When the Earth Itself Cries out to the LORD.

Sermon from 07/25/2010

Lord, take your hand and inscribe your words upon our hearts so that we make share them with the world. Amen.

How much time do we spend with the LORD? Is it enough? How do we know we have spent enough with the LORD so our ticket to heaven will be punched? Well lets count it up, I go to church every Sunday that counts right? And I say grace or prayers of thanksgiving before each meal, which counts too right? At night before I go to bed I say my prayers and thank the lord for the day so that counts too. So let’s see you take the grace at meals that’s 30 seconds once or twice a day so there’s roughly 7 minutes a week. Then I’ll take the prayers before bed those take 1 – 2 minutes a night, 7 nights a week so we will add around another 14 minutes. My daily bible reading that’s 10-15 minutes a day give or take a few so that’s about an hour a week. Oh and lets not forget about Church on Sundays that is at least an hour! Unless Father Bob is on his soap box that day, then its two. So I will take this number here and add it to that number there and don’t forget to carry the one. And all that equals…Less than I should have.

So how much time is enough? It is no secret we are living in times of trials and tribulations. The world full of unrest, there are wars raging over seas. There are people starving all over the world some of them right here in the US. Even our own federal, let alone state governments can not come to terms with each other. Last month we had an earthquake felt across NY and then a week or two ago there was another one that hit Washington D.C., a couple of places where you normally wouldn’t hear of such a thing happening.

Let’s read Matthew 24:6-8 together please. It can be found on your hand out. Don’t worry I am not going to make you read that entire page out loud. It’s mostly for you guys to have for a reference.

Matthew 24:6-8

⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Through out the bible, mostly in the Old Testament, we see stories of earth quakes and the ground opening up (Num.16 and Deu.11) or fire and rains of fire (Gen. 19[Sodom and Gomorrah], Num. 26.) or massive storms [Noah’s Arc and Exo.9 Plague of Hail) that have come to destroy groups of people for the sins they have committed or because they have fallen away from their relationship with the LORD.

So when we hear these things almost immediately we begin to think of death and destruction and in some cases that the world is going to end. Could this mean that the end times are near, because as we just read from the Gospel of St. Matthew it is some of the signs of the birth pains for the second coming? Perhaps, but later in that chapter at Verse 36 JESUS tells us:

Matthew 24:36 -51

³⁶"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”

And that like a good servants we should keep watch and wait for our Master’s return.

And right now some of you want to ask me, well if it’s not that, than what else could it mean? And even if you were not going to ask I am going to tell you anyway. The answer can be found in the Gospel of St. Luke 19:37-40 which is the Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem: 

LUKE 19

 ³⁷When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
 ³⁸"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
      "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

 ³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

 ⁴⁰"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

        And in Psalm 114:7

⁷ Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
       at the presence of the God of Jacob

Many people believe that God only makes earthquakes, hurricanes or tornadoes happen to punish a group people for sinning, or because they had fallen away from God. I was included in that group. But what this Scripture tells us is that it could be something totally different. God is not always doing it as a punishment; the creation itself cries out its praise to the Creator. But why?

Beloved it is no secret that we, perhaps not you or I, but we as a whole, mankind are falling away from our Lord and God. People either can not be bothered or just do not care about their fellow man let alone someone who died for some reason over two thousand years ago. And those of us who believe are soon going to be out numbered by those who don’t. Our voices are being silenced, our cries are being quelled. They removed organized prayers from our schools, although some are starting to allow it again. They want us to remove the “Under God” from our pledge of allegiance. Or in my opinion what’s perhaps the biggest atrocity; they are taking believers and removing them from the Anglican Communion, and ignoring biblical values. Friends the creation itself is speaking up, because we are not.

Isn’t it interesting that we as humans, even the non-believers, take parts of God’s creation and give it abilities that people or animals can do just to make them a little more understandable? We say things like “The thunder claps, or the streams babble, or the seas roar?” But never really look into the reason why they do those things.

All of Creation cries out Glory to God in the Highest and Holy is the Lord. Yet the ones to which God has given his creation, his chosen people remains silent.

I started off today by speaking about how much time we spend with the lord, and now I am going to tell you why. Everything I mentioned was things we do in private. We pray at the dinner table, we pray before we go to bed either alone or with our families. But what about when we are outside of our homes or church, do we love one another as he has loved us? Do we love our neighbors as our selves? Do we try out best to spread his word? I set this challenge to you once this week instead of saying good bye to some one, tell them God Bless You and see their reaction. We have removed ourselves so far from him that people just do not know how to react to it. They will either look at you like you are crazy, or you might just have the power to soften their heart enough to spend the next few moments with the LORD.

So then how much time is enough? The answer is easy, as much time as we have in this life. You see, although they are great steps, and something we should definitely be doing, we do not have to be praying, or at church, or reading the bible, to be spending time with the LORD. We have to take that next step down the path which he has set forth before us. We have to take up our crosses and bare its burden by living our lives by his word and loving each other as he first loved us.

Amen