Pastor Sherry’s message for October 15, 2023

Scriptures: Ex 32:1-14; Ps 106:1-6, 19-23; Phil 4:1-9; Matt 22:1-14

Back in 2017, Corey Asbury, a worship leader at the Bethel Church in Redding, California, wrote a worship song called “Reckless Love.” The lyrics go like this:

Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me.
You have been so, so good to me.
Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me.
You have been so, so kind to me.
Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God!
Oh it chases me down, fights til I’m found, leaves the 99.
I couldn’t earn it and I don’t deserve it;
Still You give yourself away.
Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God!
When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me.
You have been so, so good to me.
When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me.
You have been so, so kind to me.
Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God!
There’s no shadow You won’t light up,
No mountain You won’t climb up, coming after me.
There’s no wall you won’t kick down,
Lie You won’t tear down, coming after me.

It’s pretty clear from his song that Corey Asbury has experienced God’s intentional, loving pursuit of him. He’s a grateful man. He’s fallen in love with God because God has “recklessly,” unrelentingly sought him out. We can all be grateful that our God has not given up on any of us.

Now some well-meaning critics have taken issue with Corey’s characterization of God’s love as reckless. Asbury addressed this in a facebook post:

“Many have asked me for clarity on the phrase, ‘reckless love.’ Many have wondered why I’d use a “negative” word to describe God. His love isn’t cautious. No, it’s a love that sent His Own Son to die a gruesome death on a cross. There’s no ‘Plan B’ with the love of God. He gives His heart so completely, so preposterously, that if refused, most would consider it irreparably broken. Yet He gives Himself away again. The recklessness of His love is seen most clearly in this – it gets Him hurt over and over. Make no mistake, our sin pains His heart. And ‘70 times 7’ is a lot of times to have Your heart broken. Yet He opens up and allows us in every time. His love saw you when you hated Him – when all logic said, ‘They’ll reject me,’ He said, ‘I don’t care if it kills me. I’m laying My heart on the line.’ To get personal, His love saw me, a broken down kid with regret as deep as the ocean; my innocence and youth poured out like water. Yet, He saw fit to use me for His kingdom because He’s just that kind. I didn’t earn it and I sure as heck don’t deserve it, but He’s just that good. Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.”

This is the theme of our readings today. With God’s reckless love for us in mind, let’s examine them together:

A. Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23, as we have seen before, is an historical psalm. It almost reads as a confession of Israel’s sins of not trusting in God and of continuously rebelling against Him. In today’s portion, the incident of the golden calf is memorialized. Lord, have mercy! They had just been dramatically rescued by the Lord, and then given the 10 Commandments, only to break the 1st and 2nd ones once Moses was away for 40 days. They incorrectly assumed he was dead (Remember the saying, “assume makes an a__ out of u and me”). They further erred in believing that the God Who had just made covenant with them had abandoned them! Rather than trust, pray, and wait to see what would happen, they lapsed into idolatry. What foolishness! God had proven His faithfulness to them.

He had protected them and provided for them. But, by a month or so later, they had forgotten it all. They let their fears overcome their good sense and their past experience with God.

Isn’t this so like us? Things aren’t going well for us. So, rather than remember all that God has done for us in the past, we focus on what He does not appear to be doing in the present. I recommend that you write down on a 3 by 5 card the encounters you know you have had with God—times you know He has been there for you and has arranged circumstances to bless you. Tape it to your bathroom mirror, to your dresser top, or to your car dashboard so you can remind yourself of God’s faithful, reckless love for you. He really does deserve greater faithfulness from us.

B. Our Exodus passage (32:1-14) describes the golden calf incident in greater detail. Aaron, Moses’ older brother, has just been made high priest. His job was to lead worship that glorified God; and help the people develop a right or proper relationship with the Lord. Instead of doing his God-appointed job, he caved to their demands (he became a people-pleaser rather than a God-pleaser) and dared to fashion the golden calf idol! YIKES! Later, when caught (vv.22-24), he will tell Moses he threw the people’s gold into the fire and a golden calf just jumped out. Oops, Aaron also broke the 9th commandment against lying. Additionally, the pagan idol reminded the people of pagan religious orgies. The Hebrew word for revelry is strongly suggestive of sexual misbehavior. Instead of remaining pure and chaste, as God desired of them, a number of them engaged in sexual acts abhorrent to Him.

