Up on the Mountain

Four of my grandchildren were at my house last week and during the week we talked about their favorite bible stories. As with many children, their favorite Bible Story was the story of Zacchaeus. And I’m almost sure one of the reasons the kids like the story so much is because of the song - you probably know it too - Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he…. In fact the 3 year old sang the song incessantly to the point where I hoped I would never hear the song again! But the story of Zacchaeus was one that helps us understand our time with the Hebrews today.
Zacchaeus was a tax collector. He was a thief and a cheat and just a rotten human being. However, when Jesus came to his house and talked with him, Zacchaeus became a changed man. As best he could he righted all his wrongs, returned stolen money, cared for those he cheated - and as a result he became a witness of what the love and grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ can do.
That is part of the point of our encounter today with the Hebrews as they continue their journey through the wilderness of Sinai learning about God and about themselves. Their job as the Hebrew people - the chosen people of God - is to be a witness to all of what God can do in a person’s life. That is our responsibility as well - to be a witness of what God can do in our lives as he transforms us from the sinful people we are to be a witness of what living the life Jesus lays out for us can truly do.
Last week the Hebrews made it to Mt Sinai and they were introduced to the practice of worship - something new to them. We always need to remember that all of this is new to the Hebrews. While they knew God existed, they knew nothing about him or about what people the people of God meant. Think about someone who comes to church for the very first time - someone who has never been in church before. I hard concept for most of us who were raised in the church - but there are lots and lots of people out there who have never been inside a sanctuary before and who know nothing about God.
I was pretty naive about the idea of someone not knowing about church. I grew up in the 50s when everyone went to church and it was really rare to find someone who didn’t. I’ve been involved in church all my life and pretty much everyone I have been around as been part of church. Then my wife started an after school program for elementary school children in the very small town where she was serving a church. She worked with the elementary school principal who made it possible for kids to be transported on a school bus one afternoon a week to her church where the program centered around teaching kids about church. They had a special worship service, a meal, a Bible lesson and some fun and games. There were anywhere from 40 - 60 children in the program - interestingly enough this was a congregation of about 20 people that made this happen. What she began to learn was that only about 10 of these 60 kids had ever been inside a church before. They knew nothing about God or the church or had even heard of Jesus. She really had to start from scratch to help these kids understand what ‘church’ was and it was a gradual slow process but she began to see light bulbs go off in these kids as they learned that God loved them and cared for them.
This is what God is trying to do with the Hebrews. God is trying to get them to learn who he is and what being the people of God meant. And just like these children, this is all new for them.
At Mt. Sinai, after their initial encounter with God, Moses goes up on Mt. Sinai and spends 40 days with God and God lines out for Moses exactly what he wants his people to do. We are all probably familiar with the story of Moses receiving the 10 commandments but that was just a very small part of the instructions God was giving to Moses. There were 614 Levitical laws - laws about personal conduct, hygiene, daily living ‘rules’. There was also the instructions about exactly how to build the Tabernacle - the mobile worship tent which would house God who would travel with them from this point on and give the Hebrews a place to worship and a means to sacrifice. All of these are written down in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and they are all quite extensive and detailed.
We are not going to spend time talking specifically about these guidelines for Hebrew life because very few of them apply to us today. We of course have the 10 commandments and we know they are God’s directives about how we should live and worship, but these 614 Levitical laws are not something we have to follow - and if you began to read them you would be amazed at how many of them we follow as a matter of course - wash your hands before you eat and after you use the facilities, wipe mildew out of your house, don’t eat undercooked meat…… Things that are common sense for us but we need to remember were unknown to ancient civilizations - as remarkable as that is for us to think about. No one took baths or washed their food before they ate it or washed their hands or cleaned anything. We would think their life was pretty disgusting.
John Calvin lived in the 1500s and is the one credited for developing the believes which we use to define the beliefs of the Presbyterian church. We will hear more about him next week - see a teaser to make you want to come back for more! Calvin is often quoted when we need to learn better about what we think as we worship and serve as Presbyterian Christians. Calvin taught extensively about the reasons behind God’s giving of the levitical laws to the Hebrews in the wilderness and he listed 4 main reasons why God gave them so many regulations to follow - and this rationale of Calvin applies to us today.
Reason #1 - follow these instructions and you will create an orderly society - people will get along with one another and there won’t be any issues between people. Think about what that would be like! How nice that would be if everyone treated everyone else with dignity and respect… What a wonderful world.
Reason #2 - following these instructions creates personal peace. If you do what God asks - if we do what God asks and Jesus modeled for us - we will be at peace with God and with ourselves. What people do around us is pretty much immaterial because we can live with ourselves - we can really experience what the Apostle Paul talks about when he says we can have the peace that surpasses all understanding. Just do what God says. Sounds pretty simple but as the Hebrews found out and as we know it is a lot harder that it sounds to do what God asks and to live as God directs us and as Jesus modeled for us.
Reason #3 - which sounds a little strange but if you think about it it makes sense. Calvin says that one of the reasons God have the Hebrews the law - and one of the reasons God directs us to live in a certain way - is to prove to us we can’t do it. It is almost if God says - “Here, I am going to give you guidelines on how to live; I’m going to send my son to show you how to live but what you are going to realize is that you can’ do it on your own.” Calvin says that because we realize we cannot live perfectly as Jesus did; because we all sin and fall short of the glory of God it helps us understand why we need a savior in Jesus Christ. If, the Apostle Paul reminds us, we could follow God’s ways perfectly, on our own, why would we need Jesus? Jesus came to bring us forgiveness but we don’t do anything we need forgiven for, why would we need him? Make sense?
Same thing for the Hebrews. God gave them all these 613 Levitical laws plus the 10 commandments and said for them to be obedient and follow them all knowing full well they were not going to be able to follow them perfectly. So God set up for the Hebrews the sacrificial system where the people needed to bring animals to the Tabernacle and sacrifice them when they broke a rule in order to receive forgiveness. Every time they broke a rule. Good thing we don’t have to do that! - And that is what Jesus did for us, he died once and for all to forgive all our sin - past, present and future so we don’t have to participate in that sacrificial system and so that we could have a relationship with God in spite of our continual sin. So reason #3 helped the Hebrews realize their need for God and for what God had set up for them and it helps us to remember why we need a savior in Jesus Christ.

