22nd Sunday after Pentecost
November 9, 2014
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25; Matthew 25:1-13
There’s a curious phenomenon on ESPN these days. The channel that originally was the
“Entertainment and Sports Programming Network” and became synonymous with
sports, also shows poker games. Poker is
a game, like a basketball game or a football game, but it certainly lacks the
physical athleticism that we associate with sports. Yet there must be people who watch poker on
TV, because otherwise ESPN wouldn’t air so many games and tournaments. I’ve never watched for very long, because the
players are usually all covered up with hats and sunglasses so that they can’t
give anything away when they bluff. I
don’t find it very interesting to watch someone stare at cards. But I’m told that at the end of a game, when
a player goes “all in,” they push their chips in to the table, take off their
sunglasses, and stand up. When they’re
ready to risk it all, they do so dramatically.
This morning’s Old Testament reading returns to the story
of Israel. They have entered the
Promised Land and have settled down into houses and taken up farming, quite a
different lifestyle from their forty years of wondering in the wilderness. They took up some of the habits of their new
neighbors and started to forget what God had taught them during those forty
years when they relied on him for their daily survival. And so Joshua gives them a reality
check. He reminds them of their history,
going back to Abraham, of all that God has done for them so far, how God kept
them safe during tough times and delivered them. However, now that life is settled again and
easier, some of them have turned to other gods and so Joshua tells them to
choose this day whom you will serve. The
people all know that the right answer is God, and so Joshua really pushes them
to make sure they’re not just saying they’ll serve God but will actually do
it. He makes them promise three times. It’s easy to give lip-service and say you’ll
do something, but to follow through, to put away the false gods and to pledge
their allegiance to God. 100% allegiance
to God means that we give everything to God, it means that God has our
undivided loyalty, it means that we go “all in.”
The first step in going “all in” is to push all our chips
to the middle of the table, to give all
that we have to God. This means our
money, our relationships, our time, our jobs, our houses, our selves, we give
them all to God to use for his purpose. It
means that when we get a $200 check in the mail, we don’t say, “hey, cool
beans, I’m going to use to go buy that TV I’ve had my eye on.” But rather, we say, “hey, thanks God, now,
how do you want me to use it?” It means
that we put God first, in our homes, in our work, and try to honor him with
everything we say and do. Not deciding
I’m going to do this, and then ask God to bless my action, but praying first,
God, what would have me do about this, and then doing it. It means keeping his commandments, some of
which are easier, like do not murder, than others, like don’t want what belongs
to someone else.
It was recently pointed out to me that the second
commandment, do not take the Lord’s name in vain, is not just about speech, but
also our actions. I’d always thought it
just meant don’t swear. But it’s not
just about how we talk. If we call
ourselves Christians and don’t act like a Christian, then we’re also misusing
God’s name. Part of acting like a
Christian, acting like Christ, is giving all that we have to God’s use. And you can’t say that what you have is too
little for God to use. Mark 12:41-44
tells the story of when Jesus and his disciples were sitting near the Temple
treasury, watching everyone give their offerings. Some people put in a lot of money, others a
little. And then a widow came up and put
in just two coins. Jesus pointed out to
his disciples that this widow gave more than anyone else, because while others
gave out of their wealth, she put in all she had to live on.
When you give to God, do you give out of your leftovers,
or after you make sure you have enough for you?
Or do you give generously, and write the check before you look at your
bills? Giving everything to God is recognizing
that everything we have is not our own, we are merely the stewards, or
caretakers, or what we have. It’s on
loan from God and one day he’s going to ask how we took care of it. This church building, how well did we take
care of it? Your car, how well do you
take care of it? Your health? Your finances? Your family?
When you go all in, it means you don’t serve other gods first but you
give your best to God, not your leftovers.
It can be scary to do that, to decide what you’re going
to give the church before you look at the rest of your bills. But going all in, after they push the chips to
the middle of the table, these players on ESPN then take off their
sunglasses. No more worrying about
revealing their “tell.” Nothing left to
do but to trust that Lady Luck, one of those false gods, will see them
through. They stop hiding. They face
their fear that they might lose it all.
It’s a leap of faith to give it all to God, and that’s why Jesus and the
angels and the prophets say so many times throughout the Bible, “Don’t be
afraid!” Do not fear! Trust God to take care of you.
