Atom“For God so loved the WORLD”
Exodus 32:1-14
I learned something I did not know this week. Perhaps you did, too. Max Lucado tells the story of Mary Sando in chapter three of his book, “3:16 - the Numbers of Hope.” At the age of five, doctors diagnosed a tumor on the back of her neck as terminal cancer and gave her three months to live. But she didn’t die. No tumor grew. But her bones did…in and abnormal manner. And doctors began to suspect the presence of a rare and life-constricting bone disease. By the time she was in her mid-thirties, her body was frozen in a near-straight posture, mildly bent at the waist. Her neck was locked, jaw fused, and elbows fixed at right angles.
The disease is fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP. It is a renegade disease where bones overreact to a bruise or break, spreading like cement through they system. Supple connective tissue hardens. Spine and neck fuse, then shoulders, hips and elbows. Back to front, head to toe the body becomes an immovable suit of armor. FOP hardens the body, steals its life and its joy inch by inch and day by day.
Lucado suggests this as an image of what happens to us as humans – God’s creatures – when trust in God which makes us lively and flexible and able to adapt to change begins to fail us and we begin to fear…and fear produces an unhealthy response that rather than turning us toward God begins to harden our hearts and steal our life and joy inch by inch and day by day. Exhibit A of this tendency is the story of God’s people, Israel. In chapter 32 of Exodus, they are God’s chosen ones, rescued from Egypt and slavery, led out of danger by the parting of the Red Sea, sustained by manna and quail and refreshed by springs of life-giving water flowing out of dry desert rocks.
They knew God’s power and kindness and care…but their trust was easily diminished. When life got harder, and the promised land did not quickly appear, when their leader stepped out of sight for a moment – okay, a month – they began to wonder if God really cared or had in fact played them for fools, leading them out into the wilderness, only to leave them to die. They began to doubt God’s goodness and feared for their future. They became discouraged, impatient, and finally rebellious and went looking for other answers – a golden calf – the image of worship for the people of the land they traveled through – a god made of human hands and human desires. And they acted as if this were now their hope, celebrating and dancing around this god of their own making.
And God who had created them, who rescued them, who had provided for them, grieved…you remember the story…and God said, ”What has happened here, Moses? They have given up on me already? After all I have done, they have turned away? What a stubborn and hard-hearted people!” Remember fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva – an unhealthy response to pain or injury resulting in a hardening of the skeleton? Here is an unhealthy response to fear and uncertainty…a hardening of the heart separating us from the love of God.
None of us starts hard-hearted. As children our hearts are open and hopeful, our faith flexible and joy-filled. When our parents or Sunday School teachers tell us that Jesus loves us and that we are God’s children, we believe them completely. Our response is free and full.
I was doing a baptism for the Tim and Mary Sundby family a couple of weeks ago and we were professing together our common faith as we do at baptisms. I asked the question, “Do you believe in God the Father?” “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth…” “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” And big sister, Lily, 4 years old, yells out as loud as she can, “Yes!” That is the supple, lively faith of children, who simply trust that what is told them is true. You will see similar faith expressed by our first graders when they lead us in praying the Lord’s prayer tonight. They simply believe what they are praying…they trust those who have told them of God’s love. They trust Jesus as Savior and friend. Little wonder that Jesus said, “You must have childlike faith.”
We start there, but then stuff happens. We get hurt. People we thought we could trust let us down. Life is not as easy as we would like it to be. All our wants and needs are not met. There is pain and loss. We wonder if God cares or loves us…or even notices. And we begin to look for other answers for life’s meaning. Not golden images of cows. We are too sophisticated for that. We choose shopping sprees and eating binges. We find hope in a weekend party which if only for a few hours makes us feel alive. Or we lose ourselves in our work…nose to the grindstone there is hardly time to think, let alone feel. And our hearts begin to stiffen toward our God. The source of life is lost to us and we know it, but we don’t know how to get it back.
The writer of the letter to the Ephesians diagnoses our situation like this:
[Hardhearted people] are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. Ephesians 4;17-19
“Hardheartedness” is a disease not nearly so rare as FOP - a disease of the heart that all God’s people are susceptible to. It is the all-too-common condition of the world to which God sends Jesus. So what can be done? How can hard hearts be softened, again opened to the joy and love that God would have us know? Two suggestions:
1. Remember who God is…the God of creation…the God who has given you life, who has given you forgiveness through the resurrection of Jesus…the God who does not give up on you. Daily remember and daily give thanks. And also…
2. Acknowledge our need. It is simple daily honesty with God…confessing this tendency to seek our own way…to worship other things. Remember the verse from the letter of John that we remind ourselves of when we confess our sins in worship? “If we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth of God is not in us.” (1 John 1:10)
Remember who God is and confess that you are in need of God’s forgiveness. Confession of need…honesty with God softens us…opens us once again to the loving, guiding hand of our Creator. Listen to Max Lucado’s take on God’s love for the world – a world often trapped in a hard-heartedness of its own making:
Chapter three word from Max from the “3:16” DVD
For God so loved the hard-hearted world. Acknowledge your need…remember the God who loves the world even hardened and rebellious, the God who loves you. Let’s pray together a prayer of confession tonight, drawing near again to the Lord who has drawn near to us…
Prayer of Confession:
Lord, you know our hearts. You know how injury or hurt or fear makes us draw inward. You know how we arch our backs and stiffen against the hard winds that blow through our lives. You know our impatience and our tendency to look away from You and toward other “helpers.” Soften us again today. Forgive our lack of trust. Remake us through the life-giving power of your Spirit. Make us pliable and faithful as we live again in remembrance of your love and grace. We pray in the name of Jesus whom you sent. Amen.
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