Reason #4 that God gave the Hebrews the rules and gave us the blueprint on how to live is so we can be a witness to the love and grace of God and that living as God leads us is truly a better way to live. Again, it might be hard for us to really grasp, but there were no other societies in the time of the Hebrews who lived under such an extensive set of regulations - who lived the way the Hebrews lived after they received this notice from God. And because the Hebrews were willing to follow the life God laid out for them, they, as a people group, were different than every other society around them. They stood out; they were a positive example of what life could be. And when asked about it they could testify to the love and guidance of God. They could say, “We are the way we are because we have a God who loves us and guides us”.
A great testimony and a great witness and an example of what we are suppose to be as followers of Christ - as people of God. We are to be different than the society around us. If we live as Jesus showed us - we become people who care for others; people who put others first; who go out of our way to provide for those in need; who sacrifice what we have for the good of others; who give of our time and energy to do the work of God and the church; who make the Sabbath a day of worship and rest…… And when people ask us why we do the things we do it is the perfect opportunity to say - “Because I have a God who loves me enough to send his son to to provide a means for me to have a relationship with God.” It is an opportunity to give testimony to what God can do in our lives.
We started off this time talking about the change in Zacchaeus - or as my grandkids say - went from being a very bad man to a very good one because of Jesus - and who then was able to testify to how Jesus changed him. We talked about how God was able to take this group of Hebrews and turn them into his people because he gave them a way to live that would testify to how people could really live in peace with one another and from this we hear the challenge of God to us - to live as God has directed us so that we to can testify to others about the love and grace only God can provide.

