Sunday Morning Christian: Sermon Isaiah 1:10-20 and Luke 12:31-40

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Most of us around these parts grew up on old country music. Even I, a child of the 1980s, can remember listening to Johnny Cash, the Chuck Wagon Gang, Boots Randolph, and Chet Adkins with my grandfather on an old record player. One great thing, especially about old country songs is the titles. You might remember such great songs like “If My Nose Were Full Of Nickels, I'd Blow It All On You”, “Her Teeth Were Stained, But Her Heart Was Pure”, “I Changed Her Oil, She Changed My Life”, “I Gave Her My Heart and a Diamond and She Clubbed Me with a Spade”, and who can forget the classic “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goal Posts of Life”. Now one of these old songs that I ran across this week is called “Sunday Morning Christian” and it was written by Harland Howard who wrote a lot of old country classics. Let me read some of the lyrics to you. Mr. Jones this car you sold me isn't all that I desired You swore it was young and healthy now I find it's old and tired But a deal's a deal you tell me and there's nothing to be done Mr. Jones I'd like you better if you robbed me with a gun You're a Sunday morning Christian sir singing louder than the rest Beg forgiveness at the altar with your chin down on your chest But tomorrow will be Monday you'll revert back to your ways Gougin' kickin' cheatin' shovin' with no thoughts of God or lovin' Don't let me stand in your way surely God will forgive you next Sunday. It is a simple song with a strong message. How many of us are guilty of being a Sunday morning Christian. We are all about God and justice and loving our neighbor and all the rest on Sunday morning, but by Tuesday afternoon we have forgotten all about our Christian beliefs and duties. I know I am guilty of it. Sometimes I forget during the week to do what I promise to do on Sunday morning and sometimes God reminds me in not so subtle ways that what I am doing doesn’t match up to what I was preaching or learning on Sunday.

Our Scripture lesson this morning talks about this kind of thing, about being godly on the surface but not in the heart. The lessons come from Isaiah and Luke and they are both warnings to the people, don’t pretend to worship God on the outside while you heart is in the wrong place. Don’t forget about your responsibilities as a child of God when you walk out the door.

Isaiah begins his prophecy by speaking to the people of Judah and Isaiah is not speaking on his own behalf but it is God who speaks through him. He calls the people of Judah the rulers and people of Sodom and Gomorrah. In other words the people have returned to the debauchery and ungodly behavior that was found in those two cities destroyed by God. Their behavior is sickening to God. Time after time God has saved them. God had brought the people abundance, a beautiful nation, years of peace and fruitfulness and for what, so the people could rebel against God’s teachings and laws. The people of Judah kept up appearances. They had their ceremonies, the made their sacrifices to God at the appointed times according to the law. They had the façade of Godly people, but their hearts were not towards God. They worshiped on the Sabbath day, but failed to serve God every other day. They made their sacrifices on the appointed days to make up for their behavior the rest of the time.

Do we do this today? Do we sing well on Sunday morning to make up for Saturday night? We might say to ourselves I can cheat someone a little bit this week, I’ll just put a little more in the plate on Sunday. I’ll serve on a committee to make up for the bad things I do during the week. God’s reaction to this kind of worship is the same now as it was at the time of Isaiah. God rejects it outright. God calls this kind of worship a burden, an abomination, and he is tired of it. He grows tired of worship without the heart of the people in the right place. He is tired of sacrifice without repentance. He grows tired of the same people wanting the same forgiveness without any intention of changing their lives. Worship is not on the outside. It is not about wearing a new dress or a new suit and tie. It is not about who puts the most money in the offering plate or who sings the loudest over everyone else. The kind of worship that God wants is true worship from the heart. God wants our hearts and our focus in the right place. Where is our focus this morning? Where is your heart?

We call the Sunday morning meeting time “worship”. I’m going to “worship” this morning. However, worship is not just one hour on Sunday morning. Being a Christian is a 24/7/365 lifestyle. So many times we think of being a Christian as something we do. We go to church, we give money, we help out our neighbor, we do this and that. But being a Christian is not something we do, but instead it is something we are. Let me repeat that being a Christian is not something we do but something we are. It is your life; it is something that is important and natural as breathing. Being a Christian means allowing God to affect every corner of your life, every decision that you make.

How do we worship God outside of church? Isaiah lists the ways. First, Isaiah tells the people to cease doing evil. This seems to be an obvious thing to do, cease to do evil, ok…fine. But this is much harder than it seems. We have to work on this every day. We have to purge ourselves of the bad habits we do. The evil in the world is not just the horrid atrocities we see on TV, but it is things like not helping another in need, or thinking of ourselves above others. Things like this are evil in the eyes of God as well.

What is the second thing? Learn to do good. Here again this seems like a simple thing, but often times it is the most difficult thing. If we look deeper at this we can see that it is more about an exchange or replacement than it is a stop and start. We replace the evil things with good things. We exchange a bad habit for a good one. Those who have ever had to quit smoking might have tried this method. Instead of smoking a cigarette you would take a walk, chew a piece of gum, drink a glass of water, or something good instead of smoking. The same is true here. We have to replace a bad habit with a good one.

Thirdly, we must rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. In other words, we must help those who cannot help themselves. We have a responsibility to help those who need help. I am so proud to be the pastor of a church who helps the community like we do. Our support of the Giles County Help Center allows them to help families all over the community. We should be proud of our accomplishments and continue our support of this great organization. We have also sent aid to help the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricane Katrina; we have sent money to aid UMCOR in places all over the world. I thank you for all that you have done, but there is so much more left to be done. Remember as we help those who are in need, we are helping Christ. What we do to them we also do to Jesus. Our work is not just monetary in nature. We need to take action to let our government officials know that God calls for justice and prosperity for all people, not just for the elect few. We need to write letters expressing our Christian beliefs and most of all we need to keep our prayers flowing for those who need them.

The last way we worship God outside the church on Sunday mornings comes from our reading in Luke and that is to always be ready. We know that Christ is coming back and we need to be ready for his return. That is one way to look at that Scripture. Another way is to say always be ready to God’s work in the world. We should be prepared to act as God’s agents at a moments notice. Not just with food or money, but with a shoulder to cry on, and ear to listen with, and a hand to pick someone up. We never know who might need our help. Also, we should not put off until tomorrow what we can do today. Don’t put off love or forgiveness until later, we have to treat each day like it is our last, because we are not guaranteed tomorrow. If you have a beef with someone work it our, forgive one another. If there is someone who want to say “I love you” to, don’t put it off, do it today.

None of us are perfect and none of us do the right things all the time. We mess up, we make mistakes, we all fall short of the glory of God. Here is the good news for us. God still loves us and is always willing to forgive our mistakes. We are not left out in the cold, but we can always come back into the warmth of God’s love. Isaiah goes on to say that God is willing to forgive. Even though our sins are red as scarlet they will be wash clean as snow or the wool of a lamb. And more than this, God gives us renewed strength each day to make better choices. Jesus is our hope; we know that we are forgiven because we have the blessed assurance in the Lamb of God. Let us learn from our mistakes and try better in the future. Let us work hard not to be just a Sunday morning Christian, but to let the light of Christ shine from us all day and all night.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen