To Know Christ and Make Christ Known

Sermon: "The Reluctant Prophet"

2012-01-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

Jonah 3:1-5, 10
January 22, 2012
Third Sunday after the Epiphany

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Jonah is one of those stories from the Bible that we think we know well, but if we’re asked to retell it, we might be a little fuzzy on the details. A little boy was asked what we learn from the story of Jonah and the whale. His answer: “People make whales sick.”

Well, that’s one thing we can learn from the ancient story of Jonah. People do make whales sick. But there are other lessons in this book too.

Many sermons have been preached on the futility of trying to run away from God. Remember, Jonah tried to run away to Tarshish when God first told him to go to Nineveh to tell the people there of God’s punishment. Tarshish was the exact opposite direction from Nineveh. That’s how he ended up in the belly of that great fish, when the crew of the ship Jonah was traveling on threw him overboard in the midst of a great storm at sea. They did it at Jonah’s request, because Jonah sensed that the storm was God’s punishment for him running away.

As someone has said, though, “You can’t ever run far enough to get away from God.” And they were right. Jonah learned that lesson.

But there’s an even more important lesson to be learned from this famous story and I’m sure most of you already know it: the main purpose of this most famous of all fish stories is to reveal the greatness of God’s love for all people – Jew and Gentile alike.

The last words of this book are among the most beautiful in all the Scriptures. Jonah wants God to destroy the people of Nineveh, Israel’s sworn enemies, but God says to Jonah:

“You have pity on a gourd which you did not plant, which I grew up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern their right hand from their left and also much cattle?”

God’s universal love. That’s the primary lesson of the book of Jonah, the “reluctant prophet.”

But there’s another lesson: it’s about a God who isn’t afraid to change his mind.

That may sound strange at first – the idea that God would change his mind. We’re used to thinking of God as immutable, unchangeable; absolutely the same yesterday, today, and forever.

But there are examples in the Old Testament of God changing his mind.

When God was ready to destroy the city of Sodom for its great wickedness, Abraham succeeded in getting a promise from God that he wouldn’t destroy the city if Abraham could fiund as few as ten righteous people living there. Abraham wasn’t able to find even ten so the city was destroyed, but at least God was swayed by Abraham’s argument.

When God was about ready to destroy the Hebrew people at Mt. Sinai because they’d made a golden calf and worshiped it, Moses interceded on their behalf and Scripture says, “the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.”

God chose a man named Saul to be the first king of Israel, but it soon became clear that Saul wasn’t worthy of such great responsibility, so God had young David anointed to be the new king.

The God of the Old Testament wasn’t afraid to mark out a new direction for his people when something wasn’t working.

Consider Jonah’s predicament. God gives Jonah the assignment of preaching to the people of Nineveh. Jonah is to tell them that God is going to destroy their city because of their wickedness.

Then an amazing thing happens. All the people of Nineveh actually listen to what Jonah says and they believe that they’re about to be destroyed. So they all repent. From the king in his palace all the way down to the lowly streetsweeper, they all turn from their sins.

When that happens, God changes his mind. He decides not to destroy Nineveh.

This embarrasses Jonah beyond belief. He’s already told the people of Nineveh that God’s going to destroy them. Now God isn’t going to do it. Jonah feels utterly humiliated.

He didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place. It would have been a little like an American going to Moscow at the height of the Cold War and telling the people in the Kremlin to repent.

Jonah wanted to see the people of Nineveh destroyed. They had invaded Israel in the 700s B.C. and destroyed the land and carried people away into slavery. Jonah hated the Ninevites.

He didn’t want to go and preach to them because he knew that God would have mercy on them and not destroy them.

He tells God, “That’s why I tried to run away to Tarshish in the first place. I knew you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing (Jonah 4:2).

Jonah is so upset with God that he goes out and sits on a hillside overlooking Nineveh to mope. He’s angry enough to sit there until he dies.

We can all probably think of times in our own lives when we’ve been disappointed (at least a little bit) that God didn’t “zap” someone that we thought deserved getting zapped. We might wonder why God let Osama bin Laden go on living for ten more years after 9/11.

We humans have a tendency to want God to be generous in his forgiveness of our sins but very strict in his forgiveness of the sins of others.

What do we do with a God who changes his mind? Who says he’s going to destroy people and then lets them off the hook? Is God like a permissive parent who can’t follow through on punishment because his heart is too tender? Don’t we need God to sometimes show some “tough love?”

What are some circumstances that might prompt God to change his mind?

For one thing, prayer seems to change God’s mind.

Doesn’t it? Isn’t that why we pray most of the time, hoping to change God’s mind?

Not all prayers are like that. I like the story of the brother and sister who were playing in the cow pasture when suddenly the old milk cow lost her temper and started running toward the two children.

Because she was older and bigger, the sister was able to climb the nearest tree while Johnny ran for the fence. Perched on a limb, the sister screamed out her advice: “Run, Johnny, run!”

As he neared the fence, she yelled, “Slide, Johnny, slide!” He did but his pants got caught on the barbed wire. Her last bit of advice was, “Pray, Johnny, pray!”

The only prayer Johnny had ever heard was the one his father said at mealtime so that’s the one he used: “Lord, we thank thee for that which we are about to receive.”

I don’t know if I could offer a prayer of thanksgiving in those circumstances. I think I’d be praying that God would somehow change that old cow’s disposition.

Sometimes our prayers are prayers of thanksgiving, or supplications, or prayers for forgiveness. More often than not, though, we pray for God to change his plan.

So often when we pray we’re trying to change something: to change dry weather to rain; to change someone’s health situation or a bad habit they have. Or maybe we pray for someone whom we wish God would change.

I read not long ago of a couple who were having a lot of problems in their marriage. The wife thought the husband needed to change and the husband thought the same thing about the wife. Every night the woman prayed that God would change her husband, and the husband prayed that God would change his wife. But no change happened.

The couple went separately to talk to their pastor about the problems in their marriage. They were getting close to divorce. The pastor suggested that they change their prayers. Instead of asking God every night to change their spouse, the pastor told each one that they should start giving God thanks for their partner. Stop praying about the things you want God to change and restrict your prayer to the things about the other person that you are grateful for.

Each spouse did this, not aware that the other was doing the same thing. Slowly, a change started to come over the marriage. There was a different climate in the home. Resentment changed to acceptance. Love began to grow once again. All because prayers for the other to change turned into prayers of thanksgiving.

So often, though, when we pray it is to change God’s mind.

From reading the story of Jonah, we might also conclude that repentance changes God’s mind.

Nineveh repented and God decided not to destroy the city. We repent and God changes his attitude toward us, right?

Obviously, we all stand in need of repentance. One four-year-old fashioned a prayer after what he thought he heard in church in the Lord’s Prayer: “And forgive us our trash baskets,” he prayed, "as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.” We all admit that we have trash in our baskets. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. None of us denies that.

We know that sin is a barrier to our relationship with God. Sin is brokenness, alienation. The longer we stay in our sin, the harder it is for us to turn to God.

There’s an old legend according to which God said to his angels, “Go down to earth and bring back the most precious thing in the world.” One angel brought back a drop of blood from a soldier who died in battle defending his country. God said, “Indeed, the courage of one who gives their life for their country is precious, but it’s not the most precious thing on eearth.”

Another angel brought back the dying breath of a nurse who caught a disease while nursing a child back to health. God smiled at the angel and said, “The selfless devotion of one who saved the life of a child is very precious, but it is also not the most precious thing on earth.”

Finally, the third angel caught the tear of a farmer who was about to kill the man who was stealing his cattle, until he watched the thief kissing his children goodnight and tucking them into bed, and repented in tears of his murderous desire for revenge. God said, “You have brought me the most precious thing in the world – the tear of repentance which opens the gates of heaven.”

Repentance is important, but does it change God’s mind? Mature faith understands that it’s not God’s mind that needs changing, but ours.

It was never God’s purpose that Nineveh be destroyed. God wanted them to repent and be saved. Remember John 3:17, the verse right after the much better known John 3:16 – “For the Son did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” That is always God’s will – salvation.

Someone once said that prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of God’s willingness.

God is the one who knows our needs and whose will is ever directed to his children’s good.

It’s natural for us to pray when we know things need changing. That’s the most human response to danger or heartache in the world. But we need to understand that even while we’re praying, a loving God is already at work – in all things working for good for those who love him.

Even more than praying that God change his plans, we need to pray that God will change us so we will trust God more. The most effective prayer is to pray that regardless of outward circumstances, we will be victors through him who loves us and gave his life on our behalf.

The prayer that never fails is: “Not my will, but your will be done.”

We’re not sure if Jonah ever learned the lesson God was trying to teach, that God’s love is for everyone, even for our enemies, even for the Ninevites.

As Thomas Carlyle put it: “And Jonah stalked to his shaded seat and waited for God to come around to his way of thinking. And God is still waiting for a host of Jonahs to come around to his way of loving.”

It wasn’t God who needed a change of mind, but Jonah. That’s our greatest need too. To bring our lives into such total and complete harmony with the love and purpose of God that God’s plan is our plan and our plan is God’s plan.

What do we learn from the story of Jonah? That people make whales sick, yes. But also that the mature believer is one who seeks always to bring his or her life into line with the purposes and will and mind of God. Amen.

Sermon: "You Are Not Your Own"

2012-01-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

1 Corinthians 6:12-20
January 15, 2012
Second Sunday after the Epiphany

I have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful. I have the freedom to do anything, but I won’t be controlled by anything.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, and yet God will do away with both. The body isn’t for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

God has raised the Lord and will raise us through his power. Don’t you know that your bodies are parts of Christ? So then, should I take parts of Christ and make them a part of someone who is sleeping around? No way!

Don’t you know that anyone who is joined to someone who is sleeping around is one body with that person? The scripture says, The two will become one flesh. The one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Avoid sexual immorality!

Every sin that a person can do is committed outside the body, except those who engage in sexual immorality commit sin against their own bodies. Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?

Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? You have been bought and paid for, so honor God with your body.

I have to hand it to Ed Young, Jr., pastor of Fellowship mega-Church in Grapevine (it’s one across Hwy. 121 from Bass Pro Shop on your way to DFW Airport). I may not always agree with his methods, but he does seem to have a knack for getting local and even national media attention for himself and his church.

A few years ago he rented the American Airlines Center in December for the church’s Christmas Worship experience, and then the next year announced that the church wouldn’t have worship on Sunday because it was Christmas Day and they expected low attendance.

Last Christmas (2010) Eve they showed a 3-D video in church and gave everyone special 3-D glasses to watch it.

The night before Super Bowl XLI (2007), the church gave away two tickets and airfare to the game in Miami as a way of attracting people who don’t usually come to church.

In one of his most controversial moves in November 2008, he challenged the married members of his 20,000-member church to conduct a “sexperiment” in which they would have “marital relations” for seven straight days.

And then he and his wife got back in the news this weekend by spending 24 hours in bed together on the roof of the church to promote their book, Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy with Your Spouse. I have to question their common sense a little bit, doing it on one of the coldest weekends of the year so far, but news reports said they were warmly dressed.

The Youngs say they do these things to counter the media’s portrayal of an ungodly and unhealthy view of sex in our culture, and instead generate healthy discussion about a biblical view of sex and marriage, a topic that is often “taboo” in churches.

I agree that the church (and even some preachers!) tends to be a little embarrassed about “S-E-X” and so we either tiptoe around the topic or avoid it altogether. I agree with Ed Young that the church is the second best place to talk about sex; the first place is in the home. It seems that more and more we are content either to leave the discussion about sex to the schools and expect them to teach our children or just not talk about it at all.

I appreciate what our congregation does with the “Created by God” curriculum that deals with human sexuality for fifth and sixth graders. That’s not too young to be talking about what the Bible says about these things.

It’s certainly true that the Bible speaks quite a bit about sex and marriage. There’s a whole book in the Old Testament, “The Song of Songs,” that deals with romantic love.

The Bible tends to take a very realistic view toward sex and marriage. On the one hand, it holds up the ideal created by God, of one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage. On the other hand, the Bible recognizes that human beings don’t always live up to the ideal.

Just as that ideal is challenged today as outdated or unrealistic, it was challenged in biblical times by things like polygamy and adultery and prostitution. And as much as we might want to sweep the topic under the rug, we can’t when we encounter passages like today’s text from 1 Cor. 6 that, like I said, we might want to rate as “PG-13,” if not “R.”

Believe me, I was tempted to choose one of the other texts to preach on this morning. The story about Samuel hearing the call of God as a young boy is a good one. So’s the one about Philip telling his friend Nathanael about Jesus. They are both good stories about discipleship and hearing the call of God.

But there was something about this word of Paul that kept pulling me back and inviting me, or challenging me, to say something about it. So that’s what I decided to do.

This passage is not only about sexual morality and immorality. Paul uses that topic to make a larger point about our relationship with Christ.

There were some things going on in the church in Corinth that must have caused Paul a great deal of heartache and many sleepless nights. Paul founded the church in Corinth and spent the better part of two years there, but after he left all kinds of problems arose. The church was divided into warring factions. Christians were suing each other in court. Paul’s authority was being questioned. Marriage and divorce problems troubled the church. The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead was even under assault.

And it looks as if Corinth’s reputation as a center of immorality had bled over into the church. Under the guise of the saying, “I have the freedom to do anything,” it looks like at least some Corinthians were doing just that – anything they wanted, including sleeping around outside of marriage and with prostitutes, claiming I guess that what they did with their bodies didn’t really matter – just the spirit.

So Paul has to set them straight. He doesn’t do it by quoting laws and rules and commandments to them. That’s what Paul the Pharisee might have done.

But Paul the Apostle knows that it goes beyond religious laws and rules. The problem with the Corinthians who are doing these things is not religion – it’s relationship. Rules can only take you so far: do this, don’t do that. The problem usually isn’t that we don’t know the difference between right and wrong. We know what we should do and what we shouldn’t. It’s that we go ahead and do the things that we know are wrong.

If it were just a matter of following the rules, all we’d have to do is make sure everyone knows the rules and this would be a perfect world. But here’s the problem with that: I know the speed limit is 55, but I still drive 65; I know McDonald’s French fries are bad for me, but I go ahead and eat them; I know I should exercise every day, but I still let it slide.

I don’t need a refresher course on the rules. I know the rules. I need to be changed from within. I need a reason to want to obey the rules, to want to do what’s good for me, to want to do the right thing. I need a power inside of me much stronger than my own weak willpower. I don’t need more rules. I need a relationship!

And Paul, in his genius, directs me to the source of that power and to the nature of that relationship. It’s in the very last part of today’s reading. We may have gotten so distracted by all that “sleeping around” and “sex” business that we missed the most important part, so let me read it again:

Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? You have been bought and paid for, so honor God with your body.

You don’t belong to yourself. You are not your own. You have been bought and paid for by someone else, and it’s that someone else who directs your life now. That’s the where the power comes from. We are not on our own. We have help!

This is an idea that goes against what lots of people believe. We like to think that we are in charge of our own lives – masters of our own fate; captains of our own ships. We don’t have to take orders from anyone. We answer only to ourselves.

But think about that for a moment. I don’t think that kind of complete self-reliance is even possible, but even if it were, would we really want to live that way? Life is about relationships: loving and being loved; caring and being cared for. It would be awfully lonely to live only for ourselves.

I know I need to exercise more and take care of my health better – eat healthier, lose weight, get in shape. I heard or read something a while back that helped me be a little more serious about that. This person said that if we just do these things for ourselves, we’ll always have an excuse to put it off or not do it.

This advice said: don’t think about doing it just for yourself, but think about doing it for the other people in your life. That makes sense. Other people are counting on me to be healthy and to be around for a while: my mom, my wife, my children, the congregation that counts on me. I want to be around for my grandchildren, if I ever have any. I don’t need to be healthy just for myself, but for the people I love, the people who depend on me.

I don’t belong just to myself. I belong to others and they belong to me. We count on one another to be there when we’re needed.

Paul is saying that as Christians, even more than we belong to other people, we belong to God. Other people have a claim on us – our time, our health, our presence and strength. But God has the ultimate claim on us because, as Paul says, we are not our own; we don’t belong just to ourselves; we have been bought with a price. We belong first and foremost to God.

The price God paid for us was the life of his one and only Son Jesus Christ on the cross. God not only created us in the first place, but when we, as human beings, had fallen under the power of sin, God bought us back by sending his Son to offer his life in our place so that we could be forgiven of our sin and have new and everlasting life with God.

When we look at the things Paul is talking about in this passage it makes a big difference. Now we see it’s not just about ourselves and what we do with our bodies. Jesus Christ is involved now. We belong to him.

As Paul says in verse 15, as Christians we are members of, parts of, the body of Christ. So we belong to Christ and we belong to one another. Everything we do, in one way or another, affects not only ourselves, but also other people and even Christ himself.

We are united with Christ. We are part of him and he is part of us. A very simple way to think about it is this: when I read a book or watch a TV show or a movie, it’s not just me doing it, it’s Jesus and I together. Every internet site I visit, Jesus is looking at it with me. We might do a lot of things differently if we approached it that way.

Paul says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is within us. So everything we do, everything we say, even everything we think, has the potential of bringing glory to God or bringing dishonor to God.

When we invite Jesus Christ into our lives, the Holy Spirit takes up residence too. But don’t think of the Holy Spirit as a “killjoy” who’s there to keep you from having any fun. God wants you to life a joyous, loving, faith-filled and grace-filled life.

The Holy Spirit is there, living in his “temple,” to give us the strength and the power we need every day to live for God. That’s the purpose of our lives ultimately: to bring honor and glory and praise to God, the one who created us and the one who bought us for a price through Jesus Christ.

When we live each day with that sense of God’s presence in our lives, of Jesus Christ being with us everywhere we go – at home, at school, at the grocery school, in the car, at work, at play – then we won’t have to think so much of rules of right and wrong. We will just know the right thing to do and the holy way to live because Jesus will be living in us and through us. And we will truly glorify God in our lives. Amen.

Sermon: "The Other Wise Man"

2012-01-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

Matthew 2:1-12
January 8, 2012
Epiphany Sunday

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

You may wonder why we are talking about the wise men now two weeks after Christmas. Trees have been taken down, decorations have been put away. Although you may have noticed that we still have the Nativity Scene displayed in the sanctuary for one more Sunday.

That’s because today we are observing Epiphany Sunday. We could have done it last week, but because it was also New Year’s Day we wanted to focus on that theme and save Epiphany for today.

The Day of Epiphany is actually January 6, which was Friday of last week. That’s the Twelfth Day of Christmas. You could legally leave your Christmas decorations up until then and you wouldn’t be in violation of any major codes or statutes. If they’re still up now, however, you may have the Liturgical Police knocking on your door.

Epiphany celebrates the revelation of God in Jesus Christ as a human being. Western Christianity remembers the visit of the wise men to Jesus at Epiphany. The Eastern Church focuses more on the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River when he was an adult. Both were ways that Jesus was made known to the world as the Son of God.

The story of the wise men has been open to a lot of speculation over the centuries, mainly because the Gospel story tells us so little about them. We tend to think we know more about them then we really do.

We don’t even know how many there were – we say three, but that’s because they brought three gifts.

We don’t know what country they came from – Matthew says the “East,” and we usually say Persia. We don’t know that they rode camels or that they were “kings.” That comes from Isaiah 60 and Psalm 72, passages we read this morning, that talk about kings and camels and gifts that came to be seen as Old Testament prophecies of the wise men.

We don’t know their names, either, although tradition has called them Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar for the last 1500 years.

We don’t know when the wise men arrived in Bethlehem, although it was likely some time after Jesus’ birth because by then they were in a house.

Speculation about the wise men has led people like John H. Hopkins, Jr. to write hymns like “We Three Kings.”

And it led Henry Van Dyke, an American author and Presbyterian minister who lived from 1852-1933, to add his own contribution to the wise men legend in the form of a short story that is still popular today.

Van Dyke is probably best-known to us as the author of the lyrics to the popular hymn, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” set to Betthoven’s “Ode to Joy.” He wrote many other hymns and poems.

In 1896 he wrote a short story titled, “The Other Wise Man.” I first became acquainted with it about 30 years ago, when someone asked me to read an abridged version aloud at a church Christmas gathering.

“The Other Wise Man” is about a 40-year-old Persian astrologer named Artaban who has spent his life studying the stars. He has seen the star which he believes heralds the birth of a promised King of Israel.

He plans to meet his three friends and fellow astrologers, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, in Babylon and together they will journey to Judea to worship and pay homage to the king. Artaban sells all his possessions and buys three jewels – a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl – which he plans to give as tribute to the King.

