Blessings and Curses

This post is based on the readings for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost... Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 12:12-20; and Luke 6:17-26. (Selections printed or from the English Standard Version of the Holy Bible.) Prepared for worship on February 16, 2025.

Message:   Blessings and Curses

Blessings and peace be with you from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. 

I am pretty sure that we all want to be on the blessings list of God and not on that other list of people who are being warned by Jesus in His “WOE to you…”  statements. My favorite Psalm is Psalm 1. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” 

At one time I had this Psalm memorized, now it is just familiar, but I could not recite it without assistance. Our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah is a parallel verse, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 

How we long to be like this man… never worried, never shaken, rooted in the Word of God, … the life giving, living water of God’s Word, that sustains in season and out, through dry spells, heat, storm, tempest, and harvest… always productive, bearing good fruit, prospering. 

But the flip side of these verses tell a different story…  From Jeremiah “Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.” And again, from Psalm 1… “The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” 

Who wants to be that guy?  Living a miserable life like a shrub bush in the desert or the chaff that is discarded when the grain is harvested, …non-productive, worthless, empty, … when I was farming the straw and chaff were used for bedding stalls in a barn and then discarded with the animal waste… while the seed was used for feed and to produce more seed. No one really wants to be like the wicked, but we are… we were born in sin and cannot free ourselves from it… human nature listens to the advice of men, schemes to get rich, and is self-centered. It is so much easier to seek satisfaction through our own means and merits, but these are short-sighted and short-lived. True satisfaction come from trusting in God. Satan would have us trust in ourselves, denying God the opportunity to help us or save us. 

God has a better way, He wants us to trust in Him, even when the way appears to be difficult, when storms come, or times get hard, … in times of drought, sickness, despair… God tells us to stay the course and trust in Him. There is a man whose way is pure, one man, who remains faithful in spite of the trials and suffering in life, this man is Jesus… He is the tree of life… planted by the streams of living water… whose leaf never fades… who is always bearing fruit, even out of season. The Psalmist and also Jeremiah were both speaking of this man… the blessed ONE, the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. Jesus lived in perfect obedience to His Father, and remained connected to Him through the Word and prayer. When Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God filled Him with power, to cast out demons, and to heal the sick. Throughout His ministry taught His disciples about Himself and about His fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation. He succeeded where we always fail. He remained committed to and faithful to obeying the LAW of God. Jesus fed on the Word of God, it sustained Him throughout His ministry,… it sustained Him in His suffering for our sin… it sustained Him as He went to the cross… it sustained Him even as He died for our sake… and by the power of the Word of God, …Jesus rose again giving us the freedom to also live for God. 

We cannot live for God on our own, but we can live for God by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us… the Spirit of God brings us to faith, sustains us in the faith, and gives us the nourishment needed to be productive for God in His mission of bringing the message of salvation to others. In a humble way, Jesus blessed His disciples and encouraged them to remain faithful to the faith in which the Spirit of God had called them. … the poor in spirit are those who trust in God to provide for their spiritual needs, not assuming they can earn it by some human ritual or sacrifice… He told them to look beyond human hunger and find satisfaction in the Word of God… He told them that grief and suffering will be turned to joy and rejoicing in heaven… He told them that they would suffer for His sake… for their faith… for trusting in Him… but it would be worth it… because a greater reward is waiting for those who place their trust in Him. Then Jesus warned those who thought of themselves as holy and righteous, and told them that their joy, their earthly rewards, their earthly power, their earthly acclaim, their statis in their society would be the end of their reward… and when we refer back to Psalm 1 or Jeremiah … we could add … “in the end they will perish!” 

It is not easy living for God in today’s world. Corruption is everywhere. Church leaders, government officials, people in high places have fallen into sin… people that you would never expect to fall, have become entangled in sin of every kind, and have brought shame to the name of “Christ.” God warns us to be careful, to be humble, to be always watching out for Satan’s attacks, … because Satan is always looking for a way to trip us up. We are in a spiritual war… the battle is front of us and behind us and on our side… we cannot fully trust ourselves, or even our best friends, sin is always present, our thoughts and desires betray us… we must be ever watching and praying and rooted in the Word of God… And yet, Jesus has promised that He will never leave us not forsake us… so we battle on… knowing that He is fighting for us, protecting us, and forgiving us when we fall into sin, washing us off, and equipping us for the next fight, and the one after that and so on and so on… 

Confess your sin… receive God’s forgiveness… take and eat the body of Christ given for you… take and drink the blood of Christ shed for you… it will strengthen you in your walk of faith until you are called home to life everlasting with Jesus Christ. Take comfort in the words of Jesus, “Blessed are you who are poor… for yours is the kingdom of God.” While we may be poor… He is rich, in grace and mercy, and He pours out His grace and mercy upon us, … giving us entrance into His kingdom of everlasting life. 

Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your heart and your mind in faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

God's Gift to Us... the Ability to Speak

This message is based on the texts for the forth Sunday after the Epiphany. Jeremiah 1:4-10, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, and Luke 4:31-41. (Printed references are from the EVS version of the Bible.)

Message:  Spoken Words…

Consider for a moment the gift of speaking… God created us (humans) to speak. We use our teeth to chew our food, to break down larger pieces of food so it can be swallowed without choking, and to help us chew our food we use our cheeks, lips, and tongue to move the food within our mouths into position for our teeth to grind, diminish and swallow. We are much like created animals in that regard, for they do the same. However, we are different, in that, God also gave us the ability to use these instruments; our tongue, lips, teeth, mouth, and vocal cords to form words. While animals make sounds, we make sentences. Some animals make more sounds than others; bleating, howling, barking, whining, grunting, clucking, etc. I am not aware of any that even come close to the range of sounds that humans make. 

