A sermon preached by the Reverend Scott D. Nowack
 on July 22, 2007
at Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, PA.

Putting God First

Amos 8:1-12
Colossians 1:15-28
Luke 10:38-42

Putting God first: easier said than done. Putting God first in our lives is difficult and challenging because we are busy people with so many distractions and influences trying to get our attention. The loudest, the boldest, the dominate ones tend to dictate our decisions, especially if it is not one of our priorities. Unless I’ve missed my guess, there is someone here this morning who is looking for a new direction in their life. Is there someone here today who somewhere along the way slipped of track and finds themselves taking one step forward for every two steps back? What is you number one priority?

There was a woman who bought a parrot to keep her company. She took him home, but returned the bird to the store the next day. “This bird doesn’t talk,” she told the owner. “Does he have a mirror in his cage?” asked the owner. “Parrots love mirrors. They see themselves in the mirror and start up a conversation.” The woman bought a mirror and left. The next day, she returned. The bird still wasn’t talking. “How about a ladder? Parrots love walking up and down a ladder. A happy parrot is more likely to talk.” The woman bought a ladder and left. Sure enough, she was back the next day; the bird still wasn’t talking. “Does you parrot have a swing? If not, that’s the problem. He’ll relax and talk up a storm.” The woman reluctantly bought a swing and left. When she walked into the store the next day, her countenance had changed. “The parrot died,” she said. The pet store owner was shocked! “I’m so sorry. Tell me, did he ever say a word?” he asked. “Yes, right before he died,” the woman replied. “He said, ‘Don’t they sell any food at that pet store?”

It is so easy for us, even with our good intentions, to get our priorities mixed up and out of order.

The prophet Amos is speaking to the people of Israel during a time of great peace and prosperity. However, the prosperity is only for a few wealthy people at the expense of the many because they have put their own needs and interests ahead of God. God speaks through Amos to the people of Israel and Judah a divine judgment. God addresses them as those who “trample on the needy” and “ruin the poor of the land”. They are the ones who anxiously await the end of the Sabbath so they can get back to selling their goods, particularly wheat, and ripping off their customers. And God describes their business practices as immoral. They desire to deceive others by charging a high price for a small amount or size of goods. To do so they “rig” their balances to deceive their customers. In essence, the Israelites seek their own profit ahead of seeking God, his righteousness and justice.

The Lord promises to bring these deceivers to justice by turning their “feasts into mourning” and their “songs into lamentation”. There will be a famine on the land, but not a famine from bread or thirst from water, but a spiritual famine from hearing the word of God. These immoral, self-centered deceivers “shall fall and never rise again.” They will be lost wandering seeking the Lord’s instruction and guidance but they will not find it.

These deceivers have turned away from God. They have broken the covenant replacing their relationship with God with their own wants, desires, interests, and well-being. Whenever we place a higher priority on pursuing our own wants and desires than on pursuing God, we are immoral. This is not right and we need to do something about it.

Mary and Martha are two sisters who live in the quiet town of Bethany a few miles east of Jerusalem. Jesus is looking for a quiet place to rest, to get away from the crowds of people, to visit with friends. Mary and Martha, although they are related as sisters, they each have very different personalities. Martha is a dynamo of activity, a type A personality. She’s a doer. She was brought up to show guests in her home with extravagant hospitality. This meant cleaning up, giving the guests the most comfortable seat in the home, straightening the furniture, picking up things off the floor, and preparing a meal in a timely fashion. On the other hand, Mary is less concerned with these details and demonstrates hospitality in a different way; a way that is less hectic and more present in the moment. Mary sits with Jesus and listens to him intently.

We know what happens next. Martha is not happy with Mary. She sees her “just sitting there” as laziness and an unwillingness to be helpful and hospitable. Martha is resentful of her sister who is, in her eyes, not doing her part. But you see, what we have here is clash in priorities. Yes, they are both seeking to be hospitable to their guest. Yes, they both care a great deal about their guest’s comfort. But Jesus says, “there is need of only one thing” right now and Mary has chosen it. In essence what Jesus is saying to Martha is this: thank you for your hard work and your hospitality and your kindness toward me. I appreciate it. But I need a different kind of hospitality and kindness from you right now like what Mary is doing. I need you, Martha, to be fully present here with me right now. All of you; come and sit and be present with me. I want to be your top priority. And he wants to be our number one priority, too.

