Invitation, Praises, and Prayer Concerns: Father of Heaven and Universe beyond, we praise, glorify, and magnify your Holy and precious name above all others. Lord today we come to you asking for forgiveness because we know not what we do much of the time. Lord, please teach us your ways and grow us to be more like you, as we learn to forgive others, ask for forgiveness, and treat others as you would have us. In your heavenly name, Amen.
Message: Hurricane Ridge, and Angels Landing
So, how is everyone doing? Do we have anyone in the room not guilty under our Lord’s Law? You know, what I just read from the “Sermon on the Mount”, I believe is our Lord’s way of instructing us in our attitudes. Murder, Adultery, Divorce, and taking Oaths are all symptoms or outliers of what’s going on inside of us, in our hearts. You see my very being can appear like a storm of onslaught sin and selfishness, or it can feel like the landing strip for Angels coming in on final approach to my soul. All depending on what’s going on in my noggin.
Half the time, it seems like I myself am earning the reason for the verse from John 11:35 Jesus wept. And why wouldn’t He, based on the conflagration or outright war that goes on within us at times? Thankfully, we have another of the Lord’s sayings that give us hope from Luke 23:34; Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”… (And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.) Thank you, Lord for forgiving and still loving us in our fallen nature… Please teach us to be more like you, by helping us win that battle royal that goes in with each of us daily.
It’s kind of like the title for today’s message: Hurricane Ridge, and Angels Landing.Both are places by the way. Hurricane ridge is located in one of our favorite places to go, the Olympic Peninsula up in Washington. And Angels Landing, located near our sister Debbie’s house (also a favorite place), in Zions National Park. Both can be terrifying because of the heights and cliffs involved with being there, and yet breathtaking. Because the beauty is beyond my ability to describe. I dream of both places, sometimes out of fear like a hurricane, and sometimes out of bliss like an Angel’s decent in blessing, protection, and love for us.
Both ideas, and both concepts are the realm of our experience, perspective, and attitude. Going it my way, leads to terror, loneliness, and sin (a hurricane). But when I remember that God has our back because He loves us, and in the end, all will be according to His plan. My fears, self-imposed battles of mindset, and attitude, seem to soar and land with Angels.
I guess it’s hard to keep all that in our heads, because the whole idea of God our Father, the Lord Jesus our Savoir, and the Holy Spirit our Sustainer, is deep! Then add the Holy Hosts of Heaven and Celestial Beings, are a hard thing to wrap our heads around. That’s why God has given us His Holy Spirit, that even searches the depths of God. To help us to understand and adjust our attitudes accordingly. When we do, we begin to realize that God hears, knows, and loves us, in spite of us, and responds to our prayer. For confirmation, let me read from Isaiah 30:18-21;
18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
So listen up my beloved family in God, an attitude of gratitude, and a mindset of service to God through helping others is our calling in this life of ours. With corresponding attitudes! Because you never know who it is that you are speaking with or serving. Jacob physically struggled with a man (or was it a man?) all night long, all of that to get a new name (Israel), a bad hip, and a new attitude in the morning. Reading from Genesis 32:22-28;
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
Jacob, Israel (your middle name), and you struggle with God, and others. But falling back on and banking on our Lord’s words of: “forgive them Father, they don’t know what they are doing”, is not a good life plan for success. At some point we have to take ownership of the life we have and modify ourselves (with God), to respecting and putting others before self. Especially those we disagree with and those whom we do not even really know. It’s the difference of living the storm of a hurricane ridge, or thriving in a community welcoming Angels landing amongst us and then blessing, nurturing, and loving the community of God.
This is why we all have work to do in our mind set, which reflect our thought, words, and actions. Take for instance the things we all say at times, that we really don’t even understand the ramifications of. Here are the words from the second letter of Peter that provide a short Old Testament history lesson and more. Reading from 2 Peter 2:4-11;
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. 10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; 11 yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord.
But wait there’s more. Humanity’s hurricane ridge like behavior as apposed to the angelic behavior of the Heavenly Host is illustrated for us by another writer in the New Testament. Reading from Jude 1:8-10;
8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.
Now if the archangel Michael will not hazard to condemn the devil, should we rethink about how we talk about not only celestial beings like the devil, but also our brothers and sisters whom God has created? In fact, we must be in the business of praying for others, and when it comes to others, we can’t have a marker of who we will condemn. Yes, we even are called to pray for the worst in humanity. I see him every day… in the mirror. Along with me, I need to pray for the likes of … You fill in the blank. Pray that they hear God and not you or me, but the Lord.
By the way, I am not impugning or lecturing anyone before my own lame self. It is part of our nature to say and do things that we don’t even understand at times. In fact spontaneity is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us, followed by resiliency of heart. So, if anyone here is guilty besides me, hang in there and remember you are still loved, we just have work to do, and it’s a process that may take the rest of our lives.
All of this by the way has been the experience of the Church from the beginning. Because we are fallen people in a fallen world, our family in God has always struggled in our Faithwalk of: The Way! Listen to the words of Paul to the church in Corinth. Reading from 1 Corinthians 3:1-9;
1Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
That by the way is why we have a partnership here in this church, where there is no elite or outsiders when it comes to membership but one family in God serving as co-workers in His service! And when you worry that the state of God’s Church is deplorable… With all kinds of challenges of wokeness, identity, applicability, coupled with it purpose and place within a sick society. Well, you’re right. But the power in God’s church is even greater!
This is why our Lord instructs us on what the appropriate attitudes about life in general are. Reading selections from today’s Message Reading from Matthew 5:21-37;
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
*Raca means someone is an empty vessel or an idiot. And I’m a fearin God right about now, and am working on my foul mouth, and abject heart. What we all need to do, is realize and ask for forgiveness! Now, verse 23;
23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
**Interrupting again to say; that’s how important our relationships are to God. Our attitudes towards other people, and even towards discredited celestial beings (like the devil), need to be reflected on by all of us. In other words, we only worship God, Lord, and Holy Spirit, and we do our best to love and pray for the rest of creation. Skipping on to verse 27;
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
***So, more work for many of us to do! Finally, our Lord will take on the issues of divorce and swearing oaths.
Please let me summarize by saying… Don’t. God does not like divorce and He don’t like people swearing in His or anyone else’s name. Yes is yes, no is no. Anything on top of that comes from the evil one, hosted by us when we attempt to justify the unjustifiable.
Does that mean that God stops loving someone divorced or someone who has habitually sworn oaths only to break them? No. It means apologize to Him, mean it, and stop sinning! But what if I screw up again down the road? Am I finished? No. Just like we are supposed to forgive others 70×7 (meaning continually), God forgives us. But our lives must reflect that we are working with God and God’s family to get better at whatever it is having our lunch in the faith and action departments… of life!
When we all begin to go down that path of a working Faithwalk with and in our Lord and God’s family, the world around us will begin to look more and more like today’s Call to Worship reading from, Isaiah 65:17-25;
17 “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy…[skipping now to verse 23]
…23 They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
And then, it won’t matter whether I’m at Hurricane Ridge, or Angels Landing, in person, in attitude, or spiritually. I will begin to see the pure beauty of God’s creation in nature, in each of His created beings, starting with each and every one of you! But an aspect, an idea, of what the new Earth and new Heaven might look like, can begin here today, with each one of us… Amen!
Benediction; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, Romans 5:5,
9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
and Romans 5:5;
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Amen!