Amen.

Arrival At Mt Sinai

Did you know that not all that long ago, in order to take communion in the Presbyterian Church you had to have a token in order to be served the bread and the drink? The week before communion, the elders of each congregation would visit everyone who was a member of the church - because you could only take communion if you were a member. The elders would go to each home, talk to the members of the church about their faith, their commitment and their relationship with God. If the elders felt the member was ‘where they should be’ in relationship with God and the church, the member would receive a token. And then when they came to worship on Sunday morning, they would need to turn in their token in order to be served communion. While we would never think of doing anything like that today in the church, there is some solid theology behind the idea of ‘being right with God’ when you come not only for communion, but to approach God in worship.
Even as a Presbyterian today, the Book of Order requires there be two weeks notice before communion is served during worship - and the reason for this is the concept of preparing yourself in order to receive the Holy Meal. This is a practice that is pretty well been neglected in today’s worship environment, but today as we continue to look at the journey of the Hebrews we see the importance God places on preparing ourselves for worship.
The practice of worship was something Jesus battled with during his ministry. Several problems were happening in the Jewish community during Jesus’ time. As we read in the passage of John earlier this morning, Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman about the practice of worship. One of the biggest issues in Jesus’ time was the isolation of the Samaritan people. They were Jews but since they were not ‘pure bred’ Jews, they were not allowed to come to the temple in Jerusalem - and remember during Jesus’ day the only place Jews could worship was in the temple. So the Samaritans were not allowed to come to the temple, and they still wanted to worship, so they created for themselves a place to worship. But the Jews didn’t believe this was authentic worship because it wasn’t in the Temple. The Samaritan woman questions Jesus about this thinking Jesus is either going to say it is OK to worship in the places the Samaritans have made or is going to say the Samaritans deserve to be able to go to Jerusalem to worship, but Jesus never says what we think he should. Jesus says - “There is a time coming when it isn’t going to matter where you worship. You can worship anywhere you want - as long as you worship in the right frame of mind - as long as you worship in spirit and in truth. Jesus wanted the Samaritan woman - and us - to understand that it is not so much important where we worship as long as when we worship, God is the focus of that worship; as long as we are worshipping in order to praise God.
This was one of Jesus’ main complaint about the worship during his time. People were coming to the temple as they should; they were bringing their proper sacrifice and paying the proper tithe and saying the right words - but Jesus said that this didn’t mean a thing because the people were not there for the right reasons. They came because they had to; they came because it was required of them and to be a ‘good’ Jew you had to come to worships. But Jesus said its not your presence that is important - but your heart. This was one of the reasons God allowed the Romans to destroy the temple in 70AD, to prove to the Jews - and the new Christians - they didn’t need a ‘place’ to worship. All they needed was to gather together with the right spirit and worship God.
So back to the Hebrews as they journey through the desert. And keep in mind the purpose of this journey is to learn about what it means to be the people of God. The purpose of our journey of faith is to learn what it means for us to be the people of God. God could have easily led his people across the top of the Sinai Peninsula and it would have only been a matter of weeks and they would
have made it to the Promised Land. But God works with these people for 40 years because he knows it takes time and effort and struggle to learn what God wants them to know. Its the same for

