St. Paul's Sermon 2004

Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany- February 1, 2004

Lessons: Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Cor. 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30

"He Puts Words in our Mouths"

Introduction:

What a winter for viruses! I don't remember such a hard year- several of us had the bug that almost knocked me out of the pulpit a couple weeks back.

Viruses are amazing things. They're so tiny, and so non-complex that they're basically just a DNA molecule that gets into our cells, reproduce like crazy, and make life miserable. The debate has gone on for years as to whether viruses are even alive! They can't reproduce outside of our cells- but they certainly do spread!

Sometimes viruses can be good. If we take a polio virus and make it weak, we can give it to a person, it will invade the person, spread throughout their system and it will force their immune system to fight it, and then create protection. The spread of the virus actually saves you!

Now think about it- viruses get into your body. They sneak into your cells. They become a part of you. They grow. They have an effect on you, and even change your life. Then they burst out of you and spread to others.

That's a virus. And that's the Gospel.

Think about it. The Gospel sneaks into your ears. "Faith comes from hearing, and what is heard is the message of Christ." The Gospel invades you, and changes you. It begins to take you over. Then it does an amazing thing- it sneaks right out of you and spreads.

I) An Infectious Word

In our OT text we're 500 some years before Jesus, but Jeremiah is infected by that same Word of God.

[9] Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth." Jeremiah just got infected with the Word of God. In the OT, God's Spirit came to just a few. The Word of God was given them to speak, and only the prophets, or a priest or a king would be given the Spirit.

But in the New Testament age, God's Spirit comes to all who receive Jesus' Word. He tells us in John 6:63-

It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.

Jesus is the Word; he comes in that Word that is spoken about him, and the Spirit makes that Word come alive unto in the hearer. It's just like a virus.

That's what we learned all last year, as we looked at John's "Circle of Believing"- when the Word comes, it creates faith and assurance, but it keeps going and pretty soon we're bearing witness. The Word comes into us, sinks in, and sneaks out to spread again. It's just like a virus.

Do you know how cold viruses are spread? They are spread hand-to-nose. They're called 'rhino-viruses'- rhino means 'nose'- sick people rub their nose, touch their hands and touch stuff around them. Then you come along, touch those viruses, absent-mindedly rub your nose- it sinks immediately into your mucus membrane- and in a few days, you've got the cold! About 20 years ago I learned that if I wash my hands right after shaking hands with you all every Sunday, I get almost no colds. If I rub my nose before I wash them, I can count on being sick before the week is over. When I was in seminary I worked overnight once a week in a nursing home. One of my jobs was disinfecting every railing and doorknob in the place. It was to stop the viruses.

Viruses spread naturally, and so does the Gospel- unless we wash our hands of it. It's an amazing thing that most of us do a very good job of disinfecting our speech and not passing the Gospel along. Somehow we get so self-conscious of the Good News.

When we speak of colds, do you know when you're most contagious? When the cold is new. So it is with faith. Young Christians don't know any better. They're the most contagious. Sad, isn't it? You'd think that as we learn more, and study more, and get really old and wise in the faith we'd be more effective. But most of us get jaded. We get over it. In fact, it seems like we almost get inoculated against spreading our faith. That's sick!

II) It's Good to be Gospel Infections

There's one big difference between the Gospel and a virus. When you come to the point where you're not infectious with the Gospel, you're not well. In fact, you have a sick faith. The symptom of a sick faith is that you're not infectious anymore. It's just the opposite of a cold!

There is one way to get infectious again. It's opening up your heart. It's asking God to make your heart tender again, that you might be restored in your first love. Do you want that? Or do you like being cold?

The joy comes from the infectious stage. It's inseparable from the beginning of the infection- but it can be renewed. You can get a booster shot!

Here's the bottom line. Next week we've got a big Sunday night meeting here, and I would like each of you to come. We will be meeting with churches all over the United States to kick off "40 Days of Purpose"- the beginning of our study together of "The Purpose Driven Life." It's going to be a booster shot. It will give you an opportunity to look for six weeks at the central question of your life- Why were you created? What is the purpose of your life? This is a key question for people in every decade of life. God created you with one life, and every year is precious, because he created your life for a purpose. How would you like to discover that? The special Kickoff event, to introduce the series is next Sunday; the series begins on February 22. The kickoff will tell you all about the series, and give you information so you can invite others.

I'm not asking you to sign up for months of studies. All we're asking for is six weeks. Six small group studies, a few hours of your time. I'm asking you to come to church as we cover each week's topic as part of our Sunday morning worship. I'm asking you to buy the book at cost and read a devotional section daily. Three parts:

-Small groups once a week- just six times

-Sunday Worship

-Daily readings

I believe in those six weeks God is going to meet you and change your life. I have met several people who did this study in the past year, and they said it revolutionized the way they understood their life. Are you ready to be get contagious?

But along with being contagious- you can bring somebody with you for these studies. You can invite your neighbors. You can invite a family member. Can you stop right now and think of the name of someone you would like to invite? Name one person...

III) A Challenge to Pray to Sneeze

And I'm going to give you one more challenge this week. The most common way colds are spread is the sneeze. We get a little tickle in our nose from the cold. Ahhh-chooo- and gazillions of little rhino viruses are launched out onto our hands, and on surfaces all around us- waiting to grab hold of the next unsuspecting nose they bump into. But it takes a sneeze to be really effective at spreading colds. Being contagious is a matter of letting that sneeze go.

Faith has a sneeze too. It's when we dare to open our mouth and let Jesus out. We don't do the infecting- he does it. But the sneeze comes out of us.

Will you simply pray this week for God to give you one person each day to somehow sneeze at? Someone who you can tell 'Jesus loves you!' Or 'Jesus really cares about you?' or simply listen to the folks around you and wait for the Spirit to cause a good sneeze at the right moment? If you're contagious and open, God will send hurting people to you. Can you listen? You might even want to invite them to the 40 Days of Purpose Kickoff next week, or to your small group study or to worship here when we begin the series on February 22. As you pray for it, God will send these people to you. Are you willing to pray every day this week, and ask God to send you one person to sneeze at each day? Let's call it "Knees and Sneeze." Just one a day will do. If you pray each day this week for God to send you one person every day, before this week is over you'll be contagious again. Are you ready? Do you want to have the joy of being contagious again? That's nothing to sneeze at! Amen.

Epiphany 4 - February 1, 2004

Jeremiah 1:4-10

The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

[5] "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."[6] "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." [7] But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. [8] Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. [9] Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. [10] See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

1 Cor. 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

[4] Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. [5] It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. [6] Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. [7] It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

[8] Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10] but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. [11] When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. [12] Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

[13] And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30

and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." [22] All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. [23] Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' " [24] "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. [25] I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. [26] Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. [27] And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian."

[28] All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. [29] They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. [30] But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.