Pentecost 12 St Timothy’s LC, San Jose Jeremiah 15:15-21; Matthew 16:21-28 August 31, 2014 “Getting Your Ducks in a Row” Pastor Jim Bangsund A team of engineers, in the middle of a software design meeting, were discussing problems related to a data exchange interface with a vendor. One co-worker said the programming they had ordered was delayed because the vendor was suffering from a “severe nonlinear waterfowl issue.” The team leader raised his eyebrows and asked, “What exactly is a severe nonlinear waterfowl issue?” The programmer replied, “They don’t have their ducks in a row.”
This morning, as we near the end of the summer, we’re getting ready to move from our 31 week journey through “The Story” into an emphasis on Discipleship, as you’ve been hearing. And, as we do so, we want to be sure we have our ducks in a row. There are only two – ducks that is – but it makes all the difference in the world how we line them up. The first duck is the bigger of the two
and is “What God Has Done for Me.” That’s what “The Story” was all about – what God has done for us. What God did about sin in sending Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.2 his Son, Jesus; about the Cross and the Resurrection. That’s the first duck, and the second is “How I Give Thanks” for that –
which is what Discipleship is all about.
And it’s really, really important that we get our ducks lined up in that order . Want to see it again? First comes “What God Has Done for Me,” and then follows the second duck – “How I Give Thanks – Discipleship” – which I’ve made a little smaller to emphasize how critically important the first duck is here. There’s a reason why we’re doing things in the order we are – first doing “The Story” and then moving into what naturally follows, that is, Discipleship. Discipleship is “how we then live,” and it’s built upon a very secure foundation: a foundation of what God has done for us in Christ.
You see, lots of folks get that turned around, thinking it’s what we do that gets God’s attention and gets him to do things for us. But that’s getting your ducks out of order. The basis for how we live, the basis and foundation for our discipleship, is what God has done first. We do what we do – we respond and give thanks – because God has already Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.3 graciously been there ahead of us, offering us forgiveness, making us his children, and calling us into the kind of life in which we can flourish and become what we are intended to be. And because of that, we live lives of thankfulness.
Think of those stories of Moses and Paul that Pastor Judy preached on last week. Neither of them went looking for God; God came looking for them – because he had a plan and a purpose and a program. The same was true of David and Jeremiah and the disciples and others. God sought them out, to use them in his program to restore us, a fallen humanity, and to draw us back to himself. That’s what “The Story” was all about as we went through its 31 chapters last Fall, Winter and Spring. And at this point, as we get ready to move to our second duck, I’d like to take one more look at that first duck and give you a way to hold all 31 chapters and 31 weeks of “The Story” in your mind in a more condensed way.
You have a handout in your bulletin called “The Focus of History,” and we’re first going to go quickly through that and then see how this sweeping view of what God has done connects to Discipleship. Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.4 “The Focus of History” is a diagram of the whole Bible from beginning to end, from Genesis 1, where God creates the heavens and the earth to Revelation 21, the last chapter in the Bible, where the final curtain goes down and then is raised again on a New Heaven and a New Earth. A lot happens between those two points. After creating the world and all that’s in it, God populates it with the Nations of the Earth .
Now, that’s significant, my friends; more significant than it at first appears. You read other creation stories of the time – from Egypt or Assyria or Babylon – and they all begin with God creating them. They are the center of everything. But in Genesis, God starts by creating everyone else first. The nation of Israel doesn’t appear anywhere in Genesis – not until Exodus and later. Right from the get go, God tips his hand; he is all about saving a fallen world , not just a single nation. Yes, Israel becomes important; but only in terms of God’s intent to reach out to and reclaim the whole world. And so here’s a key to this diagram and to the Bible itself: God’s focus begins with all the nations of the world and then he starts to narrow it as he moves toward his goal. Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.5 From all the nations of the world, God’s focus narrows to a subset, the descendants of Abraham who become, yes, the people of Israel . God tells Abraham that through his descendants all the people of the world will be blessed. And when those descendants – the people of Israel – get to Mt Sinai, he tells them that they are to become a nation of priests, priests to the Nations of the World. But, people being people, there is a lot of stress among the Israelites. Eventually there is civil war and fragmentation.
As we move through the Old Testament, the majority of the people of Israel are taken away into exile in Assyria because of unfaithfulness, never to return. What’s left is the tribe of Judah , as God’s focus narrows in upon this people and their kings. God’s promise to David was that one of his descendants would rule forever. How could this be? The prophets kept their eye on Judah and this promise, even when Judah itself became unfaithful and went into exile – in their case to Babylon.
Much happens to the people of Judah in Babylon. They are cured once and for all of idolatry; it never returns. And it was in exile that they pulled together their large collection of scrolls to create the first version of the Old Testament. And they wait. They wait for God’s promises of return to the land, for his promise of blessing to the world.