No wonder God is disappointed and angry! Do you know that anger is the smoke whereas hurt is the burning coals underneath? Anger is generally a response to having been offended or realizing someone we love has been injured. God must have been so hurt that they would abandon Him so soon.

How ridiculous of them to want to worship something made by human hands, instead of the Creator Himself! Where’s the power in something they created? And how can one have a relationship with an inanimate gold statue?

In verses 11-13, Moses intercedes to God for them. It’s fairly easy to ask God to grant us our prayer-needs. In intercessory prayer, however, we offer up someone else’s needs. This is truly an example of loving our neighbor as ourselves. God had contemplated wiping them all out and forming a new nation from Moses and his progeny. But Moses selflessly reminds God of His long-suffering love for them. He points out how killing them all off in the desert will look to the Egyptians. He also reminds Him of His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: (1) Progeny—they will multiply their descendants until their number is like that of the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the beach; (2) Property—He means to settle them in the Promised Land; (3) Protection from enemies; (4) His Presence with them; (and,5, the promise of Prosperity He made to Abraham).

God listened to Moses. Out of His “reckless love,” God relents. Thank God for Moses’ love and loyalty to the people. Thank God for His own goodness and kindness to them and to us.

C. In our Gospel lesson (Matthew 22:1-14), Jesus continues dialoging with the chief priests and the Jewish religious leaders.

The confrontation began when they challenged His authority (21:23-27).

You may remember that two Sundays ago we learned He took them to task for their willfulness, arrogance, and hard-heartedness. Last Sunday we read that He told a parable in which He predicted His death and also that His Church will take over from the Jews the mission of leading people to God.

In today’s Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14), He issues a third prophetic warning. The certain king is God the Father. It is God Who has prepared a wedding banquet for His Son, Jesus. The Jewish Chosen People had been invited to this banquet, (v.3)…but they refused to come. He invites them again, but some are otherwise occupied and blow off the invitation, rudely and heedlessly offending God. A confession I learned as an 8th grader, from the 1928 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, says “We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. There is no health in us.” The devices and desires are our own plans that get in the way of following God’s plans. Others mistreat or kill the servants (the prophets) He sends to gather them in. As a result, the King (v.7) sent His army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. (This actually happened in 70AD when the Roman Titus burned Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. No doubt any of these religious leaders alive at that time were killed in that punitive action.) Then the King invites anyone His servants can locate—this refers to we Gentiles, to us! He even provides, out of His extravagant love for us, wedding clothes which are the righteousness of Christ. Jesus is thus warning them ahead of time that no one will enter into God’s Kingdom or heaven except through faith in Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus’ teachings and model, the Father had shown His people what was necessary for them to come to His banquet. Really, due to God’s reckless and extravagant love, all are invited (See John 3:16.). However, many refuse to believe in Jesus and miss out. Jesus is graciously and lovingly inviting the religious authorities—and us–yet again, to accept God’s invitation. The choice involves faith in Jesus. Those who reject God’s Son, will be ultimately thrown into…the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (v.13).

Our God has gone to great lengths—including sending Jesus to die a gruesome death on a cross—to redeem us, to save us, and to win our love for Him. He so courageously puts Himself out there, daily, hourly, for each one of us. How many of us would be willing to do so for another? For years I have protected myself with a “three times rule”: Offer friendship or love 3 times and if rejected each time, I stop after three. I tend not to trust that person and to afterward hold them at arm’s length. I forgive them and pray for them, but I am unwilling to risk my heart again. But Corey Asbury contrasts my self-protective stance with that of God: Yet He gives Himself away again. The recklessness of His love is seen most clearly in this – it gets Him hurt over and over. How amazing and how brave! Rather than being as fickle and faithless as the Israelites, or as self-protective as me, let us consciously commit ourselves to returning His relentless, reckless love, now and always. Amen!

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams