Monday, February 2, 2009

What Did God Say?

In a hope to update my blog a bit more often, I've decided to kill two birds with one stone. Below is the text of a mailing that I send out weekly to our homebound members. Generally it summarizes the sermon from the previous Sunday ... or in some cases, I think it says better (and in less words) what I really wanted to say on Sunday during worship. Anyway, enjoy ...

Romans 8:26-32

This week in our sermon series, “Can You Hear God Now” the focus was less on “hearing God” and specifically on “What Did God Say” Ever since I started preparing for this sermon, I couldn’t help but get the scene from one of the Star Wars movies (pitty me that I don’t remember exactly which one) where there is some sort of exchange in a foreign language … Han Solo, the “renegade” character played by Harrison Ford speaks to C3-PO saying “do you understand what he said?” C3-PO, who is an android known for his ability to speak a number of languages responds, “Oh, Yes, I am fluent in over 6-million forms of communication” … then Han Solo delivers the clincher line rather emphatically, “What Did He Say”?

I wonder if sometimes we focus too much on the fact that we are communicating with God and not enough on what God is actually saying. Are we too often like C3-PO who wants to brag about the many forms of communication he is fluent in? Do we want to brag too much about the mere fact that we have a connection with God and totally miss that the important fact is what God is saying to us?

In our Epistle this week, Paul is writing to the Roman church and encouraging and instructing the members of that church. In Chapter 8, we are given an image of God that is quite counter to the image that the world gives us. Paul writes, “God loves you so much that there is nothing that can separate you from God. Period. End of Story.” (this is my translation of what he’s saying anyway). I think too often we conjure these images of a god who is wrathful and judgmental. A god who would rather make a list of rules that we can’t possibly follow, so we are destined for failure and therefore destined for God to not love us anymore. But Paul reminds us, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God” and then he goes on to list the things that we think will cause separation.

This is Good News! In the face of all that is going on in the world today. In the face of increasing crime in nearby towns, riots, financial downturn, and even a Super Bowl devoid of interesting commercials, none of these things change the fact that God loves us. And it certainly doesn’t change the fact that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)