Nahum: The Power of God - Nahum 1: 1-15

For the last several months, the Bible Study groups in the parish have been working through the Book of Revelation. We’ve had lots of good conversation, but one thing that keeps coming up time and again is the power of God. The justice of God. In other words, what God alone can do. 

And yet, do we actually live our lives as if God is powerful? I think more often than not, we live like we are powerful. Think back to some of the old American adages, chiefly “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”. Who has the power in this saying - you do! Who can change things, you do! But when you compare that adage to the book of Revelation, you see that the truth is that God is powerful, not us. 

Nahum is a minor prophet who picks up on this theme of the power and justice of God. Who were the minor prophets? They were twelve folks called by God to covey prophecies (or in the case of Nahum an oracle) that were written down and became part of our scripture. They are all short - ranging from one chapter to fourteen chapters. 

Enter Nahum. Nahum is writing at an interesting time in the history of Israel. While the minor prophets who spoke before him were calling out the people of God for their inquiry and telling them to repent, Nahum starts section off where yes, they are calling for the people to repent, but are also giving a word of encouragement to the Israelites that whoever they are facing right now will not last forever. In other words a resolution is coming for them. 

Nahum is writing in one of those difficult times where the Israelites are trying to break free from Assyrian oppression. He is telling the people that there is a time that is coming when they Assyrians are going to be overthrown and the people of God should look forward to that time of celebration. 

Why is Nahum so hopeful? Because starting around 621BC there had been some major religious reforms under King Josiah. While the people of Nineveh are still their enemies, things are also starting to look forward. Nahum in many ways is a prophecy of hope. 

While Nahum is a prophet of God we actually don’t know much about him beyond what is written in our scripture this morning. We are told that he had his vision from God that is before us as an oracle - or in Hebrew a burden - that he is compelled to present to the people. 

Today’s section of scripture is actually written as an acrostic poem - one of those poems where each line starts with a different letter of the alphabet. And in his poem Nahum lifts hight the name of God. 

Who is God? A jealous and avenging God. A God who takes vengeance on those who are against him. Woah. What happened here? These are not often words that we use to describe our loving God. But we also found a very similar definition or characterization of God in the book of Revelation. As we talked about those scriptures we found that God’s vengeance is rooted not in wanting to punish people, but instead a desire that hearts would turn to and worship the Lord. 

In other words, when God’s law is broken, when people are not living as the people of God, then sin must be punished. Remember that Nahum is writing before Jesus changed everything on the cross - using his blood to cover the stains of our sins and being the one to redeem us from that which we deserve for our sin. Even when God seeks retribution, it show the his honor and name, his power and might.

Of course for the Israelites, they heard these words about God’s vengeance and immediately thought of God’s power being on their side. They couldn’t hear this prophecy about God’s power without thinking of the central story of their scripture - the Exodus. When God showed his power and might by bringing the people of Israel out of the oppression of Egypt. They knew of the power of God, because it was the power of God that brought them though before and would bring them through again. 

They needed this words, friends. Just like they needed to be reminded that God protect those who take refuge in him. Refuge was a place of security in the face of one’s enemies and the people of God needed that so desperately at the moment, in light of all that they were facing. That place of security was for those who put their trust in the Lord, trusting in what God had done in the past and trusting what God says he will do now and in the future. 

When we read this Scripture, I am struck by the absolute power of God. Perhaps you have had the opportunity to experience the power of God in your own life - when you did something that there was no way that you could have done by your own strength at all. Something that all you can say is “it was my God who did that!” 

When I think back on some of the hardest moments in my life, when I thought things were spinning out of control, all I can say is it is by God’s grace that I made it through. But it's also in times like that, in full humility, that I realize that I’m not in control. There’s nothing I can schedule better or work harder at. It’s a moment when I fully set aside my own ability and lean into the power and might of God. 

When we focus on God’s power we think of three things:

First, God is sovereign. In other words, he has absolute power and authority, ultimate deciding power. Now does this mean we never make any decisions? Certainly not. You’ve made dozen of decisions today before even coming into this worship service. Things like, what time to get up. What to wear. What to eat. What route to take to church. But what this does mean is that God’s authority is the only one that we can seek on big things. 

A great example of this is that God is the only one who can condemn or judge folks. It is our job to speak about God, to serve God, to make sure our own heart is in the right place. It is God’s job to separate the sheep from the goats. That is a sign of God’s sovereignty. 

