And so we have arrived at summertime.
“Summertime, and the living is easy.
Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high.”
George Gershwin wrote about the benefits of living in the summertime.
You and I think back to all those days spent during the summer…
Days when we’d play under that big tree, when we’d walk through the woods and worry about getting lost, days when we’d talk about setting up a lemonade stand and making a fortune. Days spent looking at life as the flowers and the trees and the wildflowers bloom and grow in the bright sunshine. Days spent playing with friends in the neighborhood because school was out.
And most people, even as adults, play more during the summertime.
We have cookouts, we have family and friends over, we go to the parks, the festivals, the beach, the family reunions. But of course, we also have to cut grass, weed gardens, and pay air conditioning bills. But still, summertime is when we meet people, talk with our neighbors, our family, our friends.
Summertime is a time when we aren’t quite as stressed, aren’t quite as worried, aren’t nearly as upset about today as we are in the wintertime, when the Christmas bills come due, when sickness haunts our homes, when deep snow and ice make walking next door treacherous, when we see the temporary death of all plants all around us and we are reminded that we, too, shall die. Summertime is a time to prepare for the hard times to follow.
The Song of Solomon – sometimes call the Song of Songs – is a love story set in the spring or summertime, the time of new life, between a man who appears to be King Solomon, and a Shulamite woman. She may have been from a village in the Galilean country, or she may have been from Salem – the town we call Jerusalem. Many commentators have compared the Shulamite woman to the church and Jesus to the man, who in our reading is being compared to a young male deer, or stag. Jesus and His Bride, the Church.
But you can read the Song of Solomon as simply a love poem, written by Solomon to his first wife, his first true love. Let me suggest that you and your spouse take turns reading the poem to each other. There are great benefits to this. The NIV has subheadings that help us understand when the man is speaking and when the woman is speaking.
Take time to read the Bible together. It is a wonderful way to bring your marriage together. Read and discuss the meanings of what you read.
And if you are dating someone or considering dating someone, there are two valuable tests that can help your relationship.
The first is whether the one you are dating will sit still to read the Bible with you. And the other test is whether the one you are dating will regularly begin attending church with you. It will tell you a lot about their character – and their philosophy, for a shared life philosophy is vital for a good marriage. And if both people regularly attend the same church, their life philosophies will grow together instead of apart as they age.
Our Gospel and New Testament readings today talk about sin and our perception of sin – as well as our excuses for avoiding the truth about Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Jesus had recently trained his twelve disciples and sent them out into the towns of Galilee to tell people that the Kingdom of Heaven was near. In prison, John the Baptist heard of this and sent his disciples to ask if Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Remember, John the Baptist was the very man who had declared to his disciples that Jesus was the Lamb of God. But time and events can shake the faith of most any man, and John the Baptist was no different. So he sent his discples to Jesus to ask Him if he was the Messiah.
Jesus replied with a strong statement. He had John’s disciples return to John and tell him of the great deeds and miracles Jesus had been doing: healing the lame, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and raising the dead. “Draw your own conclusions on the basis of what you see,” Jesus was saying.
Jesus pays compliments to John the Baptist, saying that he is the second Elijah returned to earth.
And then Jesus turns to the crowd around him and lets loose:
“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
“‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’
This was a taunting rhyme, like children today will chant jumping rope. The children complain that when they play the pipe, the flute, the person they are taunting doesn’t dance. They also complain that when they sing a dirge, a funeral song, the person doesn’t mourn. Of course, the reason is that those emotions of joy and sadness are more complex than simply the music we hear. The children are complaining that they can’t make the hearer do what they want simply by the songs they sing or play. And of course we know that there are days of joy and days of sorrow, but most days are somewhere in-between. Jesus says the crowd of people around him are like those children, wanting to control Him with their wants rather than looking at him and seeing what He is truly like.
Jesus continued:
"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ "
We might say today that Jesus was in a no-win game, for the crowd said John had a demon because he fasted so much, and they said Jesus was a glutton and a drunkard because he ate and drank with people.
You know…I know how he felt.
As you may have noticed, I am a bit large in size. And so, when I showed up here, I intentionally avoided staying at many of the lunch club and dinner meetings. And so people thought I was standoffish, when the real reason was that I was trying to lose weight and didn’t want to get the reputation of coming to the meetings “only for the food.”
It can be difficult for a new pastor in a church. I once saw a church attendance drop in half in six months after a good long-term pastor was transferred. The new guy had a great reputation, he’d served in churches just as large, just as important. He was just as good. But his crime was that he was a different person than the previous pastor. Not worse, just different. A man with different gifts and a different style.
But that was what Jesus dealt with. John the Baptist was a loner, so he must have a demon, the people said. Jesus hung out with everyone, so the people complained that he was a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. (You have to say it in a sneering, condescending tone.)
And Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of the good people of the good towns. These good Jewish towns ignored His miracles, they did not repent of their ways – but Jesus pointed out that Tyre and Sidon to the north of the Jewish territory, towns in the old land of Phoenicia, the land where Baal had been worshipped – they would have got the message. And there are longterm consequences. Jesus said that when the judgement day came, it would be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon than the good towns of Galilee.
