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The Rev. Dr. Dennis E. Morey, Pastor
Scripture: Luke 3:7-18
Do the Right Thing
In our day we hear those words, “Do the right thing,” in many places. It is a recurring theme in many classrooms as teachers try to instill a sense of values in children. We hear it in movies and read its benefits in books and magazine articles.
I hope you had the opportunity to read the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, before you came today.
Although those words were written 500 years before the time of Christ, calling Israel back to its promises to God, the words fit just as surely as it is God’s message to the modern church, even the First Presbyterian Church of Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Malachi begins with God saying, “I have always loved you.” God loved Israel and promised Abraham it would be an important nation among the nations of the world. Israel was to be a nation of priests calling the world into a relationship with God.
Even today, we know that God’s love for us is the motivating factor for God’s action in our lives. It is because of God’s love for us that God continually desires a relationship with us, and calls us back away from our sin.
Malachi is saying, “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules. Do the right thing.”
The message from God points out that there is corruption among the priests. They keep the best for themselves and sacrifice on the altar of God that which is not fit to eat. The best of the flock is kept for the personal use of the priests, while the sick and lame animals are sacrificed to God.
Malachi is saying, “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules about worship. Do the right thing!”
The result is, when the priest prays to God for the people, God pays no attention to their prayers. God would prefer that the doors of the Temple be shut and the people kept out rather than have such a breach of the promises they made to God.
God said, “It is the duty of the priests to teach the true knowledge of God. People should go to them to learn my will, because they are the messengers of the Lord Almighty.” (Malachi 2:7, Good News Translation )
I am sad to say, there are some standing in pulpits today who are leading God’s people astray. They preach what they hope to be true as God’s truth. There are some who trust their feelings on the subject of sin, instead of what God says.
God says it would better for those pastors to nail the doors of the church shut and keep the people out than to lead them away from God’s word.
Malachi is saying to the priests, “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules about which sin is allowed and which is not. Do the right thing.”
The people were no longer keeping the promises they made to one another including the all-important promise in marriage. Even though the people drown the Lord’s altar with their tears of sorrow, because they have been unfaithful to their promises, God is under no obligation to hear their prayers.
Malachi is saying, “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules about the promises you make and the marriages vows you have pledged. Do the right thing.”
The people had tired the Lord out by saying that “God thinks those who do evil are good, in fact he likes them.”
In the church today we want to embrace everyone and say that all are welcome without ever confronting us about our sin. If this is part of Christ’s church, then we have to proclaim that Christ called sinners to repent and join his movement to bring the Kingdom of God to reality. Sinners are welcome, but we all must constantly work on leaving behind what God calls sin and aspiring to an ever-growing relationship with God.
Malachi is saying, “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules trying to apply your inclusiveness into God’s standards of behavior. Do the right thing.”
Malachi continues to say that God is tired of the people asking, “Where is the God who is supposed to be just?” Often in the church today, we want our kind of justice for all, our brand of justice which denies anyone justice who does not share our opinion. We constantly cry for tolerance while we are not tolerant of what God directs.
We had better hope we don’t get God’s justice, or we will all end up in real trouble. Instead we cry out for God’s mercy and pray for God’s mercy on others as well.
In the third chapter of Malachi we find God declaring that he will send a messenger to prepare the way: “Then the Lord everyone is looking for will appear in his Temple.” (Malachi 3:1) He said the messenger they all long to see will be like strong soap, like fire that refines metal.
God kept that promise in sending John the Baptizer to prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus, the Son of God.
Then God said that the people had been cheating him. They asked how they were cheating God, and God said, “You cheat me when you do not bring the full tithe to my Temple.” The people knew that it was supposed to be 10 percent of their income, but they got bogged down trying to define 10 percent—what does 10 percent mean?—just as the church argues about it today.
Is it 10 percent after taxes? What about my investments? Do I pay 10 percent on what I gain? What about those years when I have lost money? Can’t I give part of my 10 percent to other good causes, like United Way, or the William Penn College, aren’t Girl Scout cookies considered giving to a worthy cause? When I buy popcorn from the Boy Scouts, is that part of my tithe?
