or 722 BCE when Israel fell. Israel as a nation had some issues, issues with kings so they split, issues with other countries so they were attacked, often. Kings coming and going, wars coming and going, the people suffering. Not unlike today.
The scriptures before the passage I read before the sermon the people of God call God the Shepherd of Israel, but like people do when times are tough they complain, they complain because they are in trouble and feel like God has not been a good shepherd to them. One of the questions I am always asked as a pastor has to do with theodicy, if there is a God, why do so many bad things happen? Some people say that God caused the suffering, others say that God didn’t cause the suffering but allows it to happen. Either way you think, at some point in your life there will be some bad things to deal with, and some of it might rock you to your core, and change your life perspective on some things even your view of God. Some people might just try to press on and act like nothing is wrong while their world is falling apart but bad times are bound to come what matters is how you operate in those bad times.
Sigmund Freud, although a critic of religion pointed out that people as youth have a need for security, and can imagine their father as an all powerful person, when they find out that their father is vulnerable, they put that all powerful image on God, sometimes to their detriment. With keen insight, Freud recognized this tendency among the religious. He said that people attempt to secure “happiness and protection against suffering … through a delusional remolding of reality.”
Not only did critics of religion have this kind of thinking but so did some of our champions. C. S. Lewis - He said, “When you love someone you don’t want them to suffer. I feel like that. Why doesn’t God?”
The people of God in the text called the nation of Israel a vine and the promised land a vineyard, there is a lot of vine and vineyard imagery in the lectionary passages today. The vine and vineyard is an image all over the Bible when talking about God and God’s people. But this vineyard is being torn up. The walls put around the vineyard are broken down, any and everyone can get in and steal the fruit. There is a wild boar tearing the vineyard, a viscous powerful and an unclean animal. The irony of an animal that God says is unclean is tearing up God’s creation. The people don’t know what to do, their country is under attack and they don’t have faith in the leadership being able to handle the crisis. The people of God need help.
But the people of God get out of complaining and understand that God has gotten them out of trouble before and the same God that got them out of trouble before can get them out of trouble again. If we can cry out to God in the midst of our troubles God will hear us, be with us, and help us out of the situation. It is hard to have faith when everything around you is falling apart but I stopped by to tell you. It is no secret what God can do, what he has done for others he will do the same for you. The Gardner is coming to take care of the vineyard, it just takes a little time. Vine tending requires patience. Nothing grows quickly in God’s realm. The clearing out will have to happen, some things need to go away and some need to go away forcefully. Rather, God’s clearing comes from the heart of God’s love for God’s people and the world. A good gardener does not rejoice in clearing out weeds but sees it as a necessary act to prepare a place to plant a productive vine.
There are other texts with with a vineyard being destroyed like in Isaiah 5, but the difference between Isaiah 5 and Psalm 80 is that the prophet in Isaiah tells the people to turn around, Psalm 80 asks God to turn towards us. The text says that we need God to shine His face on us. A vine needs sunlight to live, and we need God’s light to live. That light, that favor from God, that shining light in the darkness that helps us to see our way through, it is always darkest before dawn we just have to be willing to wait. And be willing to cry out even when it is so dark we can’t see our hand in front of our face. Just because we can’t see God doesn’t mean that God isn’t there.
We have to be willing to cry out in times of suffering. The psalm expresses the pain of the calamity and anger at God for allowing it to happen; at the same time it includes a repetitive refrain containing the people’s cry to God for help. That is part of our problem we don’t want to cry out, don’t want to get help, want to pretend that everything is ok and we don’t need anyone. As long as we keep our suffering a secret the enemy wins. We are all in our own personal vineyards, with our own personal walls being torn down, with our own personal boars tearing things up. The vineyard may have been destroyed by the wild boar, but the vineyard can be restored. There is help coming from the best gardener in the business. C. S. Lewis said “When you love someone you don’t want them to suffer. I feel like that. Why doesn’t God?” But C.S. Lewis also said that while he no longer had answers, he continued to have faith.
The restoration and salvation that they are talking about is not just for eternal life, not just for the future the restoration and salvation is now. The vines planted by the gardener’s right hand, access to favor. There is vine imagery all over the Bible, and I am reminded that we need God in times of trouble. We need to be able to hold on to the true vine in the vineyard.
John 15:5 (New King James Version)
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
In the vineyard God can provide us with protection, in the vineyard God will give us a foundation to hold on to, in the vineyard we can see God’s face. We have to hold on to God and if we can’t hold on, we have to be able to cry out, if we cry out to God in our times of trouble we will be restored.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
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