Follow Jesus Wisely
The desire to follow God's will has resulted in as many people getting lost as finding their way. Listen to Jesus' words in Matthew 7:15-29, and you'll find your way as you "Follow Jesus Wisely." June 26, 2011.
Kathryn Padilla, the leader of a group known as The Rest of Jesus Ministries, was charged with stalking and disorderly conduct related to threatening notes received by funeral homes in Eau Claire County. Padilla admitted to creating the notes because it was God’s will. She said God actually told her to condemn these funeral homes with her curses.
The search for the will of God can provide stories both odd and ordinary, both curious and convincing. When we pray to God in the Lord’s Prayer, “your will be done,” what exactly is God’s will, and is it the same for each of us? The desire to follow God’s will has resulted in as many people getting lost as finding their way. Listen to Jesus’ words in the gospel of Matthew today, and you’ll find your way as you Follow Jesus Wisely.
Follow (pay attention to) the word of false prophets
You’re following the car ahead of you. Since you aren’t exactly sure what maneuver the car ahead of you will perform, perhaps in a split second, you don’t want to tailgate by following too closely. Pay attention to that car. That’s exactly the word of warning Jesus gives when he says, “Watch out for false prophets.” False prophets, that is, proclaimers who promote religious belief that isn’t divine truth, are as real as they are near. “There will be false teachers among you,” the Bible warns (2 Peter 2:1). They park next to you and stand in line behind you at the store. They publish books and post blogs you read. They send you emails that promise you some kind of magic peace, love, and happiness if you click “forward” to the right amount of people. They may even be your friends. Or could they be … your pastors? You may not know who they are because “they will secretly introduce destructive heresies.” Their heresy, their teaching that contradicts God’s will, is not only destructive it’s deceptive; it’s as stealthy as anthrax spores diffused in the air. “Many will follow their shameful ways,” the Bible predicts (2 Peter 2:2). Warning! False prophets will succeed.
Don’t be their next success. Pay attention. “Be on your guard against men,” (Matthew 10:17) Jesus warned his disciples. Don’t be naïve. Don’t be lazy. Don’t be simple-mindedly uninformed when it comes to false prophets. “They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Well, if false prophets are so undercover, how then can we detect them? You just have to know what to look for.
There’s momentum building to initiate a state wolf hunt in Wisconsin because the wolf population, now numbering more than 800, has become too dangerous. Um, how does the DNR know how many wolves call Wisconsin home? Was there a wolf convention one day and DNR agents perched in trees with binoculars and counted them? It’s an estimate. An estimate based on what? Number of livestock being killed. Hunters who report sightings of wolf packs in areas wolves hadn’t yet been documented. Tracks. Droppings. Even scientific studies of movements. All of it hard data produced by the wolf population, left behind for analysis. We can recognize wolves in sheep’s clothing the same way. By what they produce. “By their fruit you will recognize them.” Pay attention to the word of false prophets.
In this portion of Scripture Jesus is silent about what we should do with or to false prophets once we recognize them. We do have options. We definitely don’t want to eat their fruit, but we aren’t always expected by Jesus to condemn them to hell, either. If we can approach them, especially in the relationship of a trusted friendship, we can tame their wild teaching and be used by God to turn them from ferocious wolf to faith-filled sheep. We can offer them the antidote to their harmful fruit because “every good tree bears good fruit.” And you, Christian, are a good tree. “Blessed,” according to Psalm 1. “A tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither … The Lord watches over.” You are a healthy tree drawing its water from the springs of eternal life where the living water, Jesus Christ, flows. Given birth by the Holy Spirit in baptism with that same water you are planted for a life of healthy growth, pruned by the Father for healthy fruit, and producing abundant fruit for others to enjoy. Pay attention to the word of false prophets by not consuming their word, and responding with your good fruit.
Follow (practice) the will of our Father
Jesus pictures these false prophets showing up in heaven pleading, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” They really don’t appear before Jesus as ferocious wolves, as malicious con-artists eager to drag as many souls to hell as they can. They really seem like they wanted to speak for Jesus, serve others on his behalf, live out their roles in life, even volunteer at church for the good of God. But it wasn’t good. “I never knew you,” Jesus drops the bomb. “Away from me!” The serious and deadly outcome of assuming that we speak, serve, live, or lead for the good of God but we really don’t, should make us take pause. When I speak to others is it for the good of Jesus more than my good? When I serve others is it to make Jesus look good more than me looking good? When this congregation plans and performs gospel ministry does the spiritual nature of the invisible Church guide our goals more than the human rewards and quantifiable systems of the visible organization? Not always. Lord, Lord, we did not prophesy in your name, and did not in your name serve and live and lead. Know us today and always not by our sinful deeds but by your saving deeds. Draw us near in your forgiving mercy and strengthen us with your body and blood. See in us your righteousness and send us forth again, please, to follow the will of the Father.
We already know what is God’s will and what is not God’s will like snopes.com knows fact from fiction as “the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation” (www.snopes.com). The people at snopes.com use hard data, not soft data, to do their work. Hard data includes scientific research, historical precedents, and firsthand interviews or information. Soft data includes something somebody said they heard somebody say at the company picnic or one’s own interpretive experiences. So what is God’s will? There’s a lot at stake here because Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.’” What if it was God’s will for you to eat pancakes this morning and you had cereal instead? What if it was God’s will for the Vikings to win the Super Bowl and the Packers won instead? What if you just unfriended the person, according to the divine will of God, you’re supposed to marry? God, how am I supposed to practice your will if I’m not sure what it is?! Would you throw me out of heaven for that?
Relax. Jesus also says, “Whoever hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Words. You can hear them. You can read them. You can memorize them. Jesus’ words. God’s Word. There is the Father’s will. Plain. Clear. Understandable. Like a map to follow. Everything else is scenery, maybe you notice it maybe you don’t, maybe you stop along the way and maybe you don’t, if you pull to the side Jesus is there, if you keep going Jesus is there. It’s called free will and followers of Jesus enjoy it as his gift to us, a gift that honors our decision-making as ours, not his, in matters of sanctified judgment. And then he blesses us whether we eat cereal or pancakes … “it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” That’s not talking about our decision, which may fail, but it’s a promise about us. We will not fail. We will not be overwhelmed by stress or storm when we are hearing and practicing the words of Jesus. Follow Jesus Wisely. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on June 26, 2011
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