Our Relationship Status with God: "It's Complicated."

Isaiah 45:1-7

Psalm 96: 1-9 [10-13]

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Matthew 22:15-22

Narrative: 2 Samuel 12:1-9 and Psalm 51:1-9

First Lesson: Isaiah 45:1-7

Challenges:

Wait, who is Cyrus? What’s going on? You know someone will be wondering that. Other people will simply hear, “Blah, blah, blah…Bible words…blah, blah, blah.” This is even more of an issue if you are NOT preaching on this text than if you are. If you have the chance to do this, why not give a quick explanation before the reading begins so that people at least have the chance to understand what’s going on here?

Opportunities:

I once heard a medical nurse give an excellent “witness” to his blossoming faith and relationship with God. As he looked back on his life in medicine and healthcare he was able to see ways that God had strengthened him, inspired him, guided his hand while caring for people, even though at the time he didn’t recognize God.  It makes me think of verse 5 where God says about Cyrus, “I arm you, even though you do not know me.” Just because you don’t notice God, doesn’t mean God isn’t there!

Good News:

There is no other god but God. Frankly, I am very happy to know that Molech, Baal and Zeus aren’t running around because they scare the #$%* out of me. 

Second Lesson: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Challenges:

This probably shows much more of my own emotional and spiritual baggage than anything else, but verse 4 brings me questions. Paul says that God has “chosen you.” That’s wonderful and awesome and all of that. But if God chooses the people in this congregation of Thessalonians, why didn’t God choose other people as well? I know this is going down a “rabbit hole” of sorts, but I imagine some people of the Thessalonians wondered this as well. They obviously had family members and friends who did accept Christ.  Why didn’t they? They probably had some wonderful neighbors who they really, really liked and cared for…who still worshipped the old gods.  They might have has some of the angst I feel when I hear talk of who is chosen.  I don’t know what you do with this, but it’s a challenge I face!

Also, Paul talks about how Jesus rescues them (and us) from the “wrath that is coming.” That might be a way of describing atonement that makes you uncomfortable. Just remember that there is no ONE AND ONLY atonement theory and that Paul is in the canon and you are not.

Opportunities:

Since this is the beginning of the epistle, this could be an excellent chance to talk about what a First Century Christian Congregation might have been like. Relatively small, meeting in houses, gathered around a common meal.  Some things were probably very familiar to us: differences of opinion about how things should happen, people who were loud talkers, people who were very quiet, people who could count on, people who talked a good game but didn’t come through. In short: you’d have a group of people.

At the same time there would have been some major differences too: the complete and total radical nature of rich and poor people, slaves and free people, Jews and Gentiles worshipping together would have been HUGE. Yes, it’s huge today too and yes Sunday Morning is one of the most segregated times in America, but it would have been even more amazing 2,000 years ago.

And don’t forget the persecution they faced. Something tells me that it was 1000% worse than anything people in the U.S. of A face.

What a great opportunity to paint a picture of Christian Life in community.

Good News:

Here is yet another example of people being blessed (see verses 4 and 5) and they themselves become blessings to others (see verse 6) by becoming imitators of both Paul and the Lord.  They are not only saved and delivered from wrath, they are empowered and given a purpose.  There is meaning in their life: both collectively and individually. That’s a big deal and it gets me excited.

Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22

Challenges:

Many of the commentators I have read speak about the “dubious” interpretations of this story (i.e. God doesn’t care about how you spend your money, just about your heart, or that God and politics should be kept separate, etc.). I believe that they are certainly right. But we have to be careful in how we preach this. I’m getting tired of reading articles online about the seven or ten or twelve “things I am doing wrong.” I get it: I’m doing lots of things wrong, I know. It gets old when people who think they know more than I do try to keep telling me this.  I think people “in the pews” can feel the same way if their pastor keeps trying to tell them, over and over again, how they are looking at this story in the wrong way. Maybe they are! But as Andy Stanley has said, “Do you want to make a point or do you want to make a difference?” You could preach a sermon on this text that gets EVERYTHING “right” but if it turns off your audience so that all they hear is, ‘I’m a pastor and I’m smarter than you, aren’t you glad I put up with you all?” then your “right” sermon has failed miserably. 

