Call to Worship; Isaiah 58: 2-7
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Invitation, Intercessory, and Praise Prayers: Father in Heaven, Lord today we humbly invite you into our Church and most importantly into our hearts. Thank you for our very being, and Lord we pray that you would continue to teach us your ways of salvation in this hurting world.
Amen!
Message Reading: Matthew 6:2-6
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Message: “Sincerely Living our Faith”
I would like to start off with a quote that’s just perfect for the mood today:
God is the creator of all things good but also the Savoir of all things bad. God is a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God who remembers promises made and keeps them without fail. God is the strangest thing about the Bible precisely because of this: when people fail God, God’s mercy remains relentless and on target.
“But this doesn’t mean God is apathetic when people are faithless.”
Robert W. Wall “A Compact Guide to the Whole Bible”
Today I am excited to talk with you about the Faithwalk of the overall Church. Excited because I get to be a part of that walk with each of you, and I still sometimes have to take a breath step back and thank the Lord that I get to be a Pastor in our Church. As a Pastor I have the honor explaining what and how our larger Church worships God, the traditions and trends in our universal Church historically and in the here and now, and then give you my take on what God has to say about stuff, from Scripture. Thankfully, I have access to incredibly knowledgeable Theologians just referenced to aid me in that responsibility.
This is how our Faith Family has approached their worship for two thousand years. Looking at what has happened and is currently taking place in the world, identifying God’s grace in the unfolding plan of history, and then finding ways to edify our Lord’s name.
This last week, a large portion of the Christian Church observed Ash Wednesday, where Christians worldwide applied Ashes to their foreheads or wrists to reflect that our deeds and works alone in this life without God are worth dust, ashes in the scheme of things. And even though we choose not to this year because of the Pandemic, we are there in Spirit. All of this is to say that, only through a relationship with the Lord and His family can we ever really accomplish His plans in this world.
It’s as if a large portion of the planet took a momentary time-out in order to prepare for this season that we have just entered upon, Lent. The 40 days that lead us into the Passion Week and Easter (the ultimate Christian Passover). For many of our Christian family, this will be a time of reflection, a chance to examine our Faithwalk and see where we might make some adjustments.
Whether those changes are attitude or behavioral, our walk in the Lord is an ever-evolving living process. Many people will temporarily give up something (chocolate, alcohol, TV, or some kind of food), as a symbolic way of identifying Christ sacrificing all for us, only to find out how short we come up. And as we think of participating in these various Christian activities, we want to keep in mind that regardless of ashes, fasting, praying, and reflecting, we want to approach our observances with sincerity.
This genuine-ness that we bring to our praising, glorifying, and magnifying God’s holy and precious name, and in our search for a deeper relationship and understanding of the creator of all is the difference between an authentic or a sham faith. This is why from today’s “Call to Worship”, God through Isaiah teaches us what a sincere walk with the Lord involves. Reading this time from Isaiah 58:4-7
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Is it any wonder Christ quotes Isaiah more than any other Prophet in the Gospel? After explaining in the first three versus of the chapter how all of Israel was just going through the motions of fasting, observing, praying, and consulting from the Lord, God states: “You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.”
In other words, Israel’s attitude about living as a nation of priest, in service to God, was appalling. And I bet humanity, and the human condition has not changed a whole lot in its overall attitude towards the Lord and His plans. Since we seemed to be hard-wired into being a selfish, hardheaded, and insincere people.
After describing mankind’s shortfalls, God through Isaiah goes on to instruct us what a real fast consist of. The Lord continues;
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Helping those less fortunate than ourselves, not based on what is popular and trending on social media, and the evening news, but the truly forgotten among us in this society that we are a part of. Isaiah goes on to say;
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
In other words; serving others, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, kindness, prayers, and love through personal sacrifice, service and friendship (with no strings attached), are a kind of fasting that too often is overlooked by our society. A society that is all consumed with quick fixes, low thought, and less commitment to anything. Including God, and our neighbors in the community. In the past, fasting was often thought of as going without food for a day walking around as if we were martyrs of sacrifice, now everything is different. And that’s exciting!
So right about now, a lot of us should be feeling pretty good about where we are right now in our common Faithwalk in this church, serving God by serving His children in our community. So why don’t we shout about our good deeds from the mountaintops and take out an Add in the Paper, call the TV stations, so everyone will know about what good we and God are doing?
Because of what our Lord teaches us about service in today’s Message Reading in Matthew, this time 6:2-4;
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
(Side Note: when people gave in the Temple many would drop their coins in large brass receiving bins called trumpets that would make a lot of noise when coin were dropped with gusto, aka blowing your own horn was born)
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
I am so proud to be a part of a group that keeps a low profile when it comes to saying; “Hey look what I can do!” Our actions speak louder than anything we could even go into detail about, and those actions do not escape God’s notice, or the people who we show our sincere love to.
Without going into too much detail, we are simply, and universally transformed when the Lord has been invited into our lives. Everything changes. Our love for others works its way out in new ways and we become new people. We are no longer fueled by applause and approval by a world that cares more about attention and less about grace. We are now driven by a Spirit that sustains our needs over our worldly appetites.
Now instead of being all consumed and locked into my tithe, I’m now more concerned with how to care for those in need, regardless of if they’re living down the street, or in the park. Everything becomes a partnership with our Lord, and there is no place for self-promotion. Just joy about what God is doing in our world.
This excitement about what God is doing in our lives is hard to contain or hide, and yet we are entering a season of reflection, and are reminded of the next thing the Lord instructs in our Message reading
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
I guess that’s what that Spiritual time-out of Ash Wednesday we were talking of earlier is all about. Reminding us that there is a season for everything including joy with communal prayer and celebration, but then the outward stuff (the ashes) is removed, and we enter a time when it is good to set aside some time to be alone with our Lord. The season of Lent reminds us of this opportunity for reflection.
Prayer, fasting, sacrificing for others, and serving God are all lifestyles and tools that help us individually get closer to the Lord. Today, we are counselled by the Lord to be sincere and to not make a major production of our service for notoriety. As we continue in Matthew 6:16-18
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Ever knew a fellow Christian that was a walking talking martyr any day of the year? The only thing missing was the sackcloth and ashes, and it wasn’t Ash Wednesday. We are instructed to have outward joy, inward reverence, and a servant mentality for our fellow man, without making a major production. How do we accomplish all the above? I think, and again my thought, your job is to pray and think for your selves. My thought, is to let your Lord transform your life and everything is not only possible, but down right doable.
Once I begin to understand (with His help) where I fit in this new reality, I am now ready to serve others in a new way. Paul teaches us about this new reality in his letter to the Church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians 6:3-10;
3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
In the future, any time you are called to new things outside your comfort zone, Paul’s instruction may serve as your blueprint in perseverance and service. Remembering that we are not called to be perfect like Christ, but to be available to try in the Holy Spirit in service.
For many of us, we will not be called to serve others to the lengths Paul made for the Gospel. Although you will be amazed at the places your God will take you if you let Him! Remembering that: “God is the creator of all things good but also the Savoir of all things bad.” And we need saving!
My prayer and hope for all of you this week as you find yourselves in this time of deep reflection in your beautiful lives, that you have an opportunity to go off by yourself and thank the Lord for all He is doing in your life right now. If you don’t think things are going well, this is a great time to work on that relationship, by serving others you will find you, and never be alone again.
Amen!
Benediction: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Numbers 6:24-26
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
Numbers 6
And now;
24 “‘“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’