Even birds have limitations, most species of birds make specific calls that help us to identify who they are, with the exception of one small bird that I affectionately have named, “The bird of a thousand calls,” because I don’t know what it is. Yet, even that bird, doesn’t come close to the vocabulary of a typical human being. God created us uniquely to speak… to communicate… with words, using our forementioned instruments to make sounds that others can understand to convey our thoughts, desires, expectations, directives, and the like… that we call verbal communication. No one sounds exactly the same… similar maybe, but everyone has their own personal distinct sound. And given the sheer number of languages, dialects, and accents, the ability to speak and be understood is quite amazing. 

The BBC states that there are 7,100 spoken and signed languages around the world. 

The top eight languages by number of speakers are as follows…

• English (1,456,448,320) just under 1.5 billion
• Mandarin Chinese (1,138,222,350) just over 1.1 billion
• Hindi (609,454,770) around 600 million
• Spanish (559,078,890) just under 600 million
• French (309,804,220) around 300 million
• Modern Arabic (273,989,700) just under 300 million
• Bengali (272,828,760) about the same
• Russian (254,997,130) and just over 250 million

I am not bilingual. I only know a few words in other non-English languages. My son, Nathan, lived in Norway for a year, and understands some Norwegian, understands and speaks some limited Hmong (of which there are many dialects), and speaks and understands Tai as a second language, however English is his first language. His wife, Mai, understands and speaks some Hmong (from northern Thailand, the home of her grandparents), understands and speaks English as a second language, and speaks fluent Tai as that is her first language.  Our grandchildren are truly bilingual as both English and Tai are spoken with them in the home. Most of their language skills began in the first three years of their lives, even before they were aware that they were learning language or how to form words and speak. 

There is also a second kind of language that they have learned in both Tai and English, a spiritual language, the language of the faith, belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I was taught this language by my mother when I was just a little boy. It was reinforced by attending a Christian Day School and later in life in Confirmation and Bible Study groups. I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know about Jesus Christ or have faith in Him, even though there were times when I acted as if He weren’t important and neglected to feed my faith. 

The focus of our meditation today is GOD’S WORD.
Literally, God said He would place His WORD within Jeremiah’s mouth. “…for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.” When I prepare my messages, I ask God to help me write the message He would have me give for those who will be present on that particular Sunday. I also ask that He would open the hearts and the minds of the people present, so that they would be blessed, and be encouraged by whatever words I have spoken to grow in their faith, and have a stronger relationship with Him. Sometimes, I wonder if the words spoken have touched the lives of the people or have helped them to draw closer to God. I can only pray, and leave the spiritual aspect of that in God’s own hands, taking into account, that it is the work of the Holy Spirit using the word of God that draws us closer to Him. 

I, however am not Jeremiah, far from it. God placed His word within him and he was compelled to speak words of warnings and destruction, of repentance and salvation, even when everyone around him mocked him and persecuted him, even when he tried to keep his mouth shut, he could not, he was the carrier of God’s Word, and when he opened his mouth, the WORD OF THE LORD came out. 

In our gospel reading, there is another example of the Word of God being spoken, but not by prophets, by demons. “And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.” Jesus started His ministry by casting demons out of people who had become possessed, we aren’t told how that happened. However, history tells us that the Romans practiced various forms of cult worship, as did many of the conquered people that made up the Roman empire, and the Romans were tolerant of the many faiths of their subjects. Cult worship opens the door for demons to enter and to take possession of the heart and soul and physical bodies of people. 

These demons recognized Jesus! They had known Him before their rebellion and they knew their fate was in His hands. They had been cast out of heaven, and now they were on earth creating havoc with God’s creation, and taking possession of God’s people. Theirs is not a proclamation of faith, but a recognition of the presence of God, maybe even a defiance of God. Because Jesus had lowered Himself to become one with us, lower than the angels of heaven, lower than these former angels of heaven, who as demons still had power over people, yet, Jesus Christ was able to exercise His power over them, by a simple verbal command, “Come Out!” And Jesus would not allow them to speak… He gets the glory. They are just noise. 

Our third verse that deals with speaking relates to the ability to speak in the tongues of the angels… or languages of others not native to our upbringing… a second language, or third or fourth. We think in our first language, we translate those thoughts into the second our third, but the emotional connection remains in the first. That is why it takes years to make the connection between leaning a language and truly communicating and expressing ourselves in that language. Paul wrote, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, … I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (No better off than those cast out demons.)
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 

This is the part of the message that gets hard. It is hard to always show love and compassion and concern for others. Our wants, desires, needs, and expectations get in the way. We assume that we know what is best for us and for others. We act in self-preservation mode, making lip service to the care and concern for others, while holding on to a safety-net for our own financial security. We act with compassion, but only up to a point, provided we don’t put ourselves in harms way. Few people truly sacrifice themselves for the sake of others without reservation, and even then, Paul says, it must be done out of “LOVE.” 

We might try, but we will fail, because there is only ONE person who LOVED that deeply. Jesus Christ! He loved even those who were ponding nails into His arms, those who were shouting at Him to come down from the cross, who were so sure they were right in their unbelief that they challenged Him to show them He was God by using His power to come down from the cross…. Yet, out of love for them, He showed them His power by staying on the cross… when He had the power to come down… He chose to stay! 

He denied Himself to save us. His was a life of LOVE lived for our sake, of Life given in exchange for ours.... The embodiment of God’s WORD made flesh … a life of LOVE.

This WORD of God transcends all other words, thoughts, emotions, and communication, … more than just words on a page… more than the spoken word, Jesus is the living, breathing, WORD OF GOD, that compels us to rejoice and proclaim the glory of God. To Him be all honor, praise, and glory. Amen.