Bored With Grace

Ah, does it really matter?
Do we have to do this?
Why bother?
I mean.... what’s the difference, anyway?
        Questions like this killed a friend of mine some years ago.

He was in a southern Ontario plant picking up a load of supplies for his business. Somebody in that plant had been asking these questions about procedures and equipment checks with which the labour ministry kept hassling them. So when the reverse gear beeper on his front end loader quit, he thought nothing of it. Till the day he was pulling a quick turn and didn’t see the truck behind him, or my friend tying down the tarp.
        Never saw the loader coming.
        Left a wife and two young children behind.

"Why bother?" When you get to asking that question around heavy machinery you’re guaranteed to be on a short road to trouble. That’s how I got run over by a tractor.
        Never start a tractor without getting on first.
                "Ahhh - just this once. I’ve checked and it’s out of gear."
                Well, it wasn’t out of gear. Ran me down. Got my legs out of the way just before the mower attachment went past.
        Never start a tractor without getting on first!! Trust me.

Familiarity breads contempt, they say.
It’s certainly true for safety regulations around heavy machinery.
But I’m sure you could probably list off a bunch of different examples of ways in which hanging around a situation for any extended period of time makes a person complacent;
        where you start to cut corners on quality
        or you begin to take a great situation for granted
        or the enjoyment isn’t quite there the way it used to be.

Can you think of situations that fit the bill?
        In relationships..... or at work..... or hobbies.....

What about in your faith life -
Cutting corners?
Taking a great situation for granted?
The enjoyment going flat like pop left on the counter overnight?

I want to take you back to a time where this exact thing happened to a group of believers – and the Lord had to send a prophet along to wrap them on the ears with a big stick of prophetic rebuke.

The Jews had been released from captivity and a group of them returned to Jerusalem. In 516 BC they rebuild the temple under the prophetic encouragement of Haggai and Zechariah. About 50 years later another group of exiles return with Ezra. 13 years after that Nehemiah is permitted by the Persian king to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. He stays about 12 years and goes back to the royal court. After a time he makes a second trip.
        Here’s the kicker - in each of those occasions the Jewish leader finds that the people in Jerusalem had lost their spiritual edge.
                Their faith was dull.
                Their enthusiasm for serving the Lord muted at best.
                Their willingness to cut corners on law obedience quite pliable.
                Sacrificial devotion was reduced from fire to barely warm ashes.

Sabbath was ignored. Intermarriage with foreigners.
Corrupt priesthood. Rampant injustice.
Bored, cheap ritual worship.
Perhaps we’re ready to shake our heads at these foolish people who let such a good thing as a salvation lifestyle, as a covenant community with the Lord Almighty, get twisted apart so soon after the exile.

But understand, please, that it wasn’t without reason.
        Jerusalem, though free to a degree, was still a little pimple on the empire map of Persia - under their control.
        Prophets like Haggai and Zechariah had spoken to their parents about great things coming:
                God’s power would be unveiled.
                He would come to His temple.
                His majesty and power would rule the nations.
"But," said the people, "hey, that was 50 years ago. Maybe our folks heard it wrong. Or maybe everyone was just caught up in the emotion and hyperbole of the time back then. See? Nothing has happened, anyway. So what does it matter? And - remember - things are different now. They just are."
        If you who are here this evening wonder about that, just consider the way you view what was said and done in the church 50 years ago. How seriously do you take it?

        This is the situation into which God spoke through Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament era. And though these words are from around 425 B.C., they speak with remarkable clarity and relevance to the Church in Canada on June 18, 2000.

Read this prophetic sermon with me, and I’m sure you’ll agree.
Here’s an outline of what we’re going to read; a bit of a road map to keep track of things as we move through them:

        I        God’s faithfulness affirmed
        II       Peoples’ faithlessness rebuked
                        - faithless in worship
                        - in sacrifice
                        - in law
                        - faithless in living
        III      God will come and purify
        IV     A call to repentance
                        - to faithful giving
                        - to faithful service
        V      The day of the Lord coming!

The prophet, again and again, is going to charge headlong into the complacency and apathy that had taken over Jewish faith life, like so much creeping charlie taking over and destroying a suburban lawn. He rips and tears at it –
        very blunt
        calling a spade a spade
        shattering any illusions they may have had about it not mattering....anyway.
                As a matter of fact, with God it DOES matter.... a lot.

The prophecy is structured in a way that some may call "socratic". Others suggest it’s a bit like a catechism. Malachi tosses out questions, as though they were raised by the reader. Then he answers those questions in the name of the Lord. Of the 55 verses in this prophecy, 47 are in the first person: God speaking directly to His people.
        It’s serious, intense stuff – spiritual fire meant to burn away the garbage and brush that had begun to choke out the faith of God’s covenant people.

Let US hear the Lord speak...... through Malachi...... to US.
 

When you run a piece of machinery the manufacturer will often provide you with a check list to be used in assuring that the equipment is still safe and running properly.
        I’d like to offer a short check list to ensure that our faith is running properly. It’s by no means comprehensive, but it does work as sort of a dip stick quick check

WARNING SIGNS OF SPIRITUAL LETHARGY (A Spiritual Check List)
        (When we are in danger of being run over and crushed)
- When worship and your church life becomes a matter of taste and preference, and one among many other optional items.
- When faith is not at the top of your priority list in making life-long relationships
- When injustice in society doesn’t phase us
- When giving becomes a chore

Where do I get this? This is the check list that Malachi presents.
There were red lights flashing and warning bells sounds in each of these areas.