Artaban travels for ten days to Babylon, and just three hours before he is to meet the three wise men, he encounters the form of a man lying in the road, moaning. What should he do? If he stops to help the man, he will be late to meet the others and they will leave without him.

He decides to stop and help the man and spends several hours taking care of him until his strength returns. The stranger has nothing of value to offer Artaban, but tells him that he is a Jew and that according to prophecy the King he seeks will not be born in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem.

Sure enough, Artaban arrives in Babylon after the others have left. He must sell the sapphire to buy a train of camels and supplies for the journey since he has missed the caravan.

He arrives in Bethlehem three days after the other wise men have departed, after seeing the Christ child. He stops at the home of a young mother with a baby and learns that Joseph of Nazareth took the Child Jesus and his mother Mary and fled away secretly in the night to go to Egypt.

Suddenly there’s a noise of wild confusion in the streets of Bethlehem and the cry, “The soldiers! The soldiers of Herod! They are killing our children!”

The young mother clasps her child to her in terror. Artaban stands guard in the doorway of her home, and when the captain of the guard comes, carrying a bloody sword, Artaban tells him, “I am all alone in this place, and I am waiting to give this jewel to the prudent captain who will leave me in peace.”

The captain takes the ruby and moves on down the street. The woman blesses Artaban for saving her baby, but now he has lost two of his jewels meant for the King.

Artaban spends the next 33 years of his life traveling to Egypt and many other places, helping people in need all along the way, but never finding the King he had been seeking.

He finally ends up in Jerusalem, during the Passover, on the very day that Jesus of Nazareth is to be crucified. He concludes that this is the One he’d been seeking and decides to offer his pearl as ransom for the King’s life.

But as he follows the crowd to Golgotha, he encounters a young woman being dragged down the street by soldiers, about to be sold as a slave.

She throws herself at Artaban’s feet and begs him to save her from a fate worse than death.

Artaban isn’t sure if this is his great opportunity or his last temptation, but he gives the pearl to the girl for her ransom.

At that moment, an earthquake shakes the ground and the sky grows dark. A heavy roof tile falls and strikes the old man on the temple. The girl bends over him. She hears a voice through the twilight, like music from a distance.

Then the old man’s lips begin to move, as if in answer: “Not so, my Lord: for when did I see thee hungry and feed thee? Or thirsty, and give thee drink? When did I see thee a stranger and take thee in? Or naked, and clothe thee? When did I see thee sick or in prison, and come unto thee? Three and thirty years have I looked for thee; but I have never seen thy face, nor ministered to thee, my King.”

The sweet voice came again and the girl heard it, very faint and far away. But now it seemed as though she understood the words: “Truly, I say unto thee, inasmuch as thou hast done it unto the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me.”

A calm radiance of wonder and joy lights Artaban’s face and a long breath of relief exhales gently from his lips.

Van Dyke’s story concludes: “His journey was ended. His treasures were accepted. The Other Wise Man had found the King.”

We may understand our lives as one long quest to perform some grand and glorious gesture for God. We may tell ourselves, when I finally have enough money and time, maybe after I retire, then I will be able to do something great for God.

Then I will be able to go on a mission trip or I will teach Sunday School or I will help pay the salary of an overseas missionary.

But the story of the “Other Wise Man” reminds us that the Christian life is really about what we do on the way to meet the King. We may not realize that the hour we give each week delivering Meals on Wheels or mentoring a child once a month at the school or the tithes we place in the offering plate every Sunday are all ways of worshiping God in Jesus Christ.

We may hear the story of the wise men journeying hundreds of miles through trackless desert to Bethlehem to kneel down before the infant King to pay him homage and give him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh and wish that we could do something dramatic like that for our Lord.

But that forgets that we all have gifts of time, talent, and treasure that we can use each and every day, right here at home, to serve those whom Christ places before us, inviting us to see his face in their faces: the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the homeless, the sick and the imprisoned.

Each one of us can be Artaban, the Other Wise Man (or Wise Woman), using our gifts in ordinary ways every day to help improve the lives of God’s children. And in that way, we too will find the King. Amen.

Sermon: "Living with the End in Mind"

2012-01-04T12:47:00.000-08:00

Matthew 25:31-46
January 1, 2012
New Year’s Day

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.

"Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

"Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’

"And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

"Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

"Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’

"Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This may sound strange, but one of the sections of the newspaper I almost always read is the Obituaries. As we grow older that may become more common, but I have done it for a long time.

I read the obituaries in the local paper to see if members of the church or people I know or their relatives have passed without me hearing about it.

I read the obituaries in the Dallas paper looking for people who were members of the churches I’ve served over the years in Wylie, Lancaster, Frisco, and Dallas. I also look for colleagues in the ministry who may have passed.

But sometimes obituaries of people I’ve never met catch my attention and I read them: prominent citizens, businesspeople, civic leaders, but also just ordinary people who meant something special to their family and friends.

It’s interesting to see how some people are remembered. Most obituaries contain just the bare minimum of information – name, date and place of birth and death, surviving family members, and maybe a little about their education or their memberships. This is probably because papers like the Dallas Morning News charge for obituaries by the inch, so long ones can run into the hundreds of dollars.

But the longer ones can tell a lot about what was important to the person who died. Sometimes hobbies are included. For example:

“In addition to her accomplishments in the business world, she was a wonderful cook and a skilled seamstress. She loved Christmas, family get-togethers, flowers, bird-watching, and trips to the Ozarks.”

Sometimes volunteer activities are mentioned:

“After her retirement, she volunteered for Meals on Wheels and the New Hope Learning Center.”

There are sometimes personal notes:

“She was a good, kind, and gentle woman and was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend.”

“Until the end, his mind never stopped … always planning, building, designing, and creating. He was a vibrant, funny, engaging and loving man and father.”

If the person was religious, sometimes their church activities are included:

“She served the church in many capacities including Sunday School teacher and church librarian, and as a member of numerous committees and boards.” (That sounds like a Methodist, and indeed she was!)

Here’s one that really impressed me:

“Dick was born with severe cerebral palsy. Though he never spoke an understandable word, nor attended to his personal physical needs, nor fed himself food nor drink, he still learned limited reading and to type on a prepared IBM machine … When he was 10 or 12 years old he made it known God had called him to preach and preach he did in his own way! He had been in Sunday School and church all his life, and with his keen mind and over-sensitive hearing, he learned the Word of God. God’s work well done for those who made his life good.”

I hope this doesn’t sound too morbid to you, but have you ever stopped to think about what you would want your obituary to say? I have. I haven’t gone so far as to write my own obituary, though I’ve known people who have. But I have thought about how I would like to be remembered when that time comes (which I hope is not too soon, but we never know, do we?).

When I was younger I hoped to be remembered for writing important books or being elected as a delegate to General Conference or maybe being a district superintendent or a bishop.

As I’ve grown older and, I hope, a bit wiser, I’ve realized there are more important things to be remembered for.

Now, I’d like to be remembered as a good son, a good brother, a good husband and father and friend.

I’d like to be remembered by the churches I’ve served as a good pastor and a good member of the communities where we’ve lived.

Most of all, I’d like to be remembered as someone who was faithful to God and who lived out his faith in ways that made a real difference in the lives of others.

One night Diane Sawyer was interviewing Billy Graham on ABC News. She asked the question, "Billy, when you die, how do you want people to remember you?" Billy said, "I don't know what people will think of me, but what I'd really like is to hear the Lord say to me when I get to Heaven, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'" Then he paused and looked at her and said, "But I don't think that He will."

Now if Billy Graham doesn’t expect to hear those words when he gets to heaven, what hope is there for the rest of us? He’s preached the Gospel to more people than anyone who’s ever lived.

Maybe what Billy Graham meant was that when we stand before God for judgment, it won’t depend on how many souls we’ve saved, how many sermons we’ve preached or how many books we’ve written. What will matter most is did we offer our lives to Jesus Christ as a “living sacrifice” and invite him to be our Lord Savior. That’s how our sins are forgiven and we receive the gift of eternal life – through faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

But once we are saved by grace through faith, God expects us to offer service to him through our lives. I don’t know who first coined the phrases, “Living with the end in mind” or “Living life backwards,” but I have found them helpful in thinking about the meaning and purpose of my life.

“Living with the end in mind” just means thinking about how we want to be remembered when our life is over, and then starting to live now to make that a reality.

If our philosophy of life is nothing more than “Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse” or “The one who dies with the most toys wins,” then that will take our lives down one path.

But as followers of Jesus Christ we know that’s not what life is about. In our passage today from the “Great Judgment” scene in Matthew 25, Jesus gives us a very clear picture of “living with the end in mind.” He presents a scene of judgment at the end of time based on what we have done (or not done) for the “least of these” in terms of very this-worldly needs: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting the imprisoned.

He’s saying, when the end comes, whether it’s the end of history or the end of my life, this is what’s going to matter: taking care of the people who are least-equipped to care for themselves. Because we’re not doing it just for them, but we’re doing it for Christ himself.

Jesus is inviting us to live each day with this picture of the end in mind – of the sheep being separated from the goats – and of ourselves being amongst those who say, “Lord, when was it we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and we took care of you,” and hearing Jesus say to us, “As you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”

And then we work backwards from there, and we begin to see the face of Christ in the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned, and we begin to do for them as we would do for Christ himself.

If we wait until the end, it’s too late. Let’s live now with the end in mind. That’s how we live life to the fullest right now. That’s how we live for Jesus Christ in the New Year.

Amen.

Sermon: "Did Jesus Ever Go Home to Bethlehem?"

2011-12-29T07:15:00.000-08:00

(I wrote this story after returning from a trip to the Holy Land in 1997. While in Bethlehem, I wondered if Jesus and his family had ever returned there while Jesus was young to hear the story of his birth.)

DID JESUS EVER GO HOME TO BETHLEHEM?
Luke 2:1-7
Dec. 25, 2011
Christmas Day

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Joseph, Mary, and the young Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem for their annual Passover pilgrimage to the holy city. Every time they came to Jerusalem, Joseph and Mary remembered a previous journey, just a few short years before, when a census, and not a holy day, had caused them to travel from their home in Nazareth to Jerusalem and the extraordinary events that had surrounded that trip.

Jesus had begun to express some curiosity about the circumstances surrounding his birth, so Mary proposed a side trip to Joseph. “Do you suppose we could spend an extra day here and go to Bethlehem?” she asked. “We haven’t been back since we had to leave in such a hurry for Egypt when King Herod was hunting for all the baby boys. It’s just a few miles to Bethlehem and our son might enjoy seeing where he was born. I think I would like to see it again myself.”

“I suppose it would be all right,” said Joseph. “Jesus is getting old enough to begin to understand what a special birth it was. And everyone should have the chance to see where they were born.”

As they left the gates of Jerusalem the next morning and began to walk the few short miles to Bethlehem, known as the city of David, Joseph started telling Jesus the story.

“Your mother and I were living in Nazareth. We had not been engaged for very long. I had paid the bride’s price to your grandfather and we had begun to plan the wedding feast that would make us husband and wife. I was happier than I had ever been and looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her, when something happened that almost ended us before we had even begun.

“One of my brothers came to my carpenter’s shop one day and told me some very disturbing news; he had heard from a reliable source that your mother, my beloved Mary, was expecting a baby! I couldn’t believe my ears. There was no way it could be true, since we had not yet come together as husband and wife.

“While the Word of God was clear that an unfaithful fiancée was to be punished severely, I couldn’t think of such a thing. My only thought was for your mother’s reputation. So I decided to divorce her quietly and not bring shame on either of our families.

“But that very night I had a dream that changed my plans completely. An angel appeared to me and told me that the Holy Spirit was the Father of the baby Mary was expecting, which, of course, was you, and that I should go through the marriage.

As we have tried to teach you, son, we should always follow God’s wishes. So I resolved to marry your mother, though I felt unworthy to be the earthly father of such a special child.

The angel also told me that we were to name you Jesus, which as you know, means “Yahweh is salvation,” because you would save your people from their sins. I couldn’t begin to comprehend what all of that meant, but somehow it was all in fulfillment of what the prophet Isaiah had foretold: ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means ‘God with us.’ ”

Mary continued the story. “I didn’t know what your father would think when he found out I was expecting you, since it had all happened so quickly. One moment I was planning a nice quiet life with my new husband and looking forward to raising a family, when out of the blue an angel appeared to me and told me that I had found favor with God and that I had been chosen to give birth to a child who would be called Jesus and the Son of the Most High God.

“I asked the angel how that was possible, since your father and I weren’t married yet, and he told me that Joseph wasn’t going to be the father -- the Holy Spirit was. I almost fainted from shock. The angel reminded me that with God nothing was impossible. I thought, if that’s what God has planned for me how can I say no. So I told the angel I was God’s willing servant.

“I wouldn’t have blamed your father if he’d thought I was crazy or lying when I told him that story. But he said an angel had told him the same thing in a dream and that we would go ahead with the wedding. I knew then that God couldn’t have blessed me with a kinder or more understanding husband, or you with a wiser or better father.”

“But why was I born in Bethlehem?” asked the young Jesus. “You haven’t told me that part of the story yet.”

“I was just getting there, son.” Joseph said, as they approached the outskirts of the village of Bethlehem.” “Your mother and I were beginning to get used to the idea of having a baby, even though some people still talked about us behind our backs. We made plans for our wedding, which we had set for shortly before you were to be born. But Caesar Augustus had other plans.

“He was getting ready to raise taxes and wanted to make sure he didn’t miss anyone in the remotest corner of the world of his vast Roman Empire, so he ordered that every person had to go to their hometown to be counted. That meant that I would have to come all the way here to Bethlehem from Nazareth, since I am of David’s line, and as you know, Bethlehem was the home of our ancestor, King David. It couldn’t have come at a worse time, with your mother getting ready to have you any day. I couldn’t leave her home alone, since she had to be counted with me, so like good citizens we set out for Bethlehem, following the same route we have just traveled.”

“It was the worst trip of my life,” said Mary. “Your father bought a donkey for me to ride, but there was no way I could get comfortable on those rough roads.

“We had hoped we could make the journey to Bethlehem, be counted, and get back home to Nazareth before you were born. But it wasn’t to be. You just couldn’t wait. Bouncing up and down on the back of that donkey probably didn’t help matters either.”

About that time the three of them stopped in front of a building that from its appearance and the people coming and going was clearly an inn for travelers.

“The trip here had been so hurried that we didn’t have time to make arrangements to stay with relatives,” said Mary. “So we stopped here at this inn in hopes that they would have a room. I had begun to feel the labor pains and knew that the time for your arrival had come.

“The innkeeper was kind to us, but he explained that his inn was full because of all the out-of –town visitors from the census. But he told us that if we were willing, we could sleep in the stable behind the inn with all his guest’s animals.”

The family had walked around behind the inn and were now standing outside the entrance of a cave that served as a stable.

“At first I wouldn’t even think of such a thing,” said Joseph. “How could my wife give birth and my son be born in a stable full of animals? But your mother soon convinced me that there was no time to search for other lodging. The pains were coming more often now. If the straw was clean and a warm fire could be built, a stable might be the best we could hope for.”

“This is where you were born, Jesus. We made ourselves as comfortable as we could in this small cave, and before long, you entered the world,” said Mary. “I was worn out from the journey and the donkey and labor, but as soon as I laid eyes on you, I knew it was all worth it. You were truly a blessing from the Lord. We wrapped you in swaddling cloths and laid you right here in this manger. This feed trough was your very first bed. I promise you, because you had entered our lives, this stable seemed like a palace.”

“And while you and your mother slept,” said Joseph, “I had a lot of time to think. I realized that even our coming to Bethlehem had been part of God’s plan. I thought of the promises of the Messiah that have sustained our people for hundreds of years. And of that one promise in particular spoken by the prophet Micah: ‘But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who is one of the little clans of Judah, from you, shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, who origin is from old, from ancient days. Therefore, he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall be one of peace.’

“Even though we don’t understand it all completely yet, my son, we know that God has very special plans for you. We knew it from before you were born and we knew it when on the night you were born shepherds invaded our peaceful cave telling us that an angel had announced to them while they were watching their flocks that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem, and that they would find him wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in this very manger.”

Mary said, “Ever since that very special night in this humble stable, I have treasured the words the angels spoke to the shepherds and pondered them in my heart: ‘Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.’”

“Now that you have come back here to Bethlehem, which is your home like Nazareth is your home, and you have seen the inn and the stable and the manger, you will understand even more what a special child you are and what grand and glorious plans your heavenly Father has for You. You are still so young, and you have a lot of growing up to do, but don’t ever forget that you have a mother and father who love you very much, and a heavenly Father who loves you even more.”

“We’d better get started back to Jerusalem,” said Joseph. “We have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow, and I am anxious to get back home.”

Sermon: "A Perfect Christmas"

2011-12-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

Dec. 24, 2011
Christmas Eve
Luke 2:1-20

There was a church in the northern part of the United States that had held a Christmas pageant for 47 years with the same director. Perfection was her goal—nothing less. For years the church's pageant ran like clockwork: perfect lines, perfect pacing, perfect everything. Then one year, something even better happened.

The director's commitment to perfection had been much greater than her commitment to children. Her reasoning was: "When there are too many youngsters, there is no control."

As a result, many children in the church were excluded from being in the pageant. Only the "best" kids made it.

This particular year, however, the Christian Education Committee passed a resolution: "All children who wish to be in the Christmas pageant may do so. Parts will be found for them." This was more than the longtime director could handle. She resigned in anger and disgust.

The pageant didn't fall flat without the former director, but it was different. There must have been a dozen shepherds and at least 20 angels and probably more than two dozen wandering sheep.

The real climax of unpredictability came when Mary and Joseph entered. Joseph walked solemnly beside Mary. The narrator was to read the Biblical story about Joseph going to Bethlehem ". . . to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child."

One mother realized that the children didn't really understand the Elizabethan English of the King James Version about Mary being "great with child." At the last minute, she switched to the Good News Translation. As Mary and Joseph entered, the narrator read, "Joseph went to register with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him. She was pregnant."

As the last word echoed through the PA system, little Joseph froze in his tracks. This is not how he had heard it in rehearsal. He gave Mary an incredulous look, then looked out at the congregation and said, "Pregnant? What do you mean, pregnant?"

Needless to say, this brought the house down. The pastor's wife, wiping tears from her eyes, said, "You know, that may be exactly what Joseph said." The former director wore her triumphant "I-told-you-so" look.

Later, when they sang Silent Night, a couple of magical things happened. First, the sheep bleated their way down a side aisle and sat in the pews to watch the conclusion of the pageant. This meant the former director was suddenly surrounded by the children she had once excluded!

Second, snow began to fall, and the entire church became very quiet. It was so beautiful; no one stirred for some time—not even the sheep.

Then, Minnie McDonnell—hard of hearing, and always speaking too loudly—broke the spell when she "whispered" to her husband in a voice that all could hear, "It's perfect! Just perfect!"

And it was perfect, only not in the way previous pageants had been perfect. It was perfect in the way God makes things perfect—the way he accepts our fumbling attempts at love and fairness, and covers them with grace.

Many of us this time of year are sucked into the myth of the “Perfect Christmas.” We believe that if we just try hard enough, we can make Christmas “perfect.”

We can put up the perfect decorations in our homes. We can buy the perfect gifts for family and friends. We can plan the perfect Christmas dinner and arrange the perfect gathering of family where everyone will get along.

We’ve never achieved Christmas perfection before, but that doesn’t keep us from trying. Images of the “perfect Christmas” on TV and in movies don’t help much in dealing with the real world.

When you look at the details of Jesus' birth, many of the circumstances were far from perfect. Caesar was imposing taxes for his own interests; Herod violently protected his throne, motivated by fear, greed and insecurity. Joseph and Mary were not married, yet she was pregnant.

Though Joseph was a man of faith and obedience to God, I am sure this situation created tremendous concern among the members of their families. And now, days before giving birth, they find themselves on a journey to a tiny little town called Bethlehem, where there will be no adequate place for them to stay.

The King of Kings was to be born, not in a major metropolis, not in luxury and comfort, but in a stable in a seemingly insignificant town.

There was an interesting article in Money magazine a few years ago. It seems that Money ranked the area around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, dead last among 300 cities surveyed in which to live.

The mayor of Allentown, PA—which is part of the region Money panned—said, "Lee Iacocca's mother lives here. Do you think Lee Iacocca would let his mother stay in a place that wasn't fit to live in?"

An editorial in the Bethlehem Globe-Times newspaper, said: "What a remarkable coincidence! At the same time as their survey, we were concluding that Money is the worst magazine in the nation."

If Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was rated number 300, I would hate to think where Bethlehem of Judea would rank in Money's listings. In fact, if a committee were appointed to recommend favorable places for the birth of the King of Kings, I doubt Bethlehem would even make the list.

Bethlehem was, as the song goes, a little town, far removed from the centers of influence and power in the world of its day. There was little to recommend Bethlehem for the birthplace of the Messiah. Yet it was God's choice. The prophet Micah said,

But you, Bethlehem Ephratha, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel.

In God's wisdom, Bethlehem was the perfect place for the Messiah to be born. It is a humble place, and God blesses those with humble beginnings.

Bethlehem was the home town of King David, who was far from perfect. Yet he was called a man after God's own heart.

God is looking for something more than "perfection." That’s the whole point of the Christmas story. God didn't come to us at Christmas because we are perfect and good and wonderful. He came to us because we needed him.

Have you ever tried to keep a perfect house when a baby is in residence? It doesn't work. When there’s a baby in the house you have to forget about perfection and think about love. That's the message of Christmas. It's not about perfection, it's about love.

Years ago Harry Reasoner wrote a piece about Christmas for the show 60 Minutes. He said: "The basis for this tremendous burst of buying things and gift giving and parties and near hysteria, is a quiet event that happened a long time ago.

“You can say that in all societies there has always been a midwinter festival, and that many trappings of our Christmas are almost violently pagan, but you come back to the central fact of the day . . . the birth of God on earth.

“It leaves you only three ways of accepting Christmas. One is cynically, as a time to make money or endorse the making of it.

“One is graciously, the appropriate attitude for non-Christians, who wish their fellow citizens all the joys their beliefs entitle them.

“And the third, of course, is reverently. If this is the anniversary of the appearance of the Lord of the universe as a helpless babe—it is a very important day. It's a startling idea that a virgin was selected by God to bear his Son as a way of showing his love and concern. . . .

“The story has a magnificent appeal. Almost nobody has seen God, and almost nobody has any real idea of what he is like. But everyone has seen babies, and most people like them.

“If God wanted to be loved . . . if God wanted to be intimately a part of our life, he moved correctly, for the experience of birth and family is our most intimate and precious experience.

“So, if a Christian is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it. Maybe on some given Christmas, some final quiet morning, the touch will take."

Maybe this Christmas will "take" for some of you here tonight. Maybe you won't have a perfect Christmas. Perhaps it will be far better than that.

I hope that you will see right to the heart of this sacred event—to the God who is looking not for perfection, but love.

Sermon: "Mission: Possible"

2011-12-20T08:59:00.001-08:00

“MISSION POSSIBLE”
Luke 1:26-38
December 18, 2011
Fourth Sunday of Advent

Luke 1:26-38:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.

And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

The hallways of Iowa Park Junior High were buzzing with the talk among us seventh-grade boys on a Monday morning in September of 1966. We had seen a show on TV that weekend that was unlike any we had ever seen in all of our twelve years on this planet and we couldn’t stop talking about it.

It had started with a man retrieving an envelope of photos and information and a miniature tape recorder from a hidden location. He switched on the tape recorder and the message began, “Good morning, Mr Phelps.”

It went on to detail some situation of a bad guy up to no good, and the tape would say, “Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to ….” And it would involve neutralizing the bad guy. The voice on the tape reminded Mr. Phelps, “As always, should you or any member of your I.M. Force be killed or captured, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.”

Then when the tape got to the end (and this was the part that was really cool to us adolescent males) the voice would say, “This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim,” and the tape would go up in a puff of smoke!

Like I said, it was unlike any TV show we’d ever seen and every Monday morning we’d gather and talk about that week’s episode. They used all kinds of intricate disguises and deceptions to accomplish their mission, and despite the warning on the tape, none of them were ever killed or captured.

The show was, of course, “Mission: Impossible.” It was on from 1966-1973. You can still see it in re-runs on Channel 21 from time to time.

Nowadays “Mission: Impossible” is a lot better known known from the series of movies starring Tom Cruise. The fourth “Mission: Impossible” movie just came out this weekend and I swear I’ve not received any promotional consideration for mentioning it in this sermon!

I think of “Mission: Impossible” almost every time I read this story about the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and announcing to her that she is going to be the mother of Jesus, God’s own Son, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and telling her,

“For nothing will be impossible with God.”

What the voice on the tape recorder asked Jim Phelps and his team to do each week sounded impossible, but it was nothing compared to what Gabriel was asking Mary to do.

Here she was, a young woman (some say as young as 14 or 15, the average marriageable age back then) living in the very small village of Nazareth, engaged to a man named Joseph but they weren’t married yet so they hadn’t consummated their marriage. She was a virgin.

She might have been making plans for the wedding, thinking about where she and Joseph would live, how many children they would have, perhaps worried a bit if they could live on what Joseph made as a carpenter.

Then, all of a sudden, in a few brief moments, her whole world changes. An angel of the Lord is standing in front of her and talking to her. That by itself would freak most people out. Can you imagine carrying on a conversation with an angel?

In art we often see angels depicted as larger-than-life powerful figures with huge eagle-like wings and maybe even carrying a sword. An angel that looked like that would scare most of us half to death. Maybe Gabriel toned it down when he appeared to Mary, but still it would be a little frightening.

Gabriel tells Mary, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Luke says that this greeting was puzzling to Mary and wondered what it meant.

The angel then goes on to tell her that she has found favor with God. She is going to conceive a child right away whose name will be Jesus. He will be the Son of God and will reign over an everlasting kingdom.

Mary doesn’t understand how this can happen since she and Joseph aren’t married yet. From a purely human point of view, it would be impossible for her to have a baby.

Here’s where what sounds impossible becomes possible. Gabriel explains,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”

So this is not going to be a normal human pregnancy and birth. This is something that God is going to do.

To further confirm that he is speaking the truth and that all of this is really going to happen, Gabriel lets Mary know that her relative Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, who were thought to be way too old to have children, are expecting a child of their own in their old age and that Elizabeth is already six months along. And then comes that clinching reminder:

“For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Of course. That’s it. That’s what makes the impossible possible. It’s God. God can do whatever God wants to. God is all-powerful. If God wants a virgin from Nazareth named Mary to have a baby, God can make that happen.

That makes it sound like Mary had no choice in this matter. That Gabriel told her, “This is what God’s going to do, whether you like it or not.”

But that’s not where the story ends. There’s one more verse to the reading, isn’t there?

Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

The story isn’t finished until Mary says “Yes.” The impossible becomes possible not just when God makes up God’s mind to do something, but also when we say “Yes.”

Years ago I read a version of this story for children by William Griffin called “Mary’s Surprise.” Griffin’s version helps us see that Mary’s response is also a key element in the story. It goes like this:

“Stay where you are,” said the young girl, “or I’ll scream!”

“My name is Gabriel,” said the tall stranger.

“Are you an angel?” asked Mary.

“I have a message for you.”

“You shouldn’t go about surprising people,” said Mary, closing her book.

“Angels are for surprises,” said Gabriel.

“I didn’t know that,” said Mary.

“You are one of God’s favorites,” said Gabriel. “He wants you to know that.”

“Thank you for telling me.”

“And he wants to ask you a favor. He wants you to be the mother of his child. The child the scriptures speak of. The child that will save all people of the world. Will you do God this favor?”

“Does he have to ask?”

“God always asks.”

“He knows I read the Scriptures and will do what he asks.”

“Blessed are you among women,” said Gabriel, and the angel was gone.

Yes, God did have to ask, thought Mary, as he returned to her book, and yes, she would never say no.

What is the more impressive thing about this story of Gabriel and Mary – that God is able to conceive a child in her by the Holy Spirit or that Mary is willing to be used as an instrument in God’s plan for the salvation of the world?

I would argue that both are important and impressive. Both must be present for the impossible to become possible and for the Son of God to be born.

This story is full of surprises. Mary is surprised by the angel suddenly appearing to her. In Griffin’s story, after she gets over her initial fright, she takes the angel to task for going around surprising people. Then he reminds her that “angels are for surprises.”

For Mary to have a baby is another surprise. Imagine how surprised her parents and Joseph are going to be when she tells them she’s pregnant. It’s not humanly possible.

And it’s surprising whom God has chosen to be the mother of his Son. Mary was one of the common, poor people of the land. She was from Galilee, and Galilee was about as far away from the centers of power as it’s possible to be.

We tend to think that God can only use extraordinary people to accomplish God’s purposes – people of special talent or skill or accomplishment. But this story is one more reminder that God almost always uses ordinary people, like you and me, to do what God wants to get done. The only requirement is that we, like Mary, be willing to say “Yes.”

You might object that you and I aren’t called, like Mary, to bring the Savior into the world. Well, maybe not like Mary, but in a way, that’s exactly what you and I are invited by God to do every day – to bring Christ into our individual worlds.

That may sound like “Mission: Impossible” to you, but God can do that very thing if you are willing. We bring Christ into our world by living out the Gospel; by loving; by forgiving; by serving.

We call ourselves “Christians” and that means “little Christs.” A Christian is a person whose life reflects, embodies, shows forth the life of Christ. We give life to Christ in our world when we live our life as Jesus would, whether we are a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, a sales clerk, a secretary, a police officer – whatever.

Every day God approaches us and asks us to bring Christ into the world. We must be ready to respond. When we say Yes, Christmas happens all over again. Amen.

Sermon: "I Am Not the Messiah"

2011-12-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

“I AM NOT THE MESSIAH”
John 1:6-8, 19-28
December 11, 2011
Third Sunday of Advent

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’

Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’

He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’ as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’

John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

I’m usually a stickler for spelling and grammar on the things that I write and put in print. Spell check and grammar check programs on computers greatly help with that nowadays, but I don’t usually have to depend on those. I spell check myself.

I’ve always been a pretty good speller. In fact, I can still remember the three words that I got wrong in spelling bees in grade school. One word was “souvenir.” I spelled it with an “ier” at the end. Another word was “restaurant.” I spelled it “restaurant.” And the other word was “banana.” I added an extra “n” in the middle. Needless to say, I always spell those words correctly.

A typo once caused me a good deal of good-natured kidding at one of the churches I pastored in the earlier days of my ministry. We had just moved to Wylie UMC. I wrote my first article for the church newsletter. I talked about how happy I was to be there and how I looked forward to working with the congregation. I said something about “when I was sent to serve this church.” I gave the article to the secretary to type up and put in the newsletter.

The problem is, the secretary had trouble reading my handwriting, so when the newsletter came out, that sentence said, “when I was sent to save this church.” I was so embarrassed! I could only imagine what they thought about me. Here’s this new preacher, barely been here a week, and he’s got such an ego that he’s claiming he’s going to come in and “save” our church!

For one, thing, the church didn’t need saving. It was a perfectly healthy congregation. I had been sent there because Glyn Rives, the pastor, had retired. The church wasn’t in trouble.

And even if the church had been in trouble, what pastor would say such a thing their first week on the job? I’m usually a pretty humble person and would never say such a thing, but they didn’t know that. They barely knew me.

I could only hope that not that many people read the newsletter, and if they did, they wouldn’t notice that phrase. But of course, everybody read it – it was the first newsletter article of the brand new pastor!

Fortunately, they gave me the benefit of the doubt and allowed me to explain the error. But for a long time after that some of the staff members kidded me about having a “Savior complex.”

Today’s Gospel reading begins, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” Apparently, some people thought that John had been sent as some kind of savior. In fact, the Pharisees sent some priests and Levites out to the wilderness where John was baptizing to ask him just who he thought he was. Maybe they thought John had a “Savior complex.”

These were folks from the official religious establishment in Jerusalem. They were in charge of keeping things under control, keeping a lid on things, so there wouldn’t be any reason for the Romans to get suspicious and crack down on them. John was just different enough to create a “blip” on their radar screen so they had to go and check him out.

“Who are you?” they ask. John was different enough, with his camel’s hair clothing and his diet of locusts and wild honey, so that many people were thinking that he could be the promised Messiah.

It would have been easy for John to claim to be more than he was. If people treat you like a “savior,” pretty soon you might start thinking that you are one. I think that’s what happened with notorious cult leaders like Jim Jones and David Koresh. Their followers treated them like Messiah figures and that fed their egos and they started thinking that they had life and death power over these people. And we know what tragic consequences that led to.

How easy it would have been for John to let all this go to his head and start thinking that maybe he was the Messiah. All these people were coming out to the wilderness to hear him preach and to be baptized by him. He was starting to gather a sizable group of disciples or followers, including Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother (1:40).

But John felt no temptation to do that. John understood perfectly what his role was to be in the salvation story that God was playing out. So when these “keepers of the religious status quo” come out from Jerusalem to ask John just who he thinks he is, John knows exactly who he is and is able to answer them.

In fact, he answers a question before they even ask. He tells them, “I am not the Messiah.” They hadn’t asked him yet if he were the Messiah. There must have been enough people mistaking John for the Messiah that he figured that was what they were going to ask, even before they asked it. So he tells them flat out, “I am not the Messiah.”

We might not see what the big issue is. We know John was not the Messiah. We know who the real Messiah is. But for people back then it wasn’t as clear. They hadn’t met Jesus yet. They didn’t know Jesus like John knew Jesus. After all, they were cousins. So it was very honest and helpful for John to make it clear right up front that he wasn’t the Messiah, so there wouldn’t be any confusion.

So then they asked John, “Are you Elijah?” Again, he answered, “I am not.” The Jewish people believed that before the Messiah came, Elijah would return to announce his coming. Elijah was transported into heaven without dying, so many people believed he would return right before the coming of the Messiah. But no, John says, even though you pay me quite a compliment, I’m not Elijah.

“Are you the prophet?” they ask next. Moses had promised in Deut. 18:15, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren – him you shall heed.” “No,” John says, I’m not the prophet either.

“So who are you then?” they want to know. “If you’re not the Messiah, and you’re not Elijah or the prophet, what exactly are you doing out here baptizing people?”

John finds his identity in the words of Isaiah 40:3 …

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”

That’s all I am, he says. I’m a nobody. A nothing. I’m only a voice telling you to get ready for the coming of the king, for he’s on his way.

The fact that John was baptizing people was a mystery to them, and they wanted to know why he was doing it, especially if he wasn’t the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet. Jewish people weren’t baptized. That was for Gentiles, for proselytes, for people coming into the Jewish faith from the outside. John was making Israelites do what only Gentiles had to do.

John didn’t answer them directly. He just said,

‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’

Untying someone’s sandal strap was considered about the most menial thing a person could do. Even a slave wasn’t expected to perform that service for his master.

John was just saying that compared to the Coming One, compared to Jesus, he was nothing. His only task was to prepare the entryway into history for the King.

This story about John the Baptist reminds us of something important about our own lives:

That for us to fulfill God’s purpose for us, we need to understand not only who we are, but also who we are not.

John knew who he wasn’t. He didn’t claim or pretend to be someone he wasn’t.

Sometimes in life it may take a while for us to figure out who we are. We may have to try on a few roles and follow a few paths that aren’t really meant for us. But that’s okay. It’s not wasted time. We have to know who we aren’t sometimes before we know who we are.

When I was a teenager, I thought I wanted to be an aerospace engineer. I wanted to work for the space program. I wanted to help send astronauts into space, to the moon, maybe even to other planets. I read and studied about what I would have to do to make that career path happen.

But then I felt called to the ministry. So I knew I wasn’t an aerospace engineer.

For a long time I believed God had called me to a teaching ministry – to teach religion or theology in a college or seminary. I went to graduate school after seminary to work on a doctoral degree to prepare me for that path.

But along the way, God showed me more and more that I wasn’t a teacher. Teaching could be a part of my ministry, but I was a pastor, a minister in a local church. And that’s what I have become.

I’m not Martin Marty, one of my favorite professors. I’m not Fred Craddock, one of my favorite preachers. I’m not Jim Palmer, one of the finest pastors I ever got to work with. I’m me. But that’s okay. God can use me, and I believe God has used me, to be a pastor and a shepherd of God’s people.

John understood who he wasn’t, but more importantly, he understood who he was – a preparer of the way; a voice crying in the wilderness; a finger in the desert pointing the way to Christ.

We can do some of our very best work when we get our own egos out of the way and let Jesus Christ live in us and shine through us. As someone has said, Christmas isn’t my birthday and it’s not your birthday. It’s Jesus’ birthday. Let’s do the very best we can to be sign-posts pointing others to him – to his love, his forgiveness, his grace, his life. That’s who we are. Amen.

Sermon: "What Are We Waiting For?"

2011-12-05T16:40:00.000-08:00

WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?
2 Peter 3:8-15a
December 4, 2011
Second Sunday of Advent

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

For most of us, waiting is not one of our favorite things to do. We have to wait in line at the store, wait to get a table at the restaurant, wait for the doctor to see us, wait at traffic lights and stop signs and traffic jams, wait for the train to get through the crossing.

Statisticians claim that in a life of 70 years, the average person spends at least three years waiting! Someone has even done a study of the “Psychology of Waiting Lines” (David Maister, 1985, www.davidmaister.com). He came up with eight factors that make our waits seem longer:
1. Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time. Time passes more quickly when we have something to distract us. That’s why hotels put mirrors by the elevators.
2. People want to get started. So restaurants give us menus while we wait and doctors put us in the exam room 25 minutes before our exam actually begins.
3. Anxiety makes waits seem longer. If we think we chose the slowest line or worried about getting a seat on the plane, the wait seems longer.
4. Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits. People wait more calmly when they’re told, “The doctor will see you in 30 minutes” rather than “The doctor will see you soon.”
5. Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits. We wait more patiently for the plane when we know there’s another plane at the gate.
6. Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits. That’s why many places have gone to the “Wait here for the next available counter” system where everybody waits in one line.
7. The more valuable the service, the longer we’re willing to wait. We’ll wait longer in line to buy an iPad than a toothbrush.
8. Solo waits feel longer than group waits. The more we engage with other people, the less we notice the wait time.

What we are waiting for may make the biggest difference when it comes to waiting. Waiting at the hospital for a colonoscopy is a great deal less enjoyable than waiting for the birth of a child or a grandchild, wouldn’t you agree? Waiting for your dad to get home because he’s bringing you a new bike is a lot more fun than waiting in your room after your mom has told you, “Just wait till your father gets home!”

Advent is about waiting. It’s about waiting for Christmas and the celebration of the birth of God’s Son Jesus Christ. It’s a time of expectant waiting – for more than just presents and parties and vacations from work and school. It’s about waiting for God’s gift of love and God’s presence to be renewed in our hearts and spirits.

As I mentioned last Sunday, Advent is also about waiting for Christ’s return. We may not immediately associate the Second Coming of Christ with shepherds and wise men and stables and angels. It may be a little bit jarring to our ears to hear readings like today’s passage from 2 Peter that mentions the “day of the Lord” coming like a “thief” and the heavens being set ablaze and dissolved and the “elements” melting with fire.

But Advent is about identifying with the longing and yearning of those who lived 2,000 years ago who were waiting for the Messiah’s first advent and it’s also about those in every generation since that first coming, like us, who are waiting for Christ’s return “to judge the living and the dead.” We worship the Christ who “has come, is coming, and will come again.”

2 Peter was probably written not by the apostle Simon Peter himself but by a follower writing in his name in the early second century. This was not unusual in those days. The letter was written mainly to combat heresy and false teaching that was spreading in the early church.

In today’s passage, he was writing against those who thought that since Christ had not yet returned and the final judgment had not yet happened, it wasn’t going to happen at all. After all, it had been almost a hundred years since the Christ event. Surely Christ would have come back by now if he were coming back at all.

But Peter cautions against such a conclusion. He gives two reasons why. The first reason has to do with God’s reckoning of time. God goes by a different clock than human beings do, he says. A thousand years on earth are like just one day with God. In other words, God, the one who created Time, is not bound to our rules of seconds, hours, days, months, and years. What passes for eons of time down here on earth may be just a fleeting moment in heaven.

A young man once asked God how long a million years was to him. God replied, “A million years to me is just like a single second in your time.”

Then the young man asked God what a million dollars was to him. God replied, “A million dollars to me is just like a single penny to you.”

Then the young man got his courage up and asked God, “Could I have one of your pennies?” God smiled and replied, “Certainly, just a second.”

So what seems like a long time to us to wait for Christ’s return, Peter says, may be nothing at all to God.

The other reason, Peter says, is that God is not being slow in keeping his promise of a Day of Final Judgment, but rather, God is being patient.

God doesn’t want anyone to perish in the Judgment, Peter says, so God is giving us the chance to repent. God would prefer that everyone repent and turn to him before the End. So God is giving us time.