Malachi is saying, “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules and wiggle out of bringing to God’s storehouse the whole tithe. Do the right thing.”
In the Scripture reading for today, from the third chapter of Luke, John the Baptizer appears as the one who was sent to be the messenger who would go before the Lord, as Malachi predicted.
John did not go into to Jerusalem. He thought the city was corrupt and he did not want to be corrupted by its temptations. He knew what he believed and he stayed away from anything that might confuse him, or deter him from his work.
When people went out to meet John, he could see by the way they dressed that they had given into the temptations of status and wealth. He called them snakes and asked who had told them there was a way to escape what was coming to them. Saying they were Jews and thus as the children of Abraham they were God’s beloved was not going to cut it. They knew the right thing to do, but they weren’t doing it.
John said that God has his ax ready to cut down trees at their roots when God does not find fruit on those trees.
The tree of tradition only proclaimed the Jews as supreme and the other people as lost. The tree of rules declared that only a few of the elite Jews would qualify for God’s attention.
The tree of wealth was used to keep them comfortable while others suffered hunger. Those trees were soon to be cut down because they had produced nothing for the Kingdom of God.
John was saying “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules that always exonerate you. Do the right thing.”
The people said, “Help us out here, what is the right thing?”
John gave them a brief outline: “Whoever has a closet full of clothes; share what you have with those who need clothing. Whoever has food, share it with those who are hungry. Don’t overcharge if you collect taxes. You people in high positions, don’t take bribes, and be content with your pay.”
I like what verse 15 says: “The people were filled with expectation.” The Good News Bible says, “People’s hopes began to rise…”
The people suddenly saw the possibility that if they began doing what they knew was the right thing to do there would be hope for a better world.
John’s voice is joined with Malachi’s, “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules. Do the right thing!”
Today we look at the decline in church membership among what used to be the mainline denominations of the Christian church and we are sad to hear about the closing of churches, while it seems that a pastor can come and begin with just a few people meeting in a house and in a few short years that small group has grown into a huge congregation.
I remember over three decades ago when I was a seminary student professors would say, “This won’t last. It can’t. There is no formal organization. These non-denominational churches may grow quickly, but they will quickly fade away.”
Today many of the largest churches in our country aren’t connected to any kind of formal denomination. Those who have held on to their traditions and their endowments have dwindled to nothing.
A church in Des Moines has voted to close. The houses in the neighborhood are not vacant. Families live close by, but the church has not reached out to them. The original congregation has dwindled and can’t afford a pastor. They have lived off the rent of their land and now it has gotten to the point that the rent can’t pay the bills.
Several years ago I was sent to visit with that Session about their future. When they brought up finances, I brought up Malachi’s advice and read God’s words, “Bring the full amount of your tithes to the Temple, so that there will be plenty of food there. Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things.”
One person replied, “We used to be better givers, but now we have our kids raised and we live on a limited income, so we feel we have done our part. There is just not a core of people to pick up the torch.”
Malachi would say, “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules about retirement, and your part being done because your kids are raised. Do the right thing!”
The people who will listen to God’s message and change their ways will be like those who heard John’s sermon, as in verse 15 of today’s scripture: “People’s hopes began to rise.” Verse 18: In many different ways John preached the good news to the people and urged them to change their ways.”
If we have any hope for the future, it is not in what we have done in the past, it is not in our traditions, our positions, or our wealth, our hope comes when we hear this message: God says, “You know that I have always loved you. You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules. Do the right thing!”
Where is our hope? What is the future for our congregation? What is going to happen to the First Presbyterian Church of Oskaloosa, Iowa? God’s message to us was mailed 2,500 years ago and it arrives today. “You know what you should be doing. Stop trying to make up new rules. Do the right thing!”
Amen.
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Luke 3:7-18 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. (From the
New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible) |
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