Let us pray: Dear Savior, thank You for giving us Godly truth! Thank You for providing Godly guidance for good in our lives. But most importantly, thank You for giving us clear consciences through the forgiveness for our sins that You won for each of us on the cross. Amen
GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM OUR WISE LORD AND SAVIOR!
TEXT: Exodus 20: 1-17
Dearly Beloved By Christ:
How many people view God as a fool? How many really believe that He is out-of-touch with our reality and that the Biblical truths really don’t apply anymore? Judging from the lack of church attendance across America on a given Sunday, I think the figure is quite high—a majority. But if some Harvard or some Washington think tank comes out with something, everyone seizes upon their findings as completely relevant. And then two years later when those findings are proven inaccurate, people move on to the next “new thing.”
Each generation believes they are wiser than the stodgy God portrayed in the Bible. They show it, too, in how they live and what they hold dear. So, today let’s take a test and see where we come out when it comes to:
GOD’S FOOLISHNESS VS. MAN’S WISDOM
I
Our lesson outlines the giving of the 10 commandments on Mt. Sinai. They are very familiar to all of us. But, let’s examine God’s “foolish wisdom” backwards, as it were.
Greed drives the stock market today. Wall Street’s mantra is the same one Gordon Geko spoke in that 80’s movie: “Greed is good.” Really? Isn’t greed dissatisfaction with your current life and possessions? Isn’t it discontent? Greedy folks never seem to have enough to satiate themselves.—”You can never have enough money!” So, I guess that means you’ll never experience true happiness either. Some of us recall when real estate wasn’t an “investment” it was a place to live. People didn’t leverage their houses to invest in the stock market, like today. People actually paid off their mortgages, too. But today, they view their house as an ATM. Question: do they own their home, or does their house own them?
Gossip has supplanted baseball as America’s pastime. It used to be that the grocery store tabloids were gossip’s vehicle to the masses, but now it’s the internet and some TV shows like: TMZ. Pop up ads appear to entice you to see how fat some actress has become or who’s the latest to undergo sex change “therapy.” Blooper TV beams out life’s most embarrassing moments for all to see and mock. Does any of this make you feel noble? Does any of this build character? Does any of this lift you above the mundane?
Every one of us works hard to earn private property. If you have a business and someone steals from you, they are literally taking bread out of your mouth. So, was God a fool when He condemns this behavior? Was He wrong when He ordained to provide blessings via hard work and the sense of accomplishment that comes with such hard work? Was He wrong when His Word says: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat?” Try telling that to the welfare mavens.
Do you want your wife or husband to have multiple sex partners? Will that enhance your marriage? Do you want your kids to have open access to every kind of pornographic site out there? Do you think that kind of hands-off approach will make them better people?
Is physical violence o.k.? Is it alright to take a gun and shoot someone who cuts you off in traffic or to pull out a baseball bat and club their car into submission? Should we all live like cave men and carry huge clubs around to get our way?
Should parents raise children, or should children raise parents? Is it alright to sass your mother and father? Should you be rewarded for such disrespect? After all, you’re just expressing your feelings, aren’t you? And today we’re told we should never repress our feelings. Right?
And how about our relationship with God? Is working 24/7 a good thing? Could it possibly be that the reason your depressed during the week is that you forgot all about God on Sunday? Is putting soccer practice, the baby shower, extra sleep, or the neighborhood birthday party first on Sunday morning simply another way of saying: “God’s a fool, I don’t need Him this week?”
How do you think God feels when people use His name as an afterthought, such as: “God, it’s cold out today?” Or how about this one: “Jesus Christ, why did you forget to put gas in the car?” Jesus didn’t forget, so why drag Him into it? If people used your name as a throw-away line, you’d be upset. So, how does God feel?
Perhaps you view God as a blob, a shapeless entity, a thing, that has no reality? Does it bother you that if God isn’t real than people are answerable to no one and whoever has the biggest club wins? Do you thrive in the chaos of a God-free society, or do you long for something kinder, gentler, and more stable?
II
As a Christian, you know that God exists. You know that humans create their own problems. That’s not foolish talk, that’s reality. But you also know that our wise God has sorted it all out. First, He gave us the 10 commandments to order our lives and keep us safe. He has shown us a better way, a wiser way to live, than the chaos of everyone doing their own thing. Thus, those commandments reveal our foolishness, not God’s. They reveal the chasm that exists between Him and each of us. For try as we might, we fail to keep them perfectly.
That brings up our second point here. Our wise God did something amazing and profound. The Holy Trinity, not Allah, Vishnu, or the native American “Great Spirit” has provided an eternal solution to human chaos. He has restored equilibrium, harmony and balance in His creation by sending us a Savior from sin. He sent Jesus to experience the ultimate horror of death in our place. In love He sent His Son to suffer and die on a cross and through that sacrifice to forgive us. God’s blood for human blood. God’s pain for human pain. No other religion teaches such a “foolish” truth. All base their “knowledge” on human beings and human ability and look inside of us for the solution to our problems. All seek to placate your troubled conscience by patting you on the back for your dubious achievements. Only Christianity teaches that God does everything necessary to make us right with Him. This includes giving us the gift of faith so that we can lay hold of His blessings. Only Christianity teaches true self-sacrificing love and not coercion make God’s world go round!
Is God a fool for loving you? Is He a fool for dying in your place? Is He a fool for providing you with guidance for good in the commandments? Before you answer that question, recall St. Paul’s words: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” Outside these walls those words, like you faith, are roundly mocked—directly an indirectly. But really, who is the real fool—God or unbelieving human beings? Amen