Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA

by Pastor Gregory S. Kaurin

8:15 traditional, 8:45 Morning Promise, & 11:00 AM worship services, 9/12/04

Text: Exodus 32:7-14, & Luke 15:1-7

Sermon:

God… Changed His Mind?

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Moses had gone up the mountain to talk with God, and what happens with the people left below? It’s nearly a Shakespearian comic-tragedy, while God delivers the commandments to Moses, the first of which says, “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no others,” at that very moment, the people below once again assume the worst about Moses and his God; they fall into fear. A large faction of them create a golden calf that represented a footstool of the gods. They made it to oppose the ark of the covenant which symbolized the footstool and the presence of God. And they declare that these other gods are the ones who have brought them to this place.

God is so upset, reasonably angry, after all he had done for them, he tells Moses, “Now leave me alone. I will consume these people with my wrath, and then I’m gonna start over with you.”

And Moses the great intercessor stands between God’s anger and his people. He reminds God of all his promises, through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And what does God do? How does he answer? Our text says in verse 14 that “God… changed his mind.”

This is one of those passages that can really stump your assumptions about God, the things we say almost unthinking: that God is—forever and ever—unchanged and unchanging… that his Word and proclamation yesterday is the same today and will be for all eternity.

Then we hit a passage like today’s Bible lesson. This isn’t the only example. After Jonah warned them that they were about to be destroyed, the Ninevites repented and the Bible tells us that God forgave them. Much earlier in the Bible, Abraham spoke on behalf of Sodom and God agreed not to destroy the town for the sake of ten or more faithful people who might be found there.

I counted no fewer than 12 times in the story of the Exodus that Moses interceded for Israelites. And there was another time that Moses was so fed up with the people, he told God, “I’ve had enough—just kill me now, and you take care of them—they’re your people!” And that time roles reversed and God reminded Moses of God’s promises, his mercy, and Moses’ duty. “Right,” God said, “They’re mine. I will guide and protect them …and I’m sending you to do it.” And God sends Moses back to lead them.

The point I take away from all of this is: When God’s wrath comes up against his love and faithfulness, and forgiveness, God’s love, promises, and finally his forgiveness will win every time. You will hear us talk about paradoxes, that we are both forgiven saints, and still sinners, but God can not be in a contradiction. For God to be God, God must be faithful. But why? Why does God keep saving us?

Henri Nouwen told a parable about an old man who used to meditate each day be the Ganges River in India. One morning he saw a scorpion floating on the water. When the scorpion drifted near the old man he reached to rescue it but was stung by the scorpion. A bit later he tried again and was stung again, the bite swelling his hand painfully and giving him much pain. Another man passing by saw what was happening and yelled at the mediator, "Hey, stupid old man, what's wrong with you? Only a fool would risk his life for sake of an ugly, evil creature. Don't you know you could kill yourself trying to save that ungrateful scorpion?" The old man calmly replied, "My friend, just because it is in the scorpion's nature to sting, does not change my nature to save." It is in God's nature to save.

The Bible said in our first lesson that God changed his mind. But really, this is not about God changing. It is instead about God keeping his promise. This is about the God who Jesus says, not only will not finally abandon his people, but will in fact long for them and search for them until they are found.

So now let’s turn to these/this parable/s of the lost being saved in Luke’s gospel. This is all in response to the question that someone had just asked Jesus. “Why do you waste yourself, why do you smudge yourself by spending so much time with tax collectors and known sinners?”

And immediately, one after another, Luke wrote that Jesus told three parables. First he told about a shepherd leaving 99 sheep to find 1 lost one, in the hope of bringing them together. Then he told about a woman who had lost 1 of ten coins and would not give up her search until she had all of them together. Then Jesus told the third and one of the most famous parables of all about the Prodigal Son, which, starting next week, our Sunday school youth will be studying for several weeks. The younger son leaves the family, and Jesus describes the great joy of the father when this lost son finally returns, and his invitation to the older brother to join in their celebration.

One of the commentators I ran across said this about these three stories, about the lost sheep, coin and son: The point was not just about finding a few lost sheep and coins. It was to restore the fold to the entire 100, the coins from 9 to all 10, and make the family whole again. This has led me to consider that one of the biggest reasons we need to join Christ in searching for the 'lost' is because we are incomplete without them ... the searching is so that we, too, can be whole. Until we are all welcomed and welcoming each other, until we learn the forgiveness, and offer the forgiveness of God, we will never be completely whole.

God has had every chance, and every reason to wipe us out and start over. But he has promised us, he has promised you, and he has promised others who are not yet in our fold, “You shall not be given up or thrown out.” Martin Luther once referenced these stories of Moses interceding before God, and Jesus’ parables about God’s search for the lost, and Luther encouraged all Christians to do the same. When you are feeling lost, hurting, in pain, or guilty, Luther said, then “rub God’s ears” with his own promises.

Remind him, not because God needs to hear it, but because you do. We all do. God has promised us, he has promised you. You shall never be given up or thrown out. It is our duty to proclaim that message, and to live out here on earth: we are to seek, to find, to forgive and rejoice. And through us and in spite of us, one day, God will make us whole.

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