Second, God is to be worshipped. When people in ancient times would come across a mighty and powerful king, they would fall face down before the King out of fear and respect. When we worship God, it isn’t about us, or what we desire, its about being present in front of the Holy God. 

Third, God has power that no man has ever known. In fact, there is no one on this earth to even being to compare the power of God, too. It is God who judges. God who saves. God who deserves our respect. 

God’s power was about to lead the people of Israel into a new thing, a new time. A time when the strong would be made weak and the people in captivity would be set free. But we don’t just have to wait for big times in order to see the power of God on display. In the 118th Psalm we find these words, “You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever.” It’s not just God’ love that endures, friends, but also his power. Where are you in need of the power of God in your life today? What do you need to surrender in order to remember God is God and you are not? What is the power of God doing in your life and the lives of others? Amen. 

“Dare to Dream: Perseverance” Matthew 6: 19-24 Deut 34: 1-9

 had something happen this week that doesn’t happen all that often. Some of you know that I wear glasses and contacts. I am not supposed to have my contacts in for more than a certain  amount of hours within a given day due to dry eyes. One day got a little away from me and when I went to take my contacts out, one came out rather easily. The other got stuck. Now for those of you who have worn contacts you know that frustration. You start to look around - did that contact come out and fall somewhere? No. Then all of a sudden you notice how blurry and fuzzy your vision is - being able to see out of one eye and not see out of the other. Your vision becomes distorted. 

Friends, it is not just our physical vision that can become distorted from time to time, but our spiritual vision as well. In fact, I would say recognizing our vision is not the hard part in the process. Moses clearly heard his call from God. Identifying the call isn’t the hard part. The hard part is both responding to the call and dealing the frustrations that come up along the way. In other words, just because we say “yes” to the call of God and are obedient  doesn’t mean that everything will always come easily. We still will have obstacles and we will still need to persevere. 

The 34th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, tells the story of what happens right before Moses died. Moses went up from the plains and God showed him the promise land, the land that he worked to get the people of Israel into, but the land that he wouldn’t be able to enter himself. I just have to imagine what Moses is seeing as he looks out on that land. He had to be thinking that this is worth it. This is what we moved towards for 40 years in the wilderness. This is what the call of God was all about. But I would also guess that he thought about all that happened along the way. Reflected back of how the people cried to go back to the land of Egypt because their clouded memories thought things were better there, even though they were in slavery. Thought back on how he had come down from having a powerful experience with God when he received the Ten Commandments only to find that the people had made an idol of a golden calf. Thought back to how many times he turned to God and asked to be rescued from these people who could be a pain in his neck. 

Even as Moses looked out on the promised land, he knew all that it took to get there. All the challenges that came, but he and the people he was leading kept going on. 

It would have been really easy for Moses’s vision to become distorted and fuzzy in those 40 years in the wilderness. And honestly, it became quite fuzzy for the people he was leading. When they took their collective eye off of God and working towards the Promised Land, the idol golden calf came into existence. When times got hard and people got tired of manna, their vision became clouded and they started to want to go back to Egypt, the land God had brought them out of. 

How do we reach when times of challenge come? Is our focus, our vision, centered on God? Or do we become distracted and things start to get fuzzy? 

Because the truth is, in Proverbs, we find the words of wisdom that say that when the people don’t have a vision, a vision from God, a vision centered on God’s Kingdom, they perish. When things start to get fuzzy friends, we go astray, and we lose our Kingdom of God focus. 

Moses was eighty years old when he had the encounter with God in the burning bush. He was one hundred and twenty when he died. Brothers and sisters, it is never too late in life to respond to the call of God. No matter what our age when we are called, we have a choice to make in how we will respond and how we will persevere. 

It is not just folks in scripture that have to persevere. Think about Thomas Edison, who is perhaps best known for creating the light bulb. I think we have all heard the stories about how that wasn’t always an easy process. He had to try 3,000 different theories and 6,000 different types of fiber for the carbon filament before finding the right one. But he kept coming back because this idea, this passion, wouldn’t let him go. 

Are we that passionate, friends, about the church? Or do we try something once and then give up? I know that we often worry about wasting resources, especially time and energy when something doesn’t go as planned. We need to have a discerning spirit as to whether we are called to try something else or to keep at it. We need a discerning spirit about the vision of God.