I don’t know what your week looked like this past week,
but mine had some rough patches. My
daughter, Isabel, caught hand, foot, and mouth disease again, so she was home sick with me for two days. Thank God it was nowhere near as bad as
before. But I also had baby A.J. I was
worried about catching it. We encourage
Isabel to kiss him good night and play with him. And while we kept them apart as much as we
could once we knew Isabel was sick, she was probably contagious the previous 24
hours before we realized she had it.
There wasn’t much we could do to keep A.J. from getting it, other than
trust God to keep him safe and use the antibodies he gets from nursing to keep
him from getting sick. There were a few
times this week where I wasn’t sure how we were going to get through if not for
trusting God to take care of us. If the
baby had caught it, there wasn’t anything we would have been able to do about
it. And that is the opposite of fear –
trust. Trust isn’t ignoring the fear or
denying the fear but saying that something is more important than that fear,
and that something that is more important
is God. You can be afraid, but don’t
act from that place of fear. Stop hiding
behind fear. Fear that you will fail,
fear that you will mess up, fear that you will never get better after being
sick, fear that the church isn’t going to grow.
Yeah, those are all possibilities.
But God is God of the impossible
and he asks us to trust him as he brings about a new thing, maybe a seemingly
impossible thing for those who have lost hope.
Don’t hold out on God. Stop
hiding. God will not let you down. He
has, after all, already given you everything necessary. 2 Peter 1:3 says that God has already given
us everything we need for life and godliness.
Everything we need for life, God has given us. It’s proof that we can trust God.
And
so the last step in going all in is
standing up, owning your action, and being ready for whatever comes next. It isn’t enough to make a promise and give
lip-service that you’ll do something.
No, as shown in today’s Gospel reading, we must be watchful and keep
awake, so that we can be ready to meet God, ready to do what he asks of
us. Of those ten bridesmaids, only five
were ready. They had brought their lamps
and oil for their lamps. The other five
were foolish, only bringing their lamps, and so they ran out of oil. When ball players take the field, they may
stroll over to their positions, but once it’s game time, they’re not just
standing around. They’re in position,
eyes and ears alert, ready to play. Are
you ready? Did you come here this
morning ready? Ready to not just say,
“God, use me,” but ready to follow through on it? Because that’s what it means to say, “Today
we will serve the Lord.” Going all in
isn’t bluffing; God will call you on your bluff if you’re not actually
ready. Going all in is giving it all to
God, facing your fear that you’re not in control of it, and being ready for
whatever comes next.
The
phrase I say at the beginning of the prayer over the offering is a bible verse,
1 Chronicles 29:14, “All things come from you, O Lord, and of your own have we
given you.” It comes from a prayer from
King David, after they’ve collected the materials to build the Lord’s temple.[1] You may remember that King David was Israel's second king, but one consequence of his sin was that he wasn't allowed to build the Lord's temple. Instead, God had his son, Solomon, do that. David accepted the consequence that he wouldn't be the one to build the temple, and instead got everything ready for his son to build it. Once everything was prepared, this is the prayer he offered. Let us pray it together:
“Lord
God of our ancestor Jacob, may you be praised forever and ever! You are great
and powerful, glorious, splendid, and majestic. Everything in heaven and earth
is yours, and you are king, supreme ruler over all. All riches
and wealth come from you; you rule everything by your strength and power; and
you are able to make anyone great and strong. Now, our God, we
give you thanks, and we praise your glorious name.
“Yet
[we] cannot really give you anything, because everything is a gift from you,
and we have only given back what is yours already. You know, O
Lord, that we pass through life like exiles and strangers, as our ancestors
did. Our days are like a passing shadow, and we cannot escape death. O
Lord, our God, we have brought together all this wealth … to honor your holy
name, but it all came from you and all belongs to you. [We] know that you test
everyone's heart and are pleased with people of integrity. In honesty and
sincerity [we] have willingly given all this to you, and [we] have seen how
your people who are gathered here have been happy to bring offerings to you. Lord
God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, keep such devotion forever
strong in your people's hearts and keep [us] always faithful to you. Give
[our leaders] a wholehearted desire to obey everything that you command,” to
face down their own misgivings, and make all of us ever ready to serve
you. Amen.
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