July 5, 2009

2009 07 05

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of...

Ezekiel 2:1-5

Psalm 123
2 Corinthians 12:2-10

The Fourth of July.  Fireworks, picnics, parades, and family gatherings.  These are just a few of the ways we have to celebrate this great holiday.  Friday night, we sat in the Clyde High School parking lot and watched the fireworks with Dan and Denise Riegel.  In the newspaper, Jennifer had noticed that there was going to be a concert at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center on Saturday.  The Toledo Symphony Concert Band played there.  It was a beautiful day, and although I am not necessarily concert kind of person...there is not much better than listening to a really good band playing patriotic music on the fourth of July.  There was a salute to all the men and women who have served in the armed forces, and they even had cannons firing during the 1812 Overture.  It really was something.  We did not go to the Green Springs fireworks because we thought it might be a little too late for Katie to be up after everything else.  I heard that the fireworks there were great too. So next year, we'll try to make it over there.

Again, there are many ways for us to celebrate the 4^th of July.  But the holiday is more than just a day of food and fireworks.   It is supposed to be a day when we celebrate our independence...our freedom.  After all, our freedom did not come easily. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Most of you are familiar with the words I have just read to you.  They are some of the beginning lines of our Declaration of Independence.  On July 4^th, 1776, representatives of our fledgling nation agreed that we should no longer be ruled as a British possession, but as a free nation under God. 

The people of the American colonies had been unhappy over the way they were being ruled.  The British Parliament made laws and issued decrees, and the colonists were expected to comply.  They made formal protests to the Parliament, but their protests had been largely ignored.  The Americans stepped up their efforts, and the British could not ignore the Boston Tea Party.  Soon, British troops landed to put an end to this insurrection.  Although there had been battles and skirmishes here and there, many Americans believed that there could still be a peaceful settlement between Britain and the colonies.  However, Britain would not give up its possession without a fight.  And so, with this declaration, there was now open rebellion between the people of the United States of America...and the British Empire who had governed them. 

As a nation we rebelled against what we believed to be unfair.  We rebelled against tyranny and an unjust rule of law.  We fought to become a free nation.  But not every rebellion is a good one.  Sometimes, the pursuit of what we perceive as happiness is not a right cause, and sometimes rebellion is not a righteous pursuit.

It is for their rebellion against the Lord, that the Israelites have been exiled in the time of Ezekiel.  Many of them have been taken away from their homes and sent throughout Babylonia.  They are slaves to a foreign people held captive in a foreign land.  Remember, because these people were chosen by God and held in high favor by him, he rewarded them with the lands of Canaan.  So something has gone wrong.  Something has gone horribly, terribly wrong for the Israelites to be cast out of their lands and enslaved elsewhere. 

³ (God) said (to Ezekiel): "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. ⁴ The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.' ⁵ And whether they listen or fail to listen-- for they are a rebellious house-- they will know that a prophet has been among them.

The people of Israel have rebelled against the Lord God.  How?  What was their rebellion?  What was their offense that was so great as to remove the Lord's protection from their nation?  Their rebellion was infidelity.  Their rebellion was unfaithfulness.  As a nation, little by little they went against the Lord's commands.  Commands such as, Deut. 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

They moved outside of his laws.  Exodus 20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ³ "You shall have no other gods before me.

The kings, priests, and people of Israel, they had begun to worship other gods.  Over the years, their offenses became grievous enough, such that God could no longer overlook them.   He had been the one who brought them out of slavery, and now their rebellion would lead them back into slavery.   Ezekiel's task would be to call the people of God, back to God.

The people of Israel, were one group of people, one nation.  They lived, died, and worshipped as one people.  They were obedient as one people, and they were rebellious as one people.  They were loved by God as one, and he would redeem them as such.

Now, we are different.  Through Jesus Christ, we are one people.  United in faith.  It does not matter...man or woman, light or dark, regardless or our heritage, ethnicity, or nationality.  We are one church, sharing faith in one Lord.  Yet, at the same time, our faith...our relationship with God is individual.  My faith in God will not save you.  Your faith will not save me.  I have to believe in God, love him, serve him, and obey him.  As each of is does the same, we come together as the Church, as one body.

But again, only my faith can save me because my sin is my own.  My decision to obey God or to rebel against him...is my own.

And although our founding fathers may not have intended it, their call for the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness creates more questions than it does answers.  We all have the right to live.  We all have the right to liberty.  But what kind of liberty are we talking about, here?   And the right to the pursuit of happiness is becoming ever more problematic.  As we pursue happiness, we put more and more obstacles between us and God.  In fact, as a nation, we are so consumed by the right and desire to have a good time that many Americans hardly even think of God anymore. 

In the name of liberty, our nation permits things that I believe God would not allow.  In the name of happiness, our people pursue paths that lead to their physical, moral, and spiritual destruction.  It seems as if we have translated the beginning of the Declaration of Independence as the right of life, frivolity, and the pursuit of rebellion against God. Because we have these freedoms, we seem to push these liberties to their bounds and beyond

I believe that Paul speaks against this in 2 Corinthians 12.  As an apostle, Paul is at the top of the spiritual food chain.  He has seen and heard more from God than any of us could ever hope to. If he wanted to, he could lord that over others.  He could use that as spiritual leverage against others.  And don't think that he does not face these types of temptations. 

In verse 2, he speaks of a man he knows who had a great encounter with the Lord, called up to the third heaven.  ⁵ I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.  Paul has obviously seen so much.  He has received so many revelations from the Lord, that there is this temptation to boast...to make himself look great...to become the "Grand Poobah" of the Church.  It's good to be the king.  You are going to be happier on top with everyone looking up at you. 

Because there is this temptation, the Lord has given him a thorn in the side...a reminder that Paul is not the head of the church.  And even when Paul asks to remove this thorn, the Lord replies, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Paul, you don't need anything else.  You have my grace, 

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This message is completely in the face of what we hear and see in the world today. Do your own thing!  Get your own stuff!  Be the best!  Only the strong survive!   But if we are looking at what Paul is saying...if we are to celebrate, if we are to exalt anything about us, if we are to delight in anything...it is to be our weaknesses.  Not in our freedoms, but in our persecutions. 

This fourth of July, we celebrated the liberties we have as a nation.  But everyday, we need to celebrate the freedom we have received from God through his son Jesus Christ.  The freedom to celebrate difficulties...the freedom to endure insults and hardships.  In the times in which we think that we deserve all the happiness the world has to offer, remember what the Lord told Paul then...and tells us now... "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

I know what the Declaration of Independence says, I want to encourage each of is to seek out the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of Godliness.  When all else is said and done, God's grace will see us through.