Most remain in Babylon, but one group – a Remnant of the people – returns to the land and rebuilds Jerusalem. Once again, God’s focus of activity narrows. Not the focus of his concern – his concern is still for the whole world – the Nations of the World – but his activity is now tightly focused upon this faithful – mainly faithful – remnant that is now back in the land. What about that promise of a descendant of King David who would reign forever? It’s with that question still hanging in the air that the Old Testament ends. Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.6
Four hundred years pass, and we could say much about the in-house discussions among the rabbis concerning the hope for Messiah. And then it happens. When the New Testament opens, God himself enters the world in the flesh, in the person of Jesus, and the focus narrows tremendously as Jesus concentrates for three intense years upon the Disciples . From the Nations of the World the focus has now come down to these 12 men who, at this point, have no idea of their importance – their importance to God’s program to save the world and draw it to himself. They listened and they learned; they stumbled and they faltered; they were very much like you and me. And it was they who witnessed the final narrowing of God’s focus of history to a single moment in time and a single man. For it was on a dark Friday afternoon that Jesus himself, God’s son, God in the flesh, was nailed to the Cross – for the sake of the Nations of the World – for your sake. For it was at this moment, on the Cross, that the whole weight of the world’s sin and rebellion came to rest upon God himself. And it was in Jesus’ Resurrection that victory was obtained and declared over sin and death, and that God’s promise of a descendant of David who would rule forever was fulfilled. Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.7
But the story didn’t end there, for now the focus begins to broaden as God continues the forward push, as God reignites the hope and enthusi- asm that had at first motivated the disciples. He begins again with the Disciples themselves, and soon their number grows tenfold to 120 . On Pentecost this group grows to three thousand and the church is born – but only among Jews at first. Soon, however, Paul and others go out as missionaries, and the rest is history. The Gentile Church is born, and we are part of that, because the Gospel has indeed gone out, as Jesus said it would, to Jerusalem and to Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The Bible concludes with the great hope that God’s salvation is going to extend not just to all people but to his creation itself, which has suffered at our hands, as he creates a New Heaven and a New Earth . Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.8
And that, my friends, is the whole Bible in five minutes – the first duck. It’s the story of God persistently pushing ahead to the goal, of using his people to push ahead to that goal. My hope is that this quick thumbnail sketch will leave you with some hooks to hang things on as you move through the Bible in more detail on your own. And as you think about the second duck: showing your thankfulness through asking the Discipleship question of how God might involve you in what he is doing.
For instance, moving from the wide view to the more granular, we heard a small piece of Jeremiah’s life in our first reading – Jeremiah, a young prophet who, like Isaiah, was at first excited about being on God’s bandwagon – about, in a sense, being an early disciple. Heady stuff, being told by God that you are needed to carry forth an important message. Isaiah at first responded, “Here am I; send me;” but soon he, like Jeremiah after him, was hit by the reality of it all and cried out, “How long, O Lord?” And in this morning’s first lesson from Jeremiah, things begin well as this young prophet says to God: Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.9
When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, L ORD God Almighty. But bringing those words to the people was another matter. People were not eager to hear a word from God, especially if it chastised the rich and powerful for mistreating the poor, or challenged those who were bringing in popular foreign idolatry. They turned on Jeremiah again and again, threatening him, putting him in stocks, dropping him into a muddy well. At this point, he cried out to God:
Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? You are to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails. In Jeremiah’s eyes, God wasn’t coming through for him – wasn’t there for him in spite of having called him; and he let God know. God’s reply to Jeremiah is surprisingly blunt:
If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. ... [the people] will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,” declares the L ORD . These were serious times, not times for the weak-kneed. The future of God’s people – indeed, of the nations of the world, was at stake and Jeremiah was key to the outcome at this point. Yes, God was with him, but not merely to hold his hand. Others depended upon Jeremiah getting it right, whether they knew it or not, and at this point God is looking him hard in the eye as he bucks him up because of all that hung in the balance.
You and I are also called to discipleship, though few are called to a Jeremiah lifestyle. Not everyone in Jeremiah’s day was called to a Jere- miah lifestyle. But a few are. They have to travel light and keep their focus and their ducks in a row. I think, for instance, of some of the great things accomplished overseas by Roman Catholic communities of priests and nuns who have forgone the joys of spouse and family, banding together to play a major role in what God is seeking to do in the Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.10 world.
Not all of us are called to a Jeremiah lifestyle, but – having said that – we are called to be more than what our culture calls us to. Discipleship. Sometimes it takes a particular crisis in our life or in the world to focus us. I think of the age of Martin Luther when the church itself had lost its way. Or the very existential threat being faced today by brothers and sisters in Christ in Iraq and Syria facing the demented sweep of the so- called Islamic State. Discipleship. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” What did he mean by that? The fact that Jesus’ death was on a cross – that first century version of the noose or the gas chamber – was not just a fluke of history; it was a demonstration of how God again and again gets things done, and displays his power, through what appears to be weakness – including working through us. Much more could be said, and you’ll be hearing about what is known as “the theology of the cross” in a few weeks.
“The Story” was all about what God has done for us – specifically, what God has done for us in Christ; what happened on the Cross at the Focus of History. Discipleship is all about how we respond to what God has done – and how we become a part of what he is continuing to do in our lives, in the lives of others, and in our world.
You see, Christianity is not a spectator sport. We’re indeed saved by grace through faith completely apart from anything we can do or contribute. Remember the two ducks. Forgiveness of sins, making us children of God – that’s all what God has done; it’s all gift. So where do you then fit into the picture – as the second duck? What might God be calling you to do in thankful response to what he has done ? How would he have you become involved as a disciple, and at what level? Sermon: “ Getting Your Ducks in a Row ” 08.31.2014.11 Don’t let those questions die in the parking lot as you head out today. Perhaps over lunch, perhaps over dinner, I’d encourage you to talk about two questions – a question of clarity and a question of challenge. The question of clarity: What has God done for you? Begin with that cross at the Focus of History; a lot can be said – and must be said – about that crucial moment. But then move on to the specifics of today, this week, this year. What has God done for you? – a question of clarity.
And then the second question, the question of challenge: If you’re clear on what God has done – and is doing – for you, how will you now show thankfulness in your life for that? It’s called Discipleship. Think of Jeremiah standing at that particular moment in God’s movement toward the Focus of History. Oh, indeed he wavered ... and God had to brace him up a bit. Has God ever had to do that with you? He has with me – again and again. As God continues to move that red arrow that we saw in the PowerPoint to the right, what particular place or role might he have for you? That’s what we want to explore, as individuals and as a congregation, in the weeks and months ahead. Amen