2540AFC100325 – Show me whatchya got.
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Habakkuk 2:4 (GNT) [1] – 4 And this is the message: “Those who are evil will not survive, but those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God.”
(Use the link above to see the NABRE version)
Psalm 95:7c-8a – If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
2 Timothy 1:6-8 – 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God
Luke 17:10 – 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. ʻŌmea, do you feel something like a pall of darkness falling over the World? Is there a thin but clinging film of anguish being inflicted upon us as if someone is “water-boarding” our minds and hearts which choose to serve God rather than the World? Not a day goes by without news of some desperate soul or insurgency group lashing out and bringing harm to others sometimes 1:1, and sometimes mass murders or regional conflicts. There are several wars going on, the most discussed are in Gaza and Ukraine, but there are wars in Myanmar, Somalia, Syria, Sudan (particularly Darfur Province), Nigeria, Ethiopia and more. Most are terrorist insurgencies. In many cases the insurgents are Muslim, and many of the deaths are also Muslims. Whatchya got there is a dire need for conversion to the One True God.
Most are not initiated by Christians but rather are initiated – in large part – against Christians, and more than a few are jurisdictional or even ethnic disputes. “Wars and rumors of wars” sounds pretty familiar right now. A very large portion of the areas currently under conflict are former colonial “possessions” taken over by two or more groups that are willing to kill and be killed to be the ones in charge. What they have for their perceived enemies is contemptuous disdain. Each side sees the other as inferior, corrupt, unenlightened, and without value. They want to be the ones elevated to superiority over everyone else because they see themselves as being superior. It brings to mind a very familiar passage –
Isaiah 14:13-14 –
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
on the heights of Zaphon;
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.”
Most of us will remember this as being descriptive of Satan’s fall from Heaven because he was aspiring to be “equal to or greater than” God. Well, he kind of got greatness – the greatest failure of wannabes. Only God is Good. Only God is Great. Only God rewards us for the greatness of our righteousness which makes us smallest in the World. We can trick ourselves into believing that we’re really on the right road to Righteousness – until some trivial thing makes us blurt some careless remark (like politicians often do, eh?), and then we see our Road to Righteousness (↔ Music Link) has a few potholes. Here’s what Jesus has said about those off-the-cuff remarks: Matthew 12:36-37 – 36 “I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Smarty-pants putdowns are off-limits in the Kingdom of God. That’s no way to be great there or even in our own little worlds of fantasy. We want to be Great, but we need to be Small and servants to all. You know what comes next: It’s all in the Absolutely Perfect Plan. And with each whatchya got in that Plan, the whole thing culminates with YOLO-F! That is our favorite whatchya got!
People of faith in the One True God see, condemn, preach, teach, and act against evil. That’s what we’ve got – F.A.I.T.H. because we know God IS GOOD! There truly is no way we can understand how such evil can exist unless we have been touched by its effect on us or in us – whether evil threatens or damages us or whether we – in evil – threaten and damage others. Evil simply makes no sense to the upright of heart. Righteous people sin and seek forgiveness through submission to God and release from the wages of sin. Unrighteous people sin and seek personal glory and release from the torment of being unable or unwilling to submit to God. I can’t understand the multitude of people who cannot have a disagreement with someone else and then just walk away from that without killing their “enemy.” That’s a very sad and disturbing whatchya got.
And so we look back at our Key Verse from Habakkuk: “Those who are evil will not survive, but those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God.” Look, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” WE know that! how come they don’t know that? Or maybe, surely, some of them know that but cannot accept it. Well, then, why is there evil? The classical answer is “When sin came into the World … ” My answer is usually, ”God knows, but he’s not telling.” We earthlings cannot answer that question adequately, but we can understand that [1] evil exists. [2] it is persistent, and [3] its growth is accelerating on a very steep upward curve (exponential or logarithmic, IDK). We don’t want to be dead to the Life-saving Gifts God has given us, so we see our Road to a Future in Heaven has to be that narrow little pencil line under all the rubbish and distractions of the Road to Perdition. Let’s hope and pray that’s not whatchya got.
To follow that straight and narrow road means we have to pay attention to what we’re doing as well as what we are not doing. It took me a very long while to realize that one of the things I should not be doing is carrying my burdens – including picking up others’ burdens. All of us are supposed to be wearing the Full Armor of God, and that’s all the burden we need because that is our defense. How do we know? Like we said last week, “The Bible tells us so.” Alright all you Senior Campers, what do we know about reading and/or hearing from the Bible? Indeed we know after years of being in the Word as well as of it, the Bible is the B.I.B.L.E., and it is also the easier way to hear God’s voice. What do we call it when we talk about the Bible? We call it “The Word of God,” so when we listen to the Word – whether with our ears or our minds, we are listening to God speak to us. So, is that whatchya got?
Pastors, lectors, proclaimers of the Word, this is the most important thing we can do when we pick up a passage to read aloud. God is using our vocal chords and lips to form his word into something that will enter the ears, minds, and hearts of the people who are listening. We’re not reading the news (despite calling it The Good News), we are reading what God himself has made known to the authors who dared to write down what GOD SAID. Therefore we are told, If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Now, how many times in a year do we chant that Psalm? Let’s just call it several and say “I can name that Psalm in 2 words!”(seriously, do we remember right this minute the number of that Psalm? FYI it’s #95) We must not only rely on the Holy Spirit to guide our proclamations of the Word but also rely on him to open the ears and hearts of those who hear us. That is our Gift from God – the Ministry of the Word which we have received through the laying on of hands and commissioning by an ordained member of the clergy. Pretty cool job, if that’s whatchya got. But we also know that being the ones doing the listening (whoever has ears, let them hear) is also a pretty cool job.
Many times when I hear people say, ”I just can’t _____,” I ask them “What’s stopping you?” After I ask that question five (yes always 5) times, we usually arrive at “the real problem or answer” and then can begin setting objectives and goals to eradicate that obstacle. When we do that, the past doesn’t’ look like a mountain of sharp-edged boulders, but rather a long hallway of doors. It’s certainly not a “walk in the park because – as Jesus himself told us in his Word – there will be great joys, with persecutions. We might look back and see that long hallway of potentially rewarding doors, but we also still have bruised knees and roughened hands from those boulders. Whatchya gotta do is put in the work to get the reward, run the race to get the crown, carry the Cross to get the Easter that is the last door on the Right – the Day of Reward. We cannot be afraid of that rocky climb to Calvary. It’s the Home Stretch! Our lives right now may or may not seem like a piece of pie (I’m not that fond of cake any more), but that very last whatchya got is a real doozey! The Apostle Paul has just the right words for it, and then we’ll open the Word for a lesson from The Apostle Peter.
Repeating our Epistle Key Verse: 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God
And then … Romans 6:15-18 – 15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Absolutely nothing is more important than sharing whatever the Holy Spirit speaks into us by the Word of God. The Apostle Paul’s scarred body was his testimony, his martyring, that asserted he was Jesus’ follower, Jesus’ servant , and the word used in Greek is δοῦλος (doulos) {doo’-los} which mean slave. And he, too, did only what was expected of him despite all he endured – including death by beheading – it was still “just enough.” And in closing we will listen to The Apostle Peter as he shows us what happens to those who are led astray by “all the evil spirits who prowl about the World, seeking the ruin of souls.” (See The Prayer to St Michael).
2 Peter 2:15-21 – 15 They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. 18 For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them.
Do you have your answer yet? Can you show me whatchya got? I’ll show you yours if you show me mine.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