He even tore into Caperneum, the town where He started his ministry in the synagogue. Would Capernaum be lifted up to Heaven because of its goodness? No, Capernaum would go to Hades – the land of the dead. And it will be more bearable for Sodom than for Capernaum.
Let’s look at what Jesus is truly talking about. The people Jesus tore into, the towns and villages He condemned – they were the very places that were known to the good people as good places with good people. Yet those people in those places were the people and places that Jesus said were going to Hell!
Why is that? What was Jesus saying?
When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, they fell because they ate the forbidden fruit. Not just any fruit, but a particular fruit. They ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
And by this knowledge gained, humans fell and were kicked out of the Garden. As Mark Twain wrote, “we lost our property.”
There is the story of the people of a far land, a people with a strange custom. They measure each other’s little finger each year. And each year, the length of the little finger determines who will be king. The king has the longest little finger, the nobles are the ten men with the next longest little fingers and so on down to the men and women and children who have lost their little fingers for some reason. Everything in their society is based upon the length of their little fingers. And, of course, almost everyone can point to another person who has a shorter little finger than they do, so everyone can feel superior to at least one other person, except those who have lost their little fingers through accident or as punishment for a crime. Those people are forever the slaves of the nation, for they deserve it for having lost their little fingers. Yet how could those people who had lost their little fingers through punishment ever escape their destiny?
Does it sound like a silly way to run a nation?
It is no different than the way people throughout history have chosen to declare others “good” or “bad” people.
You see, from Jesus’ point of view, almost all of the people in the world were evil. They were constantly looking at each other and pointing to each other – “at least I am better than the Joneses.” “At least my little finger is longer than Bill Jones.” What an excuse!
God doesn’t care. God cares about whether or not you will bow the knee to The Son, for if you will truly bow the knee to Jesus, you will truly listen to Him and try to follow Him. For if you bow the knee, God has eternity to guide us, to improve us, to fix what is wrong with us.
But we are so full of ourselves, empty of humbleness, and we don’t accept that we’ve been bought and paid for at a price, a very expensive price. We don’t like the idea that God is truly a perfect diamond while we are scratched glass.
But then again, no one understood that. Jesus Himself said that no one could understand that without Him.
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Only those to whom the Son chooses to reveal the Father will know Him. Do you want to know God, to understand God’s character, to see God in the flesh one day? Ask Jesus to reveal God to you, which Jesus will do when you bow before the Son, read the Word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit.
So much of the time, we avoid coming to God. Our friends stay away from church, avoiding God. Our relatives never read their Bibles, avoiding God. Why?
It is because all people are like the Apostle Paul. They know what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, what gives life and what gives death. Adults know these things – few adults need to be told that getting drunk every weekend is bad for you. Few adults need to be told that smoking will kill you. Few adults have missed the message that being angry or a gossip or always negative or popping pain pills will lead to destruction of relationships and friendships and our bodies. Adults know these things.
But, you see, people are turned off by us. People are turned off by the good people who go to church, the good people who have found their lives turned around, by the people who have grown up following Christ, for….we have forgotten how the average person feels, who the average person thinks, how much the knowledge of constant enslavement to chemicals, to passions, to desires, to sin tears us up on the inside. For we….we have been forgiven and set free from that daily, hourly pain. We no longer struggle with it ….if we ever did. And so we do not understand our neighbors, our friends, our relatives.
There are those who are successful in this life and those who have failed in this life by the world’s measurements. There are those who have the new cars, the nice homes, the handsome, kind husband or the beautiful, caring wife. And there are those who must rely upon social services, who have to move every few months because they don’t have the rent, who change boyfriends and girlfriends as often as the successful change shoes. Every day is a struggle for money, to get enough food, some clothes, pay the utilities, and find a bit of love. And they realize that the problem is that $5 a day package of cigarettes, the cost of the drink, the cost of the pills, the so-called friends that yell and scream and punch and kick at you.
But the successful have many of the same fears….for when you own a nice car, you worry about someone damaging it. When you have the nice home, you worry about burglary. When you’ve worked for years to earn a pension, you lean on that pension, that money that has to be there, for you don’t want to become one of them, the people across town, the people under the bridge, the people begging at Wal-mart. And those fears….fear of the layoff, fear of the company’s debt, fear of losing the good life… those are the fears that keep you up at night.
Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
George Barna of Barna Research recently conducted a survey of young adults who had chosen to attend church. The top five reasons they chose to attend were:
· Church helps my spiritual development (39 percent)
· Opportunity to find out more about God (38 percent)
· Opportunity to make friends and nurture friendships (38 percent)
· Knowing that anyone will be welcomed into the church community (38 percent)
· Opportunity for support during difficult times (37 percent)
These five reasons will motivate people to come to church.
And still people do not turn to Christ. They will come up with any excuse they can find…For example:
“I once attended church and the people were mean to me and my family.”
