July 2, 2009
Matt. 15 : 5 - 11.
6. b. And thus you invalidated the Word of God for the sake of your tradition.11. “Not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”
Isaiah 29 : 13 & 14
13. Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service,but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of traditions learned by rote. 14. Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people,wondrously marvelous;(a divine pun )
The cursing church is the absence of God’s blessing. The reason is simple but powerful. A place where the traditions and priorities of men drown the blessings of God. The church becomes a human institution, a social gathering where the traditions of men are the priority not the activity of God. This happening has been ongoing throughout all of spiritual history.
It is reoccurring change that can be measured in years, not decades or centuries. The church dynamic has a constant.
It is the rule of human priorities while claiming to be motivated by the Love of Jesus Christ.
It is the crowd gathered around the cross laughing at the seeming impotence of God’s authority and control in the world.
It is giving a miniscule monetary blessing to the homeless shelter, as long as you corral “them” away from us.
It is preaching love and mutual respect toward all races while Sunday AM remains the most segregated hour in the world.
It is about making the communion table more about status than sin. One must be visibly sinless or a part of the group, so the group can approve of the partakers. The rational is bizarre.
It is not being seen with a sinner or counted among the spiritually desperate. The church is the spiritually accomplished.
It is about claiming the redemptive power of God but not for certain sins. Certain sins are either not important or beyond redemption.
It is about looking good in the mirror of public opinion instead of God‘s opinion. Which opinion matter’s most?
It is about being front and center as God dispenses grace. Surely our approval or participation of the Church is required.
It is about piously feeling good about being a first responder to God’s grace. We are special as the receivers of God’s goodness.
It’s all about Us! It’s all about our partnership with God. Of course this is never verbalized and the definition of partnership is foggy.
The church’s view of itself is critical to being either a blessing church or a cursing church.
The church is the only place where we sinners can find resolution to the sorry state of sin. We are all so intimately involved with this state that we all need a constant blessing from God.
The church should be an expression of God’s love for we sinners, played out in real time. Sin has been deleted but it will always remain in the recycle bin until the return of Jesus Christ.
Finally, the church should not be subject of the pun of Isaiah in verse 14. A cursing church is a lip service church that God will judge. As the church, we are so close, every day, to denying the authority of our maker in our lives.
G.Goslaw
