Back to Sermon Index What does the Lord require... June 29, 2008 In the old testament, God provided a system by which we were to live with each other and with God himself. Part of that was the Temple. The Temple was considered the house of God on Earth. When Solomon dedicates it, he prays and acknowledges the folly of thinking that God can live in a box made with human hands...even a big ornate box of a Temple. But for many, the temple building became for them where God lived...and that would be ok if they believe God was not limited to that box and lived where they lived too! But sadly, it was not always so. The Temple's main purpose was not sacrifice, which we will talk about in a moment, but rather, prayer. The temple is to be a house of prayer for all nations. Peoples from around the globe were to come to God's house and be welcomed... Welcomed in two ways. First, welcomed as children of God. That we are all brothers and sisters together under God as our loving parent. Everyone was to be welcome at the temple of the Lord. And the temple was to be a place where everyone was welcomed into the presence of God...in worship. The worship included many different elements, all designed to help the individuals there to come into the presence of God and feel God's spirit among them and in them. The elements of the worship included individual prayer and quiet time ,but also community worship which included memorized or rote prayers, prayers read together, prayers by the priests, music, singing, performances of music, song and dance, clapping the hands, shouting to the Lord, and much more. The temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations and a place where everyone was welcomed into the presence of God. But sadly, over time, this was not so. The temple became closed to foreigners, closed to women, closed to anyone deemed unclean or imperfect...really, that included a whole lot of folks like me and you! By the time Jesus comes along, every male Jew awoke each day and began his day with a prayer that thanked God that he was not born a slave, a gentile or a woman! OK, sort of lost the heart of it there, didn't we! The second purpose of the temple was as a place of sacrifice. The system of sacrifice was established by God to be a way to engage people in confession , repentance, and restoration...to engage people in a time and way of forgiveness. It begins with confession; confessing to God and to others that you are a sinner in need of God's forgiveness...that you are sorry for your sins and you seek God's mercy and grace. You did not have to confess aloud to everyone the details of your sins..that was between you and God, but a penitent heart was the beginning. This also involved honesty. For those of you taking notes, true forgiveness requires honesty. Honesty with each other, and with God. And you certainly are not fooling God! And really, in your heart of hearts, you are not fooling yourself. It should come as no surprise that one of the definitions of confession is to speak the truth...to confess (as in, to confess to the crime). Secondly ,sacrifice requires just that, a sacrifice. A sigh of your true confession and repentance. God wanted it to cost you something...something you had to let go of completely. Not just saying your sorry, but bringing a sacrifice to be given to God as a sign of your repentance and of your gratitude of God's loving grace. People brought something important...a bull, a calf, a lamb, sheep, goat, turtle dove...there were all sizes of sacrifice. These animals were sacrificed not for the blood, to appease God's demand for justice and thirst for punishment...God wanted Blood. Ridiculous. The animal, big or small, were given completely to God. For your vegans, you could also bring sacrifices of olive oil, flour, bread and incense. Parts of the sacrifice were burned, the smoke rising to the top of the temple as a sign of your prayers for forgiveness rising to God... But we forget that a part of the sacrifice was roasted on the altar of God and then when the repentant person had been prayed for and hands laid on them...this part of the sacrifice was returned to them for they and their family and friends to eat in celebration of God's wonderful Grace. A barbecue in church every week, and a pot luck supper to follow! But people began to think differently about the temple and sacrifice. They thought of God in a box, a big box, but a box none the less. And they thought of the sacrifices as an automatic system of forgiveness...where you sort of paid for the forgiveness you wanted by the level of sacrifice...and God was not really involved in any personal way. There was no true repentance, no honesty, no true communication with God...sort of an automatic process, like a big vending machine or atm. They would come and make sacrifice, not really being sorry and knowing that they planned to keep on sinning the same way, but why not cover your bases...and we can always have a nice roast lamb and party. Even though the second story of the bible that contained people was about a brother who's sacrifice was not acceptable to God...because Cain gave what was left over in his life and farm to God, and not from the heart but really as a matter of religious routine and formality. Whereas Abel gave the first born, the first fruits of all his labor and the best of it was given to God in gratitude, praise and thanksgiving! Even with every kid learning that story in Sabbath School, still they came to see the system of sacrifice not as a gift to God from the heart involving true repentance and grace...but as something you just did. So along came the prophets. And one after another they warn of God's judgment upon their false religion...of their taking it all for granted and simply playing church/temple, of their exclusion of others and of their sacrifices without heart. Micah says it like this...(Micah 6:6-8)         "WITH WHAT SHALL I COME BEFORE THE LORD AND BOW DOWN BEFORE THE EXALTED GOD? SHALL I COME BEFORE HIM WITH BURNT OFFERINGS, WIT H CALVES A YEAR OLD? WILL THE LORD BE PLEASED WITH THOUSANDS OF RAMS, WITH TEN THOUSAND RIVERS OF OIL? SHALL I OFFER MY FIRSTBORN FOR MY TRANSGRESSIONS, THE FRUIT OF MY BODY FOR THE SIN OF MY SOUL? NO! HE HAS SHOWN YOU, O MAN (CHILD OF GOD) WHAT IS GOOD, AND WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF YOU? TO ACT JUSTLY, TO LOVE MERCY, AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH THY GOD. The words of the prophet Micah ring as true today as they did over two thousand years ago. People come, seeking forgiveness through these impersonal and routine religious acts...trying to impress God with their sacrifice, even to the point of killing their own children...if a ram is good and a bull better...how much more with a child get me? God is appalled by this! Horrified and repulsed, the prophets say, by anyone who would act in this way! And before you mention the story of Abraham, remember that God prevented Abe from offering Isaac, and God provided a lamb instead...the Lamb of God was given for our sins. Micah distills God's desire for us into three simple things: 1. To do justice. This is simple and profound. To act with integrity and honesty and to live justly in all your relationships. And to seek justice for others. As Jesus said, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 2. To love kindness or Mercy. We who are forgiven and who know Jesus' love and mercy must live in a way that shows that same love and mercy towards others. We who are forgiven must also forgive. We are to love others as Christ has loved us...not repaying evil with evil, but overcoming evil with good. 3. And to walk humbly with your God. To live every day with Jesus, to follow him and to serve him daily. This is a personal relationship with Jesus...living every day in his presence:         "Day by Day, Day by Day, Oh Dear Lord, three things I pray; to see them more clearly (day by day) to love thee more dearly (day by day) to follow thee more nearly, day by day."         To live every day with Jesus, and to do it with humility. Not, O look at me, I have Jesus, Look at Me, I'm holier than you are, you sinner you!         No. Jesus said that these hypocrites have all the reward they are going to get already.         Walk humbly with Jesus, not proudly, because you know that you are a sinner too, saved by God's amazing grace and wonderful love which he has lavished upon us in his infinite mercy. Amen. God rejects rote religiosity. He rejects automatic forgivenss. He wants you to walk with him, to live in love and fellowship with your neighbors...in essence, to love God and love one another...         "HE HAS SHOW YOU, CHILD OF GOD, WHAT IS GOOD. AND WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF YOU? TO ACT JUSTLY, TO LOVE MERCY, AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD." (Micah 6:8) Back to Sermon Index