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Isaiah 49:8-16a Matthew 6:24-34 We’re going to start with a little activity this morning. (MAKE SURE THEY HAVE PAPER). On your sheet of paper, write 1-5, three times. We’re going to make 3 lists of 5. At the top of the first list, write Passions, and I’d like for you to list your top 5 passions in life, what do you care the most about, what is most meaningful for you. Make #1 your top passion and try to list them 1-5. On the second set of 5, write at the top, monthly spending. List from 1-5 the top five things you spend money on, and try to be specific, whether it is certain bills or recreation or whatever you dedicate or spend money on in a month. My guess is that mortgage or rent will probably be on that list somewhere in your top 5. And maybe next to it, you can estimate how much you spend in a month on that. And on that third set of 5, write at the top, weekly time commitments. Looking back over the past week, not counting sleeping, what 5 activities took the most time? And next to each activity, try to estimate how many hours you spent doing that activity. How much time did you spend at work, watching soccer games, hanging out with guys, watching TV? OK, so how many of you who are parents have your children somewhere on your lists? Raise your hand. They may have been on all three, who knows. I’m not a parent yet, but my guess is that once you have children, they automatically become a huge passion, a huge financial expense, and a huge time commitment in your life. Am I right? Well, what do you think God’s lists look like? What are God’s greatest passions, what does he care about the most? What do you think costs him the most – maybe not financially, but certainly time commitments and personal investment? What are God’s greatest priorities? This is question that Isaiah seems to be asking in our Old Testament lesson this morning. Most of the reading is written from God’s point of view, with God talking about his children, Israel, and saying what a grand future he has for them, so grand in fact, that all the nations will come to them, come to Israel, for their salvation. But then, in verse 14, the people interrupt his little soliloquy, and they break into his sermon and ask him a very tough question, “Then why, Lord, have you forgotten about us?” You can imagine their struggle and their pain. Their entire country has been destroyed and demolished by the superpower of the day, their king has been killed, their leaders and educated people have been carted off to exile and the remnant that remains lives a life of destitution and extreme poverty. Jerusalem, their country’s crown jewel, has been leveled. You can imagine their pain and their honest statement to God, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” This is the cry of Myanmar – 78,000 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. This is the cry of China – 50,000 dead and 30,000 still missing. My Lord, have you forgotten me? This is the cry of the husband who’s wife was just diagnosed with breast cancer. This is the cry of a mom whose life has spun out of control into chaos. This is the cry of the man who can’t seem to find work to provide for his family. My Lord, have you forgotten me? It’s a very real question that all of us ask from time to time, whenever we experience tragedy or pain or depression. Lord, am I still on your list? Do I still matter to you? And I love how God responds to the people’s question. He doesn’t scold them for their lack of faith, he doesn’t disregard their question or minimize it. Instead he takes one of the most sure things in the world – a mother’s love for her children – and he says, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?” Look at your own lists. Are your kids on it? Moms don’t forget about their children – they just don’t. Although, on very rare occasion, a mother does mess up by showing no compassion for her children, and even though this is the rarest of all rare circumstances, a mother’s love is no comparison for God’s love. Even though a mother may forget, God says, “I never will.” You are always on my list. This is the good news for all of us. God never, ever forgets you. In fact, God has you tattooed on his hands, he has your picture on his fridge, he has your photo in his wallet. He loves you so much that he sent his Son to die for you on the cross. It cost him everything – way more than a mortgage payment – so that you can be with him forever. You are tops on his passion list. You are tops on his commitment list. He spends all his time, trying to reach you. You are the #1 thing on his list, and even though you go through tough times and it feels like the world is closing in on you, God has not and never will forget about you. This is the message of Isaiah this morning. And in our gospel lesson, Jesus actually takes this a step further, and issues a challenge to us. His question for us, as his disciples, is this, “You are #1 on God’s list, but where is God on your list?” Where does he rank in our list of priorities? I do a lot of premarriage counseling and I always give the couples a little questionnaire to kind of gauge their thinking on a lot of different topics. One of the topics is always faith and one of the statements they must respond to says, “My faith is of great importance to me.” Strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. Maybe its because they know that a pastor will be reading their answers, but I’ve ever only had one person write “disagree” to this statement. He didn’t grow up in the church, had no real desire to be a part of the church, and I really appreciated his honesty. Almost every other couple says, “I strongly agree that my faith is of great importance to me,” yet I rarely see any of them in church or see any evidence of their faith life. Jesus’ point in Matthew 6 can be summed up well in the words of Michel de Certeau, a Jesuit theologian. He says, “Belief in God is not a matter of one’s consenting to dogma, but rather, a personal wager or ‘investment.’” What we actually believe in is indicated by what we are invested in. Belief = investment. Investment of our hearts, of our money, of our time, of our energy. Where we are investing these things and how much we are investing shows what we truly believe in. Jesus’ challenge to us is to make the #1 thing our #1 thing, to move God to the top of all those lists. There’s a story about two farmers who liked to race their horses against each other in the weekly races. They were pretty competitive and they both had really good horses. So, in order to gain an advantage, one of the farmers decided to hire a professional jockey one weekend, rather than just use the regular farmboys. Well, during the race, these two farmers’ horses jumped out to a huge lead on all the other horses and they were neck and neck coming around the last turn. Then something happened on that turn and both horses slipped and fell, throwing off their riders. Well, the professional jockey remounted quickly and galloped away for an easy win. When the winning jockey returned to the stable, he found the farmer fuming with rage. “What’s wrong,” said the jockey. “I won, didn’t I?” “Oh yeah,” roared the farmer, “You won alright, but you crossed the finish line on the wrong horse!” The jockey was so preoccupied with reaching the finish line that he was blind to the horse on which he rode. We can all be like that. We can stare so hard at the finish line of our trivial pursuits that we become blind to the significant things that surround us. We strive for career success and become blind to the needs of our family. We gaze longingly at material wealth and miss the value of relationships. We fix our sights on social status and power while becoming blind to the values of integrity, mercy, faith and love. Jesus says that one decision we make will affect all the others. Where are we going to put God on our list of priorities? Where we finish the race is not nearly as important as riding the correct horse. I’d like to close by reading our gospel again, but from the Message, which is the Bible in contemporary language, and by keeping our Isaiah passage in mind – that we are God’s top priority and that he never forgets about us. Knowing that, this is what Jesus tells his disciples…
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