But Peter warns that we shouldn’t presume on God’s patience. The “day of the Lord” is coming, Peter says, but it will come unexpectedly, like a thief.

When it comes, he says, everything will be made new. There will be “new heavens and a new earth.” In his poetic way, the author believed that like God brought judgment with water in the days of Noah, at the end of time God would use fire to destroy the created order to make room for God’s renewed creation.

For most of us, that doesn’t sound like something we can get all that excited about waiting for – the destruction of the universe by fire? But the important thing to remember is that this is happening to make room for something much better – the new heavens and the new earth where justice and righteousness and love will reign supreme.

Suppose you’re living in an old ramshackle house with bad wiring, bad plumbing, broken windows, leaky roof. Then suppose you get chosen by “Extreme Home Makeover” to get a new house. It might hurt a little to see your old house torn down, but think how excited you’ll be to see your brand new house!

That’s sort of like what Peter is trying to describe. It may feel scary to think about this old world passing away, but when it happens, whenever it happens, it’s because God is preparing something much, much better for us. God is making all things new. It’ll be a place where, as the Book of Revelation says, “mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Rev.21:4).

The main question, according to Peter, is what sort of persons ought we to be, right now, while we’re waiting for all this to happen? We ought to lead lives of “holiness and godliness,” Peter says (3:11). We should live right now, he says, as if all this has already happened and we’re living in God’s home of righteousness.

And that’s the most important question for us also. What kind of persons should we be while we’re waiting for God’s purposes to be worked out? If wee the end of things as scary, then we might be people who live constantly in fear.

But instead we should live right now as people of love, forgiveness, grace, justice, and righteousness, because that’s what God originally intended for us and that’s what God intends his Kingdom to be like.

In a way, Advent means living right now as if the end has already come and we’re living in God’s Kingdom. We live as if we really believe what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

As God’s will is done more and more in us here on earth, earth will seem more and more like heaven until that day when the new heaven and earth come in all their glory.

That’s what we’re waiting for. Amen.

Sermon: "The Hidden God"

2011-12-05T16:35:00.000-08:00

THE HIDDEN GOD
Isaiah 64:1-9
November 27, 2011
First Sunday of Advent

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways.

But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

The season of Advent is upon us so it might be good to take a moment to remember what Advent is about.

Advent means “coming.” In the church calendar, Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas when we prepare to celebrate the “coming” of Jesus Christ.

We are very familiar with Jesus coming at Christmas. His birth was announced by the angel Gabriel ahead of time to his mother Mary. His parents traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem where the birth took place, in fulfillment of the promises of Scripture. Angels and shepherds and wise men, all in their own way, took note of and celebrated this wondrous event.

The coming of Jesus into the world the first time changed history for all time and for all people.

Advent also looks forward to another coming of Christ – this one is in the future. We call it the “second coming” of Christ. We don’t know when it’s going to happen, and those who claim they do are claiming more knowledge than the angels and even Jesus Christ himself. As he said in today’s Gospel reading:

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32).

We may not know all the details about Christ’s return, but it is a core doctrine of our faith. As the Apostles’ Creed affirms:

“He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

And in our Communion liturgy we proclaim the “mystery of the faith:”

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Jesus’ instructions in preparation of his return are simple: Keep alert. Keep awake. Don’t let it catch you napping.

We might also say that Advent is a time of preparation for all those other times when Christ comes to us in those ordinary and grace-filled moments of life, in between his first Advent and his Second Coming. We need to be reminded often to be on the lookout for Christ’s presence in our lives, in the lives of others, and in this crazy, mixed-up world that so often seems bereft of God’s presence.

How often do we look at the world around us, read the newspaper, or watch the news on TV and wonder, “Where is God in the midst of all this trouble, all this suffering, all this upheaval?” If only God would make God’s presence known more clearly, more plainly, more unambiguously, then we would know that God is really there and that things are going to work out okay in the end.

If you’ve ever felt that way, then you can surely understand the feelings conveyed in today’s reading from Isaiah 64. The prophet cries out to God:

"O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!"

We may wonder sometimes why God doesn’t appear to us the same way that God appeared to the people of Israel in the days of the Old Testament, in burning bush, in fiery pillar, in quaking mountains, or in mighty rushes of wind. If God did that, we think, then everyone would know that there is a God and the world would have to get its act together pretty quickly.

That’s the same thing that Isaiah is hoping for. He wants God to interject himself into the world the way God used to.

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”

Isaiah is saying, “God, we haven’t heard from you for a while. You’ve been pretty quiet lately. It seems like you’re hiding from us. Why don’t you give us a little taste of what you used to do for Moses and Elijah and people like that, so we know you’re still there?”

Isaiah wants to feel the mountains quake and tremble. He wants to see God rain fire down from heaven to set the woods on fire and boil water, just to know that God’s still there.

I’m not sure this is what Isaiah was thinking about, but those words remind me of Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18). We got to see Mt. Carmel when we were in Israel. We docked for two nights at the Port of Haifa, and the city of Haifa is built on the northern slopes of Mt. Carmel. Our bus driver one day in Israel was a Christian who lived in a small religious community on Mt. Carmel.

Elijah set up a monumental challenge between Yahweh, the God of Israel, and King Ahab and his prophets of the Canaanite god Baal on Mt. Carmel.

Elijah was tired of Ahab and the people trying to worship other gods. He wanted to prove who was really in control once and for all. He had the Baal prophets set up an altar on Mt. Carmel and call on their god to send fire down from heaven and burn up their sacrifice.

They accepted Elijah’s challenge, built the altar, put a bull on it, and began to pray to their god. But nothing happened! They prayed all day long, but nothing. Finally, Elijah mocked them and their false god:

“Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he was wandered away; or he is on a journey; or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened” (1 Kings 18:27).

When they received no answer, Elijah set up his own altar out of stone and dug a trench around it. He put wood on it, laid another bull on top, and then ordered that enough water be poured on it all that the trench was filled with water. It was thoroughly soaked!

Then Elijah called on the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to make his presence known. The fire of God came down and consumed not only the bull, but also the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.

And the people were moved to exclaim, “Yahweh indeed is God!”

We may not ask for something quite so dramatic, but have you ever wished that God would not remain quite so “hidden” and show himself more plainly?

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!”

Don’t you wonder sometimes why God doesn’t hire a Madison Avenue public relations firm to mount a campaign to remind the world that God is still present and active among us?

Frederick Buechner treats this question in a sermon titled “Message in the Stars.” He begins the sermon by asking,

“If God really exists, why in heaven’s name does God not prove that he exists instead of leaving us here in our terrible uncertainty? Why does he not show his face so that at last, a despairing world can have hope?”

He continues …

“Suppose, for instance, that God were to take the great, dim river of the Milky Way as we see it from down here flowing across the night sky and were to brighten it up a little and then rearrange it so that all of a sudden one night the world would step outside and look up at the heavens and see not the usual haphazard scattering of stars but, written out in letters light years tall, the sentence: I REALLY EXIST, or GOD IS.”

He goes on to imagine writing a story or a play about such an event and how it might turn out. He supposes that the response to such an objective proof of God’s existence would be overwhelming at first. Churches would have to overflow into football stadiums and open fields. Wars would stop. Crime would stop.

As years went by, God would write the message in different languages, sometimes accompanying it with colored lights and celestial music, to convince even the most hardened skeptic.

But Buechner imagines the end of the story this way. A child would look up at the sky some night. If it were a movie, there would be a close-up of just the child’s eyes with the stars reflected in them. And then after reading the heavenly message, the child would turn to his father, or maybe even God himself, and ask, “So what if God exists? What difference does that make?”

And then the message would fade away, or maybe it would continue for centuries to come, but would no longer make any difference.

[“Message in the Stars” by Frederick Buechner, appears in The Magnificent Defeat]

We may think that’s the kind of proof we want of God’s existence, but do we really?

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at your presence!”

In the end, isn’t what we really want to know when we lie awake in the middle of the night, not “Does God really exist?” but instead, as Buechner says,

“…that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives who may not be writing messages about himself in the stars but who in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world. It is not objective proof of God’s existence that we want but … the experience of God’s presence. That is the miracle that we are really after. And that is also, I think, the miracle that we really get.”

Advent helps us remember that that is precisely the miracle the world received at Christmas – the miracle of God’s presence. “Emmanuel.” “God with us.”

God freely and graciously chose to leave behind the glory and majesty of heaven to enter into the “fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world” through the birth of his Son Jesus Christ.

There were miracles and mysteries aplenty that accompanied Christ’s first advent: the angel announcing to Mary that she would give birth to God’s own without the benefit of an earthly father; the heavenly host proclaiming Christ’s birth to the lowly shepherds; that it would all take place in an out of the way place like Bethlehem.

But God did not place a birth announcement in the stars, unless you want to count the one extraordinary star that guided the magi to Bethlehem, but even then, out of all the brilliant people in the world, only three wise men saw the star and heeded its message. Outside of his parents, a few relatives and friends, and some shepherds, no one even knew that the Son of God, the Messiah, had been born.

God chose to enter the world in the humblest, least ostentatious way imaginable – as a child born to a couple who had to use a feed trough for their baby’s first crib.

Martin Luther called this “Deus absconditus” or “the hidden God.” He noted that this is how God chose to enter the world through Jesus Christ: as a baby in a manger; as the son of a carpenter; as one ugly in appearance; and finally, as one who dies on a cross as a common criminal.

Advent reminds us that God still shows up in our world, but just not in the ways we would expect. God is often “hidden” except to those who have “eyes to see.”

God may not show up in a miraculous cure to my cancer, but instead in the “chemo” or the surgeon’s scalpel. God may not keep my loved one from dying, but God shows up in the caring and loving presence of friends who help me get through my grief. God may not write “I exist” in the stars, but every day, in a thousand different ways, God surrounds us with his loving presence, lifts the burdens of our cares and worries, forgives us of our sin, and shows us that he is here.

Isaiah at first thinks that he needs God to tear the heavens open and speak to him in the earthquake and the fire. But by the end of our passage he is content simply with the assurance that God is our Father; we are like clay in the hands of the master potter and God is molding us into what God wants us to be; and that we are all God’s people.

May that be all the “proof” we need of God’s existence this Advent season: God is our Father; we are God’s children; and God is with us. Amen.

Sermon: "The Indescribable Gift"

2011-12-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

THE INDESCRIBABLE GIFT
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
November 20, 2011
Sunday Before Thanksgiving

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written, “He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.”

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.

Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

What’s the best gift that you ever received? I know Christmas is just around the corner (just five weeks away!), so we’ll soon be thinking about the gifts we will be giving and receiving for Christmas, if we haven’t started shopping already. There are probably some of you that already have your Christmas shopping finished!

A boy received an electric guitar from his uncle for Christmas. When he first received it, he didn’t seem too impressed.

But a few weeks after Christmas he was full of enthusiasm. “Thanks for the electric guitar you gave me for Christmas,” he told his uncle. “It’s the best present I ever got!”

“That’s great,” said his uncle. “When I gave it to you, you didn’t seem all that excited. What made the difference? Did you learn how to play it?”

“Oh no,” replied the young man. “I didn’t learn how to play it, and that’s what makes it so great.”

“What do you mean?” the uncle asked.

The boy answered, “Well, my mom gives me $10 a week not to play it during the daytime and my dad gives me $10 a week not to play it at night!”

I would have to say that one of the best gifts I have ever received was the trip that Suzanne and I just went on to the Lands of the Bible. It was a gift in the sense that enough people went from our church that my way was paid as a tour host and then some very generous people in our church paid for Suzanne to go too and there was even a gift of some spending money to use on the trip.

That kind of generosity is humbling and overwhelming to me, and I look forward to the opportunity to share with you some of our experiences and photos from the trip in the days and weeks ahead. Maybe we can schedule a program on a Sunday morning in January, after the rush of the holidays is over.

A gift like that is one that just keeps on giving and giving. I hope it will pay dividends in my preaching and my teaching, as I can picture in my mind the places where Biblical giants like Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and, of course, Jesus Christ, walked while they were on earth.

In this passage from 2 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul is talking about the kind of gift that makes a real difference, that keeps on giving, to both the giver and the recipient.

He’s talking specifically about an offering that the church in Corinth has been collecting for the poor Christians in Jerusalem. As Paul traveled from place to place, one of the things he’d promised the church in Jerusalem and Judea that he’d do was to receive an offering to relieve their suffering from famine and persecution.

Paul had been surprised that sometimes the believers who had the least in terms of material possessions were the ones who gave the most generously to help their Christian brothers and sisters back at the “Mother Church” in Jerusalem. This was especially true of the churches in Macedonia who, Paul says in chapter 8, “during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity … they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means…” (2 Cor. 8:2-3).

Paul is now urging the Corinthian Christians, who have much more in terms of material blessings than the poor Macedonians, to follow their example and give generously to this offering.

He urges them to be generous in their giving in today’s reading, and he gives them several reasons why generosity is a virtue.

First of all, he says “the more we give the more we receive.” We don’t give because we’re hoping to receive something in return, but in God’s economy, that’s just how things work. If we sow sparingly, we reap sparingly, Paul says. But the more seed we throw out there, the bigger the harvest.

Generous people live life large. They love to give. And it just seems to come back to them, in all kinds of ways.

Second, he says that there’s something about a cheerful giver that God loves. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love people who give with a frown on their face, but God especially loves cheerful givers because that’s how God gives – cheerfully, gladly, generously. And in all things we should try to follow God’s example.

Next, Paul reminds the Corinthians and us that we’re only giving away what God gave us in the first place. It’s God who provides us “with every blessing in abundance” so that we may share generously with others.

God gives it to us so we can share it with others. The more we receive the more we have to give; and the more we give, the more we receive. That’s just how God arranges things. God doesn’t usually drop what we need down on us out of heaven. God gives it to people so people can give it to other people.

That’s what Moses reminds the people of in the reading from Deuteronomy. He tells them that when they get to the Promised Land, a blessed land, a land where they will lack for nothing – they opposite of what they’d experienced while wandering in the desert for 40 years – that they shouldn’t forget where it all came from: God.

He tells them, “Don’t say to yourself, ‘Mt power and the might of my own had have gotten me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he that gives you the power to get wealth…”

God is the one who gives us our minds, our bodies, our initiative to work and earn money and provide for ourselves and our families. And God wants us to use those gifts to help others. That’s how God helps others – through us.

Then, Paul reminds us that our generosity is a way of glorifying God and helping others see what a loving, generous God we serve.

He says that our “generosity will produce thanksgiving to God through us” (vs. 11). The people who receive our gifts may be moved to thank us, but they will thank God even more, when they know that our gifts come from God.

He says that our gifts will “overflow with many thanksgivings to God” (vs. 12). In other words, we can witness to our faith not just with our words and our actions, but we can witness through our generosity. When we give to the Christmas offering next month, or to the Shoe Drive in August, or to any of the other special offerings we receive throughout the year, our gifts should move those who receive them to give thanks to God.

Paul says that we “glorify God … by [our] sharing … with others” (vs. 13). Generous sharing should never be a way of drawing attention to ourselves or putting ourselves in the spotlight – it should always be a way of giving glory to the God who gave us all these gifts to share in the first place.

Finally, Paul says, we can be generous givers and give thanks to God because we have received the very best gift of all, the gift that Paul calls God’s “indescribable gift” – the gift of Jesus Christ himself.

During this week of Thanksgiving, as we pause to give thanks for all of God’s wonderful blessings, including families, homes, food, health, let’s not forget to say thank you to God for the biggest and best gift of all, the gift of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.

Having just been to the Holy Land, and seeing the places where Jesus taught along the shores of the Sea of Galilee; where he fed 5,000 people on five loaves of bread and two fish; where he walked on water and calmed the storms; where he healed Peter’s mother-in-law and called his first disciples and did some of his first teaching.

And then walking the streets of Jerusalem, and seeing where he shared the Last Supper with his disciples; where prayed in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and asked the Father to “Let this cup pass from me”; where he was put on trial before the High Priest and the Roman officials; where he carried the terrible weight of the cross along the “Via Dolorosa,” the “Way of Suffering.”

And then to go to Calvary to see where he died on the cross, but also to see the tomb where he was buried, but where three days later he was raised from the dead by God’s mighty power and love.

All of those places and all of those scenes just serve to remind me once more, and all who see them, of the “indescribable gift” of love and mercy and grace that we have received from God in his Son Jesus Christ.

When you truly think about what Jesus did for us, the sacrifice he made; the suffering he endured, the victory he won on Easter morning – there’s no way we can put it all into words. It really is indescribable, as Paul says.

But we don’t have to be able to describe it to believe in it, to trust it, to stake our lives on it, and also to be thankful for it and to seek to find ways to share this indescribable gift of love with others.

All the books ever written, all the prayers ever prayed, all the sermons ever preached, all the hymns and songs ever composed cannot adequately express or describe the gift of grace God has given us in Jesus Christ. But that’s okay.

As the very last verse of the Gospel of John says, “There are [so] many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

We don’t have to be able to describe it. We should just be thankful for it, and then generously share of this gift with others.

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.” Amen.

Sermon: "Give Glory to Your Father in Heaven"

2011-11-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

STEWARDSHIP SERIES: LIGHT THE WORLD
“Give Glory to Your Father in Heaven”
Fourth in the Series)
Matthew 5:14-16
October 30, 2011

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Review of the last 3 Sundays:
You are the light of the world…
Let your light shine before others…
That they may see your good works…

Today: “…and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Jesus calls us “the light of the world.”
What an awesome privilege and responsibility.
To be bearers of the light of Christ.

He tells us to “let our light shine.”
The world needs the light of Christ we have to share.
The world notices when we do and when we don’t.

Letting our light shine means we do “good works” for others – we share the love of God with them.

Then in this last part it all comes back to God.
We let our light shine and do good works so that those who see that light and receive those good works give glory to whom?
To us? To First Church? To Pastor Don?
No!
So they give the glory to God, to our heavenly Father.

This word “glory” is interesting.
It appears literally hundreds of times in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, the word most often used for “glory” is the Hebrew word kabod. Kabod means weight or importance. Not “weight” in the sense that something weighs five pounds, but the way we use the world “weighty.” If something is weighty it’s important.

So the glory of something has to do with its weight or importance.

Sometimes the Old Testament talks about a person/human’s glory. It might mean their riches, power, reputation, spirit.

For example, Proverbs 20:29 – “The glory of young men is their strength.”

Most often, glory is used in relation to God.
“the glory of the Lord”
“give glory to the Lord”

It has to do with God’s “weight” or “importance.”

In the New Testament, the word used most often for “glory” is the Greek word doxa.

Doxa means praise, glory, splendor, majesty. It’s where we get our word “doxology.” A Doxology is words that glorify or praise God.

There’s the glory of God, the glory of Jesus Christ. It means greatness, importance.

To “give glory” means to praise; to acknowledge the greatness, the majesty of God or Jesus.

We may use “glory” to refer to lots of things:
We talk about the “glory” of a sunset.
The “glory days” of the Dallas Cowboys.

But in the Bible, glory is used almost exclusively of God, of Jesus.
So the word glory turns our attention to God.

It reminds us that in the end, everything comes from God and everything goes back to God.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” Light comes from him, not us. We reflect the light.

We let our light shine in good works – in acts that make the love of God real to others.

And we do that to give the credit, the praise, the glory back to God.
We let our light shine, we let others see our good works, so that the glory may go to God, not to us.

I studied the Protestant Reformation in seminary and graduate school. I was fascinated by Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. We sang “A Mighty Fortress” this morning in honor of Reformation Day, which is tomorrow. October 31 is not just Halloween or All Hallows Eve, it was the day in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the chapel door in Wittenberg, Germany and gave a symbolic beginning to the Protestant Reformation.

John Calvin was one of the Protestant reformers and the father of Reformed theology (Presbyterians).

The Presbyterians used to memorize the Westminster Catechism as a way of teaching the faith. Maybe they still do.

The first question of the Westminster Catechism is:

What is the chief end of man [people]?

In other words, why were we put here on earth? What is our purpose? What is the ultimate meaning of our life?

The answer, according to the Westminster Catechism:

“The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

Think about that for a moment.

Think about the ultimate meaning and purpose of your life as glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.

My interpretation of that phrase would be: The purpose of my life is to enjoy such a close and intimate relationship with God that everything I do, everything I say, everything I think points people back to God.

In other words, we were put here on earth not mainly for our own benefit, but for God’s glory.

It comes down to this: We are called to glorify God in our Living and our Giving.

How do we glorify God in our living?