Yes, I believe you. For you see, every church is filled with a hundred people who are still trying to understand what Christ want’s from us and two or three people who have got it. And those two or three people don’t always include the pastor. That why we practice forgiveness here…Not only does God forgive people of their sins, but we try to forgive each other here when someone is having a bad day and says something mean or stupid or nasty. For we recognize that everyone is still human – a week in the church – or fifty years in the church – doesn’t make us perfect. It takes being the Son of God to be perfect. And even He sometimes said things that we might take as harsh, insensitive, and unfeeling….if we didn’t know His motives so well. Like the time He called a group of holy men “You brood of vipers” to their faces!
“I once prayed to God for my grandmother to live and she died. “
I realize you may be angry at God or have decided God doesn’t exist, but that’s what it means to trust in God, to accept God’s wisdom is more than ours, to truly believe that at the end of this life is another life where we see Christ in the flesh. That’s what it means to believe in God – to believe in God’s inherent goodness, wisdom, and power…and to believe that this life is short for all of us, that soon enough we will all die and see the other side.
“I hate being around church people because I feel they are judging me.”
Do you feel that about me? Do you feel that I am judging you or that I love you. Honestly, most people have more of their own issues on their minds than judging you. And that’s one reason I attend this church – I feel like the people there do love me and care for me. My Sunday School group has some of my closest friends I’ve ever known. I expect you’ll find friends, too. But you’ll need to learn to not judge others, to be loving also.
“Sunday morning is the only morning I get to sleep in or do things with the family.”
I used to feel that way too. But then I realized that I’m a grownup now and I have a family to lead. So I go to church because that’s what’s best for my family and me. It is the one time during the week when we are all exposed to happy, upbeat people that lift me up instead of put me down. And I need that for the rest of the week.
“I’m afraid I have some unusual ideas about God – I may not believe at all.”
You have the perfect answer here: "Our pastor used to be an atheist. He’s just the sort of person who can answer any questions you have and help you sort things out. "
Folks, people will give you all sorts of excuses. And any excuse will serve a tyrant – like the Devil desires to be. You may have noticed that most of these excuses are the flip side of why people actually choose to attend church. But there is one, deep, underlying excuse that drives everything.
When Satan went to Eve, he said to her, “If you eat that fruit, you will be like God.”
It has been said that the best lie is the one that is almost true. And Satan is the best liar.
When Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they realized their shame. You will remember that they made clothing from fig leaves to cover their nakedness. And they realized that they were no longer on good terms with God and so they hid from God.
People, we still do that today.
We still recognize our shame, our evil, our sin and we do not want to appear before God, for even the most devout atheist realizes deep down inside that he or she is not able to stand blameless before God. And so to cover up our shame, we pretend that we don't need God - we begin to act like little gods, completely independent, not needing help from anyone or anything. And it doesn't work - our shame only grows.
That very shame is what keeps people from coming to God. Everyone likes to sit near the front for a play or musical, but in the back row of church. It’s even here in this sanctuary – everyone wants to sit in the back, as far from God as possible.
We have to help people lose their shame before they will come to God, before they will be baptized, before they will come to church.
And the way we do that is to help people understand the love and forgiveness of God.
As you speak to your friend, your neighbor, your family member, there will come a time when they will tell you what they think is a deep, dark, secret. Perhaps it really will be a secret…perhaps it will be simply admitting what everyone around them already knows, that they have a chemical addition, that they have a problem choosing boyfriends or girlfriends, that they can’t handle their finances.
When that happens, simply say something like this:
“I understand. I once had a similar problem….and tell your story of how God rescued you. “
And then say,
“I know God already knows your secret and that you feel bad about it. God is ready to forgive you if you simply ask. Would you like to get right with God, following Jesus? Would you like me to pray with you?”
And if they say yes, say “I’ll pray a line, you simply repeat after me.”
“Heavenly Father,
I have done wrong.
Please forgive me.
I’d like to follow Jesus.
Jesus, please lead me and guide me. Teach me how to better live my life.
Amen.”
Then tell your friend, neighbor, or relative. “That’s it. Jesus is ready to guide you. Would you like me to pick you up for church Sunday morning around 9 o’clock or would you rather meet me there?”
And what about us? What about those of us that are part of the Church?
We become effective at spreading the Gospel when we also stop making excuses, any excuses. I’ve seen 98-year-old’s lead people to Christ – and I’ve seen 15 year olds lead people to Christ. I’ve seen highly educated men with doctorates bring people to salvation – and I’ve seen high school dropouts bring even more people to salvation. All it truly requires is to develop a certain set of habits.
First, ask God to send you people that need to hear about Christ.
Second, begin to look for how to praise God in all your conversations.
Third, recognize that bringing people to Christ is important, it is urgent, and it is something God is ready and willing to help you do.
Ask God to send you people, Praise God in front of people, and bring people to Christ.
Let me leave you with a beautiful picture today, a picture of Christ talking to the Church, to you and me as members of the Church.
There are those who see in the Song of Solomon a beautiful picture of Christ and His bride, the church. So as Solomon wrote:
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.”
Let us go out singing into the world, let us look for the early fruit of the Gospel harvest this week, finding people who need to hear that the winter of their life is past, the rains and storms are over and gone. Let’s join together to show more and more people the flowers of the earth and the beautiful fragrance of Jesus, as the blossoming vine that is the Church spreads over our land.
Amen.
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