us - why do we have sermons each Sunday all our lives - in order to continue to learn more and more about what God means for our lives and what God expects of us as we grow in the faith.
When I was in my 20s I taught a Bible study at the church I was attending. One of the ladies in the Bible Study was 93, and she really knew her Bible! She had studied it her whole life. And I admit I was a little intimidated by her presence in the Bible Study! What could I, in my 20s, teach someone who had been studying the bible for 90 years? So one evening I asked her why she was coming and what could I possibly say she didn’t already know and I will never forget her answer - she said, “Every week we are here I learn something new. There is always more God has to teach us.”
There is always more God has for us to learn - and we as God’s people, just like the Hebrews in the desert are to continually be striving to learn and grow in our understanding and our faith - and the reason for that is so we can come together and worship in the ‘spirit and truth’ Jesus was talking about.
Also, keep in mind these Hebrew people have never formally worshipped God. They knew God existed. They may have at times ‘praised God’ - for example the celebration after they crossed through the Red Sea. But actually worship was something new to them - so that is the lesson God is going to teach them in this next stage of their journey.
They are three months into the journey after crossing through the Red Sea and they have reached Mt. Sinai. Mt Sinai means nothing to them but they are going to learn this is called “the mountain of God” and this is where God is going to actually address them himself. Up to this point they have only heard Moses tell them what God says but now they are about to hear words from God himself.
God talks to Moses and tells Moses what is going to happen. God says I want the people to ‘prepare themselves’ in order for them to be in my presence. They are to take clean themselves and wash their clothes - and remember this is a time period where people seldom washed themselves or washed their clothes; there was a list of things they were not to do for several days before this encounter with God. They were given limits as to how and when they could approach God.
I admit when I read this I immediately wondered if this was the origin of the old practice of ‘Saturday night baths’ and the ‘Sunday go to meeting clothes’.
It is also interesting in this passage how serious God was about this - if anyone didn’t conform and do things ‘exactly’ as God said, they would die. God was pretty serious about how his people worshipped him - and the purpose we learn later is not so much that there are a bunch of rules to follow in order to properly worship God, but that God wants to be worshipped in ‘spirit and in truth’ and to do this we need to take some time in preparation so that we really understand who we are worshipping. Even though at this point the Hebrews didn’t have the 10 commandments, we do and if we look at the commandments the first 4 have to do with the worship of God - worship God only, make God the object of your worship, worship God appropriately and make sure you make time each week to worship God.
After three months into the journey, the Hebrew people now stop before the Mountain of God, Mt. Sinai, so they can learn to worship God. Up to this point their journey has been about learning that God will take care of them - their food is provided, their water is provided, they have protection, they have all the basic necessities. The journey has been all about them - and now God says, I want you to focus not on yourselves, but on me. Come together and worship - preparing yourselves both physically and mentally - to come before a Holy God.



The Apostle Paul as he formed churches during his missionary journeys also taught the people who were new to the faith to understand better about worship. He also admonished them to ‘prepare themselves’ before they came together. About worship he said in Ephesians: “be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What do the Hebrews teach us this morning? They teach us that God is serious about worship - not about the way we worship, not so much the practices of our worship - but about what we worship and how we worship. God wants us to think about what we are doing here and why we are here; God wants us to truly prepare our hearts and our minds so that we can understand we come here before a Holy God - a God who loves us, a God who forgives us, a God who provides for us - and we are think about what that means and then praise him and thank him and give God all of our focus for this one hour each week.

Amen.

