Thread:

Message in one What makes God weep?

sentence:
Scriptures referred Pro.6:16-19; Rom.12:9-21; Joh.3:16-21.
to:
Illustrations: Lost the plot along the way. No punch. At the end
where was the tie in with the map?

Sermon:
Intro:
Last week I said that I believe that racial injustice still exists in
South Africa today. 28 years into so called democracy and
apartheid lingers within our structures. I have to ask why the
words of Micah which are echoed by Jesus are being ignored?
I asked you to think about, what steps you were going to take to
help bring the Kingdom of God here in South Africa?
I also spoke about my journey from Cape Town to Pretoria. I
would like to share with you another journey which I started at
the beginning of Lent.

Currently I am working my way through the learning zone.

Having edged slowly out of the “fear” zone I am feeling
uncomfortable as I move around the “learning zone”. The more
that I learn about race and structural racism. The more I am
aware of what what I may have done to make God weep. And it
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 is in this “learning zone” where I once again encounter His grace
and love for me.

What do we learn from our Wisdom reading?

Our reading from Proverbs tells us some things that God hates.

1. eyes that are arrogant, (haughty)

1. a tongue that lies,
2. hands that murder the innocent,
3. a heart that hatches evil plots,
4. feet that race down a wicked track,
5. a mouth that lies under oath, and
6. a troublemaker in the family.

These things that God hates, seem to me to be along the lines of

the last six of the ten commandments. The first four deal with
our relationship to God. The other six are our relationship within
our community.

On the “arrogant [haughty] eyes”, what is meant here is being prideful.

I am better than you are; so I look down upon you. Have you heard
the saying, “Pride goeth before the fall.”? It’s based upon Pro.16:18

In today’s Collect we asked God to, “expose our self-satisfaction.” Did

we mean that?

Now being wary of using poor scriptural interpretation, by cherry-

picking a few Biblical passages to support my prejudices and opinions...
I want to respond to the question, is racism a sin? Scripture does not
contain the word racism. So does that mean racism is not a sin?
Depends, I suppose on how you define sin.

Personally I view sin as being any word or action which disobeys and
displeases God…
Thus when I see myself as being better than anyone else based upon
their melamine count or ethnicity… am I sinning? I now suspect so.

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 In Rom 12:16 Paul says, “Be friendly with everyone. Don't
be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make
friends with ordinary people.” [cev]

Rather than looking down on some people I strive to look at each one
through the lens of:
“Love God with all your heart and mind, and love your
neighbour also.” [Mat.22:37-39 kjv]

So one way of carrying out Jesus’ command to “love one another” is to

not be prideful.

Which I wonder if Nicodemus was? Was he like the Pharisee in Luk.18?

First the context. vv1-21 is the evening meeting with Nicodemus? We

know that Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin – the supreme
religious authority. (Like our bishops?)

So dare we assume that being such a fine upstanding Pharisee he

believed that he was was a notch above the rest of God’s chosen
people. He was already holy enough to join God in eternity.

However, Jesus tells him in v16 that eternity with God is open to all
who have faith in Jesus Christ! That’s it. It’s not your Jewish roots
that count.

As Paul – an ex-Pharisee said, “For it is by God's grace that you

have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own
efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.” [gnb]

May I suggest that Jesus tells us one way to do that in Joh 15:12
“This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you.”

Love one another, love your neighbour. Our raison d'être is to spread
the love of God where ever we go. To do and say nothing to cause God

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to weep.

Call to action!

1. Pause for a moment. Think. How can you – individually and

with our community of faith – extend the love, grace, mercy,
and justice of God to others on the margins of our society?