(Preached 6th February 2011)
A couple of weeks ago, Pam and I took Murphy to Lochore Meadows for a long walk round the Loch. There was still some ice on the paths and on the Loch itself. We were having a great time until Murphy saw some moorhens and decided to chase them He likes a swim, so he charged over the iced, jumped into the water after the birds. When they flew away, Murphy decided to come back to land - but he couldn't get back because of the ice. He couldn't climb up on top of it. He couldn't break it. We had a few very anxious minutes, with me standing thigh deep in very cold water shouting at him to get him to come to me. He needed to do the "counterintuitive" thing, turn around, and instead of trying to struggle to the shore, to back away from the ice and swim to where I was standing in the water, so I could lift him over the ice.
Sometimes we get worn out, trying to do something that is just too hard; but to do the anything else is "counterintuitive." So we feel like God is all about hard work.
There's working to get to heaven. Can I be good enough for God?
Maybe if I can avoid doing really bad stuff like robbery or murder or rape. But Jesus says that if you get angry with someone then you're as good as a murderer, (Mt 5. 22) and if you look at a woman impurely you're as good as an adulterer (Mt 5. 27 - bad news guys!).
How about if I can do a good deed every day? But the Bible says all our righteousness is like filthy rags. (Is 64. 6) If I can pray enough to say sorry for the bad stuff I do. The Jewish faith was built on sacrifices to pay for sin, but all the blood of bulls and goats could not sort it out. God sent Jesus to die for sins, and offers us the free gift of eternal life. We need simply to receive it.
There's working to be a better Christian. Now we need to make the effort. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling...
There's whole lot of things Christians have learned we are supposed to do.
There's giving. We were talking about that last week.
There's having what people sometimes call your quiet time - when you pray to God and read the Bible on your own.
There's coming to church - that can be hard work, eh?
There's going to house group, leading a Sunday school class, playing in the band...
There's evangelism! Telling other people about Jesus. Who thinks that's hard work?
There's being filled with the Spirit. Being a Christian can be hard work. . We need to give, to pray, to be with other Christians, to share our faith. But it's not all effort. We need God to be at work in us.
Evangelicals (the Bible believing tribe of Christians) according to David Bebbington, are marked by activism. We're busy, busy, busy. "Work makes you free" might be the slogan of the Protestant work ethic... But do you know where those words come from? How about if I tell you they are translated from the German "Arbeit macht frei". It was in fact the slogan of concentration camps including Auschwitz. A life of effort isn't only exhausting. It is from the enemy and is the opposite of what God wants for us.
Isaiah chapters 1-19 are all pretty gloomy. They are all about the coming of a time when the Jews would be marched into a foreign land called Babylon. But in chapter 40 there's a different song: "Comfort my people," says the Lord. "Her hard labour is indeed..."
Trying to work your way to God is pretty hard. Sometimes we are busy, busy because we feel that it all depends on us. But if it all depends on us, where does that leave God? Either he's the big bully who expects us to run errands for him and give him our lunch money. Or else we have to do thing s for him because he's not really very powerful. Isaiah asks Did any of you measure the ocean by yourself or stretch out the sky with your own hands? Did you put the soil of the earth in a bucket or weigh the hills and mountains on balance scales? (Isa 40:12) Then he has a good laugh at idols, false gods made of gold, or for a poor man, wood. "Make sure it's got a good solid base so it doesn't fall down". That would never do. But a "god" that needs to be propped up isn't much good. If that's what your god is like, no wonder you're exhausted and depressed. Our God isn't like that. He is the everlasting God.
Have you ever watched an eagle? You will see an eagle, or around here a buzzard, doing one of two things. One is soaring. The other is sitting on a fence or the branch of a tree, waiting...
Eagles are big. They need to eat meat, so they need to catch meat. So they need to fly high and drop fast on their prey. Canaries eat seeds. They can fly from tree to tree. They flap-flap-flap. That lifestyle is unsustainable for the eagle. If it tried to flap it wouldn't survive. It needs to soar. How?
Thermals. Currents of warm air. The eagle is solar powered. We need to be solar powered. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to carry us as we try to serve God. We need the Holy Spirit in prayer, in evangelism, in ministry. That doesn't mean we don't pay the cost; it doesn't mean we don't make the effort. The eagle has to do more than just sunbathe. It takes practise to become a good musician or dancer
And in order to get the thermals, the other thing the eagle does is wait. Waiting means not that we just sit back and let the Holy Spirit do everything. But it means we allow him to be in control. We learn to recognise a current of warm air that can carry us up.
Instead of Bible reading being a chore we do because we have to, you read in a way that involves letting God speak. You know what I mean by Bible reading being a chore? you begin at Matthew 1 verse 1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, then you say, "what was that all about?". There's a better way, as you let God reveal truth to you.
Instead of a prayer meeting being a time when we sit down and decide what we are gong to make God do, it becomes a time when we wait for God to show us what he wants to do. So we pray the way Jesus would pray. Instead of us deciding "I'm going to tell my Mums she's a sinner and needs Jesus" we wait until God opens up an opportunity to witness. We minister the way Jesus is ministering. It's a discipline.
Like Murphy in the frozen lake, what we need to do is counter-intuitive. It goes against our instincts. Paul talked (Hebrews 4. 11) about "striving to enter God's rest". But it's what we need to do, to survive, to eat well, and to go places.
Isa 40:31
© Gilmour Lilly February 2011
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