In the Gospel of Matthew we find Jesus teaching that the eyes are the lamps of the body, but like most teachings of Jesus he was talking about literally and figuratively. If your eye is healthy, the whole body is full of light. But if the eye is unhealthy - well, then we are full of darkness. Do you think Jesus is talking about our literal eye? Maybe. We know that we can communicate so much through our eyes. But I think he also talking about vision and seeing God’s vision. If the eye of our spirit is focused on the vision of God, and we go after that, then our bodies are full of light. But if not, if things get cloudy and fuzzy, we can quickly enter into darkness.

When we get down to it, perseverance isn’t just about keep going on for the sake of keep going on. It’s about keeping our eyes on the one who called us. It’s being focused on the vision so we don’t let ourselves slip into the darkness. It’s about remembering who gave us the vision and the call in the first place as well as the resources for the mission.

Here is the other thing about persevering for the sake of the vision and call, brothers and sisters, at the end of the day, it’s not about us. It’s not about our own personal glory or how people will remember us. It’s not about our own legacy. It’s about the work of the Kingdom of God that goes on before and after us, but we are blessed to be part of.

What happens after Moses dies? The people of Israel wept and mourned him for thirty days. But then the work of God continued through Joshua son of Nun. The next leader. The next one to hold the vision of God. 

The vision and call of God is a tricky thing in that we are blessed and gifted and equipped for such a time as this. It is our call. It’s not someone else’s call so we can’t just pass it on to anyone else. But it is also not about us - it’s about God. 

So I want to end this sermon series the way that we started it six weeks ago, praying that we open ourselves anew to the dreams of God. The scary dreams. The dreams that are too big for us to even imagine on our own. Let us open ourselves to the call of the Spirit, so that we can once again be people who chase after the visions and dreams that are from God alone. Amen.

Dare to Dream: What is in Your Hand?

    When we are little, it seems like the adults in our lives try to encourage you to dream big dreams. We don't go around, usually, telling kids that they can't be astronauts or doctors or explorers. But even without verbally saying it, even kids pick up along the way to dream smaller dreams, more manageable dreams, as they transition into adult hood. Instead of what you are passionate about, we start to ask questions like is that practical? And with that transition we cease to dream the big dreams of our childhoods.
     But what if God is calling us to dream big dreams? Not just ask what we can accomplish with our own resources and our own strength, but instead asking, more importantly, what does God want me to do here? What is it God is calling me to do?
     When we look at scripture, we see that God doesn't always call people to do practical things, but God equips the called to do the mission that is before them. What would it take for us to dream the dreams of God again and how could it change our world?

Dare to Dream: What is in Your Hand?” Exodus 4: 1-17

Psalm 139 is one of my favorite Psalms. An adaption of it was used today for our call to worship. In this Psalm of David, we hear that God knows us intimately, inside and out, because God created us. Here we find words of comfort and of challenge - God knows when we sit and when we rise. God knows the words on our tongue before we even speak them. God is familiar with all of our ways. 

But have we ever taken time to consider that if it is God who calls us and God who created us, then surely it is God who will equip us for what we are created and called to do. 

Take for example Moses. We’ve been journey with Moses for the last several weeks as he has had this amazing call from God where God actually spoke to him from the burning bush and told his that he was going to go and be part of setting the people of God free from Egyptian rule. We also started to talk about the excuses that Moses was making about why he couldn’t possibly be the one God was thinking of to live into this particular call. 

Moses had asked God who he should tell the people sent him, to which God answered, “I am”. Then Moses asked, but what if the people don’t believe me? And God told him to look in the most basic of places - his hands. What was Moses holding? A staff. And as God started to instruct Moses about what to do with the staff, it was able to do these miraculous things that God called signs. But they weren’t signs of the staff’s power. They weren’t even signs of Moses’s power. They were signs of God’s power. 

Sometimes, when we are called to do these amazing things we forget that we do not need to have everything figured out because it’s not by our own strength and power that we are being called to go forth - it’s by the name of God alone. 

Back during confirmation class this past year, we asked the teens what they were willing to sacrifice for the call of Jesus. The pastor who co-lead with me, explained some of the things you give up when your priorities shift to following Jesus no matter what, but then she went on to make this bold statement - it is worth it to follow God. 

