Sermon June 14th
Hear the Beat of God's Heart
June 14, 2026
There's a wonderful ancient Jewish Midrash about a little boy named Mordecai, who refused to study the Torah. Mordecai's parents loved their little boy, but they were at wit's end that he wouldn't do his homework. He wouldn't learn God's word. So they took him to the great rabbi of Carlin and explained to the old man their problem. “Rabbi, you know we love Mordecai very much, but he will not study the Torah.” They decided to leave the boy with the old man, trusting that he could come up with a way to convince the boy to love the word of God.
After the parents left, the rabbi lay down on his couch and motioned Mordecai to lie beside him. He put the boy's head on his chest, and so they lay there. Eventually Mordecai became aware of the great teacher's heartbeat, and, for the longest time, he just listened to the beating of the rabbi's heart.
The next day the boy's parents came for him and took him home, and, from that time on, Mordecai studied the Torah. Years passed, and one day Mordecai himself became a great rabbi. Someone once asked him how he came to love God's word. And Mordecai replied, “When I was a boy, the great rabbi of Carlin taught me the meaning of Torah.”
I'm afraid that all too often, dear friends, when we read God's holy word, we fail to hear the heartbeat. It goes in one ear and out the other. What if we truly and deeply listened? What if, when we read from the Bible, we deeply listened, as if laying our heads upon God's breast and listening to his heartbeat?
Hear again what God said to Moses in our first reading from Exodus, and, this time, listen for the beating of God's heart:
Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.
These words God spoke on Mt. Sinai...and the people received them with overwhelming enthusiasm. “Yes, yes,” they replied. “Everything the Lord has spoken we will do.”
OF COURSE, they eagerly accepted God's word. Only three months had passed, and fresh was the memory of their amazing rescue from Egypt. God heard their cries for freedom, and he raised up his servant Moses to deliver them. God sent plagues to convince Pharaoh to let them go. By the blood of the lambs on their doorposts, death passed over their homes on that night of terror. The water of the Red Sea parted, and they crossed on dry land, while the armies of Egypt behind them were drowned in the depths of the sea. OF COURSE they eagerly received the word of God. They'd just experienced the strength of his arm. And they were about to see it again.
Three days later the Lord returned to the Mt. Sinai. And, warning the people not to go near the mountain, he called Moses alone into his majestic presence. God had declared his love and his intentions; they would be his priestly nation...his holy people. Now he would tell them how to love Him.
“I am the Lord your God,” said the Lord, “Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Therefore, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not bow down to idols. You shall not take my name in vain. You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. You shall honor your father and mother. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal, or bear false witness, or covet what rightfully belongs to your neighbor.”
Ah, but the flesh is weak...and, while the people heard God's words, they obviously didn't hear his heartbeat. Moses received many detailed instructions from the Lord on Mt. Sinai, and, when he finally descended the mountain with the Ten Commandments in hand, written by the finger of God on twhat did he find? You know. He found them dancing around a golden calf...bowing down to a graven image of Baal.
So, you see, right from the start, it couldn't be more obvious. On their own, God's people would fail to live up to their end of the bargain. But God would never fail to keep his. They would ever be his treasured possession...his priestly kingdom,,,his holy nation. But if the covenant God first made with Abraham should ever be fulfilled, it would be only by the grace of God.
“In the fullness of time,” writes Paul in our Epistle for today, “Christ died for the ungodly...God proved his love for us in that, while we still were sinners, Christ died for us.”
My friend, because God keeps his promises, he comes in Christ to lay claim to his treasured possession...YOU. Just listen to what God says to you through the Apostle Peter in his first letter. You can't help but notice, these words sound like a repeat of what God said centuries before on the holy mountain. And as you listen carefully to the words of 1st Peter 2:9, I want you to also listen deeply to the beating of God's heart:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Hear God's word. Listen to God's heartbeat in these words that remind you of your immense worth as a believer.
You are chosen. You didn't choose God. God chose you, through Christ, for a unique, personal relationship with him.
You are a royal priesthood. The office of a priest is to represent God to other people and other people to God. And so you pray on behalf of others, and share God's loving words all around.
You are a holy nation. That means you are set apart... unique ...different from the world. Your life, your words, your actions reflect the character of Christ, not the character of the world.
So go from here, fed and nourished with God's Word and Christ's body and blood. Through Christ he rescued you from slavery to sin...from death...and bore you as on eagle's wings to himself. Be a royal priesthood. Be a nation set apart, and show forth in your life the wonderful deeds of God, and how he called you [in Christ] out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Because, if you really listen to what God is saying here...you can hear the beating of God's heart. Amen.