Again, think of the meaning of the word “glory.”

In Hebrew (kabod), it means weight or importance.

In Greek (doxa), it means praise.

When we glorify God in our living, we give God the weight or importance he deserves.

When we glorify God in our living, we live life in such a way that our lives praise God.

In every aspect of our lives, we have the opportunity to give glory to God.

If you’re a student: Study hard; be honest; help others; do your best.

If you’re a parent: Acknowledge your children as a gift from God. Raise your children with godly values; teach them to love God.

At work: Do your work with honesty and integrity. Work hard. Run your business according to Christian values.

If you’re married: Recognize your partner as a gift from God. Love them, forgive them, respect them, care for them, and help them to grow as persons.

In all your other relationships: Love your neighbor as yourself.

In your spiritual life:
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Give God the weight, the importance he deserves.
We glorify God through prayer, worship, and Bible study.

In every major decision, or turning point, or transition we come to in life, we have the chance to honor and praise God – to glorify him.

But also in the minor moments – the books we read, the movies we watch, the words we speak – we can choose God-honoring and glorifying options.

There’s scarcely any moment in our living when we can’t glorify God.

We can also glorify God in our Giving.

Giving, of course, is part of living.

But I separate it out today simply to invite each one of us to think about the question: Does my giving bring honor and glory to God?
Does what I give for God’s work express the weight or importance I attach to my relationship with God?

Does it give voice to the praise I feel in my heart for all that God has done for me?

Giving is just one way we glorify God in our lives, but it’s an important way.

Jesus had a lot to say about money because he knew that wealth, possessions were the main competition for most people with God.
“No one can serve both God and money.”
“Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.”

There are lots of motives for giving – guilt, legalism, to get something back.

But the best motive is simply to glorify God – to give God credit and thanks for all we have received. To always point the praise away from self and toward God.

Just the act of giving glorifies God when it expresses our relationship with him – how much we love him and how important God is to us.

But our gifts also glorify God in their effects:
When our gifts…
Feed a hungry child
Teach someone about the love of Jesus
Allow worship to happen
Help a teenager in crisis
Enable a visit to a senior citizen in a nursing home…
Then God is glorified over and and over.

The size of the gift, the dollar amount doesn’t matter, because some of us can give more than others. But if we’re doing our very best; if our giving gives glory and honor and praise to God, then that’s what’s important. We may not be yet where we want to be in our giving – but just keep trying and just keep growing.

Jesus has told us: We are light for the world.
Jesus has told us: Let your light shine before others.
Jesus has told us: Let people see your good works so they can give glory to God.

The two questions we all need to ask ourselves this morning are these:
In my living, am I giving glory to God?
In my giving, is God truly glorified?

Amen.

Sermon: "That They May See Your Good Works"

2011-10-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

STEWARDSHIP SERIES: LIGHT THE WORLD
“That They May See Your Good Works”
(Third in the Series)
Matthew 5:14-16
October 23, 2011

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

A plane carrying three people crashed on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. All three survived, so the first person began immediately to try to figure out how they could be rescued. He built a signal fire, but no one saw it.

The second person tried her satellite cell phone, but that didn’t work. The first two, panicked, looked at the third person, who just sat there calmly. “Aren’t you going to do something to help us get rescued?” they asked.

The third person replied, “I’m not worried. I make $250,000 a year.” The other two said, “What good will that do us?” The third man said, “I make $250,000 a year and I tithe. My pastor will find me.”

Next Sunday is Commitment Sunday. We’re all invited to return our commitment cards in worship. [Hold up card]

We do it to “Light the World” for others to know God’s love in Jesus. That’s what we’ve been talking about in this series – “lighting the world.” My hope is that all of us come to see stewardship not so much as giving to line items in a budget, although we do have a budget to meet. My hope is that we see giving more and more as a spiritual discipline – as a way of expressing our thanks to God for all of God’s wonderful gifts: our homes, our families, our food, our church, our friends, and most of all, our faith in God’s Son Jesus Christ.

We’ve been following Matt. 5:14-16…
You are the light of the world.
Jesus is the source of the light. We are the reflection.
Let your light shine.
It's Natural. It's Needed. It's Noticed.

Today: “So that they may see your good works…”
We’re going from the symbolic to the practical. You are the light. Let your light shine. So that others may see your good works.

Good works are where our faith “gets real.” They are a way we let our light shine.
This is where we live what we believe.

You’ve probably heard the saying: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

It’s also true: “People don’t care how much you believe until they believe how much you care.

Good works are where we show others how much we care.

It’s not because of what good people we are.
It’s not because we want to get noticed and have people say nice things about us and get our picture in the paper.
It’s not because we believe that’s how we get to heaven.

No, we do good works because when Jesus saves us he lights a light in us and when that light shines it becomes acts of love and service for others.

We are not saved by good works.

Paul makes that clear in Ephesians 2:8-9…

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”

But we are saved for good works. Ephesians 2:10 says…

“For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

We were made to do good works. They are supposed to be our “way of life.”

So again, like letting our light shine, we do good works because they’re natural.

We don’t need special ability, training, talent. We just let them happen out of who we are.

Let me focus on two ways we do good works.

1) We can do good works ourselves.

These are the “hands on” good works.
It’s important that each one of us be personally involved in doing good works.
When I was a Boy Scout we were supposed to “Do a good deed daily.”

Should Christians do any less?

You may ask yourself, What kind of good works can I do?
We should let them flow naturally out of the gifts the HS has given us. Let them come from who we are.

The Holy Spirit gives every believer at least one spiritual gift, sometimes more (but never all), to be used to minister to others and to build up the Body of Christ.
God not only created you for good works, he gave you the gifts you need to do them.

Spiritual Gifts are the subject of a whole other sermon, but let me talk briefly.
There are different kinds of gifts, but all are needed. There are different lists of spiritual gifts given in Paul’s letters.

Some gifts are…
Gifts that communicate God’s Word…
Like Evangelism and missions

Gifts that educate God’s people…
Like Teaching and Encouragement (bringing out the best
in others)

Gifts that demonstrate God’s love…
Service (meet unmet needs)
Mercy (empathy)
Hospitality (welcome)
Pastoring/Shepherding (care for spiritual needs; small
groups)
Giving (generosity)

Let me share a few examples of the good works I know that some of you do…
Visiting nursing homes
Reading to and mentoring children at schools
“Prison” ministry at Gainesville State School
Shoe Drive
Giving blood
Mission trips
VISTO
Second Time Around
Meals on Wheels and DASH
Abigail’s Arms
Habitat for Humanity
SEEK Camp
Preparing and serving food for funerals and sick

The list could go on and on.
Each one of us is called to let our light shine by personally doing good works.
We’ll each do it differently, depending on our gifts, our time, our passions, but each one of us needs to find at least one way to do “good works” in a hands-on way.

But that’s not the only way.

2) We can also help make good works happen.

It’s very important that we take the time to do good works.

But the good works we can personally do are limited by our time, talents, gifts, opportunities.

For example, at Rotary Club the other day we received information about a trip to Haiti in February to work with a vision team at a place called “Mission of Hope” giving eye exams and eyeglasses to children. That’s something I would very much like to do. But the timing of this particular trip is just not good for me. It wouldn’t be a good time for me to be away from the church.

But here’s where giving comes in.
Through our giving, we can make good works happen in lots more ways. I may not be able to go to Haiti, but I could make a financial gift to help someone else go or to help pay for the mission.

Think of the gifts you give to the church as a way of making good works happen through others.
Your gift may not be teaching, but the money you give helps
someone else teach.
Your gift may not be music, but your gift helps the choir.
Your gift not be missions, but your gift funds a missionary.
You see how it works.

Your gifts make good works happen at hospitals, churches, schools, community centers, food pantries, mission stations, disaster sites, children’s homes, and many other places where God’s love’s at work that we will probably never see in person.
But we help make those good works happen through others.

Let me speak very practically.

This week, as you pray about and talk about your commitment for next year…

I know the economy is not the best.

Those who are hurting, I know you will do the best you can.

But think about how far First UMC has come in the past few years.
We have finished and almost paid for a $1 million project restoring the outside of our sanctuary.
Just six years ago the Education Building was completely re-done.
We have brought Daniel on full-time as our music director and look how the music ministry has grown.
The youth are learning and growing in their faith and they are involved in missions locally and in other states through Shawna’s leadership.
Patsy and parents have the children involved in COW, Wonderful Wednesdays in the summer, Fall Festival, Vacation Bible School.
The Learning Tree has been the best preschool in town for over 20 years.
Second Time Around has bought and paid for its own building and continues to support missions.

But we can’t move ahead as we’d like if resources stay the same.
We don’t want to just hold our own.
We want to start new ministries, provide new opportunities, reach new people.
Our proposed budget for next year has a very modest increase – only about 1%.

But for those who can, let me challenge you to step up toward tithing. Not as a way of raising money for the church, but as a way of growing in your own spiritual discipline of giving and of lighting the world for others.
(If you do tithe, you know you can never get lost! I will find you!)

I would challenge everyone who can, to increase your giving. Step up 1% this year. If you give 3% now, step up to 4%. Yes, it may require a sacrifice. We may have to give up something we really want. But it will be worth it, because we are making an eternal difference for Jesus Christ.

Think of your gifts as a way to increase your ability to do good works.

As we do good works for others, our gifts make good works happen through others.

“Let your light shine before others , so that they may see your good works.” Amen.

Sermon: "Let Your Light Shine"

2011-10-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

STEWARDSHIP SERIES: LIGHT THE WORLD
“Let Your Light Shine”
(Second in the Series)
Matthew 5:14-16
October 16, 2011

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

We are continuing our “Light the World” theme for stewardship. I hope we understand that stewardship means more than just money.
It’s what we do with all the gifts God has given us.

We are using this reading from Matthew as our theme, taking it a phrase at a time. Today we explore: “Let your light shine.”

In a way, “light” stands for all the ways God has blessed us and all the ways we are called to bless others.

God did a wonderful thing when he sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Light of World. God could have left us in darkness. But instead, God chose to give us light.

Light is a gift from God. Christ is our light. Light is everything good, positive, hopeful, joyful, liberating, life-affirming, that we experience in life. It all comes from God.

Like every gift from God, we have to decide what we will do with it. Jesus is saying here in our passage, with light there’s only one thing you can do with it – Let it shine! You are the light of the world!

I hope we already do that. But if you have any questions, let me answer by making 2 important points:

1) Why we should let our light shine.
2) Ways we let our light shine.

There are three reasons to “Let Your Light Shine”: It’s natural; it’s needed; and it’s noticed.

1) Let your light shine because it’s natural.

It’s natural for…fire to burn…for wind to blow… and for light to shine.

Imagine telling a fire not to burn. Imagine telling the wind not to blow. It’s impossible.

It’s just as impossible to tell light not to shine – that’s just what light does, it shines. It’s natural.

Jesus tells us we are the light of the world. He doesn’t say, “You could be the light of the world,” or “You will be the light of the world.”

He says, “You are the light of the world.”

So if we are light for the world, then it’s our nature to shine.

In fact, Jesus says, it takes a special effort not to shine. He says it would be like trying to hide a city built on a hill or like lighting a lamp in your house and then putting it under a bushel basket.

Hiding a whole city would be physically impossible. I’ve seen David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear on TV, but not a whole city.

And putting a lamp under a basket is just plain silly. Why would anyone go to the trouble of lighting a lamp and then covering it up?

So Jesus is saying that letting the wonderful light of God shine in and through us should be just as natural as breathing.

The trouble is, we don’t always think of it as natural. We think it takes special training or effort or ability.
We think, “That person is a shining light for God, but I could never do that.”

But you can. It doesn’t take any special effort. Just let the wonderful things that God has done for you shine through in your life. It’s as natural as anything.

2) Let your light shine because it’s needed.

It should become second nature to us to let Christ’s light shine through us.

But we should also let our light shine because the world really needs it.

There’s a reason Jesus told us that we are the light of the world: the world is a dark place by itself and it needs the light we can give.

Have you noticed how many “infomercials” there are on TV, especially on weekends? Sometimes it seems like there are more infomercials than regular programs.

They sell exercise machines, steam mops, acne treatments, spray-on hair, and all kinds of other “essential” items.

I guess Ron Popeil (of Ronco fame) was the king of infomercials.
He cut his teeth by selling such items on TV as the Veg-O-Matic (It slices! It dices!) and the Pocket Fisherman, a fishing rod and reel that fold up and fit in your pocket (because you never know when you might be in an emergency situation and have to catch a largemouth bass). His biggest seller was probably the Showtime Rotisserie oven.

Pitchmen like Popeil and the late Billy Mays and other infomercial artists have become multi-millionaires by convincing us that we absolutely can’t live without things like the “Sham-Wow,” the Snuggie, or the Shake Weight.

I’m not sure the world needs something called the “Abdomenizer,” but I am sure the world really does need the light of Christ.

I hardly need to remind us of all the darkness in the world: drugs, violence, terrorism, war, racism, hatred, etc.

Darkness is everywhere and the only thing that can defeat it is the light of Christ.

But how can Christ’s light shine unless we let it?

We have something that the world cannot live without – the light and love of God in Jesus Christ.

If we had a cure for cancer, would we keep it secret? Of course not.

We know the cure for an even more deadly disease – the darkness of sin. That cure is the light of Christ – and it’s up to us to let that light shine.

The world really needs the light we have to offer.

3) Let your light shine because it’s noticed.

Let your light shine because it’s natural; let your light shine because it’s needed; and let your light shine because it’s noticed.

Debate arises from time to time about who’s a role model. Is an athlete a role model? An actor? A rock star?

Charles Barkley, a former NBA star, once said he didn’t want to be a role model, and he probably shouldn’t be, especially for aspiring golfers!

A national survey of children ages 10-13 said they had no role model.

But the truth is, every adult is a role model, whether you want to be or not. Some are good, some not so good.

Someone is watching you all the time, noticing your example.

The truth is, everyone who takes the name of “Christian” is a role model. People are watching you to see if what you say you stand for is what you do.

People notice if you let your light shine or not.

Children especially let us know when they notice if we’re letting our light shine or hiding it under a basket.

A Sunday School teacher was taking her class into the sanctuary for worship. “Why should we be quiet in church?” she asked. The children answered, “Because some people are sleeping.” Kids notice these things.

People notice when you don’t let your light shine. But they also notice when you do.

When you show compassion to someone who’s hurting, they notice.

When you offer to pray for someone in need, they notice.

When you give up a Saturday to help kids, they notice.

When you take food to someone who’s lost a loved one, they notice.
When you say grace before a meal, even in a restaurant, they notice.

And most of all, God notices.

We don’t let our light shine to make people notice, to draw attention to ourselves or to let people know how spiritual we are. Jesus warned about that in Matt. 6 – practicing our piety in order to be seen, like the “hypocrites.”

We just let it shine because it’s natural and it’s needed. But people do notice. And it makes a positive difference.

I want to close by mentioning three ways we let our light shine.
These are probably obvious, but sometimes we need to be reminded of the obvious – that’s how preachers make their living.

We let our light shine through our words.
Every time we speak we have the opportunity to build up or to tear down.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” sounds good, but we know it’s not true. Words can hurt. But they can also heal.

I’ve heard church people say terribly hurtful things to each other.

I’ve also heard them be kind, consoling, and encouraging.

We have to be aware that people are taking notice of what we say as Christians. Do our words shed light and love?

We let our light shine through our actions.
It’s true that our actions often speak even louder than our words.

Each time we reach out to help someone in need; each time we pray; each time we attend worship; each time we read the Bible; each time we show love – we are letting the light of Christ shine through.

I’m not intending to hit the giving aspect too heavily, at least not today. But our giving has the opportunity to let our light shine as well.

Money translated into ministry can touch children, youth, adults, near and far, with the love of Jesus Christ. Our gifts can travel to places we will never go in person. [Kiva]

The question we want to ask ourselves is – Am I letting my light shine through my giving and all my actions?

We let our light shine through our witness.
It’s important that our words and actions square up with what we believe. But sometimes we must go beyond just our example to tell others specifically about what God or Jesus mean to us.

That’s what I mean by witness.

Our daily life has to be a good witness, but that’s not always enough.

We may have the chance to tell someone that God loves them, to pray with them, to talk to them about forgiveness and grace, to discuss salvation, to invite them to receive Christ as Savior. There’s no greater way to let our light shine than that. We always need to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in us.

It’s important that we let our light shine because…
1) It’s natural.
2) It’s needed.
3) It’s noticed.

And we let our light shine through our words, our actions, and our witness. This week, let’s let our light shine!

Sermon: "You Are the Light"

2011-10-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

STEWARDSHIP SERIES: LIGHT THE WORLD
“You Are the Light”
(First in the Series)
Matthew 5:14-16
October 9, 2011

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

A missionary, home on leave, was shopping for a globe to take back to her mission station. The clerk showed her a reasonably-priced globe, and another one with a light bulb inside. “This is nicer,” the clerk said, “but, of course, a lighted world costs more.”

A lighted world costs more.

The question we want to try to answer today is: What does it cost to light the world?

Our Stewardship Theme this year is “Light the World.” Our theme verse is Matt. 5:14-16. We will be spending the next four weeks studying those three verses. I hope you don’t get tired of hearing them. Maybe you’ll have them memorized by then.

I want to take the time to unpack them completely, piece by piece:
1) You are the light of the world (Today)
2) Let your light shine before others
3) That they may see your good works
4) And give glory to your Father in heaven

We might summarize those four themes with four “G” words:
1) You are the light – Glow
2) Let your light shine – Go
3) That they may see your good works – Give
4) And give glory to your Father in heaven – Glorify

Today we think about the meaning of Jesus’ words – “You are the light of the world.”

I’d like to ask three questions about this verse:
1) Who is the light?
2) What kind of light are we supposed to be?
3) What will it cost us?

1) Who is the light?
The answer seems obvious: “You are the light of the world.” It’s the people Jesus was talking to at the Sermon on the Mount – the disciples, the crowds, the ones addressed in the Beatitudes – the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, etc.

By extension, Jesus means us too – We are the light of the world.

But if you remember much about what Jesus said, you might recall his words from another gospel – John 8:12…

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

And in John 9:5…

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

So which is it? Are we the light of the world or is Jesus the light of the world?

The answer is, We both are. Jesus is the light of the world and we are the light of the world.

We might think of it this way:
Jesus is the light of the world.
We are the light of the earth.
The Greek word the New Testament uses is the same for both, “cosmos,” which means “world.” That’s where we get words like “cosmopolitan.”

I am the light of the cosmos. You are the light of the cosmos. But Jesus and we are light in different ways.

Jesus is the source of the light. We are a reflection of the light he gives. Look at John 1 (Prologue):
“In the beginning was the Word…”

John is talking about the eternal Christ. Jesus is the Word.

“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:3-4)

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9)

John is saying that Jesus is the source of light from the very beginning.

John of Revelation testifies that Jesus, the Lamb, will also be the light at the end of time. Talking about the new Jerusalem that will “come down from heaven” at the end of time, he says...

“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Rev. 21:23)

So Jesus is the eternal source of light in a way that we can never be.

But Jesus gives us a clue about the way we are the light in John 9:5. Jesus said …

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

When Jesus was in the world as a man, he was the light. But when he was crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven, he gave us the task and the responsibility of being the light of the earth.

We can’t be the source of light for the whole universe the way Jesus is, but we are called to be the light of the earth, in the same way we are called to be the “Body of Christ” in the world. The church, the body of believers, is to be the physical presence of Christ in the world, his hands, his feet, his light – now that Jesus is present spiritually.

We are called not to be the source of the light, but its reflection in the world.

Robert Fulghum, the author of “Everything I Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten,” wrote about a teacher he met in Greece named Alexander Papaderos:

On the island of Crete, next to the mass graves of Germans and Cretans who fought each other so bitterly in World War II, Papaderos founded an institute for peace which has a become source of bridge-building between the two countries.

At the end of a lecture, when Papderos asked, “Are there any questions?”, Fulghum piped up, with all seriousness, “What is the meaning of life?” To his surprise, Papaderos said, “I will answer.” He reached into his hip pocket and fished out of a leather billfold a small round mirror about the size of a quarter and said …

“When I was a child during the war, we were poor and lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.

“I kept the largest piece. By scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy. I became fascinated that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine – in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.

“I kept the little mirror. As I grew up, I would take it out and continue the game. As I became older, I understood it as a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of the light. But light—truth, understanding, knowledge, is there, and it will shine in many dark places only if I reflect it.

