God Is an Awesome God

Job 42:1-6; James 4:13-17; 5:7-11; Mark 9:38-50

Our Old Testament lesson for today puts Job in the midst of speaking to God concerning his own vast understanding about God's wonderful power and glory. When he was afflicted with pain and misery and loss he had been very perplexed and confused and was even angry at God. And sometimes this is the way we react to bad things that happen in our lives. Rather than seeking comfort and solace and help and strength and power from God, we sometimes tend to blame God for the things that go wrong in our lives. And blaming is a negative thing that doesn't get us anywhere.

And as Job experienced his sufferings, he also had his friends. And these friends, rather than coming to him with help, and comfort, and food, and shelter, and medicine for his sores, and aid, simply stood there and tried to figure out what Job had done against God to deserve his pain. And, sometimes we do this, too, don't we? Rather than give someone the help they need, we philosophize about what that person did to get into the mess they're in. We say, "Well, that guy should have stayed in school!" Or we say, "Well, if she hadn't been drinking she wouldn't have lost her job!" Or we say, "Well, if so and so had been raised right he wouldn't be in trouble with the law!" And, so we sometimes dismiss ourselves from the kind of love and care we should have for our neighbors.

Job experienced this kind of treatment from those who had been his friends in better times. And such treatment from those friends probably hurt more than all the other pain he had suffered. In a way, I'm reminded of the story of the Good Samaritan. Perhaps it is because we are taking a special offering for the Samaritan Center, today, but the point is this: In the story of the good Samaritan, it wasn't the persons who you would have thought would have helped the man lying in the ditch. Rather, it was the man you would have least expected to help who did the helping. And, in Jesus' telling of the story, the point is clear: It is God's people whom you would expect to do the loving and the caring. And God's people are put to shame every time someone who you would least expect to do it comes along and really cares.

As I look into our community I see secular Social Services agencies who are doing the job of dealing with the needs of the poor while many of the churches have, for the most part, simply forgotten that this is one of very things Christ told his disciples to care about. And, indeed, in the midst of thousands of private clinics for those who need psychological counseling there are relatively very few Christian, church supported counseling services for those who want psychological counseling from a Christian perspective. Indeed, the vast number of helping persons who you would least expect to help, often puts those who should help, but don't, to shame.

Certainly, my friends, we who call ourselves Christians should be first in line to help when the call goes out. Rather than trying to dismiss ourselves by condemning a person, we should take that person by the hand to see if there is something we can do.

Last week we had a person in our church who was telling us that it is our job to be evangelists. That man came to us and said, "Look! Jesus told his disciples to go out into all the world and preach the gospel. And, I do not believe," he said, "that the Great Commission has since been repealed!" And, yet, there are some people running all over communities who are doing a fantastic job of sharing what it is that they believe in.

I had a vacuum cleaner salesman come to my house a several years ago. And he was so enthusiastic about his vacuum cleaner that the way he talked about it just made me want to invite him to come in. And before I could even say the words he was standing in my living room, dumping a handful of dirt on my rug and showing me how his peach of a vacuum cleaner would not only suck up that dirt, but clean that part of the carpet cleaner than the surrounding carpet! And he even showed me how that vacuum cleaner could clean the carpet, even after I had vacuumed it with our old vacuum cleaner. He showed me how wonderful that vacuum cleaner was that I knew I just had to buy it! And I did, even though it was heavy, even though it made a lot of noise, even though it was hard to use, even though it really wasn't such a wonderful vacuum cleaner at all.	But what I can't figure out is how come even though Christ has called us to be his salesmen and women we can't seem to get as enthusiastic about the wonderful, eternal life-giving, salvation producing, gospel as that guy was about a vacuum cleaner that really wasn't all that good!

We have Jehovah's witnesses combing our community twice a year, passing out their literature and boldly going where no United Methodist has gone before! We have Mormon missionaries roving our community almost every week, going two by two to person's homes to share their book, written in the 1830's simply because someone got mad at the Masonic movement. We have persons coming in from all sorts of churches in the country, in other towns and villages, going door to door in the hope that they might sway someone to come and visit on a Sunday morning. And all of this is sadly happening while many of us sit and think that we don't have to be evangelists, we don't have to share our faith, we don't have to invite persons to come to church, we don't have to tell somebody about Jesus, we don't have to do miracles, we don't have to walk on water, 'cause that's why we hired the preacher!

Back in 1962, the year we started to worship in this room, there were over 300 members in this church. And I can tell you why. It is because those of you who were here back then, and those who were your parents or your parents' age thoroughly believed that inviting a person to church, that telling a person about salvation, that bringing a person to Christ was the most wonderful thing that a person could do in his or her life. But, sometimes I wonder if we really believe that anymore.

We have a visitor with us today who has been working in Indonesia as a missionary. Her name is Marilyn Wykes. And she is going to be here after church today, talking with the adult Church School classes and anyone else who would like to stay around to hear about her exciting work. Indeed, I hope you stay around to listen! For if you do, I'm sure she'll tell you that God calls all of us to be in mission, not only in countries far away, not only by sending your dollars to support OMS missionaries, but also by sharing your faith and your life with others so that others may see Christ's love and light brightly burning in you. How many of you will stay and listen to Marilyn Wykes, today? If this was 1962 the pews would be filled after church with persons taking advantage of this opportunity. How many will there be, today?

Jesus has not repealed the Great Commission. It is still our job to go forth into all the world to share the gospel. And it doesn't matter whether it is near or far, across the street or around the world. Christ calls his people to be worth their salt, or as today's gospel lesson puts it: "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?" How can we get that spirit back that we had when we first moved into this room?

I was talking with Alice Fleming on the telephone the other day. Remember Alice? You know what she said? She told me to tell you that it is up to you to decide whether the best of Corunna United Methodist Church is in the past or in the future. That's what Alice said. And, you know, she's was right. Amen.