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Rob Bell Nooma Video ( Sunday )

Matthew 23-1:39


For years I want to church because you are supposed to. But there are things about it that just didn’t seem right. Do you know what I am talking about? It’s like a lot of times I found myself looking around, thinking: “Is this what God had in mind?”

And then I came across this passage in the Bible that helped me start to see things in a new way. It tells a story of Jesus having a meal with some of the religious leaders of His day, and they have all these complicated hand-washing rituals that they go through before they eat. And Jesus ignores their rules. One of them notices this and points this out. And Jesus says, “You, religious leaders! It’s like you clean the outside of the cup, but the inside is filled with greed and evil.” You give away 10% of your income, but you don’t really care about making the world a better place. Then Jesus says to them: “ Everything for you is about being seen in public as important people. You love to be looked up to. You love to be respected. You love the best seats where everyone can see you.” Then Jesus says, “Everything for you is about appearance. How things look to other people.” And then he says to them, “You’re like unmarked graves which people walk over without knowing it.” I mean, Jesus essentially tells the religious leaders of His day: “You’re spiritually dead, and you don’t even realize it.”

Now, one of them who’s sitting there—he be like what we call a pastor and he realizes what is going on here, I mean, Jesus is like slamming them. He says, “ You know, Jesus when you say stuff like this, you insult us.” And Jesus says, “You, Teachers like you! You tell people to do all this stuff but you don’t help them do any of it. All you end up doing is just heaping on the guilt. People end up felling terrible about themselves.” And then later He says to the same leaders: “ You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when they become one, you make them twice the sons of Hell that you are.” Jesus calls the leading religious authorities of His day ”sons of Hell”. And what disturbs Him the most is that they go around making converts whom they pressure to become just like them. He goes on to tell them: “ You’ve abused your positions of religious authority, and you’re actually getting in the way of people who are honestly searching for God.” Son of Hell.

There are many moments like these in the teaching of Jesus. To people who are wrestling with deepest question of life, Jesus has infinite patience and understanding. But to people who claim to know and speak for God but have hard, cold hearts he is relentless. Jesus gets angry.

Okay, let’s say this. Let’s say I bring my wife home some flowers. I mean, these are some beautiful flowers. I try to get the colors just right. You know the drill. I bring them in the house, and I give them to her, and she is blown away. She takes out a vase, and she smiles and just says: “ This means so much that you were thinking of me! I’m so surprised!” and what if I say, “Well, I’m your husband, it’s my duty,” it just doesn’t work for you, does it? Or what if I said to her: “ Well , you know, there was a sale, and I wasn’t really thinking of you, but is wasn’t a really a hassle, and they were cheap, and I figured it’s not a big deal”? Or what if I just said to her, “Well, figured you needed them.” Does she even want the flowers anymore? No!!! Why? Because she wants my heart and if she doesn’t have my heart, my words and my actions don’t mean a thing. Is this how God feels?

One of the central prayers of Jesus’ life was called the shma. Part of it goes like this: “ Love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, with all your might.” We can go to mass or services or prayers every day. We can sing all the right songs, and we can recite all the right prayers, but if it’s just going through the motions, I mean, what’s the point? God says in the book of Isaiah: “These people, they honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” Sometimes we have to stop and ask, “Why do we do what we do?” To keep the family happy? So that you don’t feel guilty? Making an appearance at the right place at the right time waring the right clothes, so that I can be seen by the right people?

The scriptures remind us that God doesn’t want the empty ritual. God wants our hearts.

Do you give money away? Why?

I mean, why give to a church or an institution or someone on T.V.? Because God needs it? God says in Psalm 50, “If I was hungry, wouldn’t tell you. The world’s mine and everything in it.” Do I give the right percentage of my paycheck so that I can get God off my back? I mean, God gets what God wants and then I can do what I want with the rest? When god has my heart, and I realize that everything I have I’ve been given. There’s even a letter in the Bible called Corinthians in which God commands not to give out of compulsion, or guilt, or reluctance. The letter even goes on to say: “You should only give what your decided in your heart to give.” Because God lives it when you give because you want to. If I am giving because I think that I’m supposed to, or because god needs it or so that I don’t feel guilty, I should keep it. God doesn’t want it. There’s even another passage in the Bible. Where God is speaking to some extremely religious people. They’ve been coming to his temple and going through all the right ceremonies, yet they have been neglecting the needs of those around them. And God speaks to the and says: “You sacrifices and your offerings – what is the to me? I don’t take any pleasure in this.” God hates it. He can’t stand it when we put on a religious show and then we ignore the poor, and the broken, and the marginalized, and the oppressed. God even calls their gatherings evil. God says they’ve become like a burden to him. That his soul hates them. God even says, “I am weary of them.” It’s almost like God says, “I don’t want those flowers.” God wants our hearts. Because when God has our hearts, we’ll start to care about the things that God cares about. We’ll start to care about the people that God cares about. God says, “Seek justice. Encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless. Plead the case of the widow.” When you realize that you can do something about the suffering in the world, when you realize that there’s work to be done, and you can do it, then you heart is starting to beat like God’s. I mean, is church a building? Like an hour once a week? Church is people. People whose hearts are beating more and more like God’s Maybe you are turned off to judgmental attitudes and narrow minds and meaningless rules. So am I. And so is God. God doesn’t want anything to do with that either. Let’s be honest. A lot of people confuse religion with God and Walk away from the both. The point isn’t Christianity. The point is being a Christian. It means being a follower of Jesus. It’s being connected with everything that’s true, and good, and right. Everything that goes on around us that reminds us that there is so much more going on around us than we realize. Could anything be more beautiful?