In need of Reformation

Mark 7:1-8 (yes, please read it)
   Sharing His disgust over the Lip Service Religious Leaders gave God, while lifting up their own,  
   self-serving practices, Jesus claimed that the Worship of those whose hearts are far from God is
   wasted - in vain.  It was nothing new.
Amos 5:21-24 (yes, again, please read it)
   The prophet shared the Word of God that God does not like the Worship of those whose concern for
   others and justice for them is absent.  It does not set well with God.  God HATES it, despises that
   Worship.  Regardless of how perfect their praise and adoration, if they have no concern for justice
   and doing what is right for ALL of God's People, it smells badly to God, and is not a sweet smelling
   offering to God.
Micah 6:6-8 (yes, you get it, in need of being read)
   This prophet speaks God's Will that we should understand that our offerings are not acceptable to
   God when they are shared with no concern for doing justice in the world around us, when we show
   no kindness to others and when our arrogant hubris prevents us from walking humbly with God.

We need REFORMATION.  The church is in great need of Reformation.

While Jesus teaches us that Lip Service to Him, while giving even perfect praise, is a worthless exercise, yet the church seems to have gone beyond the self-serving movements of CHURCH GROWTH, PROSPERITY THEOLOGY into the practice of GETTING OUR PRAISE IN WORSHIP ON WHILE GIVING OUR TITHES and while FOCUSING ON OUR PERSONAL SALVATION ALONE (just saying "the sinner's prayer" to save yourself), with no regard for anyone else - especially Neighbor (stranger, enemy) whom we are commanded to love and "the least of these" whom we are commanded to help.

While Jesus (and Paul) taught about being people of the Good News of Jesus, still now, as in Paul's time, we have ITCHING EARS (II Timothy 4:3) to hear what we want to hear and adopt ideologies that are FAR from Jesus' fulfillment of the Law and Prophets in the Gospels.  Having "Itching ears" to hear something one wants to hear is NOT the same as reform.  It is simply the looking away from the truth to the desired untruth.  When Jesus says DO NOT JUDGE, we amend it with "unless you can prove their sin in scripture".  When Jesus says DO NOT HATE, we modify it with "unless it is with the sin/sinner proviso".  When Jesus says LOVE YOUR ENEMY, we add "unless they are not Christian or Anglo."  When Jesus says FEED THE HUNGRY, CLOTHE THE NAKED, WELCOME THE STRANGER AND VISIT THE SICK AND IMPRISONED, we qualify it by saying, "unless it costs us or we have some prejudice against them."  When Jesus says DENY YOURSELF, TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME, we hear "indulge our selves, take up our monetary blessings and live life like we want to."

While Paul was expounding beautifully on the Gospel message of Jesus, even in his time, as in this one, people were being BLOWN ABOUT BY EVERY WIND OF DOCTRINE (Ephesians 4:14) (Then the Gnostic beliefs and latest Messiah to arise - anything to dupe people into serving the Religious Leaders - NOW the Church Growth, Prosperity Theology, Praise in Worship/Tithing and Personal Salvation ("sinners' prayer") debaucheries of The Gospel, that serve the servants (the church and unscrupulous pastors), instead of the Lord and those whom the Lord loves.

While Jesus was still teaching about FALSE PROPHETS wearing SHEEPS' CLOTHING BUT INWARDLY BEING RAVENOUS WOLVES (Matthew 7:15-20), there were those even among His disciples, as there are now, who wanted to get and abuse authority over others (Luke 22:24-27), and now as then those who call themselves pastors and teachers, but who only do what they do to gain power, prestige, position and wealth for themselves (Mark 12:38-40), and who look righteous on the outside but are dead to God on the inside because of their motives (Matthew 23:27,28), misleading anyone they can so that they can exploit others for their own gain...

It broke Jesus' heart (Luke 13:34,35) and He wept over their self-determined desolation.

It was then and is now like Josiah's discovery of the Word after a LONG TIME of it being so far from a priority that it was physically walled up in a treasury box in the Temple and forgotten.  When it was found during Josiah's rule, he read it and wept because of how far they had gotten from it (II Chronicles 34).  It sparked a sweeping restoration of the practices around the Word of God.  It was a getting back to God's will, instead of following human precepts.

So it was with Jesus and His disciples, who in their 3 years of formal Seminary training and internship (being sent out and brought back to sit again at His feet) learned God's Will from the fulfiller of the Law and Prophets, and called Him "Lord of their lives."  It changed the world, especially as the First Century Followers of Jesus, "People of the Way of Jesus" LIVED what Jesus taught (Acts) in Radical community out of Radical Agape Love.  It was a getting back to God's Will, instead of following the human precepts that took God's people far from God's Will.

So it was in the Reformation, when Luther and others looked at the Word with fresh eyes and hearts, and decided that the path the church had been on for generations was further and further from what Jesus taught.  It was a getting back to God's Will, instead of following human precepts.

We do not need more movements like Church Growth, Prosperity Theology, Praises & Tithes and Personal Salvation (just saying "the sinner's prayer" to save yourself) to keep us moving further from God's Will.  We need to get back to what Jesus taught... what JESUS TAUGHT... what JESUS TAUGHT - the Fulfiller of the Law and Prophets, Savior and LORD OF OUR LIVES.

Read the Four Gospels.  It will take you four evenings, and will move you in ways that watching four evenings of TV, going to four concerts or live performances, reading four novels or going to four clubs could NEVER do.  When you do, concentrate on what JESUS TAUGHT... His teaching statements, Imperative (command) statements and parables that fulfill the Law and Prophets and guide us to His Kingdom Values for living in THIS PART of God's Kingdom.  Ask Jesus, "What do YOU want of me?"  Ask yourself - what does JESUS say walking with God means for how I walk now, in this world?

CAUTION: Reading it may bring you to a place in which you want to actually FOLLOW what Jesus taught in how you live your life, and it may cause you to critically think, which could in turn cause you to see how living Jesus' teachings could make the world a better place, and you may then be dissatisfied with what you are experiencing in church and in the world - which could lead you to a reformation in your own life, and lead you to live Jesus' Kingdom Values in the world around you, which could in turn change the world around you and cause others to find reformation in their lives because of what they see happening, and so on, and so on...

Don't do it to EARN salvation.  GRACE is given freely because it is unattainable for us.  Do it because you LOVE the LORD, who has given you Grace and loves YOU, and because you want to learn how to LOVE THE NEIGHBORS whom the Lord loves as God's children.
Come on in, the water's fine!

Pastor Jamie