A Man After God's Own Heart

Acts 13:15-33     (NRSV)

After the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it.” So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak:

“You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’ Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised; before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his work, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet.’

“My brothers, you descendants of Abraham’s family, and others who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him. Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead; and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,

‘You are my Son;

    today I have begotten you.’

Even before a new pastor arrives at a church they hear stories about king David.

King David is not the mythical figure of Hebrew Bible lore, but rather the mythical figure in the history of the particular church.

Before I even arrived (and ever since) I have heard stories of Meridian Street's King David

Like most king David stories, they take on a life of their own.

Arriving as I did, on the cusp of the 200th Anniversary of Meridian Street, I have tried to understand the ministries of the previous men and woman whose seat I now have the privilege of occupying.

And the funny thing is --- even thought I have read the histories of Meridian Street, and tried to understand the progression of this wonderful congregation.  The truth is, the history of Meridian Street --- in most people's minds --- goes back at best to the building of this wonderful structure.

In the corporate memory of Meridian Street the years prior to moving to 5500 North Meridian Street seem like ancient history.

But even saying the history starts with this building is a bit of a stretch. 

The real history begins in 1962 with the ministry of Dick Lancaster.

Many, many, many of you have regaled me with Dr. Lancaster stories.

Nobody talks about the pastors who preceded Dr. Lancaster

          Except maybe Buddy Hall, when I have asked him about his dad

          Logan Hall

          Frank Templin

And nobody talks about the pastors that followed Dr. Lancaster except to tell a story of how they broke protocol that Dr Lancaster created, or stepped on sacred ground.

          Walking down the center aisle

I know nothing about

Rev Schwein (unless it is bad --- although my best friend said he was the best preacher he ever heard)

Cindi Alte --- Her brief tenure when Schwein left abruptly but she was then replaced with quite a bit of unhappiness just a few months later

          Rev Miller --- Nobody talks about him --- although I have heard he is a nice guy

Rev Wantz --- even he seems to be ancient history and not the Sr. Pastor just 12 years ago

Anne, of course is a different story --- I have gotten to know her personally and can see the wonderful life changing ministries she instituted here.

I know this is going to date me, and maybe they weren't popular here, but in the early 90's --- Gatorade put out a series of commercials that featured Michael Jordan with an amazingly catchy tune -- inviting us to BE LIKE MIKE -- do you remember them?

Michael Jordan became a mythical figure that everyone wanted (and many still want) to emulate.

David, King of the Jewish people, was the same way.

When Saul was chosen to be the first King of the Jewish people, he failed in his task as king, and Samuel had this exchange with him:

1 Samuel 13:13-14

“How stupid of you to have broken the commands the Lord your God gave you!” Samuel told Saul. “The Lord would have established your rule over Israel forever, but now your rule won’t last. The Lord will search for a man following the Lord’s own heart, and the Lord will commission him as leader over God’s people, because you didn’t keep the Lord’s command.”

And God chose David: "a man after his own heart"

Over a 1000 years later he was remembered by the author of the Book of Acts:

          Acts 13:22

[God] said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’

For 1000 years, the kings of Israel had attempted to live up to the ideal that became King David, and for a 1000 years they all failed and fell short of his glory.

And then, sometime around 4 BCE a baby is born in an obscure portion of the Roman Empire.

Both Matthew and Luke in their birth narratives want to make something abundantly clear.

          This is no ordinary baby

This baby, born in a cave in the insignificant town of Bethlehem is not insignificant

This baby is from the line and lineage of David --- THAT DAVID

And this baby will fulfill all the promises that have gone unfulfilled since the time of David

          He will reestablish the kingdom

                   restore and unify it bringing together all the dispersed tribes

          He will throw out the imperial invaders (the Romans)

He will re-establish a corporate relationship with God by being the True High Priest

THESE ARE THE STORIES that are being told about Jesus.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to grow up being told that YOU are the new DAVID, the Greatest King of all time --- that YOU are the Hope and Restoration of Israel

The weight must have been unbearable

From the stories I have heard, the weight of following the King David of Meridian Street was devastating on many of those who followed him

I have told you --- my goal for 2019 is to help you fall in love with Jesus --- maybe for the first time --- maybe in a whole new way

But we cannot fall in love with someone that we don't know

Love is not an intellectual assent to an idea --- it is a relationship

So we must try build a relationship and try to understand what motivated and influenced Jesus

          What made him love God completely?

          So that we too may fall in love with him completely

My goal during this season of epiphany and beyond has been to help you understand some of the key concepts that influenced Jesus in the first century of the common era.

We have looked at seven important concepts

1.       God is creator of all

2.       Sin is what keeps us from a relationship with God

3.       God desires and makes a covenant with his People

                   Israel is God's chosen people

                   But Israel is to be a light to the world

4.       Failure to follow God --- to break the covenant with God --- has consequences

                   The result can be catastrophic

                             Destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel 721/722

                             Destruction of the Temple and Judah 587

5.       But even despite the consequences --- God is faithful and restores his People

6.       But it is not the people who restore the relationship with God --- Restoration is all God's doing

                   Humility is the lesson of exile

7.       The people (then and today) long for a savior

Jesus enters humanity with all these factors playing into how people perceived and understood him.

And many of them impact how we understand and build a relationship with him

But throughout his life, Jesus really seems to have ONE goal

          To bring people into a closer relationship with God

And we have been invited to emulate the mission of Jesus

          Loving our enemies

          Seeking God’s justice for all

          Recognizing that ALL are children of our creator God

But first and foremost --- PUTTING GOD FIRST in our lives

          Loving God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength --- with our very being

Only once we love the God we encounter in Jesus --- can we love LIKE God and love ALL of our neighbors

Jesus constantly demonstrates the HE is the one after God’s own heart

          And he invites us to join him on this journey of love

How Could This Happen?

Psalm 137:1-6   (NRSV)

By the rivers of Babylon—

    there we sat down and there we wept

    when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there

    we hung up our harps.

For there our captors

    asked us for songs,

and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How could we sing the Lord’s song

    in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

    let my right hand wither!

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,

    if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

    above my highest joy.

Despite what the God is Dead movie franchise tries to suggest, Christians in the United States do not really face religious persecution. 

And when we do talk about persecution it usually is in movies like God is Dead that create a ridiculous straw man to try and suggest how terrible it is for Christians today in the United States.

But for the Jewish people, their lives were filled with persecution, destruction, deportation, and even death.  And those experiences have had a profound effect on the stories that have been passed down and are now a part of our Biblical tradition.

Israel has faced numerous periods of persecution and captivity.

The great narrative of the Hebrew Bible speaks to the most urgent needs all people have:

·         including the need to be connected and grounded,

·         to be protected and to belong,

·         to know who you are and where you fit in.

The Hebrew Bible contains the stories of the people of God when they seemingly lost all of that.

People torn away from their land,

          torn up as a people,

          and torn down by humiliating loss.

And it didn't happen just once or twice --- Israel's history is the history of a people who lived under oppression --- even in modern history.

I don't know how well you know your geography --- but in this case it is very important.

Israel is a tiny land bridge between Africa and Asia.

If you wanted to go to Egypt --- the only way by land was through the tiny country of Israel

If you wanted to go to Asia or Europe --- Israel was the path way.

Thus Israel played a significant geo-political role throughout its history --- even if only as a pawn.

Controlling this land bridge was essential for defense (and for aggression)

The bible is filled with stories of the back and forth --- the tug and pull to control this tiny strip of land.

Our first encounter is when Abraham leaves the security of the rivers of Mesopotamia and settles in and around modern day Hebron before finding his way to Egypt.

While in Egypt, the ancient Israelites become slaves to Pharaoh and eventually fled to the land of the Canaanites and settled in what is now the modern state of Israel.

          That took place somewhere around the year 1250 BCE

David becomes king of Israel in 1000 BCE but the country is never at peace. 

          There is always a tug from Egypt or a pull from Babylon

Following David's death, Solomon his son becomes king, and after Solomon's death the country is in turmoil

The 10 northern tribes split from the Davidic Dynasty and become the Northern kingdom of Israel centered at Dan.

In 721/722 BCE the Northern kingdom is overrun by the Assyrians

The Assyrian practice was to scatter the people whom they overran and move other conquered people in.

Thus the 10 tribes were scattered and lost to history as they were dispersed throughout the Assyrian empire.

125 years later the unimaginable happens --- the southern kingdom of Judah, which was centered in Jerusalem, is over-run by the Babylonians. 

Jerusalem is destroyed, the temple is torn down and ransacked and the people --- the elite --- were gathered up and taken into captivity to Babylon.

