Are You Motivated By Doubt Or Faith?
Good Morning Friends,
Sometimes we put too much emphasis on numbers and what we have done, when the focus needs to be on love and the Spirit and what God has done. God gave it all to us and frankly when we count all the good stuff we do and what we might consider the bad stuff of others, we may be misjudging God and making false assumptions. We have a choice in how we will approach God and others. Are You Motivated By Doubt Or Faith?
Scripture: So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army, who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know how many there are.” Joab reported to the king the number of those who had been recorded: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand soldiers able to draw the sword, and those of Judah were five hundred thousand. But afterward, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.” When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.” So Gad came to David and told him; he asked him, “Shall three years of famine come to you on your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.” Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into human hands.” So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from that morning until the appointed time; and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba. But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil, and said to the angel who was bringing destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. When David saw the angel who was destroying the people, he said to the Lord, “I alone have sinned, and I alone have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17 (NRSV)
He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching.
Mark 6:1-6 (NRSV)
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.
Luke 2:1-5 (NRSV)
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
John 1:45-46 (NRSV)
Message: Ok, there are all sorts of reasons to be discerning and sometimes cautious, and certainly we need to count the costs, but we also need to risk enough to step out in faith. This one thing is critical to salvation and the Christian life and honestly it is part of the reason I work in Immokalee. It is a place like Nazareth that people could easily be despise and is often discounted because it is decentralized. Yes, in some ways it is in the backwoods and out in the sticks… a small village. In the eyes of more educated and urban populations, the populations of these places like Immokalee are often judged as ignorant at best and perhaps as simple-minded sinners at worst. But what we learn today is that prejudice need not be external. False judgement can occur if we take our focus off God and fail to realize that the world has changed when it comes to our prejudices. Today’s lectionary text touches on the whole idea of how people can misjudge by the numbers and even by being too familiar. And we see it played out in the census of David when he was king, and the census of Emperor Augustus during the time of the birth of Jesus, and we do so want to know the numbers of places like Immokalee and Nazareth. But what is our motivation? You see, a census is a tool for centralizing power and places like Nazareth and Immokalee are decentralized places. The purpose of a census has evolved but originally it was to see the potential for raising an army and for raising taxes. Its focus was and is control by the numbers and it can easily be devoid of relationships of a personal nature. Now let us face the reality of our world today. People want to walk by sight and not by faith. People want to know how the numbers balance out, and feel strong in them. But the real sin here is trusting in some virtual idea of man’s power. Friends, when we stop believing in God’s power we lose. When Satan stirred up David’s heart in pride to assess his military strength, rather than simply continuing to maintain trust in God, the focus shifted. When the people of Nazareth discounted Jesus, the disbelief stifled the miracle of God’s presence. The result of both even after repentance is judgement and ultimately a redemptive sacrifice. No, we cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube. But we can realize that we cannot reduce a person down to a set of data. We can realize that knowledge is not a relationship.
Pray we stop doubting and start trusting God. Pray we realize that acts of control stifle the work of the Spirit. Pray we realize that without faith it is impossible to please God. Pray we realize that success is having a relationship with God. Pray therefor that we act to restore proper relationships with God and others as an act of faith. Pray we stop being so prejudice. Pray we not counting on our strength so much as we are looking to God for strength. Pray we welcome Jesus into our lives and homes and communities. Pray we believe. Pray our eyes are fixed on Jesus.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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