 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
|
The 4th Sunday after the Epiphany (A) Texts: Micah 6:1-8, Matthew 5:1-12 January 30, 2005
PRIDE Trying to climb an imaginary Mountain. 1) God loves us, and offers himself freely to us—in the covenant available to us in Christ’s blood; we have been offered eternal life, a relationship that will give us happiness/blessedness our whole life long. Expand. 2) Except there is one little problem—we sin. We do things (just like we do in all of our relationships with friends and family and co-workers)—we do things that hurt our relationship with God. It happens. But life goes on. Yet our relationship with God is not a fragile one. Oh no, God isn’t fickle. How could he be? God understands our lives!!! God understands…the mistakes we make. Yet, God still loves us. God’s love is not dependant upon what we do. God still loves us and wants us to keep walking through our lives with him as our God…as our companion. But, here is the next stage of the little problem (the little sin: the “oh no, I forgot to pray”) (Which is equivalent to our forgetting to talk to a friend, Or our realization that we were preoccupied and weren’t listening very well when our brother or sister was talking). This little sin, whatever it is (and maybe you think it’s a huge sin), which is totally forgivable to God (because he understands), is not forgivable to us. You see, the problem is pride. We (Now I need to be careful not to speak for everyone here—perhaps you don’t have this problem, but we can) hold ourselves in such high regard—that we can’t forgive ourselves. This is the little sin, becoming something much, much bigger (in our minds), because “I am so important in the life of God, that my sins must be absolutely devastating to our God” “In fact all the world’s problems are probably my fault and so I will carry them around on my shoulders.” The good news that Christ brings to us, is that our sins are forgivable, yet our own egos make this hard to swallow. How can God so easily forgive us? We hold ourselves in such high esteem that we turn our ant-hill sins into mountainous atrocity sins. And we go forward in life, trying to devise schemes on how we can atone for our sins (Micah 6:6-7), how we can get up the mountain. But we can’t do it. This is a mountain we can’t possibly climb, because it’s a mountain that doesn’t exist. We strive with all our might (pretending like we are in it on our own—like God isn’t right here in the room with us), to “get right with God,” when God already forgave us the first time we asked. Brothers and Sisters, do you have any decent relationship in your life? Do you someone who knows you, who understands you and puts up with your crud anyway? Well, why do you think God is so much harder to get along with? God, who made you, and understands you ever so much more than anyone possible could? (Micah 6:8) What could be more annoying (I’m trying to think what it would like to be God) than someone trying to win you over all the time, when you have already told them again and again that you love them, that you accept them for who they are, and that you accept their apology. Yet they refuse to believe that you love them, and by so doing, they call you a liar (and your love for them a lie). You know, it must be frustrating to be God. But there is one thing we can be sure of. Our God is persistent. Think of how long God has been trying to make us sure that he loves us? (Micah 6:1-2, 7:18-19) 4) If you remember anything today, remember this: God loves you and is walking through your life with you (whether you like it or). Don’t make more of yourself, or your sins than you need to. All God wants from us, is to Micah 6:8 -------------------- Joshua W. Magyar Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
|
||||
