2206AFC021122 – You’re gonna get fired!
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Jeremiah 17:5-6a – 5 Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert
Psalm 1a, 3 – 1a Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
3 They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
1 Corinthians 15:16-17 – 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
Luke 6:17-19 – 17 He [Jesus] came down with them [The Twelve] and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Last summer the nation – indeed the entire world – was caught up in astonishment, grief, and disbelief over the absolute destruction caused by The Dixie Fire (↔ Click Link). It started on July 16, 2021 when a tree fell over into a power line. In less than an hour, the town of Greenville, CA – the home of about 11,000 citizens – was obliterated on August 4th and 5th 2021. Over 1,300 structures were destroyed, and when the fire was finally declared contained in on October 25th, it had burned 963,309 acres or 1,505 square miles. It was a “compound fire” which means that several smaller (though still significant) fires converged into one humongous fire. The beautiful forests and lovely towns were completely transformed into sprawling piles of ash and ruins. The toll in lost livestock, homes, family treasures, history …. Literally everything went up in smoke. Such a massive transformation into devastation is usually referred to as being a disaster. In many places, nothing was left of homes and businesses except the foundation walls. Very little of what was left was salvageable, able to be saved or restored.
Disasters come in all sizes from small and personal to massive and incomprehensible. We’ve had a lot of massive disasters in the last ten years – earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions, droughts, fires, blizzards, (and I’ll throw in politics, too), and we know there’s more to come. A few of us know that disasters like these are temporal and we stand a good chance of surviving long enough to see the next one. These few also know that disasters that are even more immense and beyond time and space are more than possibilities – they are certainties for all earthlings that do not live in the presence of the Lord, do not follow his ways, and no not heed his Word. We who are creatures of God’s making cannot be destroyed except by our own choosing. We can choose Faith and be transformed by the Fire of the Holy Spirit, or we can abhor Faith and be transformed by the fires of Hell. Mostly we don’t want to talk about that, but we should. The life we are given by God can be Foundational, Transformational, and Salvational. It is our blessing from God to choose how each of those turns out.
Our foundation can be trust or isolation. In the reading from Jeremiah in today’s first Key Verse, he states that those who trust in their fellow earthlings have nothing to ease their lives. They are like a bush living in the desert with no water, no change of season, and no fruit. Those who trust in God are like trees living a comfortable life close to water, bearing fruit in due season, and secure even in a drought. If our foundation is in the World, we have only the World for nourishment and protection – and a higher risk of a fruitless, short life. If our foundation is in God, we have the assurance of his nourishment and protection as well as the blessings of fruitfulness and long life – eternal life, in fact. We can choose the isolation of ephemeral Worldly gratification or we can choose eternal Heavenly sanctification. We can choose, so we must choose wisely. We need that wisdom so that our choice will be transformational.
I am confident that none of us would want the kind of transformation that the good people of Greenville experienced in the Dixie Fire. While it is true that the human spirit can recover or recuperate from nearly any material loss, it is also true that recovering from spiritual loss is often distinctly more difficult … unless we are transformed in, with, and through the Spirit of God. There are a couple of ways that happens. Let’s turn to the Apostle Paul for a description of one of those ways. We’ll go back and look at a familiar passage in Romans 12:1-2 – 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect. Note that he says “be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” The root word there is the same as for our word metamorphosis. We think of butterflies and tadpoles changing from immature to mature critters. For us humans, it’s the same thing in a way – not so much a physical change – we don’t get more or different brain cells – but we do get a new mind. It’s like a transfiguration of our thinking, a renovation of the components in our thought processes. We can do that with worldly bling-bling, or we can do it with the influence and prompting of the Holy Spirit. Our minds mature from the childishness of Worldly wants to the maturity of Divine delights. It is a most pleasant transformation because it derives from the most pleasant foundation. We could think of it as renovation.
The whole idea of renovation has been a big, fat talking point in the Worldly wise for quite some time. We have people who “flip houses,” politicians who want to renovate – to restore a neighborhood or district by cleaning, repairing, and rebuilding. Their motto is “Out with the old and in with the new!” Sometimes it is a way to preserve historic places, or to convert run-down historic places into slick and glitzy boutiquery – a glut of “chic” boutiques selling mostly nonessential, high-priced junk. “Imagine, if you will” (Rod Serling never said that [↔ Click Link]) a complete renovation of our minds, a total rework of the internal structure of our thinking, as in a restoration by cleaning, repairing, and rebuilding how and what we think. Lots of people these days are trying to say the “the government is brainwashing us using the Major Syndicated Media Outlets to generate fear and misinformation.” That’s what happens if we let the World do the redecorating. Do you know that if you “kick the L out of” WORLD you have WORD? Let the WORD do the redecorating and we will have minds (and hearts) that understand and hold on to Salvational living! Salvational: Deliverance from the power and consequences of sin (death everlasting), and utterly complete redemption. And there’s an APP for that. Our other Key Verses for today illustrate it.
Psalm 1a, 3 Stay on the straight and narrow. Walk the Path of God’s design. Read Psalm 27 every day if you need to (or just memorize it), especially verses 1 & 11. Don’t hang out with wicked people – even though we’re surrounded by them and we are sinners, too, just remember GIGO – Gospel In Gospel Out. We need to do what we know is right and avoid what we know is wrong. When we mess up, we fess up – we repent and stick to it. Imitate Christ, not the scornful; be blessed in him who made you and gave you Living Water for fruit in due season. Your life shall not wither.
1 Corinthians 15:16-17 If you’re a Christian and you know it – ACT LIKE IT. We must know what and in whom we believe (↔ Click Link please) because he is able to guard us (↔ Music Link) What is there to believe? We openly believe in the life, passion crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, Word, and Real Presence of Jesus, the Christ of God.
Luke 6:17-19 Jesus isn’t way out there hiding behind a big X-marks-the-spot like Fox Mulder intimates. He’s right here. He’s been divine since God first said Let there be …, and human since Mary said yes. He is the Truth, and the Way, the Light, the Life, and the whole rest of the 
B.I.B.L.E. Please scroll up and look at what I underlined. He comes to meet us face-to-face because he’s always going to level with us. We need only to look back into his face (↔ Music Link – I use Mr. Jackson’s recordings because they aren’t over-produced like many contemporary Gospel singers produce – even though some of what I post is like that).
And so, there it is Belovéd. We have a choice – easy to make but hard to keep – between Good and Evil. The tragedy of the Dixie Fire was unavoidable for the folks who lost everything, but most of them chose to get out and to live, maybe even rebuild. The choice we face is, in its own way, also unavoidable if we turn down the better choice. That choice has been made, and God made it first when and as he created each of us. Remember what Jesus told us in John 15:16 – 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. ((↔ Music Link)) And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. Choose him back. HE will baptize us in the Fire of the Holy Spirit and renew us as long as we live (YOLO-F – BTW), or we can instead choose the counsel of the wicked and sit in the seat of the scoffers so that we are baptized in the Fires of Hell (YOLO-F – BTW). Either way, my Belovéd sojourners, we’re gonna get fired. We are chosen by him, so let’s follow him, because power came out from him and healed all of them.
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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