Sermon manuscript:
The apostle Peter has an interesting phrase in his second
epistle. He is writing to Christians about how they have to live in the midst
of people who are like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He says that these
people “have hearts that have been trained in covetousness.” The word
that is used for training is “gumnazdo” in the Greek. Perhaps you can pick up
the English cognate if I say gumnazium, that is, gymnasium. What do people do
at a gym? People have hearts that have been trained, like someone working out
at a gym, in covetousness, in the desire to get more and more.
This covetous heart has been implanted in us by the fall
into sin. It is apparent already in toddlers or even younger. As soon as we can
manage it we say “mine.” In order that we wouldn’t grow up to be totally
antisocial, our parents had to teach us to share. But this might be debatable.
Were we really taught to share or were we taught that we couldn’t snatch things
out of another person’s hands? Those aren’t the same thing. To be sure, the
violence of snatching is frowned upon. It’s too direct and unambiguous. You’ll
never get ahead in life that way. You have to be more subtle. Unintentionally,
we were taught that it is alright to take what belongs to others, but it had to
be according to certain rules.
Think of how it is among siblings. In a way we were allowed
to abuse our siblings, so long as it didn’t get to the point where they called
in the authorities. Or, on the other hand, some of us learned how handy it is
to call in the authorities for every little thing. That was another way that we
could abuse our siblings. It’s the law of the jungle, but kids learn how to
keep the volume down to an acceptable level—not because they are good, but
precisely because they are evil.
It’s not that parents intentionally set out to achieve this kind of thing with their children.
Rather, we know not what we do. Since this way of living is so thoroughly engrained
in us with our sinful nature, it makes it hard to know that there could be
anything different. We can’t know what is actually going on. And this is where
that phrase from the apostle Peter can give us some insight.
If we have hearts that have been trained in covetousness, if
we’ve been working out at always getting as much as we possibly can so long as
it is legal or socially acceptable, then it becomes second nature to us. When
anything becomes second nature it means that you no longer have to think about
what you are doing. Repetition creates muscle memory.
For example, I’ve done a lot of typing over the years. I
don’t have to think about which buttons I have to push in order to get words on
the page. The only time that I ever have to think about the buttons I’m pushing
is when I’m trying to spell an unfamiliar word. Otherwise all the words simply
flow out of my fingers.
Equipment operators can do the same thing. At first a
backhoe operator needs to think about what each movement of the controls is
going to do with the boom and the bucket. Eventually the machine almost becomes
an extension of himself. He thinks about what he wants to accomplish without
having to think about what movements he might need to do with his hands or his
feet.
So if we’ve been trained in covetousness, if we’ve been
trained in always getting more and more, then we won’t even think about what we
are doing. We will screw over or rip off whomever we might be able to do that
with without giving it a second thought. “That’s just life,” a person might
say.
And when it comes to parenting, Luther has a proverb about
that. He says, “One fool raises another.” If we have hearts that have been
trained in covetousness, and if we have been trained well, then how can we
possibly do anything different than raise our children the same way we were
raised? It doesn’t even enter our minds to do anything different.
This is why the Bible is a strange book, and why it is so
difficult for people to read. God’s Word teaches the one who is willing to
learn from it to think about life differently. It is quite open about this too.
Jesus says, for example, “That which is exalted among men is an abomination
before God.” People are impressed
by how well someone can rip off everybody else and get to the top of the heap. Jesus says that the first shall be last
and the last shall be first—a strange saying, is it not? That only proves my
point. The Bible is a strange book, with a strange way of looking at life, and
this is why it is so difficult for all people gladly to hear and learn it.
Apart from faith, it is impossible to understand even the tiniest part of it.
I think we can see this is true when we consider our Old
Testament reading today. The descendants of Israel found themselves out in the
middle of nowhere with nothing to eat. What did this bumbling fool of a leader
get themselves into? When they were in Egypt they at least had something to
eat. Now they are going to die.
All of this is perfectly reasonable to our flesh. A basic
assumption in the field of economics is that supply is limited. The Israelites
could see with their eyes how severely limited their resources were. When it
comes to allocating these resources, there won’t be nearly enough. For a heart
that has been trained in covetousness, this is sheer hell. There is no hope of
getting more and more.
But when you are dealing with the Creator of the universe
the basic assumption of economics goes out the window. When you are dealing
with the Creator you are dealing with the one who opens his hand and satisfies
the desires of every living thing. You are dealing with the one who causes the
rain to fall on the just and the unjust. The concern for the lack of bread is
not the same as it is for the one who is trained to horde. If need be, God can
make bread rain down from heaven. What’s more likely is that God will work
through his created means to supply the one who is in need. Some opportunity,
some boon, will open up, but you might get a little hungry before it does.