It was during this time that the Psalmist wrote:

By the rivers of Babylon—

    there we sat down and there we wept

    when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there

    we hung up our harps.

For there our captors

    asked us for songs,

and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How could we sing the Lord’s song

    in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

    let my right hand wither!

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,

    if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

    above my highest joy.

I cannot even imagine what it must have been like for the people of Judah --- forced to live in a foreign land --- pining for Jerusalem and home.

The stories of their captivity and eventual return fill the books of the prophets and have influenced Judaism ever since.

In 538 BCE, Cyrus (the only non-Jew to be called God's Messiah in the Hebrew Bible) let the Jews return home and rebuild their temple and city.

But the conquest of the Jewish people was not over.

In 333 BCE Alexander the Great conquered the known world and Israel was under Greek occupation until the revolt by the Maccabees in 167 BCE.

The Jewish Hamonean's dynasty ruled until about 63 BCE when Rome conquered Jerusalem.

 And once again became a puppet state to a foreign country

This is the world that Jesus was born into.

A world that had been torn asunder from the dream that God had instilled in Abraham and David.

Before the Babylonian exile, Jewish religious life revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem.

When the Babylonians expelled the Jews from Judea, they destroyed the Temple completely.

Jewish law stipulated that certain important aspects of Jewish religious life -- most notably animal sacrifice -- could only be performed at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Since the Jews now lacked both a temple and the ability to go to Jerusalem, changes were needed to retain their cultural and religious identity.

The result was the rise of the synagogue among the Jews dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire.

The focus shifted from animal sacrifices, to the study and teaching of the Torah -- the Jewish Bible -- which became the focal point of worship in the synagogues.

The results of Exile were predictable.

If you go and read the stories found in Ezra and Nehemiah you read of

·         fears of immigrants

·         a need for racial purity

·         xenophobia

·         an inward focus and a desire to return to some idealized past

But Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah and many of the other prophets called for Israel not to turn inward, but instead to become a light to the nations

To welcome the stranger that was in their midst

Jesus is born into this world in turmoil

          A people trying to find their identity while being captives

          A nation trying to seek God

And Jesus was certainly influenced by the communal experience of exile.

And instead of turning inward --- Jesus saw in the exile experience --- humility.

Instead of protecting himself --- Jesus made himself vulnerable to those who were still living in exile even among their own people.

For his entire life, Jesus reached out and welcomed the least, the lost and the last.

Whether it was the woman with a hemorrhage, or the woman at the well --- Jesus is reaching out to those who were still experiencing exile.

          Unwelcome in their own land

          Unwelcome in the community

He is constantly accused of eating with "sinners", inviting everyone that he meets to God's table fellowship.

Ultimately, Jesus pays the ultimate price for his unconventional attitude toward those still in exile

One of the things that I love about being a United Methodist is that we have an open table.

Everyone is welcome to come.

          You don't earn it

          You don't have to believe in it

          You just have to come to it

We are a church that is open to all of God's children

At the table we embody our logo

                    Open Hearts

                   Open Minds

                   Open Doors

          We are one of the few traditions that have a table that is open to all!

I have never been evicted from my land

          My church has never been torn down

          And to be honest, I cannot imagine what exile feels like

Yet in our midst

          In our church

          In our neighborhoods

          At our work places and schools

          Throughout our city, nation and world

There are many, many people who have been pushed into exile

          Told they don't belong

          Shunned because they don't believe the right things

                   Or live on the right side of the tracks

                   Or the color of their skin is wrong

                   Or their sexual orientation is different

Who is living in exile in your midst?

And if you can't think of anyone --- I would suggest you are not looking very hard

Who needs to know that they are loved? --- that they are a child of God.

As you get ready to make your way up to God's table

An invitation that is given to you not because of anything you have done -- but because of what God has done

Who do you need to welcome?

Take some time and ask God to help you to welcome those who still live in exile.

A Covenant Relationship With Consequences

This was intended to be last Sunday's sermon, but the weather in Indianapolis didn't cooperate. This is the third (Matt preached previous two) in a series looking at the Jewish influences on Jesus' life.  

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

. . .

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land,

According to biblical tradition, Israel became a community by virtue of entering into a covenant with God.  That covenant took place at Sinai and is found in the book of Exodus.

There are several other covenants mentioned in the Hebrew Bible --- including the one we just heard which is the promise of the land for Israel.

In English, the word covenant refers to a binding agreement between two parties. 

