Who do you proclaim?

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:1-12, NRSV)

Who do you proclaim with your life?

Who is displayed for the world to see with your actions?

Paul tells the Corinthians that they are proclaim Jesus crucified and are on a mission for God, so they are not going to lose heart because Jesus is walking with them. Is this the same for you?

We can easily fall into a self proclaiming position where we are eager to talk about all we have done and all we have accomplished. We will not be beacons of the love that has brought us to this place…

But you see as Paul tells the Corinthians if we are actually proclaiming Christ crucified, then we will be afflicted but not crushed, we will be perplexed but we will not despair, we will be persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. We will not always seem to be getting ahead, but Jesus will always be with us, and we will not fail. If we are proclaiming Christ in all we do and say!

So who does your life proclaim?

light!

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances. I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word. Accept my offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your ordinances. I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. Your decrees are my heritage for ever; they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes for ever, to the end. (Psalm 119:105-112, NRSV)

I incline my heart to keep your statues forever to the end!

I mold my life to follow where you will lead, for you word is the guide to my life!

Do you live your life with the word of the Lord as the light for your path and the lamp that guides your feet?

If you have ever walked through a dark house where small children live you know how important it is to have a light for your feet and a guide on your path. Little toys hurt when you step on them! Just like the things of life get in the way and hurt us and make us stray from the path we should be walking.

But if you have a guide and a lamp to light your way you can stay on course and follow where God is leading!

every moment

Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgements, they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’ Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day, and oppress all your workers.  Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, (Isaiah 58:1-9a, NRSV)

Why do we do what we do?

Do you fast?

Do you pray in public?

Every act we do is something that we should see as a moment we are worshiping God.

Yes Every act!

Every Moment!

You see Jesus told the disciples in today’s gospel lesson that they are salt and light. He did not tell them that they could be, or will be, or might be.

He said Y’all are salt and Y’all are light! Everything you do as you go about your life is a way in which you share God with the world!

For the christian there is no time that we are serving God and a time we are not. We can not flip a switch and be dutiful followers! We are always being salt and light to the world and everything we do every moment of our life is showing the world about love and God!

honor how?

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.” You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’ (Mark 7:1-8, NRSV)

Do you wash your hands before you eat?

Most of us will say yes. Because your parents told us to. We know if we don’t wash up we could get sick….

We do it because we were told to do it…

Or for hygiene…

What about praying before you eat?

Do you always say a prayer before you eat?

Always? At school? in public?

Why?

Because you were told to? Because you always have?

Because it is right to give thanks for everything God has given us?

Why do we do the things we do, because it honors God and the love He has given us?

Or is it to uphold a human tradition we may know nothing about?

Look at what you do and why you do it, and live out the life that God calls you to live. Not doing things because it will make someone happy. Do things that will make God happy by living for Him and His creation!

Who is wise?

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. (James 3: 13-18, NRSV)

Who among us is wise?

We should show our good works and our life that is reflecting of the love that God first showed to us. Not for what we get, or the attention or the notoriety, or anything like that…

If there is any selfishness within us that leads us to do something good, then it is not done for the right reasons.

Disorder and wickedness have no place in us.

So who is wise?

The one who follows after Jesus and does what they do in good works, not for selfish gain but because Jesus first loved them.

Sow your works in peace and peace will be the harvest that you reap!

World conqueror

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5, NRSV)

We will overcome the world! We have no need to fear anything or any one.

For if we love God, we are His children and therefore we will be one with Jesus and through the relationship we have with Jesus we will conquer the world!

We will be victorious!

So cling to your God and know that no matter what it is you are facing that He will walk with you through it and see you to the glorious life He has in store for you.

selfie

He came down with them 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. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. (Luke 6:17-26, NRSV)

Like the Matthew version you might have heard this weekend, Jesus is just plain blessing people here. He is not setting up conditions by which you could be blessed. He is saying that the poor, hated, excluded, reviled, defamed, those who are weeping are blessed. Not because of what they have, what they’ve done, or what the have been through. Simple because God can and does bless those the world does not deem acceptable.

But then Jesus goes on to say that if you are not looking out for the other, than you are not doing what God has called us to do. If you are hungry and know of others who aren’t then there is an issue. You see there is nothing we can do to be blessed, but once we are blessed, we are blessed to be a blessing. Not to continue the blessing, but because we were first blessed.

We can not selfie our way through life. We can not make it on our own, we need others.

So do not claim to have it all together and that you don’t need anyone else. But be a part of the community in giving and receiving.

What you reap

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. (James 5:1-6, NRSV)

Have you worked hard to get ahead?

Do you have a lot of nice stuff and yet still don’t seem to have that void inside of you filled?

We try to keep up with the Jones and have all the best things, the newest gadgets, the latest technology, and what does it get us?

A pile of garbage that rots and needs to be taken out…

You see no amount of stuff will ever fill the void we feel in our lives. Stuff is not going to make us happy and in the end will only cause more strife and anguish.

We need to be looking out for the people in our lives, the ones that God put there for us to notice and to be with. We need to not be worried about getting what we want, but doing what God has called us and placed us to do.

So stop keeping up, and start walking with God, filling the void and being salt and light!

patience and trust…

Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret—it leads only to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight in abundant prosperity. The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to kill those who walk uprightly; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Better is a little that the righteous person has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. (Psalm 37:1-17, NRSV)

Do not go forth in the world like the world does. We see people every day doing things that God would not have us do. To get back at those around them. To get their way…

We need to be above the fray and not take our fleshly desires out on others. We need to hold fast to the patience and trust we have in the promises of God that He will see us through.

So hold tight to Him and believe that He will see you through.