Jethro’s Good Advice

A few weeks ago Ronnie gave a really great children’s sermon about how we all have different abilities and gifts and how if we all work together then we can do great work for God and his church. This idea of everyone having a part to play in God’s work appears throughout the Bible, both old and new testaments and anytime God mentions something multiple times it is pretty certain it is something he is serious about. I know when my wife use to teach college medical classes she would always tell her students, “If I mention something three or more times, you can be sure it is going to be on the test!” God is pretty much the same - the more times God mentions something we can be certain he wants us to pay attention to what he is saying.
We are back with the Hebrew people in the wilderness. They have escaped Egypt through God’s great works; they have passed through the waters of the red sea - which by the way is supposed to be the same concept we think of as baptism in the church. At whatever age we are baptized, through this work of the Holy Spirit, we are made part of God’s people. Baptism is that outward sign God has claimed us as his. And the waters of the red sea are God’s way of letting the Hebrew people know that now they are officially part of the people of God - they belong to God. And belonging to God comes with some great benefits of God’s love and care and grace - but it also comes with some great responsibilities. That is the whole purpose of these 40 years in the wilderness - for God’s people to learn they belong to God - and to realize his love and care for them and to realize God is calling them into great responsibilities of doing God’s work in the world.
That is also why we spend so much time with these Hebrews on this journey of learning - because that is what our life as God’s people is about as well. As we live our life in God, we continue to learn and grow and come to a better understanding of what it means to be God’s people - we are chosen, we are loved and we are challenged to live our lives as God would have us and to work as God calls us - everyone of us has a part to play.
But as we follow the Hebrews today, what we see is that Moses is wearing himself out. He is not only working as the go between between the people and God; he is leading them on their journey - listening to all their grumbling as they continue towards the promised land. Their practice is to travel for several days, and then stop and set up camp for a while to give themselves and their animals some rest. When they stop and camp. Moses sets up court and he spends his time listening to personal grievances between the people. He becomes the Judge Judy of the Hebrew people in the wilderness. If You have watched her it is easy to imagine what that might be like as he sits and listens to the petty arguments between individuals - one after another the entire time they are camped. This is of course is on top of all the other responsibilities he has as the one who is leading this great number of people through the wilderness - making sure they have food and water and whatever else they need; making sure they are going the right direction; making sure they are following the way God has planned out. Needless to say, Moses is worn out.
At his time in the journey, the Hebrews are traveling through the territory where Moses had spent the 40 years between his growing up in Egypt and his going back to free the Hebrews. His is in the area where he met his wife, got married and had his children. And this is the territory where his wife’s family still lives. Evidently at some point Moses had sent his wife and sons back to their home in Midian while Moses did the work needed in Egypt and now his father-in-law, Jethro, is bringing his wife and sons back to Moses so the family can be reunited.
But when Jethro gets to where Moses and the Hebrews are camped he is deeply concerned when he sees Moses and the state Moses is in. Jethro confronts his son-in-law and basically says,
“Moses - you cannot keep up all this work by yourself. Look at you, you are exhausted, both mentally and physically. Plus if these Hebrew people are more invested in their own care, perhaps they won’t whine quite so much.”

So Jethro laid out a plan for Moses. Basically it went like this - since there are 12 tribes of Hebrews. Appoint one person to be in charge of each tribe; they are to break their tribe into smaller groups; appoint people to be in charge of the smaller groups and continue until you have people who are in charge of a manageable size group of people. People will bring their disputes to these leaders who will decide the problems themselves and will bring harder problems and disputes up the chain until Moses is only deciding the ones that are are very contentious or difficult. Let these people take some responsibilities themselves - and Moses will be more able to deal with all he has to do. Jethro told Moses, you take the time to teach the leaders how to understand the will of God in deciding these disputes and they will in turn train those who are under them.
And this is what Moses did and interestingly enough we never heard of this issue within the Hebrew people again. But from this point on we increasingly see more and more how God calls the leaders to use the people to work together, each using their skills, to do the work God needs them to do.
We see it when the Hebrews begin to build the tabernacle; when the Hebrews gather to build the temple and rebuild the temple; we see it with Jesus and his disciples as Jesus recognizes what they can each do and we see it as the church emerges in the book of Acts which is where we read in a couple of Paul’s letters about the importance of each person doing their work within the context of the church.
Jesus reminds us several times that being part of God’s people means that not only are we to declare our willingness to receive the forgiveness of Christ, but we are to acknowledge his salvation and then ‘take on our mantle’ - which means to accept the gifts God has given us and to put them to work for God and for Christ’s church. Jesus says in Matthew 16: “Take up your cross and follow me” and what he means by that phrase is that we are to each accept our role in doing Christ’s work in the world. Jesus took up a literal cross to provide for our salvation, and we are to take up our spiritual cross - the work God needs done. God doesn’t just call you to be a part of the church, God calls you to be workers in the church and everyone has a role to play - everyone.
But it doesn’t end with God just saying to you - for example to Debbie - you are to play the piano for worship - God calls each of us with a job and then we are reminded in I Corinthians 12: 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good… God gives us each a task and then sends us the Holy Spirit to help us to do that task. God will never ask you to do something he won’t provide the skill and the means to do.
Now, I will admit this is help is not always given up front. I know in my own life God will call you into a task which you know you are completely unprepared to do - but as you accept the task and are willing to do it - God provides everything you need to get it done. You still have to do the work, but you realize as you are doing it that God is right there with you helping and providing whatever is necessary. That is something you can be assured of if you are willing to step up and do what God asks you to do.
And Moses continues to be our inspiration to know this is true. Every step of the way, from the moment he was placed in that basket in the Nile River, God has asked Moses to do what is necessary and Moses admittedly has argued a bit, or maybe a lot, but he still was willing to step out in faith and do what God has asked - and Moses learned that when he needed a skill, God provided it. Every time.
Even in today’s story - when Moses needed some guidance to help him with his leadership - God sent Jethro to help him and give his some very good and very needed advice.
So I want you to come away with this remembering some very important parts of your life - First - you are a child of God claimed by God as his. Second - as God’s people you are called to work for God’s kingdom. Third - no matter what God asks you do do, if you are willing to take up your cross, if you are willing to step up in faith, God will provide everything you need to do his work. Amen!

