January 28, 2018 Fresh Voice : New Rules

January 28 2018 *Deuteronomy 18.15-20; Mark 1.21-28 “Fresh Voice: New Rules” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

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While I was at Yale seminary, [slide # 1 Yale Divinity School] I worked in an Episcopal assisted living guest house with about 20 residents. My job was to help set the dinner table, sleep overnight three times per week and be prepared in case there was an urgency that required some assistance.

One night there was a very dramatic occurrence. Even though I was not on duty that night, the telling of it remains vivid in my mind. A woman woke up in the middle of the night screaming, “I am dying…I am dying….I am going to hell.” She did die, and I have no idea what happened to her. She may have had been thinking about dying and had a bad dream that brought on a heart attack. Her cries may have been the result of delusions brought on by medication. We may never know, but this we do know, we will all one day leave this body and exit to our eternal home with Jesus.

I John 3.2 talks about the afterlife in eloquent terms, saying “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” [slide # 2 we shall be like him,…]

Until our time comes, we have some important things to do and say. Some of what we have to do and say is routinely important in day-to-day life. Everything we do matters just as a ray of light, a drop of water, a breath of air, a moment in time makes a difference in the whole scheme of things. We have been designed by God to matter in every way- each human cell- though invisible to the naked eye builds upon another and another and another until something great appears for all to see. Scripture tells us we belong to God. We are the sheep of God’s pasture; [slide # 3 sheep] it is God who has made us. We have not made ourselves.

Scripture also tells us that we have been bought with a price. The blessing of being a child of the living God is not a free blessing. God pays a price. A preacher told me once that his church was in the middle of a drug infested neighborhood. It was not unusual to have drug deals and paraphernalia on the steps of the church. One day the church van was stolen. He saw it a couple blocks away and standing near was a drug dealer he knew. Pastor told the drug dealer that the van belonged to him, but the dealer said the man who stole it needed drugs and he sold it to me, so now it was his van and if the pastor wanted it back, he would have to buy it. The pastor bought back the van…that was the end of what I heard about the story.

Sometimes in this topsy turvy world, Satan takes us for a ride. We may get caught up in some unfortunate, unpleasant, immoral, and destructive circumstances and God finds us and pays a price so that we can get back on the road of righteousness once again.

God is very serious about communicating to us, through prophets, whoever and wherever they are. There are some very serious matters in our lives, aren’t there? It is often we who need to pay some very serious attention to what God is speaking. That is why we need to pray, to sit quietly for a minute or two or three and wait and listen to what God has to say and tell God all about whatever is on our hearts and minds.

It may seem silly to talk to God who does not appear in person, whom we cannot hear with our human ears. Yet, we have come to understand that there are many things in life that cannot be seen with the naked eye or that are imperceptible to our ears but plain as day to our hearts. We cannot see a flower grow, yet we constantly plant seeds, grow them or enjoy their beauty. [slide # 4 flower/butterfly ] We cannot hear a dog whistle above certain decibels, yet dog ears perk up to listen. [slide # 5 puppy] We cannot withstand the pressure of air above certain altitude without a pressurized airplane, yet we trust the pilot to take us thousands of miles from home. [slide # 6 pilot ]

Though we neither see nor hear God, we are surrounded by the presence of love and miracles that speak volumes and inspire our belief and faith.  [slide # 7 heart shaped tree]

Throughout the bible, in the late night news, and throughout our lives, we see the results of not paying attention to the many prophets and prophetic messages of guidance and encouragement that are constantly being sent our way by God through teachers, preachers, leaders, missionaries, medical practitioners, mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters. The Holy Spirit speaks to us more than anyone else. As humans we are easily distracted and have to be reminded again and again to focus and stay connected to our God.

Our connection to God is our hope to turn back the tide of animosity and cruelty that turns teenagers into terrorists and housewives into addicts.

This morning’s scripture warns those who speak for God to do it right or else! Or else you will die, says verse 20. [slide # 8 ‘… that prophet shall die.’] That is, even though everyone leaves this life as we know it, we are dramatically discouraged with the threat of death from doing or saying anything that would seriously jeopardize our lives or the lives of others.   

If we speak blasphemously and disrespectfully, if we speak without God’s authority or under the authority of some evil, we are done for, we are cutting off our nose to spite our face. We are dead on arrival.

Of course, there are many ways to die. In one of my rare prophetic modes I told a gentleman who was a womanizer that God said, “If you ever hurt another woman, I will kill you.” He did not die a physical death, but he did do a significant amount of time in a prison worse than hell. I spoke to another person, with whose personal life I was not at all familiar – two words: stop fornicating. I never saw that person again, but I was told a year later that they were unemployed and on a city corner asking passerby’s for money, dying of a serious infectious disease that he may have contracted or passed on by fornication.

We do not need to know the details of another person’s life to speak whatever God has for us to say that encourages, comforts, strengthens or warns. All we need to do is, as the hymn writer says, is ‘to move at the impulse of God’s love.’ [slide # 9 at the impulse of God’s love]

Of course, life can be full of many deaths that have nothing to do with sin but everything to do with God getting the glory out of our lives. Death is not always a God-forsaken moment. You may have read about a woman in the Upper Room [slide # 10 Upper room] this week who married her childhood sweetheart. They had known each other for decades and after less than three years of marriage, she was separated and facing divorce. She felt as if she were going to die, but she came to understand that whether she was living the good life on cloud nine or down in the dumps, God always had a spoon full of sugar to sweeten her day and a wonderful blessing always came her way to lighten her load.

It is not always easy to let the Spirit move us. It is not natural either. It is supernatural and that is where we want to be in this challenged world. No matter what our circumstances, whether we are facing the consequences of our own actions or carrying a heavy, inexplicable cross while wading through the deep waters of someone else’s misbehavior, we too will always find, and hopefully, will always give thanks for the one who sweetens our days. Remember to always give thanks for the wonderful blessings great or small that come to lighten our load.

Thanksgiving primes the pump of God’s blessings, inspiring an outpouring of God’s spirit for all who will receive it. [ slide # 11 Receive God] Receive more of God today. You won’t regret it. Amen. [slide # 12 man with bible]