Opportunities:

I really love the opening line of Prof. Lance Pape’s commentary for this text on the Working Preacher website: “Politically, just about the only thing Pharisees and Herodians have in common is that they don’t like Jesus.”  Think about all of the crazy political alliances, back-stabbings, log-jams and various “silly things” that happen in our own country.  Perhaps you could invite your people to think about the craziness of politics (heavily dipped in religion) of Jesus’ day.  That could set the tone for your sermon.  Imagine Jesus going on “Meet the Press” or another show like this.  The Herodians and the Pharisees are hoping he’ll say something that will provide a sound-byte they can show again and again until his “campaign” is ruined.

From The People’s New Testament Commentary (go buy it right now if you haven’t already): “While Matthew is clear that loyalty to God is a different and higher category than loyalty to Caesar, this text is not instruction on how people who live in a complex world of competing loyalties may determine what belongs to Caesar (as some things do) and what belongs to God (the ultimate loyalty) must be made, and it leaves it to readers in their own situations to be “Jesus theologians” who, in the light of Jesus’ life and teachings, will make their own decisions in such situations.” (pg. 87)

From N.T. Wright’s For Everyone series: (go buy it too) “We can only fully understand what Jesus was doing when we see his answer in the light of the whole story. Jesus knew-he had already told his disciples-that we was himself going to be crucified, to share the fate of the tax-rebels of his boyhood.  He wasn’t trying to wriggle out of personal or political danger. He was continuing to walk straight towards it. But he was doing so on his own terms.  His vocation was not to be the sort of revolutionary they had known.  The kingdom of God would defeat the kingdom of Caesar, not by conventional means, but by the victory of God’s love and power over the even greater empire of death itself…” (Matthew, vol. 2 pg. 88)

Good News:

I believe that Jesus is showing us that life is both very simple (God is #1) and very complicated (how do we live in a world where there are competing forces demanding our loyalty?!?!) all at the same time.  It’s as if he is giving us permission to name our world as complicated.  That is a relief! Now that we have that out of the way we can get down to the business of following him: stumbling imperfectly as we do, trusting that the Holy Spirit will grab us by the shoulders and put us right again and again.

Narrative:2 Samuel 12:1-9; Psalm 51:1-9

Challenges:

When you think about it, it’s too bad that even hear Bathsheba is considered something as “less-than-human” (i.e. a lamb).  We don’t really get to hear her voice or her side of the story for any of this story, and that’s much too bad as well.  You could go off on this…or you could put this story by Nathan in context.  Emphasize the revolutionary and groundbreaking nature of Nathan’s message.  For most of history (and plenty of the present-day as well), David’s actions are simply “the way things work.” Kings and bosses “get what they want.” Many people who are connected with power would simply shrug.  But God doesn’t shrug, God doesn’t cast a blind-eye, God sends Nathan instead.

Also, it will be a great challenge to deal with David here. David is an adulterer and murderer. Absolutely, positively. There’s no sugar-coating that.  At the same time, if we just simply dismiss him as one of “those guys” or one of “them,” that misses the point as well.  It’d be much easier to write David off as a “bad guy” and that’s it.  But we have to look at David in a more complicated way.  We need to be aware that ALL of us are susceptible to the corrupting influence of power wherever we are.  We might not be open murder and adultery, but we ALL have the chance to abuse power me might have.

Opportunities:

Many people might be familiar with the phrase that “power corrupts” and that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  This certainly seems to be the case today.  Until Nathan arrives there is no accountability for David, no one holding him up to a higher standard.  As a pastor in a “solo call” I am very much aware of the need for accountability.  It’s a very important thing. This could be a great opportunity to talk about accountability in the context of your listener’s lives: a work, in the family, etc.

We ALL have places were he have some power…it might be on the same level as David, but we do. How do we use it? How do we react when we realize that we have misused it? What does our relationship with God look like when this happens?

Good News:

I’ve said this before (many times) and I’ll say it again: GOD CARES ABOUT HOW WE TREAT EACH OTHER. God doesn’t just fly by and say, “Hey, you guys are still sacrificing to me? Great, I’ll be back later…” God cares about how the powerful act, God is a God of accountability and justice.