Moses had a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that it was worth it to follow after God. All he could see at first were the obstacles. He would have to face his past. He would have to go and try to convince the current Pharaoh to let the people of God go. He would have to convince the people, maybe even some of the same people who mocked him when he left, that they were to follow him. When his eyes were on the obstacles, he was unable to recognize and live into his call, because even after Moses had encountered God, he still had his eye focused on the limitations. 

The truth is, however, that Moses was human like the rest of us. And when we view things through our human lens, through our human eyes, we tend to see the limitations and downsize as well. 

Very rarely are people’s first response to the call of God to follow whole heartedly. They often ask questions. And pick apart the obstacles. And wonder why in the world God has chosen them. But at some point we have a choice to make - are we in fact going to follow the call of God or are we going to let our view of our limitations get in the way. 

Friends, we need dreams that we can only go after because of God’s power and grace. Part of Moses’s struggle here is that he’s wondering how in the world he, as broken and limited as he was, was going to be able to do what God was asking. But Moses wasn’t the ultimate point. God was. Rev. Mike Slaughter puts it this way, “A God dream is an impossible dream because you can’t do it; God does it through you.” In other words, if it’s something we could do all on our own, without needing to stand on the strength of God, then it’s not a God dream. That’s an ‘us’ dream. 

My fear is, even as a church, we don’t dream enough God dreams. We focus on what we think we will be able to achieve and so we play it safe. We come up with our list of obstacles and limitations, just like Moses, instead of giving ourselves with abandon to dream the big, kingdom sized dreams of God. We don’t take risks because we are afraid that we are going to be disappointed. That we may stumble or fail. 

Moses wasn’t the only character in scripture who had some hesitancies about following the call of God. In the 6th chapter of the book of Judges we find the story of Gideon. When Gideon was first called an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior.” And Gideon sort of looks around and said, excuse me, Lord, but do you see what’s going on here? It’s not good. The people of God are being oppressed by the Midianites. How can we say the Lord is with us in a situation like this?

Then God reveled that Gideon was to be part of the plan to set the people free. And once again, Gideon sort of looks around and says, who me? I’m from the weakest tribe and I’m the least even in my own family. 

Gideon didn’t realize what was in his hand either. All that he saw through his human perception were all of the obstacles and limitations, just like us. Just like Moses. 

But the truth is, friends, that in God we have all that we need for the mission that we are called to. When Jesus sent his disciples out two by two he essentially told them not to take anything extra with them, but instead to rely on God. If it’s a God-sized vision, friends, we must, absolutely must rely on God. But we also need to ask God to reveal to us what’s in our hands - in other words what tools, gifts, talents, life experience we have for this particular call. 

Take a moment, brothers and sisters, to examine today what is in your hand. What tools God has blessed you with. What do you know in your head? Now before you start listing all of the things you do not know, notice that wasn’t my question. I’m not asking what you don’t know, I’m asking what you are knowledge about. Is it numbers? Or how to teach? Or how to build? We all know something and God uses that to live into our individual and collective calls.

But it’s not just what’s in your head, but also what you can do with your hands. Do you know how to knit? Or carve wood? Or fix things? The talents we have are not laid aside when we live into our calls. 

It’s also what’s in our hearts. What are you passionate about? How do you show empathy and compassion to others? How do you build relationships? The gifts, talents, experience and blessings of our heads, hearts and hands are not accidents. And they will be used by God if only we allow ourselves to answer the call of God. 

Church, the God-sized dreams, the visions, the burnings bushes in our lives don’t just go away. Even when we doubt ourselves. Even when we make excuses. Even when we do not see as God sees. What would it take for you to follow God, trusting that God will provide what you need for the mission ahead? What would it take for you to say ‘yes’ to God? Amen. 

“Dare to Dream: Setting Aside Your ‘Buts’” Jonah 1: 1-17

For the last several weeks together we’ve been talking about what it looks like to dare to dream God’s dreams. To be part of God’s vision for this world. To be someone who listens to the call that God has placed on their life. 

As wonderful and exciting as being part of the vision and mission of God is, however, there is something that all too often can get in the way - ourselves. 

We as humans seem to be masterful at coming up with excuses as to why we can’t or won’t do something - even if we are being called to do it by God. Think of the scripture we heard last week about God calling Moses through this holy experience with the burning bush. What was one of the first things that Moses said after God explained to him what he was being called to do - “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”. In other words, Moses’s first excuse (and there are many more to come) was that he wasn’t qualified. There have to be people with better pedigrees. Who have more training. Can’t God go and tap one of them to lead? Why Moses? Why now?

