|
Sunday
Evensong Service
by Rev. Jonathan Gale
3 April
2011 – St Augustine’s Devonport (Evensong)
Reading
Micah 7:1 - 9
The Total Corruption of the People
7Woe
is me! For I have become like one who,
after the summer fruit has been gathered,
after the vintage has been gleaned,
finds no cluster to eat;
there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.
2
The faithful have disappeared from the land,
and there is no one left who is upright;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and they hunt each other with nets.
3
Their hands are skilled to do evil;
the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
thus they pervert justice.*
4
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of their*
sentinels, of their*
punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
5
Put no trust in a friend,
have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your embrace;
6
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
your enemies are members of your own household.
7
But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.
Penitence and Trust in God
8
Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.
9
I must bear the indignation of the Lord,
because I have sinned against him,
until he takes my side
and executes judgement for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I shall see his vindication.
James 5: 7 - 11
Patience in Suffering
7 Be
patient, therefore, beloved,*
until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from
the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late
rains.
8You
also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is
near.*
9Beloved,*
do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the
Judge is standing at the doors!
10As
an example of suffering and patience, beloved,*
take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11Indeed
we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance
of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is
compassionate and merciful.12
Lent is often viewed as a time when we do more than take part in the
spiritual disciplines of repentance and increased prayer. We often “give up”
something for Lent in fasting and almsgiving, as a symbolic act in order to
express our solidarity with our Lord in his passion.
If we are serious participants we might put ourselves through something
fairly rigorous which requires perseverance, and it’s about this time, the 4th
Sunday in the season of Lent, that we need, in the words of Bob Dylan, “to
keep on keeping on”, to see it through to the climax of the Lenten period
which culminates in Good Friday and then Easter Day.
The need for perseverance, of course, is not limited to this Lenten period.
For a great deal of our lives we are in need of patience and its twin
perseverance. M Scott Peck begins his famous book The Road Less
Travelled with the words, “Life is difficult.” It’s those three words up
front which keep people reading. Here’s someone prepared to speak the truth.
Let’s read on because it looks like he might have something helpful to say.
In our Micah reading the prophet describes a community without God –
a society which has ceased to live according to the Law of Moses and he
complains that “the faithful have disappeared from the land”.
Violence, bribery, confusion, a lack of justice and mistrust are the order
of the day. And living in this sort of community makes life difficult – in
very real ways. It’s very disheartening living in such circumstances.
James
writes to a people economically oppressed and suffering. The righteous and
peaceful are condemned and murdered. Not good!
Life is not always easy for us either. We undergo all kinds of pressures in
our lives:
-
some self-inflicted due to unwise choices,
-
some imposed by our environment, and
-
some just part and parcel of living in a fallen world.
In order to deal with the difficulties in life we need to acknowledge
that we are facing something difficult. The simple fact of facing up to our
difficulties, and naming them: that is ½ the battle.
The other ½ of the battle is found in vs 7 of our Micah reading: “But as
for me, I will look to the Lord,
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.”
What the prophet does is come to a decision to turn to God in
trust.
Just like Joshua did when challenging the Israelites about their
faithfulness to God. The people are now in the Promised Land and Joshua is
concerned that they may forget the God who brought them out of slavery in
Egypt and made a covenant with them at Mt Sinai. In Joshua 25: 15 (the last
bit of the verse) he says to the people “choose this day whom you will
serve … but as for me and my household, we will serve the
Lord.” So often dealing with difficulties is only a decision
away.
Trusting the God for whom we decide requires patience, and James says in vs
8 “You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts…” What James is
implying is that patience makes us stronger in God simply because we have to
keep trusting while we wait for an outcome. In 1 Samuel 30: 6 we read
“David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”
God never leaves us comfortless when we turn to him.
You know, we have many examples of people who achieved greatness because of
their stickability – and here are a few:
-
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to
succeed is always to try just one more time." - Thomas Edison
-
I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I
succeed."
- Michael Jordan
-
"Never, never, never, never ever give up!" - Winston Churchill
These are inspirational people, but when we’re in real need of perseverance
we need a great deal more than role models. It’s good to know, as James says
in (James 1: 4) that endurance develops Christian character, but that in
itself is not enough.
The only thing that will help is to make a decision to trust God with
our difficulties. 1 Peter 5: 7 says “Cast all your anxiety on him,
because he cares for you.” In Luke 18: 1 we read, “Then Jesus*
told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”
3 things:
-
Facing up to our difficulties
-
Making a decision to hand them over to God
-
Patiently waiting on God in trust
Turning to God in our difficulties is the wisest thing we can do, and the
reason for this is in the final words of our reading from James: “Indeed
we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance
of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is
compassionate and merciful12.”
Let us pray:
Compassionate and merciful God …
Download this sermon in MS-Word format
|