Remembering the Kingdom

As far as many people are concerned, the official celebration of the fourth of July happens in Faith, North Carolina. Faith is a little town a few miles south of Salisbury - so not far from here. Some of you may have even attended the Independence Day festivities in Faith. While it is no longer the case, back ‘in the day’ it was the place to be seen on the 4th of July and this is where the governor and the senators and anyone running for public office would come to be seen. There would always be a parade with all of these dignitaries as well as every band and beauty queen and anyone else who wanted to join in this patriotic celebration from communities all around the area. The parade would go on for hours and was usually longer than the three miles of the parade route. People lined the streets in their chairs as well as bleachers the town had set up. People would stand sometimes 3 deep along the parade route to see who may have come to be a part of this great event. When the parade was over, local ministers would gather and prayers were said for the blessing of the nation, blessing the citizens; for strengthening the honor in the land. This prayer always included thanksgiving for those men and women who had given their lives in defense of the nation. Those who heard the prayer always let out a resounding AMEN when the prayer was over. An interesting tying together - the town of ‘Faith’ and the celebration of July 4th.
Today is the 4th of July and certainly we need to honor our patriotic heritage and we should revere the sacrifices of patriotic men and women. But we also need to remember that today, what is truly important is that we gather together to honor our God and God’s church.
The Reverend Peter Marshall, a Presbyterian minister and the longtime chaplain of the United States Senate, wrote a book about the early founding years of our country in New England. He described the new colony at Salem, Massachusetts under John Winthrop, who reminded the people of that new colony the importance of commitment and as Christians we need to be focused on the biblical principals of commitment. Marshall said:
“How critically important for us Christians is this business of commitment to one another - as vital for the Body of Christ today as it was three and half centuries ago. There are two great steps of faith in the Christian walk, and they correspond to the two Great Commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The first step in this faith is the vertical commitment - the reality of God, Jesus as Savior and Lord. Our wills are yielded to God. The second step of faith is the horizontal commitment to one’s neighbor, to the body of Christian neighbors - the church, as well as to the whole body of neighbors - those who live around us in our towns and our communities and throughout our great country.”
When John Winthrop first arrived in Salem, he saw the misery, the idleness, the lack of will throughout the struggling community. He saw the need and made a commitment with his will and his hands to work for the good of God and for his neighbors. His zeal and his commitment to the people of Salem brought those suffering people alive again; he saw them regain their enthusiasm as they all began to come out of their lethargy and began to work together. Houses were built, corn was planted, order was restored. It was a resurrection of spirit because of Winthrop’s commitment to God who had brought him to this place and because of his commitment to the good of the people of Salem.
John Winthrop stands as an inspiration to us - think about what we could do in our homes, in our neighborhoods, in our town - if we make the same type of commitment to each other for the good of the church and the community.
This morning we heard the words of Psalm 33 and often on days like today we hear the Psalmists words: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; The people whom the Lord has

