CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH
Rev. Fred
Weimert February 1, 2009
Are You Talkin’ to Me?
Our world is so full of signposts pointing
different directions… How do we differentiate between the Siren cries from the
voice of God?
Now the
question which is the sermon title…
Are you talkin’ to me?
Can be asked lots of
different ways.
A day
dreaming child or husband…
might
ask his mother/teacher/spouse…
Are
you talking to me?
I
wasn’t listening…
Really…
Were
you talking to me?
The question could be asked by a
clueless student
to their teacher…
for me it
use to happen in Latin or Spanish…
Are
you talking to me?
Was
that a question?
Those
words you just rattled of
in that other language?
Were
they a question?
and are you talking to
me?
But that
question
can also be asked in the way it was
In the 1979 movie
Taxi Driver…
Where
a very young tough Robert De Niro
Standing
in front of a mirror
in
a Navy flight suit… Is practicing his macho
posturing…
hiding
then pulling out a hand gun
asking again and again…
Are
you talkin’ to me?
Ya’
talking to me?
cause
there’s nobody else here.
Who
the heck
do you think you’re talkin’ to?
You
talkin’ to me?
You
talkin’ to me?
Pow.
Sometimes
we find ourselves in a position where we are asking God
that very question…
Are you talking to me?
Now it may
not be an out loud thing…
a verbalized question…
but it is an existential
question…
a kind of
haunting reoccurring question…
when
we are confronted by options in life…
diverging
paths…
where
we stand asking ourselves…
Which
way should I go?
and
latent in that question
is
that other question…
Are
You talking to me?
Are
You trying
to tell me something, God?
Which way should I turn?
Do
You really care…
Scripture
doesn’t really address
this issue confronting me...
Give
me a lead.
Give
me some help here.
Don’t
leave me hanging.
Are
You talking to me?
Is
this a test?
Now we
certainly
wouldn’t ask that question to God
the way De Niro asked
it…
Not in that
macho posturing way.
It
would be far too irreverent.
No if we
were to ask that question
it would be in that day dreaming
child way.
Lord,
I wasn’t really listening…
I was kind of
distracted…
You know You
don’t usually talk to me like this…
Give
me another shot at it…
You
did give Samuel three chances…
It
may take me at least that long.
Are
You talking to me?
Are
You talking to me?
Or we might
ask it in that dumb or humble student fashion
Lord You know that Your ways are
higher than my ways…
Your thoughts are higher
than my thoughts…
I might not
be able to grasp this God…
I
may never be able to get this, You’ll understand…
but
you can give me another shot…
Are
You talking to me?
But truly,
latent in that question,
is that De Niro sense of
concern for self preservation
You’re
putting me on God.
What would
make You think You could ask me that?
by what right do you ask me that…
On what
authority do you speak to me, now?
And how can
I be sure it is you speaking?...
not
just my imagination.
Deuteronomy
18: 15-20
The LORD your God will raise up
for you a prophet like me
from among your own people;
you
shall heed such a prophet.
This is what you requested
of the LORD your God
at
Horeb
on
the day of the assembly
when
you said:
"If
I hear the voice of the LORD my God
any
more,
or
ever again see this great fire,
I
will die."
Then the LORD replied to me:
"They are right in what they
have said.
I
will raise up for them a prophet like you
from
among their own people;
I will put my words
in the mouth of the prophet,
who
shall speak to them
everything
that I command.
Anyone
who does not heed the words that the prophet
shall
speak in my name,
I
myself will hold accountable.
But
any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods,
or
who presumes to speak in my name
a
word that I have not commanded the prophet
to
speak—
that
prophet shall die."
You may say to yourself,
"How can we recognize a word
that
the LORD has not spoken?"
If a prophet speaks in the name of
the LORD
but the thing does not take place
or
prove true,
it is a word that the LORD has not spoken.
The prophet has spoken it
presumptuously;
do
not be frightened by it.
Here ends the reading
Theologian
Douglas Hall has a wonderful chapter on authority
in his book Thinking the Faith.
Hall indicates that this is the most
important question
in the
world…
and
especially in the church today…
People
are questioning authority,
and
they want to know
by what authority you speak
or
act…
The quote I
put on the insert in the bulletin
That
I will not read to you…
(“We come to this question as
persons whose society reflects a notorious crisis of authority. At least in the Western world, since the end
of the 19th century every authority has been thrown into question…
We cannot trust the authorities that
have been, and yet we cannot live without authority of some kind…
As a society we seem not to be able
to muster the will that is required to check the autonomous and random rule of
technologism, the bureaucratization of public life, the illogic of war, the
insanity of violence and terrorism. Our
cities reflect the increasing power of vandalism and seem to cover—but just
barely—a rampant, working nihilism.
