“Here Am I”
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 [N.T. Lesson]
Isaiah 58:1-9a [Teaching Text]
Towards the end of last year, I read an excellent book that I would highly recommend to anyone, titled, The Great Morning Revolution by Tara Beth Leach, who’s the Senior Pastor at Good Shepherd Church in Naperville, Illinois. I’ve had the great pleasure of hearing Tara Beth preach a couple of times at New Room and she is a spirit-filled orator. This past Monday we finished up a series of zoom meetings that she led, centered on her book. [A book I will read again several times]
Through this book she introduces a new way to be present with God by purposely rising a little earlier in the morning and rather than reach for your cell phone or tablet and scrolling, you spend time alone with God. For many years I was an early riser but had gotten lazy in the last year or so. Now, my alarm is set for 5:45 and rarely do I need it to wake up.
From the book title she has taken the word “Great” and broken it down to an acronym: G=gratitude, R=reflection, E=exaltation, A=asking, and T=trusting. Starting each day with gratitude can help the medicine go down a little better, if you catch my drift. To give thanks for what we have, for who we are, and for who God is. We need to spend more time looking for the good around us rather than the bad, especially in these times.
Our sessions ended with the word trust and through some of her life experiences she has found herself asking the question: “Can God be trusted?” Anyone here ever asked that question. Maybe you’ve prayed and prayed about something or for someone and never saw the answer you expected. Life doesn’t always work out the way you want it to, but God still wants you to trust your life with Him. Remember, that healing that you asked for doesn’t always come here and just maybe, that new car or different job you prayed for you really didn’t need.
In our Brown Bag Book study this week our author Tish Harrison Warren, shared a time when she and her husband were experiencing a rough time in their marriage. They decided to get out of town for a few days alone and while “just looking” in a souvenir shop they found a refrigerator magnet that remains on their frig yet today. It says, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” Words to live by my friends!
The Apostle Paul, in our New Testament Lesson, knew a little something about trust. A gifted scholar, he could have overwhelmed his listeners with intelligent arguments. Instead, he shared the simple message of Jesus Christ by trusting and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide his words: “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.”
I think most of you know that I was a Lay Speaker for a few years before entering the ministry candidacy process. I earned my Lay Speaking certificate to silence my preacher, and he ended up getting me a speaking engagement just a week later. You see, I was never a public speaker, I would get violently sick if I had to speak in front of even a small crowd. In school, if we were giving oral book reports, I would be the kid watching the clock and hoping upon hope that we would run out of time before it was my turn. What in the world was I thinking, becoming a Lay Speaker.
My first speaking opportunity came at the old Friendship UMC here in Dodge County. I was shaking in my boots. I went outside once for some dry heaves. And then, when it was message time I went to the pulpit, and something marvelous happened. The Holy Spirt grabbed a hold of me and I preached the Word, and I’ve not been the same ever since. I learned that I could trust the Holy Spirit to lead me through. Sometimes I still get a little nervous before speaking in public but a good friend of mine said if you aren’t a little nervous you don’t have anything important to say.
In sharing the gospel with others, we should follow Paul’s example and keep our message simple and basic. “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” The Holy Spirit will give power to our words and use them to bring glory to Jesus.
Last Sunday we were instructed by the Minor Prophet Micah as to how we are to come before the Lord, not with empty sacrifices and half-hearted efforts. God wants us to be good through justice—mercy—and humility. God gives us His best! What are we giving Him in return?
This morning, in our teaching text, we get a very similar message from a contemporary of Micah, the Major Prophet Isaiah. If you were here, you may remember me telling you that Bible scholars believe that the Book of Isaiah was actually three books and because of the time frame it was more than likely written by three different authors. Chapters 1-39 were pre-exile; chapters 40-55 have the nation in exile; and chapters 55-65 [where we are this morning] the Nation of Israel has returned home.
A Japanese legend says a pious Buddhist monk died and went to heaven. He was taken on a sightseeing tour and gazed in wonder at the lovely mansions built of marble and gold and precious stones. It was all so beautiful, exactly how he pictured it, until he came to a large room that looked like a merchant’s shop. Lining the walls were shelves on which were piled and labeled what looked like dried mushrooms. On closer examination, he saw they were actually human ears. His guide explained that these were the ears of people who on earth went diligently to the temple, listened with pleasure to the teaching of the gods, yet did nothing about what they heard. After death, they themselves went elsewhere, but only their ears made it to heaven.
We might smile at such a story, but the painful truth is that church people seem at times to be mostly ears—people who easily substitute hearing for doing. Religion has always had a built-in hazard. Believers are tempted to be good only for the show of it. The Greek word for which we get our English term “hypocrite” literally means “actor.” And in every age, the great temptation of religious people is to go through the motions of piety without letting their faith seep into every aspect of their daily lives.
For Isaiah true worship was more than performing religious rituals, going to the temple every day, fasting, and listening to Scripture readings. These people missed the point of a living, vital relationship with God. Genuine worship involves demonstrating our faith through positive actions, such as showing compassion for those who are poor, helpless, or oppressed.
In Matthew 25 Jesus shares a parable about the separating of the sheep and goats. To the sheep, who feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and visit the stranger the King says, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” But to the goats, who don’t do anything for the hungry, the naked, and the stranger, He says, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” The sheep are welcomed into the kingdom; the goats are sent to where those with no ears go.
A modern writer has written another version of the same parable: “I was hungry, and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger. Thank you. I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release. I was naked, and in your mind, you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick, and you knelt beside your bed and thanked God for your health. I was homeless, and you preached to me about the spiritual shelter of the love of God. I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for myself. You seem so holy, so close to God, but I am still hungry, and lonely and cold.
We can’t be saved by deeds of service without faith in Christ, but our faith lacks sincerity if it doesn’t prompt us to reach out to others. Fasting can be beneficial spiritually and physically, but even at its best, fasting helps only the person doing it. God says He wants our service to go beyond our own personal growth to acts of kindness, generosity, and justice for prisoners, the oppressed, the hungry, the homeless, and anyone else in great need. True fasting is more than not eating for a certain time; it also involves preparing ourselves to honor God by applying His Word to our lives.
To bring this thing in for a landing I’m gonna give the last word to Tara Beth Leach. She shared a story about moving her mom, who has Frontal Lobe Dementia, into their home for her last days. Her mother can do absolutely nothing for herself. She can’t get out of bed, and she hasn’t spoken a word for quite a while.
The first night that mom was there Tara Beth and her husband took on the task of changing her depends. She said they were reminded of bringing home their first child and how it took two of them to change that first diaper. One holding their son up by his legs and the other trying to navigate the diaper. Well, they couldn’t do that with mom, so they had to figure out a system. When they were done the old depends somehow fell on the floor and she said it exploded. Tara Beth went into a rage about their situation. She asked her husband if she had made a mistake in bringing her mom to their home. She said, “I just don’t know if we can do this.” And then, her mom, who hadn’t spoken in a long time said, “You’ll be fine.”
Just like the Israelites in our text this morning, Tara Beth heard God speak to her through her mom.
“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
To God be the glory!
Eastman First Methodist Church 