Sermon Texts:
Exodus 19:2-8
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:35-10:8
I’m no physicist, and while I enjoyed
science in high school and college, I obviously took a different route
in my vocation. So all of you scientists out there, please forgive me
if I get any of this wrong. For some reason, today’s lessons reminded
of something I learned long ago – Isaac Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion. As
I did some research to refresh my memory about these laws, I was
intrigued by the how much we can learn from these three laws today and
how they describe not only our Bible stories today, but really
describe our faith life as individual Christians and as a
congregation.
Newton’s first law of motion is often
called the “Law of Inertia.” It says that “An object at rest will
remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. An object in
motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.”
This means that there is a natural tendency of objects to keep on
doing what they’re doing. Isn’t this so true in the church? In
seminary, they taught us the 7 words we’ll hear over and over again in
every Lutheran church, “We’ve never done it that way before.” Objects
as rest tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.
Newton’s 2nd law of motion
sounds complicated but really isn’t. The greater the mass, the
greater the amount of force needed to move that mass. Force = Mass x
Acceleration. We all know this because the heavier an object is, the
harder it is to move it. This is easy to apply to the church also.
If I change one little thing about worship, say introduce a new song,
maybe I’ll hear one or two people grumble but for the most part,
people go with it. If we change some big about worship, like change
the worship time or how we do communion, think how many angry people
we’d have. Big changes require lots more work.
And most of us have probably heard of
Newton’s 3rd Law of motion. For every action, there is an
equal and opposite reaction. This is a great one to try with
strangers. Smile at a stranger and you’re going to get a reaction.
Either you’ll get an equal reaction – they smile back – or you’ll get
an opposite reaction – they’ll scowl or look at you funny. One way or
another, your action will cause a reaction.
Now I realize I’ve interpreted these
3 laws of motion rather loosely, but keep them in mind as we look at
our Bible readings for today.
Both our OT lesson and our gospel
lesson are all about call & action, movement if you will. I know that
Jack talked a lot about action last week and these two lessons really
seem to support that call to action. In our Exodus passage, Moses
presents the people with the law of the Lord and they respond to God’s
call to action by saying, “Everything that the Lord has spoken, we
will do.” They make a covenant, a promise to God, that they will be
his people and walk in his ways. Much the same way, we made similar
promises to God a few weeks ago when we voted to pursue a building
campaign. We recognized that God has been acting within this
congregation and we responded by promising to expand our ministry and
to walk with the Lord as we do it.
Our gospel lesson has a similar
message. Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are
few.” And so he asks his disciples to pray to God for more laborers to
send and gather harvest. After asking his disciples to pray for more
workers, Jesus sends them out into the world to proclaim the good news
and to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out
demons.” Sometimes the answer to your prayers is you. Sometimes a
prayer can also be a prod. Their call to action is also our call to
action. Go to the lost sheep, proclaim the good news, heal the
world.
Unfortunately, this morning, all
we’re getting in our Bible readings is the reaction side of the
equation. We’re hearing about the change from rest to motion without
knowing what that outside force was. We’re hearing about the big
movement without knowing how big the force was to cause that big
movement. We’re hearing about the reaction without knowing what that
first action was. As with Newton’s laws, none of these reactions can
happen without first having some sort of action. So perhaps, the real
message isn’t found in our stories today, but the real message is
found in the back stories for today, the prequels, if you will. We’re
picking up right in the middle and we need to go back to hear about
what happened first to really understand our message from God.
So think back to your Sunday school
days and remember what came just before the movement of the Exodus.
The Hebrew people were in slavery to the Egyptians, being mistreated
and worked to death. God saw the misery of his people and God decided
that that situation needed to change. So God, the ultimate outside
force, acted with a humongous force and moved those people out of
slavery by doing all kinds of magnificent miracles. He called and
sent Moses, he sent the plagues upon the Egyptians, he parted the Red
Sea, he led by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire
during the night, and when that wasn’t enough, God fed them in the
desert with manna and quail and gave them water from a rock. God’s
force was incredibly powerful, but more important than that, God’s
force was filled with love and mercy for his people. He saved them
and wanted them to be his people. God did everything in his power to
make that happen. This is the all important back story. Only then,
after God had done all these wonderful things for his people did they
react with the only reaction that they could, “Yes, Lord, we will
serve you and do everything you have commanded us to do.” This was
their reaction to God’s first action.
The gospel today has a similar back
story. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew are filled with Jesus’
teachings and preaching and I encourage you to read them straight
through sometime. Preachings like, “Blessed are those who mourn for
they will be comforted, blessed are the peacemakers for they will be
called children of God, you are the light of the world, you are the
salt of the earth.” Teachings like, “Love your enemies, the Lord’s
prayer, ask and it will be given unto you, and do to others as you
would have them do unto you.” And then chapters 8 & 9 are filled with
Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers,
helping the blind to see and the mute to speak, miracles so great and
numerous that we hardly believe they happened. Yet they did. Jesus
was a moving force among the people, fighting against the evils and
sorrows of this world. Jesus was God acting in the world, acting with
love and mercy as the world had never experienced before. This is the
exciting prequel. And only then, after Jesus has done all these
wonderful things for his people do they react by answering his call to
go out. Jesus calls them to have an equal reaction on the world.
Jesus preached, he calls them to preach. Jesus healed, he calls them
to heal. Jesus saved, he calls them to save.
And so now, it comes to us and our
call, our reaction to God, our response to faith. We are in the
season after Pentecost, the season of growth and of discipleship.
Over and over again this summer, our Scripture readings will call us
to react, to respond to God in faith. But, just as with Newton’s laws
of motion, even more important than our reaction is that first action,
which is always and without fail God’s action. God always acts first.
God is always is that outside force that moves us from rest into
motion. God is always that gigantic force of love, grace and mercy
that drives the powers of sin and death away from us. God always
initiates that first action hoping to stir in us an equal and opposite
reaction.
And we need to look no further that
our Romans passage to realize what God’s first action is in our
lives. Chapter 5, verse 5, God’s action, “God’s love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” Verse 6, God’s action, “For
while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the
ungodly.” And verse 8, God’s action, “God proves his love for us in
that while we were sinners Christ died for us.” Have God’s actions
ever been made more clear? God pours love into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit. Christ died for the ungodly – not just for the people in
this church, but Christ died for the people outside this church, those
who have never darkened the doors of a church, those who have never
heard of a church, and even those who have burned and destroyed
churches. Christ died for each and every one of them. Christ died
for the ungodly and who among us would do that? Christ laid
down his life for sinners, for me, for you, and for every single
person who says that they are not a Christian. What an incredible
statement of love for the world that God made through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is our back story. This is our
prequel. This is what God has done for us and for the world. Yet it
doesn’t end there. God continues to act in our lives, bringing us
blessings and calling us to faith. After the second service, Michelle
Dietrich will be baptized. She’s 24 years old and God has been
working in her life to bring her to faith. God has acted and she is
reacting by choosing to be baptized and become a Christian. God is so
good! Think back over your own life, heck, think back to yesterday,
“Where was God in your life?” How was God acting in your life to get
you through yesterday? What great things has God done for you? The
only way to properly respond to God’s call is to understand your own
personal back story, to understand how God has acted in your life up
to this point. Your back story is found in the pages of Scripture and
it is also found in your life experience. The force of God has acted
in your life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
through the love that has been poured into your hearts through the
Holy Spirit, and through all the many life experiences that you’ve
had. Recognize those acts of God in your life. Talk about them with
your family and friends. And realize that God’s hope now is that you
will have an equal reaction on the world. Amen.
