[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #623, Pentecost 15, 8/24/08

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Pentecost 15 – August 24, 2008

Exodus 1:8-2:10
Psalm 124 
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20


Minding The Foundation

Who do people say that the Son of Man is?  Some say Bill Gates, but others Babe Ruth, and still others General Patton or Roland Reagan.  But who do you say Jesus is?  "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but ..."   "Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug." (Isaiah 51:6 & 51:1)  Now, who do you say Jesus is?

It is a time of grand prosperity in human history.  (Significant exceptions noted.)  University students calculate how long it will take them to earn their first million.  The middle aged calculate on early and luxurious retirement (Significant exceptions noted.). It is a prosperity that devours the heavens and wears out the earth.  The beneficiaries of this economic expansion have but a dim inkling of the damage it is doing to the foundation.  

The few environmentalists, though not lacking in fervor, sound a faint alarm.  The environment is only one casualty in the war to make every household a royal household, to make everyone as rich as the queen. Our faith is in the work of our own hands, the imaginations of our own hearts.  The faith on whi
ch the expansion was build -- the morality that everyone benefits even if some benefit a lot more -- is failing. We trust this economic boom to go on forever.  We plan our lives around it.  We invest money as if it will.  We spend money as if it will.  And when this idol lets us down, as it inevitably will, we will be dismayed to find nowhere to stand, the foundation gone from under our feet.  "Save me, Jesus," will sound strange on the very lips that utter the words. What was Jesus to us before we began to sink?

It was the same Peter, who, sinking in the water cried out "Lord, save me!" that responded to Jesus' question about ultimate reality saying,  "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."  It was because of his closeness to Jesus that he was able to make his great confession.  It was because of his experience of salvation at his hands that he was able to set all others aside and put Jesus at the center of the universe, to say in effect that when God's kingdom comes, it will come by the leadership of this man.  We would be hard pressed to make such a confession today because we don't live that close to Jesus.  We'd sooner say the models for the kingdom are the likes of Bill Gates, General Patton, Roland Reagan or Babe Ruth; economic, military, political or athletic power. 

The word of God describes the true foundation for human life.  The story of Moses shows the savior carefully at work behind the scenes of Egyptian prosperity to save
 not their prosperity but the victims of their prosperity.  Isaiah tells us to look to the quarry from which we were taken rather than the vivid picture of the present age.  Jesus defines the quarry from which we were taken in saying, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it."  Paul describes the movement from faith to action.  "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God  what is good and acceptable and perfect."  (Romans 12:1-2)  It is time to mind the foundation.


May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
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