Honesty

Here's the blog form of my sermon from Sunday.

You shall not steal.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

These two commandments define our understanding of honesty. And while important and deserving of a many a sermon, they are not this sermon's focus.

Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

Friends speak the truth in love, that has huge implications for our relationships, but this is not that sermon either. Mostly cause I'm unqualified to give that sermon, thruth is easy, in love - I'm still working on that.

This is a call to Pray Naked, to be honest with God and tell him where you're at. Can you do that? Can you really pray what's on your heart? After all the heart can be a messy place.

Can prayer be like U2's Wake Up Dead Man?

Jesus, Jesus help me
I'm alone in this world
And a fucked up world it is too
Tell me, tell me the story
The one about eternity
And the way it's all gonna be

Wake up, wake up dead man

Ok maybe not, cause U2 is rock band, and they use language you wouldn't expect to hear in Church. So what do we do with this

God, you've walked off and left us,
you've disgraced us and won't fight for us.

You made us turn tail and run;
those who hate us have cleaned us out.

You delivered us as sheep to the butcher,
you scattered us to the four winds.

You sold your people at a discount--
you made nothing on the sale.

All this came down on us,
and we've done nothing to deserve it.

We never betrayed your Covenant: our hearts
were never false, our feet never left your path.

[Psalm 44]

or this

And you, Babylonians--ravagers!
A reward to whoever gets back at you
for all you've done to us;

Yes, a reward to the one who grabs your babies
and smashes their heads on the rocks!

[Psalm 137]

To be honest, I don't know. I can't explain why bad things happen to good people, but I can relate to the confusion and asking 'God where are you?'

I don't know how to reconcile God's grace the blood lust of Psalm 137. But if these things are in the psalms, the place where Christians have learned to pray for thousands of years, then there is nothing in your life you can not pray.

It would be tempting to stop here, to leave it at: it's ok to shout at God, but I need to give a warning.

If we're Honest with God he will be honest with us.

My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline,
but don't be crushed by it either.

It's the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects.

[Hebrews 12]

Not that He isn't always honest, but I find when I'm honest with him, I'm more open to hearing him being honest with me.


so that's abou it, there was more but this gives you the basic out line.

I need to thank Brian J. Walsh for his sermon Wake Up Dead Man, singing the songs of lament from Get Up Off Your Knees as I was half way through preparing for the sermon, and fit perfectly with my working title of violent prayer.

Some friends thought quoting Wake up dead in church would be risky, and Brian J Walsh says the same in his sermon, but I got nothing but positive feedback and lots of support.

- Peace