This is part of the worship series
"Are We Faking It?"
Introduction | Lent 1 | Lent 2 | Lent 3 | Lent 4 | Lent 5
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
The Monday Gap
Call to Worship
Let us worship God,
for whom our souls thirst
and our bodies long (Psalm 63:1, NIV).
"Listen, listen to me,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare" (Isaiah 55:2, NIV).
We have come to hear the Word God has sent.
God's Word will not return empty
but will accomplish through us his holy purpose.
Let us worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
Then we will go out with joy and be led forth in peace,
the mountains and the hills will sing,
the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Sermon Text
Luke 13:1–9
Sermon Ideas
The most well-known line Karl Marx ever wrote is doubtless "Religion is the opiate of the masses." Marx, like Freud, believed that Christian beliefs are not revealed from heaven but are invented on earth. Actually, Marx approved of Christian concern for justice, righteousness, and peace. The problem with religious people, Marx thought, is that instead of working to make this life more just, righteous, and peaceful, they pin all their hopes on a future world.
When Marx called religion "an opiate," he meant that religion is like a drug that numbs people's minds to the injustice around them. Because they anticipate a better world to come, religious people fail to work to make this world a better place today. A pie-in-the-sky hope for the future makes people passive in the present.
Marx's message, shorn of its political baggage, convicts us that at times we are guilty of religious quietism. Too often our lofty spiritual talk never leaves the sanctuary. Someone once wrote about "The Monday Gap." What they meant is that Sunday's message often doesn't have an impact on a person's business practices come Monday morning. On Sunday we sing that "Jesus loves the little children of the world," but during the rest of the week we don't do much to improve the lot of this world's children. Although we all know that the Christian life is to be one of spiritual fruit-bearing, the limbs of our spiritual trees seldom sag under the weight of too much holy produce.
This Sunday's Lectionary reading from Luke 13 touches on the Lenten theme of repentance but follows that immediately with a parable on the need to bear fruit—or else. In last week's sermon we touched on the notion that we are not to look for the kingdom of God to be institutionalized in any government or society of this earth. But that does not mean we are to withdraw from society or that we should not be concerned with issues like justice and peace for all. The kingdom of God is not of this earth, but it does impinge on our lives now. So we must work in all segments of life to trace out the kingdom's holy contours.
During Lent we speak much of the cross and of the repentance that it properly inspires. But repentance devoid of a subsequently changed life is false and hollow. God is only interested in a repentance that issues in clusters and clusters of rich, succulent, spiritual fruit. If our Lenten repentance does not issue in a vibrant post-Easter life of service, then we may have followed Jesus part of the way to Golgotha, but we obviously never finished the journey.
So this sermon should focus on overcoming the Monday gap by connecting our liturgical words and deeds of Sunday to our ordinary speech and actions during the week. We dare not allow our Sunday worship to be a narcotic that soothes our hearts but paralyzes our hands. "Liturgy" means "service," but when the postlude is finished our service has only just begun.
Prayer
Word of God Incarnate,
you came to this world to accomplish salvation.
By your grace you call us to repent,
to be crucified with you that we might be raised as a new creation.
But we confess that we often do not live as renewed people.
We confess that often we "go with the flow" instead of stemming sin's tide.
Forgive us when we do not show evidence of renewal.
Forgive us when we let the fruit of the Spirit be choked by the weeds of evil.
You have made us your children, members of your kingdom.
Help us to show evidence of that every day
as we work to bring your justice, peace, gentleness, goodness, love, joy, and hope to all we meet.
For Jesus' sake, Amen.
Psalm and Hymn Suggestions
Opening Hymn
"O Lord, My God, Most Earnestly" Public Domain
"O God, You Are My God" Webber
"The Trees of the Field" Rubin
Hymn of Confession
"Not What My Hands Have Done" Bonar
Hymn of Preparation or Response
"Fill Thou My Life, O Lord, My God" Bonar
"God Works His Purposes in Us" Topp
"The Fruit of the Spirit" Gillette
"O God, My Faithful God" Heermann
Revised Common Lectionary
Year C: Lent—Third Sunday in Lent