When I look at the world around us carefully, it appears that we are going nowhere fast. We are in a hurry to get things done, these “priorities” of ours, that we rush and rush around until our lives are no longer joyful. Our minds are filled with “to do lists” of people to call, things to buy, and events to attend. And in the rat race of life it is very easy for us to get off track putting our work, our play, our families, our friends, our own wants and desires in the driver’s seat of our lives rather than God.

I’ve heard it said time and time again that most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship of God.

How can we change this? How can you and I be agents of change not only in our own lives but in the world around us? How can we put God first in our lives?

First, we must be fully committed to God in Christ Jesus. As our train journeys down the track of life, you and I not driving this thing; we are not in the locomotive at the controls moving this train along. If we are fully committed to God in Christ, we give the controls over to Him. We submit ourselves completely to God. God in Christ is our number one priority before everything else. And God directs us in the way we need to go. Jesus in the gospel stories tells a parable about a rich young ruler who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. He has kept the Law of Moses since he was a young boy and achieved great personal success. But when Jesus says to him, “Sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor and then come and follow me”, the rich young ruler went away sad because he was unwilling and unable to give up his power and wealth. The top priority of the rich young ruler is his wealth and power rather than submission to God. Putting God first enables us to put our wealth, power and influence in proper perspective.

Second, we must be fully committed to one another in Christ as a community of believers and as children of God.

I believe we are all familiar with the Titanic and what happened to this ship. Catering to the rich and famous, this luxury liner was advertised as unsinkable. On Titanic’s fateful night, many passengers were unable to enter a lifeboat because of the selfish, privileged passengers who felt no concern for anyone but themselves. The first-class passengers feared that added weight in the lifeboats would jeopardize their chance for survival. As a result, many of the ship’s lifeboats, which were made to hold up to 60 people, left the ship with only 15 people aboard.  Although there were enough lifeboats to save hundreds more, people were left stranded on the sinking liner.

            We need to be committed to one another in Christ if we are going to be obedient disciples of Christ. This means we do not leave anybody behind. This means we do not keep certain people out of our community. What it means is that we can not live the Christian faith on our own. We need God in Christ but we also need one another. We need one another for encouragement, Christian love, strength and more. We need one another so we can be “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” to the world around us “in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (I Peter 2:9)

This leads to my third point: we must be committed to the work of Christ in the world. God in Christ is at work all around us. Sometimes it’s hard to see. So we must go be the hands and feet of Christ in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our activities and in our common daily interactions with others. We’ve got a lot to share about Christ: “he’s the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible,…all things have been created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:15-16) In one sense this is very easy because the story of Jesus is the most amazing story ever told. But it’s also so hard because it feels as if we are runnin’ and gunnin’ through life at high speed and do not have the time to do the work of Christ in the world.

Many years ago a seminary professor had a class of fifteen students who were preparing for the ministry. At the beginning of one of his classes, he distributed envelopes to the students with sealed instructions.

Five students received instructions to proceed across the campus without delay. The directions read, “You have 15 minutes to reach your destination. You have no time to spare. Don’t loiter or do anything else, or your grade will be negatively affected.”

The next five students also received instructions to make their way across the campus, but they were given 45 minutes to do so. “You have plenty of time,” their directions read, “but don’t be too slow.”

The last five students received instructions to get to the other side of campus anytime before five o’clock, giving them about five hours to complete the assignment.

What the students didn’t know was that the professor had arranged for several drama majors from a nearby university to position themselves along the path that led across campus. The drama students were instructed to act as though they were suffering and in great need.

One pretended to be homeless, in need of food and clothing. Another sat with his head in his hands, crying as if he had just experienced a terrible tragedy. Still another acted as if he were in desperate need of medical care.

You can imagine what happened as the seminary students tried to complete their assignments. None of the students in the first group stopped to offer any help to the “needy people.” Only two students in the second group did. But all five students in the third group took time to stop and help.

We live busy lives. It feels like the world is in some big hurry but doesn’t know why. Our busyness, if we allow it, can cloud our judgment so we mix up our priorities, and forget our commitment to the work of Christ in the world.

Each of us, no matter what, needs to take time out from the busyness of life. Dive into God’s Word, get in a small group bible study with other Christians, and take time to pray, to have routine conversations with God. When we get all mixed up, we need to our mind and spirit on the right track.

Over and over again I know this to be true: when God in Christ is your number one focus, your number one priority, God puts everyone and everything else in proper perspective.

When we put God first, we get back on the right track again. When we put God first, we’re headed in the right direction again. When we put God first, we are committed to Him, we are committed to one another, we are committed to the work of Christ in the world and our train is bound for a glorious and blessed destination.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org