That’s not a big deal though. Like the psalmist says, “My
soul waits and in his Word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than
watchmen wait for the morning.” Do you suppose somebody who is keeping
watch in the middle of the night might get a little sick of waiting and
watching? He looks forward to the morning because that is when he can get off
duty and get some rest. But does the watchman ever think the morning isn’t
coming? He knows it’s coming—not as quickly as he might like—but he knows it’s
coming. So it is for the one who believes and waits for the Lord. Sooner or
later he’s coming. However, for the one who does not believe, this waiting
seems to them to be terrible advice.
Thus you see that there are two groups among the Israelites.
Moses doesn’t understand why the people are so angry at him. He’s been obeying
the Lord’s commands. He plans on continuing to put his hope in the Word, and
wait for the Lord. The other group is looking around and only seeing
desert—barren, dry desert. They believe that they need to organize themselves quickly
and head back to Egypt before they run out of what little they have and no
longer have the strength to get back.
This is a pattern that repeats over and over again,
particularly during this time period where the Israelites are in the
wilderness. The majority of them want to throw in the towel. They want to
reject their baptism in the Red Sea. They want to reject their status as royal
priests—a nation that was specifically chosen by God to be his own. They’d
rather have a pot of porridge than God’s blessing.
The faithful, on the other hand, keep their eye on the Lord.
They are not anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, they make their requests made known to God. And
the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keeps their hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus. So long as their hearts and minds are on the Lord, they
can do anything if need be. This would not be because of some strength within
themselves, but with the strength that the Lord supplies—specifically to those
who are weak. As Christ says to Paul, “I won’t remove the thorn from your
flesh. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in
weakness.”
Remember that one time with Peter? The Lord was walking on
the water in a wind storm. Peter, that wonderful fellow, said, “If it’s you
Lord, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.”
So Peter stepped out of the boat. So long as he kept his eyes on Jesus he was
able to do what otherwise is impossible. When did he start to sink like a
stone? It was when he took his eyes off of Jesus and started to examine the
limited supply of sure footing that was available. He became afraid that he was
going to be stuck out there in no man’s land—too far from the boat, not close
enough to Jesus. There you see the struggle in a single man that the whole
people of Israel went through together.
We are like Peter. Even though we Christians we all continue
to have a part of us that is more at home in covetousness, that is, idolatry,
rather than waiting for the Lord and hoping in his Word. This might be about
money. It can be about all kinds of other things too. It can be about our love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control. When we look within ourselves and
take stock of what seems like a limited supply, we might believe that it is
impossible to keep on loving, to keep being patient, to keep being joyful. All
we might see in ourselves is the equivalent of five loaves and a couple fish that
are supposed to hold out against tremendous needs. There is a great temptation
to just give up. It seems wiser to go with what comes more naturally to
us—which is living for ourselves.
But this only makes sense if you deliberately ignore God’s
Word. This was the biggest problem with those Israelites who despaired. Why did
they despair? Because they didn’t believe that God was going to do what he said
he was going to do. God said he would bring them into the Promised Land. Why
didn’t they believe it?
Contrary to what you might expect, there is actually a good
reason why they didn’t believe it: they didn’t believe it because it didn’t
take place in the way that they expected it would. As soon as something gets
said, the way that our brains work is that we visualize it. So the Israelites
had visualized what it would be like to get from Canaan to the Promised Land.
Their vision didn’t include having no food or water in barren, dry places. They
didn’t think they’d have to fight against Canaanites that were much more
powerful than they were. The way that God was making it turn out didn’t seem
wise to them, to say the least.
So it can be and usually is for our lives of faith too. We
might think we know best about how we should make our way to heaven. We might
think that we should be able to get to heaven while sitting in our lazybody and
enjoying the love and esteem of everybody. Here, again, you might read the
Bible, that difficult book. It’s not difficult because it’s so hard to
understand. It’s difficult because God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s
thoughts are not our thoughts.
The Bible says that it is not easy to get to heaven. The
place that is easy to get to is hell. To go to hell is the easiest thing in the
world. All we have to do is be true to ourselves, to never cease in our
training in covetousness—the very thing we are happy to do. The gate to heaven
is narrow. The way is hard. Few there are who find it. All the ones who do find
it, find it by faith. They walk it by faith. Though we are weak, God is strong.
If we do not take our eyes off him, we will not sink or stumble. If we believe,
we can move mountains.
So keep walking on the way and don’t lose heart. Turn away
from your training in covetousness, and take up a new sport. It might be
awkward at first. Learning something new usually is. Make use, here, of the
third and second commandments. Learn how to be made wise for how to live by
God’s word rather than sticking with your worldly wisdom. Learn how to pray
instead of scheming and scraping and lying. You will find that God will take
care of you—probably not in the ways you expect—but his ways are better for us
than the ones we would otherwise choose for ourselves.
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