July 12, 2009

2009 07 12

Drawing Nearer

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

Psalm 24

Ephesians 1:3-14    (extra emphasis)

Mark 6:14-29

As I was preparing my sermon for this morning, my thought went to my Aunt Lorna.  Now, Aunt Lorna was my mother's younger sister.  She and my mom were very close.  When I was little, I remember that our families spent a lot of time together.  Aunt Lorna did not have an easy life.  When I was about 3 or 4 years old, my uncle Les went out for ice cream on New Year's Eve, and didn't come back.  He left my aunt and 4 children ages 10-17 to pretty much fend for themselves.  With some help, hard work, and a lot of prayer, she pulled it together and finished raising what was now...her family. 

Sometime in the mid-1990's, her health began to decline.  She had minor heart issues, but now was starting to have problems with her hands and feet.  Eventually, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  Her children pulled together to provide some care.  But eventually, they were unable to care for her the way she needed, and she was placed in a rehab and care facility. 

This took place right around the time I came to faith in Jesus.  Although we had grown apart over the years, something told me that I needed to go visit her.  It wasn't just something, it was the Lord.  I started visiting her when I could.  It wasn't easy to make the time or to get out there, and the facility was not exactly a joyful place, but I went.  We remembered old times and rebuilt our relationship, and I know that it was an absolute blessing to both of us during our visits. 

Aunt Lorna had been on the waiting list to get into a much nicer care facility that was farther away.  Finally, she got in there.  Although it was nicer, with a private room, and a motorized chair, she was there only a few days before she passed away.  Before the funeral service, family members were asked if they would like to say something or give a remembrance.  Surprisingly, only her oldest son agreed.  The Lord put it on my heart to say something as well.  ME!  Folks, you have to understand, I was the person, who in high school and college, avoided any classes that had speeches or presentation in front of people.  And I had about 5-10 minutes to think of something to say in her remembrance.  The Lord blessed me in that time.  In standing in front of friends, family, and people gathered there that day, the Lord put in my heart the call...to become a pastor. 

I look back and I think...what if?  What if I had never gone back and spent time with her?  What if I had decided that I was just too busy, or that spending time with her just wasn't that important?  As I drew near to my aunt in her last few months, I didn't realize it, but I was drawing nearer to God.

I know that this may have been a rather strange example, and maybe I am simply stating the obvious, but we need to draw nearer to God.  A former pastor of mine made a point that I have always remembered.  She told me that any time you are coasting...it means you are going downhill.  Did you catch that?  Any time you are coasting...you are going downhill.  You are either drawing nearer to God, or you are drifting away from him.  There is no level ground because that is how the world is.  The world, its forces, its leaders, and its guides do not want us following God or even getting close to him.  So it tilts the table away from God.  I want us to look at two people here this morning that make pretty good examples of what I am talking about:  King David and Herod Agrippa.

King David had it all.  He was the king of all Israel.  He succeeded Saul as the leader of the people of God.  He started out as a shepherd boy, the youngest in his family, but was chosen by God to lead Israel's armies and fight its battles.  David was anointed as king of Israel.  After many difficulties and struggles, he led Israel into a time of peace and prosperity.  In this time, he did not forget the Lord. 

Many years earlier, the Philistine army invaded Israel.  They made off with the Ark of the Covenant.  Created in the time of Moses, the Ark was to be the resting place for God's presence.  Wherever the Ark was, God was.  However, the Philistines worshipped other gods.  So wherever the Ark was with the Philistines, it brought hardship, disease, and tumors upon the people of that town.  In 1 Samuel 6, the Philistines put the Ark on a cart and sent it toward Israel.  It crossed the border and was taken to the Israelite town of Kiriath Jearim where it remained for 20 years.

David gathered his men to bring the Ark back to its rightful place in Jerusalem.  David wanted the presence of the Lord where it belonged, where it could blessed them as a nation.  David wanted to be closer...closer than he already was...to God. 