chosen as his heritage. We need to be a little bit careful when we read these words and not automatically jump to what we think it says. Whenever we read the Bible we need to always keep in mind the Bible was written in a language other than English. The Old Testament was written in
Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. Every English Bible we have - regardless of version - is someone’s translation of the words that were originally Hebrew or Greek. We also need to keep in mind that the words of these two ancient languages don’t always have a direct English correlation and so those who translated the Bible had to use the closest words they could when they translated. There are lots of examples of Hebrew and Greek words when translated into English actually mean something different than what we assume. And one of those examples is the word ‘nation’.
When we read nation, we automatically think of a country and especially today we think specifically of our nation. But the writer of the Psalm was not speaking of a specific country when he wrote this - he was talking about the people of God. Maybe we would understand the meaning better if we read the Psalm as: Blessed are the people of God who focus on the Lord. We are the people God has chosen as his heritage”. Understanding it this way we can rejoice because we come to see that God has chosen us, the people of God. God has blessed us as the people of God. If we would continue reading the next several Psalms we would see the Psalmist is reminding us that not only has God chosen us, but God protects us and God rescues us. The Psalmist guarantees that ‘an angel of the Lord encamps around those who are chosen as God’s people’. What wonderful news to us, to God’s people, that no matter how hard things get, we are guaranteed of God’s surrounding love and protections.
But we need to remember why we are chosen as God’s people. We here, in this sanctuary, are chosen so that we be the ones who teach our neighborhoods, our communities, our towns and even our nation, what it means to be God’s people. God challenges us to teach people what commitment is all about - commitment to God and commitment to one another. And we don’t have to do anything really big to show this to people - we start simply by being truly committed to each other - first in our homes, in our church, in or neighborhoods and from that the commitment grows. Just because we understand what God has called us to do and were willing to do what God has called us to do.
The women and men who first came to this country to start a new life faced daily challenges; dangers we will never understand. They came from places where they often suffered worse than the sufferings many of them faced when they came to this new world. Some were faithful, some were not. Some were God-fearing, some were not. Some were visionaries and some were hustlers looking for new people to swindle in this new society. It was a society not a whole lot different than ours. But just like us, some were called by God to be the light to this new world and to live out what God had asked them to do - to show people how things could be different if people would commit themselves to God and to one another.
As we look at the history of our country in these early years, we see moments of great faithfulness and moments of falling away from faith. We see spiritual renewal and rededication to God. And this cycle repeated itself numerous times. Times when people were faithful and times when they were not. It is no different than today - where there are times of falling away from the faith and from the church and times when we come together as the people of God. But always our calling remains the same and we need to continually remind ourselves of who we are - we are the people of God, chosen to be examples of true commitment to God and to each other.
But July 4th would also remind us that though America is our country, the country we love, God intends for us yet an even greater nation - the eternal Kingdom of God. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection the door to God’s eternal kingdom has been opened and we, the people of God,

are ushered into this Kingdom - now and forevermore. We are citizens of this Kingdom of God which will hold us for all eternity - the Kingdom brought to us in Jesus Christ.
Today as we remember the official birthday of our country, we also need to think about John Winthrop and what he was able to do for the people of Salem, Massachusetts so many years ago. We, as the chosen people of God, committed to God and to one another, can be the ones who restore the vitality and the enthusiasm of the church as Winthrop did to that community. For Winthrop it took commitment to God and to the people there who needed someone to love them and encourage them and inspire them - and we can do the same thing if we remember our own commitment to God as individuals and as a church and if we are willing to share that commitment with our neighbors.

Amen.