“I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have, I can reflect light into the dark places of the world -- and change some things. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. That is what I am about. That is the meaning of my life.” [From It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It.]

So, who is the light of the world?

The truth is, Jesus is and we are, each in our own unique ways, Jesus as the source, and we as the reflection.

If we are the light of the world, the next question arises…

2) What kind of light are we supposed to be?

I’ve already said we are reflections of the light of Jesus. But Jesus gives us a couple of images, word pictures, to give us a better idea of the kind of light he wants us to be:

First, he compares us to a city built on a hill…

“A city built on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matt. 5:14)

The image is of a city lit up at night.

In Jesus’ day, the lights would not have been as bright, but you can imagine a place like Jerusalem, a city built on a hill, lit up with lamps and lanterns and torches. It would be visible for miles.

Picture a modern city at night. The lights are so bright they are even visible from space.

The second image he compares us to is a lamp placed on a lampstand…

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (Matt. 5:15)

From those two images – a lighted city at night on a hill and a glowing lamp on a stand in someone’s home – I get the picture that Jesus is telling us that we are meant to be a beacon to a world walking in darkness, and we are meant to be a flashlight to those we live and work with every day.

In other words, we are to let our light shine to the whole world and we are to let it shine right close to home.

We are to stand out. We are to make a difference.

If you were lost, wandering in the darkness, and all of a sudden you saw the glow of a hilltop city in the distance, wouldn’t that make you feel safe?

Or if you’re at home, stumbling down the hall in the dark, trying to find the bathroom, doesn’t it help if someone turns on a light?

Jesus is telling us that we have a job to do. We are to light the world. We can be a beacon of hope to people living thousands of miles away and we can be a light of comfort and security to the people right here in our community.

Jesus has given us the light. We have to go out of our way to hide it, like putting the lamp under the basket.
But we don’t want to do that. We want to let our light shine.

The last question takes us to the “bottom line”…

3) What will it cost us?

A lighted world does cost more, not just when it comes to globes, but when it comes to us being the light of the world.

It cost Jesus something.

It cost him leaving heaven and coming to earth in the form of a servant.

It cost the pain, suffering, and humiliation of death on a cross.

But he knew it was worth it because he could not leave the world lost in darkness.

We should suspect it will cost us something too.

We are called to Light the Way.

And when we catch a glimpse of the difference it can make in the lives of others, near and far, we’ll know it’s worth it too.

Let me list four things it will cost us to be the light of the world.

First, it will cost us Prayer. One of the most important ways we can light the world is through prayer. Prayers make a difference. Prayers cause things to happen. We need to be faithful in prayer.

Second, it will cost us Time. We can be light to the world by taking time to…
Read to a child…
Mentor a teenager…
Visit a senior

It takes time for worship, study, fellowship, service. It takes time to share what Jesus means to you with others.

Third, it will cost us Money. You knew I couldn’t get through stewardship sermon without talking about money. It takes money to fund the ministries of the church. To buy the literature, pay the utilities, provide insurance, fund the worship services, get our name out in front of the community, to take care of the buildings.

Not everything costs money, but we are fooling ourselves if we think we can really shine for free.

Fourth, it will cost us Love. This is the best way we can be light –through loving others. There are lots of people searching for love. They want to know – does God love me? Does FUMC love me? Let your light shine through your love.

You are the light of the world. Let’s go out and share the light and be the light. Amen.

Sermon: "Wise Words for a Winning Church"

2011-10-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

Philippians 3:10-14
October 2, 2011
World Communion Sunday/16th Sunday After Pentecost

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

I have a lot of sympathy for football coaches. The church we served in Dallas a few years ago was right across the street from the neighborhood high school – W.T. White, home of the Longhorns, where our son Austin attended and graduated.

The Longhorns, like most DISD high schools, except maybe Carter and Skyline, never had a lot of success on the gridiron. They did graduate a player named Jason Smith in 2005 who went on to a standout college career at Baylor as an offensive tackle and then was drafted #2 overall in the 2009 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams.

Mike Zoffutto was the head football coach at White. He had started a tradition that the afternoon before every home game he would bring the team over to our church for a little chapel service and motivational talk.

Different pastors would take turns leading the service. It was my turn one year before the W.T. White – Thomas Jefferson (T.J.) game. I did my best to motivate, to inspire, to arouse the team to give their very best effort and go out and trounce those T.J. Patriots. I was certain I had chosen just the right words and delivered them in such a way that they would go out and win. Unfortunately, they didn’t.

So even though I might not have made such a great football coach myself, there are certain things that pastors and coaches have in common:
• We both try to motivate and inspire our team/congregation.
• We both try to help our team/congregation give their best effort.
• We both try to achieve “winning” results.
• We both can get blamed (and even fired!) when those results are not achieved.

The Apostle Paul was sort of a coach for his churches. He wanted them all to succeed in their mission.

Philippi would have been considered a “winning” church. It was the first church Paul founded on European soil and was always one of his favorites. Paul uses his own experience to encourage a winning attitude in the Philippians.

My hope and dream as your pastor is to help FUMC be a “winning” church. Winning means fulfilling our purpose, our mission; being all that God wants us to be; reaching our potential as a community of faith and as part of the body of Christ.

Paul offers wise words in Phil. 3 for becoming “winning” church…

...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
(Phil. 3:12-14)

We can draw three important lessons from this passage if we want to be a “winning” church:

1) Learn from the past, but don’t live in the past.

Paul says in vs. 13…
“…forgetting what lies behind…”

Any good coach will tell their team if they want to be winners not to dwell on the past, whether you win or lose.

If you lose, you learn from your mistakes, but don’t get down on yourself. If you win, learn from your successes, but don’t get overconfident. Some teams have a “24-hour” rule. They give themselves 24 hours to celebrate a victory or mourn a defeat, but then they have to get ready for the next game.

These are also wise words for a church looking to develop a winning attitude.

Every church as old as ours (almost 160 years old) has its ups and downs. It as its successes and its failures. There are years when the church is flourishing and growing. And there are years when the church may struggle just to keep its doors open.

The important thing is that we learn from the past; we heed its lessons; but we don’t live back then. Some of the most deadly words for a church are: “We tried that 10 [20, 30, 40] years ago and it didn’t work.” Maybe it was just a bad idea. Or maybe it was a good idea whose time just hadn’t come.

2) Move forward or you’ll fall back.

Paul goes on to say…
“…straining forward to what lies ahead…” (Phil. 3:13)

A winning team always believes its best days lie ahead of them in the future, not behind them in the past.

They always have a goal, a vision that they’re working toward. If they lost every game the season before, then their goal is to win one game. If they just went through a losing season, then their goal is be at least one game over .500. If they won district the year before, well this year they’ll win state.

They’re always trying to improve. If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling back. If you’re not growing, you’re declining, whether you’re a football team or a church.

I believe that God has a special future in store for us as a church.

The words of the prophet Jeremiah were written just for us…
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jer. 29:11)

Our job is to strain forward to grasp the special future God has planned for us – a future filled with hope and promise. The minute we begin to believe that as a church our best days are behind us, we’re in trouble.

3) Keep your eyes on the prize.

Paul says in vs. 14…
“…I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:14)

Coaches know it’s easier to motivate a team by focusing on their ultimate goal.

The slogan for Olympic athletes is “Go for the Gold,” not “Go for the 7 days a week, 5:30 in the morning practice.”

Two-a-days in the 100 degree heat of August are easier when you focus on getting to the state championship game in December.

Being a winning church is hard work. It requires our very best efforts. It takes more money, more time, more work, more invitations, more service, and more prayer than we might like to give.

Gone are the days when we could just put up a sign, open our doors, and the people flood in.

We have to offer something so life-transforming that we can’t wait to tell others about it and they can’t wait to get here and experience it for themselves.

Adam Hamilton, pastor of the one of the fastest-growing churches in United Methodism says, “The successful church will do the things an unsuccessful church is unwilling to do.”

That means going the extra mile, going out of our way to be friendly and welcoming, reaching out to the people that everyone else ignores or forgets.

But it’s all worth it when we keep our eyes on the prize; focus on our goal, our prize, as Paul says.

The ultimate goal is not a larger church, a bigger budget, more programs; or being written up in a magazine as one of “Best churches in USA.”

The prize, as Paul describes it, is:

“the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (3:14)

The prize of the winning church is a church that knows Jesus Christ, that lives for him, and that is actively sharing Christ with others and making disciples. It is making an eternal difference.

The prize is giving the lost (those who know they’re lost and those who don’t) new life in Jesus Christ and a family in the church.

That’s the prize that makes us a winning church, that keeps us from living in the past, and that keeps us always moving forward.

If we keep our eyes on that prize, God will bless us and use us to do great things for God’s glory. Let’s keep our eyes on that prize.

Sermon: "God Isn't Fair, Thank God!"

2011-09-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

Matthew 20:1-16
September 18, 2011
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.

When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’

When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.

Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

They gathered in various locations around town every weekday morning, near the railroad tracks, in a parking lot, at a convenience store. They were men looking for work, hoping to be hired as day laborers. Many of them were probably fairly new to this country, their English skills limited, but they were trying to earn money for their families.

They gathered in such numbers that businesses and residents near their old gathering places complained they were a nuisance, so the city built a day-laborer shelter as a place for them to assemble all in one place.

There they waited for the contractors to drive by in their pickups and say, “I need four men to do landscaping,” or “I need three men who are good concrete finishers,” or I need a half-dozen men to clean and stack bricks.” It was a tough way to make a living, they didn’t mind hard work.

Every once in a while they got a break, like the time not long ago the man from the winery pulled up at 6:00 in the morning, looking for some grape pickers.

Mr. Gallo agreed with several of the men to pay them $125 each for a day’s work in the vineyards – the going rate for 12 hours work in the hot sun picking grapes.

They jumped in the back of the truck, feeling lucky that they’d been hired when so many remained behind at the shelter. Sometimes they didn’t get any work at all, or they only got half a day. That $125 would sure come in handy.

Mr. Gallo dropped the crew off at the vineyard and soon they were at work picking grapes. In just an hour or so, however, it became apparent that there weren’t enough men for the job.

So Gallo drove back to the gathering place where the men waited for work and at 9:00 he agreed to pay them fairly if they would come help. Several more men gladly jumped in the back of the truck and went off to work in the vineyard.

This year’s vintage was much greater than expected, and Mr. Gallo wanted to pick the grapes at the peak of their perfection, preferably before the sun went down that day. He knew that even 24 hours could make a big difference. There still weren’t enough pickers to do the job, so he went back at noon and again at 3:00 to hire more workers.

Finally, there was just about one more hour of daylight left and the work still wasn’t finished. He drove back to where the men gathered one last time, at about 5:00, and was surprised to find that there were still a few men waiting for work. He asked them if they still wanted to work and they said yes, so he took them to the vineyard, even though he would get only one hour’s worth of work out of them. He said he would pay them whatever was right.

In the meantime, the men who’d been hired at 6:00 that morning had been noticing Mr. Gallo driving back and forth to town to hire more workers. They’d been calculating in their minds: “Let’s see, if we’re making about $10 an hour, then those guys who came at 9:00 will get paid about $90, and the ones hired at noon and 3:00 will make about $60 and $30 each. Those poor suckers who didn’t get here till 5:00 – it won’t even be worth their time.”

Finally the sun was going down and the last grape was picked just as it was getting dark. Mr. Gallo called the men together to collect their pay from the foreman. The ones who’d worked the longest expected to get their pay first, but instead, he started with the ones hired last.

When they opened their pay envelopes, the men hired at 5:00’s eyes grew wide with surprise. They began counting the bills for everyone to see: $10, $20, $30, $40 … he paid us $125! We got a whole day’s pay for just one hour’s work!

With each group of workers it was the same. The ones hired at 3:00 and noon and 9:00 – they all were paid a full day’s wage, $125.

The first group hired, the ones who’d worked since 6:00 that morning, had done some quick recalculation in their minds. If Mr. Gallo wasn’t going to pay the other men less, then surely he was going to pay them more. After all, they’d worked the longest and the hardest. That was only fair.

So they opened their pay envelopes with a sense of anticipation, expecting a bonus. But they were obviously disappointed when they counted out the money and found they too had received exactly $125.

They couldn’t hold in their disappointment and surprise, so they started grumbling about the unfair way they’d been treated. “Can you believe it? He paid us the exact same amount he paid them! They worked for one hour and we worked for 12 hours in the hot sun. It’s just not fair!

They said it loud enough that Mr. Gallo was sure to hear, which he did. He was surprisingly calm. “Friend,” he said to one of the grumblers, “I didn’t do anything wrong to you. Didn’t you agree to work all day for me for $125? I paid you what I owe you, so take your money and go. If I choose to pay someone the same amount for one hour of work or for 12, what’s that to you? It’s my money. Would you begrudge my generosity?

If we’re honest, most of us would side with the all-day workers in their feelings of being treated unfairly. We know they agreed to work all day for a day’s wages. We know it’s the boss’s money to do with as he likes. And we generally like to see people be generous with their money.

But also, deep down inside us, is the feeling that we should be compensated or rewarded according to how hard we work. After all, that’s the American way, isn’t it?

What would happen to our economy if people who showed up for one hour before quitting time got paid the same amount as the ones who worked all day? Or if someone who just graduated from high school got paid the same as an M.B.A who’s been with the company for 20 years? Is that any way to run a business?

Most of us are born with an innate sense of fairness and this story just sets off all kinds of fairness alarms in our heads.

Children notice right away if they’re not being treated fairly. If their brother or sister gets one more Christmas or birthday present than they did, or a slightly bigger piece of cake, then they’re quick to call foul: “That’s not fair!” And the answer is, of course, “No the fair isn’t until October.”

For us, fairness means getting what you deserve. If you work harder and longer than the other person, you deserve a bigger share of the goodies. That’s generally a good way to operate.

Above all, we expect God to be fair. And to our way of thinking that means the harder we work, the greater our reward. If I’ve been faithful to God all my life, gone to church every Sunday, said my prayers, paid my tithe, kept my nose clean, then somehow I deserve better than the person who makes a deathbed conversion. Or if I don’t deserve more, then they deserve less.

Jesus has an answer for that kind of thinking and it comes in our parable. That was the attitude of his disciples, represented by Peter in the verses just before our reading in chapter 19. Peter asks Jesus, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you. What do we get out of it?” Peter wants to know, what’s in it for me? When do I get my goodies?

That was probably how people like the Pharisees thought. They had studied and worked hard all their lives to follow the law of God. Now along comes Jesus and says the tax collectors and sinners will receive the same heavenly reward as them. It violated every standard of fairness they could think of.

But Jesus is saying that God has a different understanding of fairness that we may never understand.

God’s kingdom operates by Grace, not by deserving. He’s saying, are you so sure you want to receive what you deserve? Because if you do, none of you deserves the reward of heaven. You can’t work enough hours in the vineyard to earn that. That is strictly God’s free gift of grace. And grace is for those who ask for it late in life as much as for those who receive it early.

There was mother who had five children and someone asked her if she loved all of them the same. “No,” she said. “If one of them is sick, I love her until she’s well. And if one is hurt, I love him until he’s better. I just love the one who needs it the most, and somehow it all works out.”

Would we really want a God who is fair according to our standards of fairness? Sure we do, when we feel we’ve been wronged. But what about all the times when we haven’t gotten the punishment we deserved? Or when we’ve been blessed without doing anything to earn it or deserve it?

None of us deserves God’s love on our own merit. In fact, because of our sin, what we deserve is death.

But thank God, God wasn’t fair in Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross for every one of us. And because Jesus was God’s perfect offering for sin, we get not what we deserve, but what Jesus, the Son of God, deserves, which is eternal life.

That’s not fair – that’s Grace! And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have a gracious God than a fair God any day.

Please don’t misunderstand me. Our God is just and righteous and fair. And God expects us to treat one another fairly. That’s what the “Golden Rule” is all about – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat other people as fairly as you want to be treated.

But there are times when fairness doesn’t go far enough. We’re all the recipients of God’s Grace. It’s purely by God’s Grace that we have been called to labor in God’s vineyard. We should do so gladly and joyfully, whether we entered God’s service early in the morning, at midday, or at a late hour.

And let us be grateful for the generosity of God’s grace.

Sermon: "Never Forget ... Hope"

2011-09-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Matthew 18:21-35
September 11, 2011
Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.

But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.

When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’

And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

In his address to the nation on September 11, 2001, after the deadly terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush concluded by saying,

“This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.”

“We will never forget.” That has become the unofficial motto of 9/11. I remember seeing on TV a hand-made sign hanging from a building near Ground Zero in the days after 9/11 that said: “We will not forget.” Engraved in bronze on the Firefighter Memorial near Ground Zero are the words, “May We Never Forget.” We saw those words on bumper stickers, ribbons, buttons, and we still see them today, ten years later: Never Forget.

There are certain events that we will never forget where we were or what we were doing when we heard about them: the attack on Pearl Harbor; the assassination of President Kennedy; the first men landing on the moon; the Challenger and the Columbia space shuttle disasters.

September 11 is certainly one of those events for those of us old enough to remember. We will never forget. It seems our lives were changed forever.

Alan Jackson, the country star, wrote a song in the days following 9/11 that seemed to sum up how a lot of us felt: “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?” At least for a few moments or a few days, it seemed like the world had stopped turning or at least been knocked off its axis a little bit. Nothing seemed normal and we weren’t sure if there would ever be anything like “normal” again.

I remember seeing the early news reports on TV at home that morning as I got ready to go to work at our church in Dallas – we lived right across the street. At that time it still wasn’t clear the extent of the attacks. We listened to the radio and turned on a TV at the church so the staff could keep up with the coverage. Children were beginning to arrive at our preschool. The news only got worse. We couldn’t believe all that could really be happening. Surely our country wasn’t under attack.

I had a funeral that morning at 11:00 at Grove Hill Funeral Home in southeast Dallas, so I was finishing my preparations for the service as all this was going on. As I drove to the service down Central Expressway and then on I-30, I remember hearing the reports about the plane that had crashed into the Pentagon and that one plane had apparently gone down somewhere in the Pennsylvania countryside. It was strange going through that service and trying to keep our minds on laying Kenneth to rest and comforting his family. I couldn’t wait to get back home and to the church to catch up on the latest developments. Everyone went through the day in a state of shock and horror.

That evening we held a hastily pulled together service of prayer at our church and lots of people from the church and the neighborhood came together seeking company, comfort, and some kind of understanding of what had just happened to us. Now, ten years later, we still have a lot of unanswered questions – I guess we always will – but we remain firm in our resolve never to forget what happened that day.

And in one of those quirks of the calendar, the tenth anniversary of 9/11 today happens to fall on a Sunday, so as memorial services go on today in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania, people of faith all across the country are gathering in churches and cathedrals and other places of worship to remember, to reflect, and to renew our faith in the God who carries us through even “the valley of the shadow of death,” as the 23rd Psalm so aptly puts it.

About 9/11 there are many things we won’t forget: where we were, what we were doing, how we felt, what we did. Some rushed to give blood. Some gave money to the Red Cross. Some enlisted or re-enlisted in the military.
But in a lot of ways it seems with the passing years that we have forgotten 9/11, or at least some of the lessons it taught us in those first days, weeks, and months after it happened. It would be a shame if those lessons were lost.

So let me share four things about 9/11 that I hope we will never forget. Or if we have forgotten them, that we will remember them once again.

First, I hope we never forget what 9/11 taught us about priorities. In the days following 9/11, a lot of people said that it reminded them of what was really important. On the first anniversary of 9/11 in 2002, Men’s Journal magazine ran an article asking people what lasting changes did 9/11 lead to in their lives?

Michael wrote: I still complain about bills, work and taxes, but now every morning I hug my two kids goodbye, and every evening I give them a kiss when I get home.

Gary wrote: I make it a point to listen to my wife every day as she tells me about her day. After more than 30 years of marriage to her, I find I love her even more.

Ken wrote: September 11 taught me that my life's work should be about my daughter and building a family...I've learned that there's much more to life than making a buck.

9/11 taught us that buildings can be re-built. But people and relationships are what’s truly important. They should be our priority.

Second, I hope we don’t forget what 9/11 taught us about heroes. We used to think heroes were the ones who hit the most home runs, scored the most touchdowns, or killed the most bad guys in the movie.

Now we know heroes are the first responders, the firefighters, the police officers, the Port Authority officers, who were running up the stairway to help other people when everyone else was going down.