But God assured Moses that he was the one being called. That this was his unique God-given purpose and call. Even more, God wasn’t going to ask him to go alone, for God would be with him along the way. But as assuring and comforting as that was meant to be, Moses took it as an opportunity to come up with another excuse, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 

At first glance, this may not seem like much of an excuse, more like a question, but Moses, with all of his baggage was essentially saying, see, I’m so spiritually unfit and unqualified that I don’t even know what your name is. I don’t know who to tell the Israelites who you are. 

When we think of Moses and tell the storybook version of his life story, it seems like he has it all together, but really that wasn’t always the case. And those bumps and bruises that he had experienced throughout life had led him to believe that there was no way that God could call him - he was to stained. To un-pure. Couldn’t God find someone more spiritually fit and free of baggage to call to go? 

God of course didn’t except this excuse from Moses either, simply telling him, “I am who I am.” In other words, I am God and you are not. You don’t have to be perfect, you simply have to listen to me and go. 

Someone else in scripture who was known for making excuses was Jonah. Jonah received a call from God to go to Nineveh, this town that was known for being exceedingly wicked and cry out against it. Jonah didn’t think it was a great idea, but instead of listing his excuses and objections with his mouth, he showed them with his feet as he fled. 

He fled the whole way to a boat that was going the absolute other direction, but God kept pursuing Jonah. God wouldn’t give up on him or let Jonah give up on his call. 

God wouldn’t give up on Moses either as Moses’s excuses continued. “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.” And “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” But God told Moses once that he would be equipped for the call that he had been given, no matter what. 

When God calls for such a time as this, it should be noted that God’s call is not in our timing. God’s call involves interrupting us during what we are doing and asking us to go a new direction. Asking us to face the unknown. Of course our response is going to be fear! For the call of God is never fully explained nor convient. It often asks us to give up more then we are willing to let go of. For Jonah it asked him to risk his very life to bring the people the Word of God. But the thing about the call of God is that it is relentless. You can try to ignore it all you want, but when God gives orders about what we are supposed to be doing, you can only run away from it for so long. You can only make so many excuses. Jonah was swallowed by a whale when he ran the opposite direction from God’s commands for him. Moses tried every excuse in the book, but God kept saying that he was the one who was called, not anyone else. The call of God we receive is specific to us - no one else can do it - and will not let us go. God insists that we follow.

Often we are called to do things that we do not feel equipped to do. Like David facing Goliath we feel that we are called to do the impossible, but God empowers us, giving us the gifts we need to face any situation when the time comes. 

However, we can’t talk about the excuses that distract us from God’s call without talking about perhaps the hardest one - when other people around us are the one’s giving us the excuses, telling us who they think we are, instead of who God says we are.

One of my hardest weeks in seminary came my second year. I had a field placement that I was very excited about and the school was excited about, but the director of the program couldn’t wrap her mind around - which led to her saying some really hurtful things. As I sat in the office of two of my mentors, I just cried and cried. I pondered out loud if her hurtful words were trying to tell me that ministry was not my call. But I still remember one of my mentors saying to me, “Michelle, she is not God.” 

And that’s what it boils down to, is it not. That the excuses made, wether they come from within or without aren’t what’s most important. They can’t override God’s vision or call in our lives. The calls that God places on each of our lives may not be as dramatic as Moses or Jonah’s. And perhaps thats why we miss them or ignore them so easily. We expect to be called to something monuments in a very clear way, when God is calling us to be faithful to things different from the prophets daily. Are you being sent out to speak to the nation? Or are you being called to take a lay preaching course or deliver meals on wheels? To God they are all calls that require our faithful responses. All tasks that we cannot do on our own, but only through the grace and strength of God. 

Brothers and sisters, what is God calling you to do? What is the tug on your heart that won’t let go? What keeps coming up even though you try to ignore it? What do you make excuses about not doing? What did you feel called to when you were younger, that you’ve given up on? What is God requiring of you? For some people it may be a call within a call or a call that only lasts for a short period of time. For others God may be calling you to change your vocation or reprioritize your life. Whatever God is calling you to, what will your response be? Amen.