Can God save the Nazarene Church...

Jeremiah 7:1-14...

Sermon #6

DRIVING THEME:

Spiritual renewal and moral wholeness are available to us all.

PROPOSITION:

Reliance on what the Church of the Nazarene says and believes cannot be depended on to validate our ministry. Our actions must match our words.

ANTITHESIS:

Article XI of the Articles of Faith, Section 15, is abundantly clear about what Nazarenes believe the church should be.

Nazarenes believe that "we are a covenant people of God made new in Christ…"
Nazarenes believe that "God calls the Church to express its life in the unity and fellowship of the Spirit…"
Nazarenes believe "the mission of the Church in the world is to continue the redemptive work of Christ in the power of the Spirit through…service."
Nazarenes believe "the Church is a historical reality, which organizes itself in culturally conditioned forms…"
Nazarenes believe that the Church demonstrates "…obedience to Christ and mutual accountability."
The year was 609 B.C.E., early in the reign of Jehoiakim, and Jeremiah enters the Temple to give his now infamous sermon. The tradition of Israel is grounded in the temple and royal claims of David and Solomon. This claim was substantiated in the words of Isaiah a century earlier (Isa. 37:33-35), and was regularly celebrated in the hymnic tradition of the psalms (cf. e.g., Ps. 132:6-10). Jeremiah attacks such a claim as "organized hyprocrisy," The essence of Jeremiah's sermon is that retention of the land will not be by inherent right, but by the practice of justice and obedience. The history of Nazarenes, as commendable as it is, cannot become a substitute for relevancy in the 21st century.

THESIS:

As Nazarenes we must be willing to look critically at the state of the church today in America. Jeremiah contrasts Jerusalem in the south with Shiloh, its northern neighbor. Shiloh has abdicated its responsibility and was destroyed. Refuge for Jerusalem cannot be found in its ritual and divine promises.

Questions for the Nazarene Christians:

Are we being faithful to the call to be a covenant people? God has called us to be in covenant with the lonely, lost, alienated, marginalized, imprisoned, and broken. Read Jesus' covenant, Luke 4:14-19.
Are we genuinely seeking unity among races, minorities, migrants, the uneducated, divorcees, orphans? The composition of our congregations should reflect this unity.

Are we committed to a servant mentality and attitude? Jesus demonstrated the need for this mentality. There must be a sense of intentionality as we seek to reach those who are not like we are.

Are our congregations and worship culturally conditioned? The nations of the world are at our doorsteps.

Are we holding our elected public officials accountable for the way our tax dollars are being spent? The poor, women, children, and ethnic minorities receive an unjust share.

RELEVANT QUESTION:

How do we save our denomination from the judgment of God and how do we invite the blessings of God?

SYNTHESIS:

Jeremiah laid out a terse prescription for Jerusalem. God has raised up the Church of the Nazarene, but she must never forget the purposes for which she was formed.

Say not, "this is the temple, this is the temple, this is the temple." Ritual, doctrine, dogma, liturgy, and creeds are insufficient to build credibility (verse 4).

God's promises to the church community are always conditional. The "if-then" argument of Jeremiah indicates the conditionality of God's well-being (verses 5-7).

The church serves a social function in the world. We cannot be silent about blatant or clandestine injustice.