The Hebrew word for covenant is b’rit.

It is one of the most frequently used words in Hebrew Scriptures (close to 300 times) and is one of the Scripture’s most important concepts.

In English, covenant has connections with contracts, negotiations, deals and pacts.  Typically to make one of these covenants official it is signed by both parties.

Some of the most popular covenants in our culture involve real estate ---

          most often stipulating what can be done, or how land can be used.

When the covenant or contract is violated by one part or the other – courts often get involved.

The other major covenant in our society is the marriage covenant.

In the bible, the word b’rit also describes a binding agreement.

          It is even occasionally used in regard to marriage

More commonly, b’rit refers to a treaty, alliance or trade agreement.

These types of agreements between people are referred to in the bible dozens of times.

But b’rit is most frequently used to describe the relationship between God and God’s people.

The idea is that God and the people are bound together in the closest imaginable ways.

Think of some of the ways covenants were ratified in the Hebrew bible.

At the end of this covenant section of Genesis in chapter 17 God commands

“As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. . . . So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Later in the Hebrew bible this idea will be expanded and the prophet Jeremiah will talk about a circumcision of the heart.

"Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,

    remove the foreskin of your hearts"

God wants our hearts, our very lives to be different

To have our heart circumcised is to become vulnerable and sensitive to God’s ways.

Today we would talk about SIGNING a contract

In the biblical story a b’rit was not signed

          Instead it would be cut.

If you were to actually read the original Hebrew --- while our English translation might talk about someone “making a covenant” --- the Hebrew would actually say “cutting a b’rit”

These ancient covenants were often made by animal sacrifice.

To “cut a covenant” demonstrated the earnestness of the parties involved in the agreement.

This is exactly what the passage we listened to this morning told us:

“Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other

After cutting them in half, those making the covenant would walk between the bleeding corpses.

Some scholars argue that the reason animal sacrifice was used was to remind them that to violate the covenant meant that they deserved to die, just like the animals that were sacrificed to seal the covenant

What is important to understand is that a b’rit was not to be taken lightly.

It created a powerful bond between God and God’s people.

Our English word covenant just doesn’t carry the same weight or expectations that is found in the Hebrew b’rit

Richard Rubenstein -- President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Religion at the University of Bridgeport writes:

Of special importance to the covenant relationship is the conviction that God exercises his power in a manner that is both ethical and rational. Put differently, there was thought to be a predictable and dependable relationship between Israel’s conduct and the manner in which God exercised his power over his people.

For Jewish people at the time of Jesus, obedience to the terms of the covenant is the path of life; rejection of the covenant is pretty much a guarantee of the individual’s election of misfortune, unhappiness, and death.

Jesus and his fellow Jews would have sought ways to restore or strengthen their relationship with God --- and the way they would have understood that was through the covenant.

The Covenant was God’s abiding promise.

Jeremiah 31 (31-33) would have been familiar words of hope.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

While most Christians hear those words and think they Jeremiah was referring to the Christian Church which somehow replaced the Jewish people in God’s plan, that clearly isn’t true

This is a covenant for and with the people of Israel, not instead of them.

Non-Jewish Christians are made partakers of the covenant promises given to Israel but they do not replace the Jewish people as the recipients of God’s covenantal purposes and election

That is the world of Jesus --- and Jesus reminded us over and over that he did not come to replace the covenant.

If we want to understand Jesus, we must understand what b’rit meant to him and to his brothers and sisters.

Last Sunday we remembered Martin Luther King by sharing his Letter From A Birmingham Jail --- one of his most remarkable legacies --- but throughout his life, Martin Luther King kept trying to remind white America of the Covenant that they had with their black brothers and sisters.

          A covenant that he felt we had not lived up to

          And an argument that he would continue to make today

One of the hallmarks of being a United Methodist is the belief that God still calls us into covenant

While we don’t practice sacrificing animals to seal the covenant, John Wesley and the early Methodists did call us into covenant relationship.

One of the ways we do this, in many United Methodist Church’s there is the practice of sharing together in a covenant renewal service.

We did this the past two years at our Sunday after Christmas service as a way to begin the new year.

One of the prayers that is used is Wesley’s Covenant prayer

I want to end by sharing a contemporary version of it

I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you,

Praised for you or criticized for you.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service.

And now, O wonderful and holy God,

Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,

you are mine, and I am yours.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it also be made in heaven.  Amen.