This
situation of drift is also conspicuous in the churches, which in ths as in many
other respects mirror the culture at large.
It has always been the case that the so-called religious freedom of the
North American continent has led to a proliferation of denominationalism in
which the question of authority was flagrantly begged. But today we have progressed beyond this
tolerated ecclesial chaos to a state of religious dishevelment verging on the
absurd. The most bizarre forms of
‘Christianity’ can command the attention of millions of television viewers What can only be judged by historically aware
persons as flaming heresies can now be put forward in all pomp as the very
essence of faith—and few indeed will know the difference! Religious visionaries of every conceivable
ilk set up shop in our towns and cities, or parade the streets offering instant
wisdom, or stealthily recruiting our lost or drifting youth—and the anxiety of
the populace is such that they can all find a following. The older forms of Christianity, too have
lost touch with their own foundational traditions, and are so crippled
materially and in spiritual confidence that they can do no better, often, than
to emulate pathetically the ‘success’ tactics of the sects and cults.”
Douglas
John Hall, Thinking the Faith,
pgs 428-9)
will
help you understand his concern.
We
need authority…
We
crave it…
and
yet we constantly question it.
How
can we know this is
truly
an authority?
This isn’t
something new…
even though the enlightenment
and the scientific
method of inquiry
has made it
more difficult…
Even back
in ancient history
in the time of the writing of the
book of Deuteronomy…
there was great concern
about authority.
Douglas Hall
listed those text
I typed out on the insert (also not
read)…
The importance of hearing God in Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
4: 29-30
From there you will seek
the LORD your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your
heart and soul. In your distress, when
all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will return to the
LORD your God and heed him.
Deuteronomy
5: 22-26
These words the LORD spoke
with a loud voice to your whole assembly at the mountain, out of the fire, the
cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more. He wrote them on two stone
tablets, and gave them to me. When you
heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire,
you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders; and you said,
"Look, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have
heard his voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that God may speak to
someone and the person may still live.
So now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we
hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that has heard
the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained
alive?
Deuteronomy13:4
The LORD your God you shall
follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice
you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.
Deuteronomy
27:10
Therefore obey the LORD
your God, observing his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you
today.
Deuteronomy
30:20
loving the LORD your God,
obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of
days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your
ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
all
of them point to
God’s desire to communicate,
and the authority of the law…
of
God’s word from Sinai…
the
word of God in Scripture…
but
the problem is
that Law is historically dated…
It doesn’t cover everything?
Does
Sinai or scripture address
Aviation…
Space
travel…
technology…
cell
phones…
the
internet…
blood
transfusions…
artificial
insemination...
fertility
drugs?
Law
doesn’t cover everything…
It needs to be interpreted…
but
by whom…
by
what authority?
the
pope
the magisterium
a priest/a preacher?
Elders/Deacons?
is
it just up for grabs?
How
about a prophet?
That’s
what Deuteronomy talks about…
“The
LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me”
Wonderful, a
new Moses…
and
all people would have to do
was
listen to the prophet…
do
what the prophet told them…
Then
they would be doing God’s will
but
where
and who…
was
this prophet…
How
would they recognize the Prophet…
How
could they be certain that they were following
the
true Prophet…
Simple,
If a prophet speaks
in the name of the LORD
but
the thing does not take place
or
prove true,
it is a word that the LORD has not spoken.
The
prophet has spoken it presumptuously;
But how long is one suppose to wait?
a minute or
two?
an hour?
a day?
a year?
40 years?
What is the shelf life
for prophets?
And more importantly
What do you
do while you are waiting?
Do
you do what the Prophet said
or
do you wait until it comes true,
but
isn’t it too late to follow the prophet?
It would be kind of like me going to
the bus station
to catch a bus to
But because
the Bus Station
is
in a kind of bad neighborhood…
Should
I trust the ticket agent
That
the bus outside is really going to
Even
if the sign on top had
anybody
could change that…
Maybe
I should just put a sticker
on the side of bus…
Then
call one of my sisters
and have her go to meet the bus
and
check to see the sticker was there
when
it arrived in
But then I would have missed the
bus.
This is the
problem of authority isn’t it?
Are you talking to me?
The answer is yeah…
Yeah, God is
talking to us.
In
the Past
in
Law and Scripture
in
Prophets
and
most clearly in Jesus…
but also in the historic voice
of religious community…
the
Church…
And
God is still talking to us today
and
we need to listen carefully…
to
the voices past
and
present…
we
need to listen for consistency…
and
congruity…
with
those voices past,
But
we also need to remember
that
our God is also able to do new things.
So sometimes
in serving God
we
just have to step out in faith,
Trusting
that God,
in
grace and love,
will recognize our good intention
and
forgive us for our missteps.
so
may we walk in faith.
Amen.