Now we know heroes were people like Abe Zelmanowitz, a computer programmer for Blue Cross/Blue Shield who worked on the 27th floor of World Trade Center Tower One. When Flight 11 struck their building, the elevators stopped working. Abe’s best friend was co-worker Ed Beyea, a quadriplegic, who had no way to get out. Rather than going down the stairs to save himself, Abe stayed with Ed, waiting for help that never came, till the tower collapsed, taking both of their lives. Many believe that Abe, an Orthodox Jew, and Ed, a devout Roman Catholic, spent those final moments praying together.

Now we know real heroes are the passengers of Flight 93, who refused to let their plane become another missile in the terrorist attacks of September 11 and gave their lives to save countless others.

Now we know the heroes are the thousands of rescue and recovery workers who combed through the wreckage to find survivors and any trace of victims that would bring comfort to grieving families, even at the cost of their own long-term health.

Now we know that real heroes don’t wear a baseball, football, or basketball uniform, but they wear the uniform of firefighter, police officer, emergency responder, soldier, sailor, airman, Marine – putting their lives on the line every day for us, for our safety, and for our freedom.

May we never forget what 9/11 taught us about the true nature of heroism.

Third, I hope we never forget what 9/11 taught us about unity. Do you remember how everyone came together after that terrible tragedy, as we often do in the wake of a common disaster? Democrats and Republicans, North and South, East Coast and West Coast, media and politicians – differences were put aside as we remembered our common bond as Americans.

It gave us a glimpse of what our country can look like when we work together, focusing on a common mission of helping those in need.

Finally, I hope we don’t forget what 9/11 taught us, and can continue to teach us, about hope.

Do you remember how the churches and temples and synagogues seemed to be filled on the first few Sundays after 9/11? Everyone came together, looking to their own faith traditions for comfort, for strength, for answers.

That rise in religious fervor was only temporary, unfortunately. People soon returned to their old habits.

But that doesn’t mean that our faith in the God who was revealed to us in his Son Jesus Christ doesn’t still give us the hope we need to live in a post-9/11 world, just as much as it did before 9/11 happened.

Today’s Scripture readings were not selected especially for the 9/11 anniversary. They are the Revised Common Lectionary readings assigned for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

The Exodus reading about the crossing of the Red Sea, and then the destruction of the pursuing Egyptian army, seems to appeal to our natural hunger for revenge and the punishment of our enemies. And if we’re honest, we‘ll admit that those feelings of vengeance were prominent after 9/11 and still are: witness the reaction to the death of Osama Bin Laden a few short months ago.

We continue to seek justice for terrorism’s innocent victims and punishment for its perpetrators.

But the readings from Romans and Matthew remind us that judgment belongs ultimately to God, and we are called to forgive those who do us wrong, even as we hold them accountable for their evil deeds.

Faith in God gives us hope that through forgiveness we don’t have to remain captives to the past, but that we can both forgive and be forgiven, so that today can be better than yesterday, and tomorrow better than today, through the supreme gifts of faith, hope and love.

While we continue to work for justice and peace here in this world, our faith lets us never forget that there is a reign of Justice and Peace beyond this troubled world, secured for us by the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As Paul said in our Romans reading: “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

That is the hope that sustains us in a post-9/11 world and that should sustain us no matter what kind of tragedy or troubles the future might bring: we live to the Lord and we die to the Lord, because we belong to him. And as long as we have faith in Jesus Christ, our future is secure.

The message is as important at 9/11 plus 10 as it was in the beginning: Never Forget. Never forget your priorities. Never forget who the true heroes are. Never forget the bonds of unity that join us together as Americans and as Christians, despite our differences. And never forget … Hope.

Amen.

Sermon: "What Do I Owe?"

2011-09-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Romans 13:8-10
September 4, 2011
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

“I owe, I owe. So off to work I go.”

You’ve probably seen that bumper sticker before. It seems appropriate for this Labor Day weekend.

There are probably a lot of people who work mainly to pay off their debts. If they didn’t owe so much money they would look for some other kind of job. But because of debt, they feel stuck.

Today’s sermon reading started with this word from the Apostle Paul:

“Owe no one anything.”

From a strictly financial point of view, that’s pretty good advice. It may not make the bankers and credit card companies happy, but even they would agree that too much debt is not good for anyone – whether it’s an individual, a business, a church, or a nation.

I know that’s one thing that Dave Ramsey in his books and on his radio show really hammers on – getting out of debt. If you take the “Financial Peace University” course, he’ll have some good advice on how to get out of debt.

Very few of us can follow Paul’s advice 100% -- to “owe no one anything.” Most of us can’t pay cash for our homes and not many of us can buy a car without taking out a loan.

I wish I could say I don’t owe anyone anything. But that’s hard to do when you buy your first home at age 52 like we did. A lot of you bought your homes when you were first starting out and maybe have them paid off now. We lived in parsonages for 25 years until we came to Gainesville, so we’re getting started kind of late in the home ownership thing.

I owe some on car loans and student loan debts for my kids, but not too much. Credit card debt is what you really have to avoid, and we’ve done pretty well on that.

There’s a question that all United Methodist pastors are asked by the bishop at annual conference when we come up for ordination. It’s one of the historic questions John Wesley used to ask his preachers, like “Are you going on to perfection?”

We are asked, “Are you in debt so as to embarrass you in your work.” Everyone always laughs about that one, but debt in Wesley’s day probably wasn’t anything like the huge student loan debt some seminary graduates are carrying nowadays. There are some annual conferences that do credit checks on their ministerial candidates to make sure they’re telling the truth.

But I don’t think Paul was so much dispensing financial advice when he told the Christians in Rome to “owe no one anything” as he was saying, even if you have met all your financial obligations, even if you’ve paid all your bills, there is still one debt that you will owe for the rest of your life – that’s the debt of love.

Owe no one anything, except to love one another …

The “debt” of love is the one debt we can never pay off, no matter how long we live or how much money we have.

There were hundreds of laws in the Torah that Jews were charged with keeping: religious laws, food laws, ritual laws. It was common to try to sum them all up or reduce them to a simple formula.

You may remember that they tried this with Jesus one day. Someone asked him which commandment in the law was the greatest. Do you remember how Jesus answered?

He said, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets.” (Matt. 22:34-40)

I think Paul takes for granted that the Romans already know they’re supposed to love God all the time as much as they can. That’s a given. If you don’t know that, then let me say it again: Love God as much as you can.

But in this part of Romans Paul is dealing with how people should treat one another. He spent the first 12 chapters dealing with how people should relate to God. Now he spends the last 3 chapters talking about people-to-people relations. That’s part of the Christian faith too. It’s not only about God – it’s about people.

It can all be summed up the same way Jesus summed it up:

Love one another. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus had told his disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” (John 13:34)

We should have heard it enough times – from the Old Testament, from Jesus, from Paul – that it’s in our heads and in our hearts that this is what we are called to do. We’re supposed to love one another, we’re supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves.

That sounds so easy, so matter-of-fact, but we know how hard it is to love ourselves, let alone other people. If we treated other people the way we treat ourselves, some of us would be thrown in jail for abuse and/or neglect.

So we must recalculate this daily debt we owe to love one another and decide how it will be paid.

The debt of love must be paid with actions and not emotion. The word “love” has been taken prisoner by Hollywood and romantic novelists so that we think it means sheer sentimentality or the feeling we get when we gaze upon a member of the opposite sex. We make the mistake of believing that love is mainly an emotional state.

That’s not what the New Testament means by love. When the Bible says God loves us, it doesn’t mean God feels all warm and fuzzy inside when he thinks about us. We know God loves us because of what God has done for us: He gave his one and only Son for our redemption.

What Jesus and Paul mean by love is not mainly a feeling but an action. To love someone is to actively promote that person’s good.

Love acts for the good of another. And as Paul reminds us in verse 9, love also does no wrong or harm to a neighbor. So love, as an action, means that we do good, and not harm, to our neighbors.

Paul mentions a few of the Ten Commandments: do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet. Those would all be ways of doing harm to others. He leaves out “do not lie,” but we can assume he meant that also. We show love when we don’t do those things to others.

But that alone isn’t enough. We have to do positive good for others. And the possibilities there are as limitless as our imaginations. We do good when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those who are sick or in prison. It’s not enough for us just to think good thoughts about people in need, any more than it’s enough to just think good thoughts about paying our mortgage. We have to do something to help them. That’s love.

That’s what Jesus did. He healed. He touched. He forgave. He fed. He gave drink. He loved. He died on the cross.

We do those same kinds of things, not to pay off some kind of debt we owe God. Jesus already took care of that debt on the cross. We do them simply out of love and gratitude to God and to try to be more and more like Jesus, who told us to “love one another.”

Sermon: "Taking Up Our Crosses"

2011-09-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Matthew 16:21-28
August 28, 2011
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

You may have heard of the well-known German composer, Felix Mendelssohn. If you haven’t heard of him, you’re no doubt familiar with one of his compositions that must be one of the most frequently-played pieces of classical music in history – his “Wedding March” that is played at the conclusion of 90% of the weddings I perform.

Felix Mendelssohn was the grandson of a very famous Jewish philosopher of the 18th-century named Moses Mendelssohn. He was known as the “Socrates of Berlin.” Moses suffered from a severe curvature of the spine that left him rather misshapen and hunchbacked.

There is a story about Moses Mendelssohn that one day when he was 33 years old he visited a merchant in Hamburg who had a lovely 24-year-old daughter. Moses was very much taken with her beauty and she was familiar with his reputation as a thinker. Her father was eager to make a match between the two. But when she laid eyes for the first time on his stunted, misshapen figure, it is said that she burst into tears.

When it came time to leave, Moses summoned up the courage to go upstairs and speak with her alone, one last time. After several attempts at conversation, he asked her shyly, “Do you believe marriages are made in heaven?”

“Yes,” she answered, looking at the floor rather than at him, “Do you?”

“Yes, I do,” he said. “You see, in heaven at the birth of each boy, the Lord announces which girl he will marry. When I was born, my future bride was pointed out to me. Then the Lord added, ‘But your wife will be hunchbacked.’

“Right then and there I called out, ‘O Lord, a hunchbacked woman would be a tragedy. Please, Lord, give me the hump and let her be beautiful.’”

Then she looked up into his eyes and was stirred by some deep memory. She reached out and gave Mendelssohn her hand and later became his devoted wife.

That kind of self-sacrificing love speaks to something deep within us. Maybe you were drawn to Christ when you first heard and understood what he did for each one of us on the Cross. He took on the burden of our sin so we could be forgiven.

This image of self-sacrifice is so powerfully moving that it is one of the most recurring themes in drama and literature.

There are some movies that when I happen across them while channel-surfing I can’t help but stop and watch. I stumbled across “Saving Private Ryan” the other night. I’ve seen that movie several times, but the scene at the end when Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks) lays down his life to help save Private Ryan gets me every time.

In “Star Wars,” Darth Vader, one of the great movie villains of all time, turns out to be Luke Skywalker’s father, and he heroically sacrifices himself to save Luke from the evil Emperor.

Heroic self-sacrifice happens in real life as well. After the devastating earthquake and tsunami gravely damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan last March, a brave group of workers, known as the “Fukushima Fifty” stayed behind to help stabilize the reactor and prevent further radiation leaks. They knew they could be facing possibly lethal doses of radiation, yet they remained for the sake of their fellow workers and citizens.

Jesus said it so well: “Greater love hath no [man] than this, that [he] lay down [his] life for a friend.” We’d all like to think we’d be willing to make that kind of sacrifice for another, but we don’t really know until we are facing that choice.

On the other hand, the same self-sacrifice that draws us in also repels us, because we can’t help thinking in the backs of our minds that sacrifice and suffering somehow mean weakness. We think, if someone is truly strong, they shouldn’t have to suffer. They should be strong enough to avoid it or conquer it.

That was evidently what Peter and the other disciples were thinking when Jesus told them that he had to go to Jerusalem where he would suffer and die.

“God forbid it, Lord,” Peter said to Jesus. “This must never happen to you.” In Peter’s mind, the Savior, the Messiah, would be above suffering. But Peter was looking at things from the human perspective and not from God’s point of view. He didn’t understand yet the role that self-sacrifice and suffering was meant to play in God’s plan of salvation for the world.

When we’re honest, don’t we have to admit that we think of Jesus as kind of like Superman: “Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It’s Superman! Strange visitor from another planet, who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men … fighting a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American Way.”

Jesus – gentle, meek and mild, but with secret, souped-up, more-than-human insides – bumbles around for 33 years, nearly gets himself done in by the Kryptonie Kross, but at the last minute, struggles into the phone booth of the Empty Tomb, changes into his Easter suit, and with a single bound, leaps back up to the planet Heaven.

Jesus as super-hero would be a lot more appealing to some people. That’s the kind of Savior we think we want: one who saves us from our humanity rather than saving us in our humanity.

But that was clearly not the kind of Savior Jesus turned out to be. He had to go everything we have to go through, even death, to show that our only hope for life, true life, comes from God as God’s free gift.

So, like Peter, we are rebuked when we try to remove the cross from the center of our faith. Without the cross, there is no Christianity. We would have a faith of sentimental love and warm feelings, but we wouldn’t be able to truly understand how much God loves us and how much we are called to love one another.

The cross shows us that God loves us so much that he was willing to pay the ultimate price for our salvation – the death of his one and only Son. It is through faith in that sacrificial gift on the cross that we are saved from our sin, reconciled to God, and given new and everlasting life, and not just us, but the whole world is offered that gift of life.

The cross also shows us how far God expects us to go in our love for others. Jesus says we are to take up our cross and follow him. The self-sacrificial love of God that Jesus showed us on the cross is the same kind of love we are to show to others – the love that goes to the very end, the love that lays down its own life for a friend.

That’s a difficult word to hear. We’d rather Jesus take up his own cross and ours with it. Here’s where we just have to trust Jesus that life is found in the very place where Peter and the other disciples thought it would be lost – the cross – in the cross of Christ and in taking up our own crosses.

How can that be? How can we find our life by losing it? How can we save our life by sacrificing it?

Because the life we try to “save” is not our true life. True life is a gift from God. And God says we find true life in the One who came saying, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.” When we give our life to Christ by taking up our cross, then Jesus gives that life back to us, our true life, and we cannot lose that life, even in death.

Our mistake is thinking that the cross we take up is a burden, a weight, like some great ball and chain we drag through life. But Christ’s cross is such a burden as sails to a ship or wings to a bird. The cross we bear for Christ is what speeds our journey and gives us flight.

A little girl was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance for a cure was a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother who had miraculously survived the same disease and developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.

When the situation was explained to the little brother and he was asked if he would give his blood to his sister, the boy hesitated only a moment before answering, “Yes, I’ll do it if it will save Liza.”

As the transfusion progressed, the boy lay next to his sister and smiled as the color returned to her cheeks. Then his color grew pale and faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?” In his youth he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood. Yet he still said yes.

When we have that same spirit, we will have Life.

Sermon: "On This Rock"

2011-09-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

Matthew 16:13-20
August 21, 2011
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Dallas Willard begins his book, The Divine Conspiracy, with this story:

“Recently a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent – and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.”

Willard goes on to say:

“This is a parable of human existence in our times – not exactly that everyone is crashing, though there is enough of that – but most of us as individuals, and world society as a whole, live at high-speed, and often with no clue to whether we are flying upside down or right-side up. Indeed, we are haunted by a strong suspicion that there may be no difference – or at least that it is unknown or irrelevant.”

We live in a world that sometimes seems confused about Truth (with a capital “T”). We wonder: Is there a source of absolute Truth or is all truth relative? Does it all just depend on your point of view? In other words, how do we know if we’re right side up or upside down?

At the same time, people are looking for foundation on which to build their lives. No one would choose to base their life on a lie.
Yet we do try to live according to things that are less than true. But the Bible keeps beckoning us back to the Truth.

There is no greater truth than the one expressed here by Simon Peter in answer to Jesus’ question:

“Who do you say that I am?”

The answer to that question determines if we’re flying right side up or upside down. The answer’s not evident right away to many people, either then or now.

I can imagine the disciples sitting around a campfire with Jesus, maybe telling stories about what happened to them that day, when all of a sudden, the conversation turns serious. Jesus gets that look in his eye that he always gets when he’s about to put the disciples on the spot and ask a question that no one really wants to answer.

I remember being in classes in college and seminary when I hadn’t finished the reading assignment for that day and the professor would ask a question to which I didn’t know the answer. I would try to become as invisible as possible, hoping he didn’t call on me. Maybe that’s how the disciples felt, at least a little bit.

Jesus asked, to none of them in particular, “Who do people say that I am?” “Whew,” they thought. “That’s not so hard.” They heard people talking about Jesus. They knew the word on the street was that he could be John the Baptist come back from the dead; or the prophet Elijah, who’d never really died but had been taken up into heaven; or a new Jeremiah or one of the prophets. So that’s what the told Jesus.

People today still struggle to come to terms with who Jesus was/is.
Research data from a poll conducted by the George Barna group show:
• 88% believe he was real and 85% believe he was born to a virgin
• 43% of adults believe he committed sins on earth.
• 39% say he was crucified but never had physical resurrection

Many people out there would say he was a great teacher, but that his teachings carry no more weight than others like Muhammad, Buddha, or Gandhi.

Many people might believe that the answer to Jesus’ question is not all that important. It doesn’t really matter to them who we say Jesus is.

But Jesus indicates differently. If it wasn’t important, Jesus wouldn’t have asked.

But then Jesus asked the question that really put them on the spot: “Who do you say that I am?” It was one thing to report the results of the latest Gallup opinion poll, but now Jesus was making it personal.

Again, I can imagine the disciples sort of looking around, trying to avoid Jesus’ gaze, saying things like, “Um, guess I better get some more wood for the fire” or “Man, is it that time already? I better get to bed if I’m going to get up and get water in the morning.”

But Simon Peter, who never seemed to be at a loss for words, even if they weren’t always the right words, answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Peter often had a knack for getting it wrong, but here he definitely got it right.

Note Jesus’ response:

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 16:17-19)

Would Jesus have said something like that if it wasn’t all that important? “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. The Gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, etc.”

I would say there’s no more important question we can answer than the one Jesus asks: Who do you say that I am?

And if we can answer it as Peter did, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, then that’s the truth that insures we are flying right side up. That’s the truth that shines like the bright North Star that lets us know we are headed in the right direction.

Or to use Jesus’ own image -- Peter’s statement of faith is a Rock of Truth, something solid that we can hold on to and in fact, build our lives upon.

We live in a world in which many people say that Truth is relative.
In essence, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you’re sincere.”

They believe, “It’s true if it’s true for me.”

To these folks there’s no such thing as Absolute Truth. Everything is situational. It depends on the circumstances. What’s right in this situation may not be right in another set of circumstances.

I’m not saying that absolutely everything in the world is a matter of black and white. Sometimes there are things, decisions, moments we face in life, that only appear in shades of gray. Sometimes we have to make choices of the lesser of two evils or the better of two goods.

But the notion that there is no such thing as Truth in an absolute, unchanging, non-contingent sort of way may be one of the factors that helped lead to some of the great moral failures in America lately – the Savings and Loan collapse, Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, sexual abuse in the church, the sub-prime mortgage market meltdown, and so forth.

But is it true? Can we know what’s true, not just today and tomorrow, but that what was true 2,000 years ago will still be true 2000 years or 10 million years from now?

I believe we can. And there is no more important truth than this: Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

And it’s a timeless Truth because Scripture tells us…

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Heb. 13:8)

This is our Rock of Truth. And on this Rock, we are to build all that’s truly important in life.

Faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is the only solid rock on which to build our lives. People today don’t want to know so much “Is it true?” as “Does it work?”

Does it work to build our life on a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? We might ask the question in reverse: Does it work to build our life on anything else?

The world says it’s foolish to build your life on something you can’t see, something not “real,” like faith. The world tells us to build our life around what the world says is “real” – things like money, possessions, success, power…

But these things aren’t “real” either, in the sense that they will truly last – we can lose them all; they can all be taken away.

If we try to build our life on another person, as dependable as we think that other person might be, that person may not always be there for us – they may die or move away or leave us for someone else.

If we build our life on our job, well we all know how tenuous and uncertain that can be. The company that we thought we would work for for the rest of our working lives, they might just up and lay us off or “downsize” us all in the name of a downturn in the economy or in the interest of the bottom line.

If we build our life on the things we own, our possessions, we know they could all be lost tomorrow in a flood or a fire or a financial reversal.

No, that doesn’t work. It only works to build our lives on the foundation of what lasts, what’s permanent, what’s eternal. And this is what lasts:

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

That’s not so much a truth that can be grasped with our mind as a truth that has to be lived with our life.