• Worship
• Relationships
• Social Conscience
• Stewardship

        1. In their worship

When it came time for worship and sacrifice rituals the energy was gone. The congregation didn’t want to go beyond "good enough." And the leadership was happy with a "whatever" mentality. Nobody wanted to get over enthusiastic.
        "You can go too far, you know" – that was the sentiment.

Interesting - though I’ve heard people complain about it, I’ve never read anywhere in scripture a warning about becoming overly enthusiastic and overly committed to your faith.
        Do you know where the word "enthusiastic" comes from?
        Two Greek words - "en" meaning "in" and "theos" meaning God.
It means to be really into God; possessed, taken over by God.

The Jewish had allowed worship time with God to collapse to a "sure, whatever, nothing else to do anyway" kind of time. Their hearts weren’t into it. They were trying to coast by. Sort of like a student with the motto, "why aim for 60 when you can get by with 52%?"

What would it look like for us?
        When worship services become first of all a matter of personal taste and convenience; when we can’t see past the outer form to the overwhelming and awesome privilege of special intimate time with the Creator of Heaven and Earth. It shows in how we prepare, attendance patterns, how we get involved or not. Sometimes even dress patterns can give hints as to where our hearts are at. Sometimes. Worship degenerates to grazing at some liturgical buffet –
        "Let’s see what I feel like munchin’ on right now."
                ..... or....
        "No thanks. I’m on a diet."

        Another gauge is our hunger to learn more about Christ. Does it catch us? Do we care? Do we take advantage of opportunities?

        2. In their relationships

        Malachi zeros right in on marriage relationships. Jewish men were abandoning their wives from the faith communities - divorcing them - and getting married to heathen women.
        Never mind the pain they’d cause to the ones they divorced.
        Never mind that the one they took shared nothing of their faith.
                And the Lord was upset on both counts.

He was upset that they’d be so callous to other people in the community of faith. The Lord, you see, uses the way we think of and behave towards other people as a barometer of our relationship with Him.
        When we become impatient with others in the community of Christ, poison them with gossip and trash talk, ignore them, walk away from them – Christ says "you have done it unto me" (Matthew 25).

And in marriage. When you join yourself for life to another person you consider some key elements of compatibility. You obviously don’t marry someone when you know beforehand that there are going to be major disagreements in critical areas of life, in elements you value the most.
        Jewish men were saying, "Ah, faith doesn’t need to be shared. It’s ok if we disagree on that." People - when we enter dating relationships and say, "faith is not on the key check list" we’re saying something big about the value that faith in the Lord has in our hearts.
        It was for good reason that God calls His people to make sure that you can share your faith with your life partner. Make sure of that before you get married and you save yourself, in most cases, a lot of heart ache.

        3. In their social conscience

        While God looks at how we treat others within the Body of Believers, the Body of Christ, the Church – He also looks with keen interest on how we treat those around us.
        Does injustice pain us?
        Does poverty make us uncomfortable?
                It does God.
                And how close we are to Him, how deeply our spirits are joined to His Spirit will show in how much we share His passion for the ones on the bottom of the social ladder.
                It’s a good personal gauge.

        4. In their stewardship

        Jews were ignoring the tithe. For hundreds of years they’d given to the work of the Lord 1/10th of everything they took in. As a minimum!
        As they did that they made a statement about ownership. They were admitting that God was the true owner of what was in their hands. They were merely taking care of it for Him.
                Stewards.
                Failure to give the tithe was failure to acknowledge ownership.

Failing to give the best of what we take in is to steal from the Lord. It is to claim for ourselves what really doesn’t belong to us at all.
        "It’s mine, Lord. And if you’re lucky, and I have a bit left at the end, perhaps I’ll let you have a taste."
        That kind of a statement sounds crass, doesn’t it?
        At least, I hope it sounds crass. It was meant to.

There are a few hot buttons that I find again and again in peoples’ lives.
Money is one of them.
It is very powerful. Dangerously so.
Tell me - why are we so secretive about how much we make?
Or how much we give to charity?
Why, when elders discuss it with us, do we often unconsciously begin to get defensive and put our guard up?
        It’s not ours, anyway.
        Whether the Lord has asked you to take care of much or little - you’re still just taking care of what belongs to Him. And giving it back through the tithe – giving the Lord a significant amount back.
        A tenth is a lot. You don’t get rid of that much without noticing.
        It hurts.
        And it was meant to – to catch our attention and focus us deliberately in thanksgiving mode towards the Lord, giver of life itself.

What does your giving pattern tell you about your inner relationship with the Holy Giver?
Sometimes, my friends, when you have something a long time you begin to take it for granted. Think of a beautiful painting on the living room wall. Don’t you find that after a while you don’t see it anymore?

We in Canada have been blessed with riches, freedom and peace - including religious freedom and peace. I worry sometimes that Canadian Christians have become complacent.
        The edge is lost.
        Enthusiasm is too often replaced by "good enough."

Malachi gives us the chance to look at some gauges in our own lives.
Personally - between us and the Lord.
So consider before you leave tonight – what are your gauges telling you?