It was a celebration!  ⁵ David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals..... ¹⁴ David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, ¹⁵ while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.  They were not bringing back a piece of treasure.  They were bringing the presence of the Lord back to his people.  It was a joyous celebration of worship.  ¹⁹ Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women.  See they even had an type of potluck after the celebration.  When you draw nearer to God, you will still have trials and struggles, but you will most certainly gain great joy.

On the other hand, we have Herod.  King Herod Agrippa  ruled Jerusalem in the time Jesus.  As he heard the stories of Jesus and his ministry, he became consumed with fear.  Herod thought that Jesus was perhaps the reincarnation of John the Baptist.  Herod had married his brother's wife Herodias.  John the Baptist had spoken out against this adultery.  Now, Herod liked John the Baptist even though John spoke against him and Herodias.  Herodias conspired with her daughter.  Her daughter danced for Herod, and in a moment of passion, Herod promised the young girl anything her heart desired.  When the daughter conferred with Herodias, she demanded the head of John the Baptist.  Herod had John beheaded.

Herod was like so many of us.  He heard John's words and he was drawn to them.  Herod has every chance to respond...to repent.  Herod could have made things right and drawn nearer to God.  But he was afraid.  Herod was afraid of what others might think.  He was afraid of what his wife might think.  He was the king.  Although he promised the girl anything she wanted, when she asked for the head of John the Baptist, he could have said...no.  Choose something else.  ²⁶ The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her.  Herod could have embraced the teachings of John the Baptist, and eventually Jesus.  He could have reached out and drawn nearer to God, but he was afraid.  And the darkness and fear moved him father away.

L:  Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?

P:  Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.

L:  They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation.

P:   Such is the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Drawing near to God takes effort on our part.  We can believe in God, and our faith can bring us close to God, closer than when we did not believe.  Closer than when our unbelief separated us from God.  Then, in faith, we can come and worship.  And in the hearing of God's word, in singing and praise, in prayer, in community together, and in communion with God and each other...we draw closer still.  Yet, there can still be separation from God.  It is the separation in which we say, that's close enough, God.  I like you around me, but...I don't want you that close.  Let me keep this addiction. It's not a big one.  Let me keep this heartbreak.  I can handle that.  Let me keep my anger and bitterness.  Let me keep my bad attitudes.  They don't hurt anyone but me anyhow. 

Just because we come to church or we get religion, it doesn't mean that we are really willing to draw fully near to God.  In Jesus Christ, all the walls...all the barriers to life, to love, to joy...to God himself have been torn down.  So we often build our own.  We don't let many people in our personal space...inside our inner sanctuaries...because we are afraid that they might hurt us.  They might abandon us when we open our hearts to them.  We take all of these fears and mistrusts of people and others...and we apply it to God. 

But this doesn't apply to him.  God does not enter our lives to hurt us.  He does not come to us to break our hearts and abandon us.  Sometimes, when we come closer to God, we do feel pain.  When we draw near to him, the light of his love shines on us, revealing our weakness, our shame, and our sin.  But God does not draw us close to him just so he can rub our noses in humanity.  He comes near to us to share his glory. 

In Jesus, God took on human form.  He endured all the physical and emotional scars that any of us could ever hope to endure.  Jesus died on the cross to destroy the final barrier of death that stood between us and the Father in heaven.  He died and rose again to draw us into a relationship so close...so tightly-knit...even closer than friendship.  He calls us to become his children. 

⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

¹³ Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-- to the praise of his glory.

He wants us closer to him than anything or anyone in this world.  But the choice is up to you.  You can live like David.  Living, celebrating, dancing with joy in the presence of the Lord...or you can be like Herod...afraid, worried what other might think, worried what others might do.  Don't let you life be filled with "what ifs?"  I am telling you that each and every one of us is called draw near to the Lord, open up our hearts, pour ourselves out, and let him live and reign in us.

24:9 Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.¹⁰ Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory.