Bible reading:
 
Matthew 6:25-34
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…..
 
Jeremiah 29:11-14
God says, “I know my plans for you,  plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord and will bring you back from captivity..
 
 
 
Karma will get you
 
After the Ormstown Fair, it was reported that someone had stolen several hanging baskets of flowers from one of the barns. Apparently the baskets were loaned to the exhibitor to decorate their stall area, by a local business. In BC we had a farm shop, every year we hung up baskets of red and white flowers, which grew to be very beautiful, and featured in lots of photos from visitors from around the world. Every year at least 2 or 3 baskets out of about 20 that we had specially done for us at a local nursery, were stolen. The thieves even broke the light in the ceiling of the porch where the baskets were hanging, to do their work under cover of darkness. One year we used zip ties to fasten them, the next year we wired them to the hooks. You really have to wonder what is in a person’s mind when they make the decision to steal flowers. I have a hard time imagining the thieves enjoying the baskets without even a twinge of guilt. 
Do they hang them on their porch, then look at them and say “Oh look at my stolen flowers, aren’t I clever?”
 
One of our neighbours said “Ah well. Karma will get them”
 
Now Karma is part of the Hindu and Buddhist belief system about cause and effect. That your actions directly cause whatever happens to you thereafter, including the theory that there are many lives that we live, in reincarnation, and that what we have done in one life will affect our next life. So according to this belief system, the flower thieves will have something happen to them as a direct result of their theft, plus endanger the peace and success of their next life.
 
Christianity of course does not hold this world view, but rather teaches of one earthly life and after that, eternal life with God.  Christians are taught that actions have consequences, but not quite in the same context as Hinduism.  God has given mankind a Saviour, who knowing our fallibility as humans, stepped in on our account and paid that ultimate price. We are not required to keep returning to this life in order to continue learning lessons that will one day bring us to the ultimate state of peace, or oblivion, becoming one with the universe. In other religions, the onus is on the human to reach a standard or goal in order to be good enough. The problem with that belief is setting the standard. Who sets the standard? Which human gets to be the one who says their standard is the one? The one we are to emulate? The unfortunate truth is, there is no such thing as a human who is infallible. It has to be set by someone who is truly infallible, who is truly without any blemish. Christianity acknowledges that we will never be good enough so God needed to intervene on our behalf, and sent Jesus, who as God is infallible, and as man, can be sacrificed as the pure lamb without sin, for the world.
 
Even though Jesus taught that God is Love, there is a tendency in the broader Christian world to believe that God is a God of retribution who will “get you” in the end, and mete out His punishment. Or at the very least, allow things to happen in order to “teach us a lesson”.
The pastor of our church in BC became afflicted with prostate cancer, and later also suffered a small stroke. So many people asked him “What do you think God is trying to teach you? Why did He do this to you?”. His response was always NOTHING! We live in a fallen world where sickness and disease happens, so it happened to me”.
 
God did not tell us we are immune to all the ‘stuff” the world throws at us, but He did promise to always be at our side. The message about the Judgement Seat of God seems to be a powerful one that sticks in the mind. Once I was talking to a couple of friends in Switzerland about Christ-and in Switzerland there is no separation of church and state, so all young people attend Catechism and are confirmed in the church, either protestant or catholic- and at one point one said something to the effect that if a person didn’t meet the standard, “God would punish them”.
 
It is too bad though if our only perception of God is one of a fierce and remote God who is just waiting to punish us for our sins, and that Christian life is nothing more than just a long list of “Thou Shalt Nots”
 
Is that it? Is Christianity just a list of rules, and the breaking of them leading to punishment? is the “stuff” that happens in our lives really sent to punish us for sins, or to teach us lessons? I just heard yesterday that a colleague from the cheese-making community in BC died in a hiking accident last week. A lovey Christian guy, with a wife of 30 years, 3 great sons. Is God trying to teach someone a lesson? Of course we have the opportunity to learn from our experiences but do these things happen for that reason only?
 
God tells us in His word that He is a God of love, and it is because of this great love that He sent His son Jesus to actually die for us, so that, covered by His blood we will not be judged for those sins.  Jesus took them all upon Himself in our stead. So how do we bring these two pictures together? The powerful Judgement Seat of a God of retribution that we so often hear about and see in the great works of art etc, and that of a loving Father who gave his all to save us?
 
God tells us over and over again that He is our Father. Think about what that means. How many Fathers do you know who make rules for their children, for the sole purpose of punishing the children when they break those rules. Rules created just so the father can punish them? Meaning basically the father is just a mean tyrant looking for excuses to punish his children. I think as parents we can agree that is not the way it is, though we cannot deny there are certainly bad fathers.

Why do we give our children rules? We as fathers and mothers, and God as our Heavenly Father, have certainly established “rules”. The rules are there, not to find excuses for punishments, but to keep our children safe, because there is so much they do not yet know, so much their experience and maturity is not able to process. Rules are there to protect them from dangers they are not aware of, to allow them to grow and develop in safety, to enjoy balance and freedom and blessing as adults, rather than suffer from the consequences that certain behaviours can deliver.
 
Proverbs 4:1-4 “ Listen my sons to a fathers instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. I give you sound learning so do not forsake my teaching. When I was a boy in my fathers house, still tender and an only child of my mother, he taught me and said,”Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live”.  These words were written by Solomon, King of Israel, whose father was David. The famous David who killed Goliath; shepherd, poet, musician, singer, warrior, leader, and King of Israel.. and one who was not perfect either. But he learned his lessons, and passed them on to his son, for his son’s sake, not his own.
 
The book of Proverbs is a great place to look for truths about life. It includes a lot of warnings about the consequences of behaviours, and rather than listing the various punishments God is just waiting to lay on us, it instead lists the many promises that come our way. In fact the book of Proverbs is the source of so many of our good rules for society, government and relationships.
Such as:

• it is wrong to use dishonest scales
• it is wrong to show partiality in judgement
• it is not good to brag about yourself, you should let others praise you
• it is not good to eat or drink to excess
• It is wrong to move a boundary for your own profit, and by extension do something like in the film or book by Marcel Pagnol, Jean de Florette. for those who don’t know the story, it is about an unscrupulous farmer who knew about a spring of fresh water hidden on an neighbours property. When the neighbour who had inherited the property returned after the war, his plans to farm it and have a peaceful life were constantly thwarted by the farmer in order to drive him off so he could get his hands on the land and the spring. He was finally successful, the man and his family had to leave out of poverty, the man died, and the farmer became rich from growing flowers for the lucrative market. Then retribution came in the shape of the man’s daughter Manon. She returned and found out what had happened to her poor father. and found the source of the spring. She blocked the spring and the whole community was suddenly without water. Karma truly “got” him.  Until they repented and made things right.
• It is wrong to treat the poor, the widow or disadvantaged with meanness, for God is on their side
• generosity will be blessed
• liars will not go unpunished
• and advice such as: starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam, so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out
• and one of my favourites: even a fool is thought wise if he keeps his mouth shut…the young woman I trained as cheesemaker was going to a provincial meeting to establish a BC cheese society. She was very nervous about being around all the “elite” of the craft, until I told her just to do a lot of listening, no one will know what you don’t know unless you speak.

 
 
In the book of Proverbs there is also a huge list of things that will bring a person into danger. God says He “hates” these things. We should look at the list from the perspective of a warning, that He cannot protect us if we engage in these behaviours. We remove ourselves out from under the umbrella of His protection. It must break His heart, to have his beloved children purposely remove themselves from His protection, with no concern for the very real consequences. God hates these behaviours because they bring harm to His children. Just like any parent hates the street drugs that can destroy a beloved child, God hates behaviours that destroy His children. In fact in Proverbs 9:35-36 he says: “Whoever finds me finds life and receives favour from the Lord. Whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death”
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Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. That means God will protect and deliver us if we throw ourselves into His arms.
 
Matt 6:33-34 says: But seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Isn’t that the truth! I don’t think Jesus is saying here to live in an irresponsible manner, but to trust in God for those things we absolutely have not control over. Like what might happen tomorrow.
That kind of worrying is essentially saying “God I do not believe you. Instead I believe you want to hurt me, and leave me vulnerable and unprotected…”
 
2 Corinthians 9:8 God is able to make a grace abound toward you, that you may have an abundance, and having all that you need, will abound in every good work.  Notice he offers us His grace, out of His love for us, but also that out of that position of grace, we can reach out to others.
 
Some of the many promises of God are:
-   long life if we respect the Lord, our parents and elders.

• success from being diligent
• respect from being kind-hearted
•  healing from listening to the words of the wise
• hope for the future
• peace even where there is struggle
• the presence of God always in our lives
• He will meet all our needs, if we simply cast all our cares upon Him

 
 
If we doubt this, God has also reminded us of the fact that it is actually He who is in charge:
Isaiah 55: 9-13..As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts……
 
God does have a plan for us. and He also adds that it is His will that none should perish. He is interested in Eternal Life for us human beings.
 
Another famous Bible passage, Psalm 23, promises the following:
That God will supply our needs
He gives us refreshing and peace
He is our guide
He removes fear
He comforts us
In spite of negative circumstances, he looks after us
He shows us how much we are loved and cherished
He promises us a life of goodness and a future
 
So it appears that though some may fear the Karma will “get” them, the Lord tells us otherwise. It appears that he allows certain things to happen, with the goal of always leading us to Himself, to be there for eternity.
Clearly this is not a God who is just waiting to “get us” for being bad, but a God of Love who never tires of telling us what we are worth to Him, and the lengths He will go to bring us to Himself and keep us there.