Jesus said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 16:17)

You simply have to live it and see that it works. It takes faith.

How do we live the truth that Jesus is Savior and Lord? We accept the truth that…
• We are sinners who need forgiveness.
• We are children of God who need to love and be loved.
• We are creatures of God who need to spend time growing our relationship with God through prayer, worship, reading God’s Word, and spending time with other believers.
• We are students who need to learn from the greatest teacher of all time – Jesus.
• And we are servants who are called to give our last ounce of effort, sweat our last drop of sweat, and pour out our last drop of blood to help the people around us have the kind of life that God created each and every one of us for.

Just try living those truths and see if your life goes better. I guarantee it will. It works!

We are concerned about a world that doesn’t seem to know if it’s flying right side up or upside down. But this story reminds us that there is a Rock of Truth we can cling to if everything else seems upside down: Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

And that’s a truth strong enough to build a life on, a life that will last all the way to eternity. Amen.

Sermon: "What to Do When Life Says 'No'"

2011-08-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

Matthew 15:21-28
August 14, 2011
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all.

And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

What would you think if I told you that on your tombstone would be inscribed a four-word epitaph? Well, you might respond, it would depend on who would write this epitaph--an enemy or a loved one.

It might also depend, you might say, on how well this person knew and understood you. If a newspaper critic wrote of a concert pianist the four words: “He was a failure,” you could always say: That was his opinion.

But if one of the world's great musicians wrote, "He was a genius," then you are apt to take the remark more seriously.

There was a character in the Gospel whom Jesus once described with four immortal words: “Great is your faith.” She was a Canaanite woman who came from the country to the north of Palestine, a country hostile to the Jews. She was presumably married, she had at least one child; but that's all we know about her.

We don't know whether she was a good woman or a bad woman. We don't know her name. All we know of her is that in this single encounter with Jesus he spoke to her this four-word epitaph: “Great is your faith.”

Jesus was the expert on faith. He searched for it like a collector looked for fine pearls. He didn’t always find it in the expected places.

Jesus never said, “Great is your faith” to any of his disciples. More often he said, “O you of little faith.”

But here is great faith in an unexpected person – a foreigner, an outsider, a pagan, a woman.

And why did Jesus say she had great faith? Because of her reaction when life told her “no.” “No” is not a word we like to hear. Tell a baby no and they will screw up their face and shake their head and go right ahead and do what you told them not to do.

Tell a teenager no, and you get a highly-reasoned argument that would make Perry Mason proud about how you’re behind the times, you lack trust, and you don’t want anyone anywhere to have any fun any time.

Tell an adult no and they will accept your decision calmly and congratulate you on your great wisdom. Not!

None of us likes to be told no. We want what we want, when we want it. Sometimes it’s a valuable lesson to learn how to accept no for answer. We can’t always have our own way.

But there are times when we shouldn’t take no for answer. This story is about a Canaanite woman who wouldn’t take no for answer. Because she wouldn’t, Jesus said, “Great is your faith!”

This woman had practically nothing going for her. Life said no to her in virtually every way. She lived in the wrong neighborhood: Canaan. She belonged to the wrong race: a Gentile. She followed the wrong religion: paganism. She was the wrong gender: female. And as if all that wasn’t bad enough, her daughter was “tormented by a demon.”

She asks Jesus for help for her daughter. At first, Jesus doesn’t even answer her. But then Jesus and the disciples tell her no, just like everyone and everything else has told her no.

We could sort of expect that kind of answer from the disciples. Sometimes they just couldn’t be bothered or they tried to shield Jesus, kike when the children came to Jesus for a blessing and the disciples tried to shoo them away.

My first reaction is that Jesus’ words sound harsh and uncaring: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But maybe he was testing her faith, to see if she was really serious about needing help. In any event, this woman wouldn’t take no for an answer, either from the disciples or from Jesus. She showed great faith.

She can teach us lessons how to respond when life unjustly tells us no. A lot of times we can learn more from the “noes” that life gives us than from the “yeses.” Life says no to us in lots of different ways, some direct and some more indirect. Let’s look at four ways life says no and how we might respond.

In this story, the first way life said no to the woman was through silence.

Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer at all. (15:22-23)

The lesson we learn is this:
When life says “no” through silence, we should respond by waiting.

This is a tactic that we often use with our kids: if we don’t want to tell them no, just don’t say anything and hope they understand that silence means no. But sometimes that can backfire and they take silence for a yes.

Why didn’t Jesus answer the woman? Maybe he was thinking about he would answer her. How could he best answer without confusing his message and mission? What was his mission to the Gentiles?

There have probably been times when you cried out to God in prayer or supplication and felt words your fell on deaf ears. It seemed that no one was listening or even cared.

This is maybe the cruelest way life says “no” to us – leaving us feeling like there’s no one out there who understands the burdens we’re carrying or who might help lift them.

I imagine some requests God hears in prayer leave him speechless. “Oh God, please let the Cowboys win the Super Bowl!” In those cases, maybe God’s kindest response is silence.

We’ve all been where this woman is, wondering if God hears our prayers. Faith is the power that told her not to give up but that gave her the power to wait for an answer.

When life speaks the “no” of silence, faith tells us to wait for God’s answer, because God’s timing isn’t always what we expect.

I’ve said before that there are at least three possible ways God can answer our prayer: Yes, No, and Wait. We just have to trust that God’s timing is perfect.

The second way life said no to this woman was through rejection.
And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” (15:23)

The second lesson we learn is this:
When life says “no” through rejection, remember that God loves you.

The disciples saw this woman as a nuisance and a distraction. They rejected her pleas for help. Sometimes the very ones who should be the most caring and encouraging are the ones who reject us.

Life often says to us: “Go away; we can’t be bothered. We have more important things to think about.” But this woman’s faith kept her going in the face of rejection.

Rejection hurts: we don’t make the team; we don’t get the job; we don’t get into the college we want.

Rejection from the ones we love hurts the most. It may make us feel unappreciated, unwanted, and unloved.

But remember this: regardless of how people feel about you: God loves you! You will never be rejected from God’s kingdom. God is your father, and he loves you as his precious child.

The third way life said “no” to the Canaanite woman was through exclusion.
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (15:24)

So the third lesson we learn is…
When life says “no” through exclusion, remember that God’s love is for everyone.

Jesus’ words sound exclusive (and surprising): “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, not of Tyre & Sidon.” That sort of makes us wonder what Jesus and the disciples were doing there then.

In a way that was true. Jesus tried to keep his mission focused. He had a limited amount of time. His mission was to Israel. His disciples and others after them, like Paul and Silas, would carry the mission to the rest of the world.

But Jesus may also have been testing the woman’s resolve – how great was her faith?

Jesus never meant that God’s love was only for Israel or certain people. God’s love is for everyone. It’s not limited by nationality, gender, economic status, religion or any human standards.

God’s love is not ex-clusive, it is in-clusive. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”

When life says no because you don’t live in the right neighborhood, speak the right language, drive the right car, have the right skin color, etc., remember God’s love is for everyone, including you.

Finally, life said “no” to the woman by telling her she was unworthy.
He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” (15:26)

So the fourth and final lesson we learn is:
When life tells you that you are unworthy, remember that you are a child of God.

This sounds very harsh. Jesus calling her and other Canaanites “dogs.” Again, while Jesus may have been trying to draw out her faith, life often tells us we are unworthy.

Life makes us feel we have to measure up to the world’s standards of success for our life to be meaningful. We must have a certain job, house, income, lifestyle…

But the gospel teaches us our true worth. Our worth in God’s eyes is not because of anything the world says.

It’s not because of anything we’ve done, achieved, or earned. We matter to God because we are children of God. It’s all from God’s grace!

The woman was willing to accept even the crumbs from the master’s table – because her faith was so strong that she knew that even those crumbs would be enough to heal her daughter.

The son or daughter of king/queen or millionaire is worth no more than the child of a beggar – because we’re all children of God.
That’s where our true worth comes from.

Life tells us no in lots of ways. Sometimes we must take no for an answer.

But when life says no for the wrong reason, remember the lessons this woman’s faith teaches:

• When life says no through silence, we just need to wait.
• When life says no through rejection, remember that God loves you.
• When life says no through exclusion, remember God’s love is for everyone, including you.
• And when life tells you that you unworthy, remember that you are a precious child of God.

So Jesus can say about us: “Great is your faith!”

Sermon: "The Power of Faith"

2011-08-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

Matthew 14:22-33
August 7, 2011
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.

And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

One of our hymns last Sunday was “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” For many of us, this time of worship on Sunday morning is our “sweet hour of prayer.” It’s when we can escape from a “world of care” for even sixty minutes of peace and solitude.

This is our time to focus fully and completely on God. We don’t want cell phones going off or babies crying or trains blowing their horns. We want to be able to commune with the Lord with no distractions. This may be our only chance all week for a little peace and quiet.

That may have been what Jesus was looking for in today’s reading when he made the disciples get in the boat and sail to the other side of the lake – a “sweet hour of prayer.” The crowd of 5,000+ had been amply fed on loaves and fish and now he sent them back to their homes.

Finally he was alone and he planned to go up on the mountain by himself and spend some time in prayer. Maybe he planned to pray all night.

He had tried to get away earlier that day but the crowds had just followed him and when he saw how much they needed him, he had compassion on them and healed those who were sick.

Now he was trying again to get away by himself for a little while. Just think about it: if Jesus needed times alone for prayer, how much more do we need it?

But be honest. For how many of us is this one hour on Sunday morning our only time all week to be with God? And how often is even this one hour interrupted or pre-empted by work, out-of-town visitors, travel, illness, or a ballgame on TV?

Even Jesus had to deal with interruptions. Just when he thought he had everything arranged for a quiet time alone with his heavenly Father, he could hear his disciples in their boat out yelling for help. A storm had whipped up on the Sea of Galilee. Their little boat was getting tossed around and the wind was so strong they weren’t making any headway in getting across to the other side.

Isn’t that how it is so often? We find ourselves not on the mountaintop, communing with God, but being tossed around on a raging sea, the waves threatening to overwhelm us.

As dry as it is now it seems like an eternity ago, even though it’s just been four years, since we had the flood here in Gainesville. I can remember being here in the church and watching the water rise and seeing big trash dumpsters floating down Lindsay Street and cars floating down by Wendy’s. It’s such a helpless feeling. There’s nothing you can do to stop the water.

It’s interesting that when people are going through troubles of various kinds – it might be a financial crisis, or marriage or family problems, or they’re struggling with drugs or alcohol – how often they describe the feelings they’re having as similar to drowning or being overwhelmed by water. “I’m going down for the third time,” they say.

Maybe we should have sung hymn number 512 today, because it describes that feeling I’m talking about:

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me;
When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,
Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.

What are the storms that you are facing in your life? As your pastor, I’ve been through some of them with you: cancer, divorce, death of a spouse, loss of a job, problems with your children, and so on.

And you have stood by me these last few weeks when I went through the “storm” of the illness and death of my dad.

In those times in our lives we may feel like the wave-tossed disciples in their boat in the middle of the sea – like we’re about to be lost. We may be crying for someone, anyone, to save us.

And you know what? Someone is listening. Someone who loved his disciples so much that he forgot about his plan to pray on the mountaintop, who came down from the mountain to calm the storm and soothe their fears.

Jesus had a plan to pray, but his plan was not his god. He laid aside his plan to come to his disciples, walking across the waves, to let them know that he wouldn’t let them drown. All they had to do was call and he was there.

At first they’re confused and they think it’s a ghost or some kind of apparition they’re seeing. But Jesus calls out to them and reassures them that it really is him and they shouldn’t be afraid. It reminds us a little of when the risen Christ appeared to the disciples and they didn’t recognize him at first, but when he speaks to them and gives them his peace, then they know it’s him and they’re no afraid any more.

Now the focus changes from all the disciples in the boat to one disciple in particular: Peter. Peter, in his enthusiasm, once he recognizes Christ on the waves, asks to come across and meet him on the water. Jesus invites Peter to step out with the word, “Come,” and Peter jumps right in.

Peter’s boldness may remind us of ourselves when we first came to faith or first accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We were confident. We were fearless. We were unashamed. We felt like we could do almost anything, we were so certain of God’s power in our lives.

New Christians are usually very bold. Witness to someone on the street corner? Sure, why not! Give 10% of my earnings to the church? You bet, make it 15%! Teach a Sunday School class? Be happy to; those junior high kids don’t scare me!

But that initial enthusiasm usually wears off pretty quickly when we come back down to earth. Peter was okay as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. But as soon as he began to look around at the wind and the waves, he got scared and started to sink.

I guess that’s not all that surprising for someone whose name means “The Rock.” The Rock was sinking like one. He cries out to Jesus in desperation: “Lord, save me!”

I have to confess that there are lots of times when I feel like Peter, caught halfway between doubt and faith. There are times when I feel like I can do anything in Christ, and there are times when I wonder if my efforts make any difference at all. And I have to confess that those times of doubt come when I take my eyes off of Jesus and start thinking about the size of the waves and the force of the wind that confront me.

I think there are moments for all of us when the storms of life are so powerful and we feel so helpless that all we can do is cry out with Peter, “Lord, save me!”

Maybe you feel that way right now. Well, just cry out to Jesus for help and he’ll do for you what he did for Peter – he’ll reach out his hand and catch you and bring you back into the boat.

We have to learn to keep our eyes on Jesus and not let ourselves think about the storm instead of the one who calms the storms. We doubt when we focus on the waves crashing around us rather than the one who is reaching out his hand to us to lift us up.

The story ends with an experience of worship, not on a quiet and secluded mountaintop, but on a water-logged boat on the Sea of Galilee. “Those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”

Neither the disciples nor Jesus got their private prayer retreat that day. But the disciples got something far more important: they came to know Jesus as the one who comes to us even in the storm to save us and reassure us of his care and love.

And they learned a valuable lesson about the power of faith: that faith really counts not when the winds are calm and the waters are smooth like glass, but faith counts in the middle of the storms of doubt, grief, worry, loneliness, illness, and fear. That’s when Jesus calms the storm. That’s when he gives us his hand and speaks to us: “Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.” Amen.

Sermon: "God Meets Our Needs"

2011-08-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

GOD MEETS OUR NEEDS
Matthew 14:13-21
July 31, 2011
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.

When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.

When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”

And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

A boy was riding home from church one Sunday with his parents and his mom asked him what he had learned that morning in Sunday School.

“We learned about the Exodus,” he told her. She wanted to hear more so he said, “Well, we learned that Moses went behind the enemy lines and freed the Israelites. Then he took the army engineers and built a pontoon bridge across the Red Sea. Then when the Egyptians tank division started to cross over the bridge he called in the dive bombers and blew them to bits.”

His mother was outraged and said, “IS THAT WHAT YOUR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER IS TEACHING YOU?”

The little boy looked down for a moment and finally said, “Well, no Mom, but if I told you what she really taught us this morning there’s no way you would believe me.”

We live in a world that is skeptical about miracles. We may be a little skeptical ourselves. We may not be sure if things really happened the way the Bible says, or if the miracle stores just reflect a pre-scientific worldview.

We’re dealing with a miracle today: the feeding of the 5,000 (plus women and children). This is the only miracle told in all four gospels. That says something about how important it is.

The story is about how Jesus met a specific need on a specific day. It’s a little different from other miracle stories in that it wasn’t dealing with a crisis.

The miracles usually deal with something only something God can do – things like healing someone of a serious illness, calming a storm, casting out demons, or even raising someone from the dead.

But this situation wasn’t really an emergency. The crowd could have been sent to the surrounding villages to buy something to eat. That was the disciples’ plan. But Jesus says to the disciples, “You give them something to eat.”

They were puzzled. All they had were five loaves of bread and two fish. But that would be enough, because Jesus was going to show them how God could use them to meet the people’s need.

This story reminds us that God can meet our needs every day. And God uses us to meet the needs of the world.

I’d like to share three thoughts this morning about this passage, and about the kind of God Jesus reveals to us through this miracle. I believe that whatever else a miracle story might do, it tells us something important about God. First, in the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus shows us that …

1) God is a God of Compassion

“When [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick." (14:14)

“Compassion” is a powerful word; an emotional word. It’s more than an action – it’s a powerful feeling. It literally means “to be moved in the heart (or the “bowels”) of one’s emotions.”

Jesus felt for the needs of the people in the crowd. They weren’t his friends. He didn’t even know them. These weren’t people who were ready to follow Jesus to his death.

Most of the people who followed him abandoned him when he approached death. But still, when Jesus saw their hurts and needs, he was moved with compassion for them.

A banker had just turned a man down for a loan, then made him an unusual offer. The banker said to the man, "I have one good eye and one glass eye. If you can tell me which is which, I'll approve your loan." The man looked for a moment, then said, "Your left eye is your good eye." The banker was surprised. "That's right," he said. "How could you tell?" The man said, "I detected a hint of compassion in the other eye."

Unfortunately, that’s how many people see God – as stern, harsh, cold, unfeeling. But nothing could be further from the truth. He’s a gentle, loving Father. He’s moved with compassion at our suffering. He hurts at our hurt, even if it’s our own fault.

A man was diagnosed with lung cancer. His father-in-law said: “What did you expect? You’ve been smoking for 25 years.” Was the father-in-law right? Yes. Was he compassionate? No.

God is not like that. God cares. God has compassion. And God wants us to have compassion for others, care about their needs, and try to meet their needs. And it may be something very small.

While walking home from school, a boy named Mark noticed the boy ahead of him had stumbled to the ground and dropped everything he was carrying. Mark hurried to the boy’s side and helped him collect his belongings.

Surprisingly, the boy was carrying an especially hefty load. There was a baseball glove and bat, a couple of sweaters, a small tape recorder, and an armful of books. Mark helped him carry the things home and his new friend, Bill, was most appreciative of his compassion.

During the walk home, Mark discovered Bill was struggling in school and had just broken up with his girlfriend. When they arrived at Bill’s house, he invited Mark in for a Coke and they spent the rest of the afternoon talking, laughing, and watching TV.

Although the two boys never became real close friends, they kept up with each other throughout the rest of junior high and high school. Several weeks before graduation, Bill approached Mark and asked him if he remembered that day they met when Mark helped him with all of his stuff. Mark nodded as he remembered.

Bill then asked, “Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things that day?” Without pausing for an answer, Bill explained he had cleaned out his locker and was going home to take his life. He had been storing away sleeping pills and was headed home to end it all when Mark happened along to help him out.

Bill told Mark how that simple act of compassion inspired him to go on living. He said, “Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you saved my life!” Imagine how many times our small, seemingly insignificant gestures of concern may reignite the flame of life and inspire someone to continue on.

Second, with this miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus shows us that …

2) God is a God of Miracles.

“Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled…” (14:19-20)

Theories abound about what really happened that day. John identifies the person who provided the loaves and fish as a boy. So it’s suggested many in the crowd had their own food and when they saw the boy share, they shared too.

But that’s not what the story says. This wasn’t a miracle of crowd manipulation. This was a miracle of creation. Jesus created a lot from a little.

But they didn’t start with nothing. They started with a little food. They offered it to God and began giving it to others.

If you need a miracle, this is a good pattern to follow. Take the resources you have, even if they’re small, offer them to God, and begin using them to help others.

Where do you need a miracle? In your finances? Many people start tithing and are blessed by God.

Do you need a miracle in your marriage? If your marriage is hanging by a thread, then offer that thread to God and use it so God can perform a miracle.

God is a God of miracles. He has the power to multiply whatever is given him. He can heal broken marriages, families, lives, and hearts.

God cares about what you’re going through, and he will meet your need, even if it takes a miracle.

Finally, through this miracle Jesus shows us that …

3) God is a God of Abundance.

“…and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.” (14:20)

Everyone ate until they were satisfied, and they still had twelve baskets full of leftovers. The disciple probably ate for days on those leftovers.

God is a God of abundance and God wants to share God’s abundance with you.

I’m not talking about extravagance. I’m not talking about Cadillacs and mansions and yachts and furs. I’m saying, when God provides, there’s more than enough to go around.

That applies to a lot more than just our pocketbooks. It applies to every area of our lives.

Would you like… an abundance of love in your marriage?… an abundance of good will between you and your children?… an abundance of friends who love and support you?… an abundance of health?

Jesus said…
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Living the Christian life isn’t just about surviving. It’s about thriving. It’s about experiencing life to its fullest.

And out of our abundance, God meets the needs of others. I like to think that the disciples didn’t eat all the leftovers. Instead, they used them to feed other hungry people the next day and the next day and the next day. No matter how hard we try, we can’t outgive God.

This story reminds us that God stands ready to meet our needs, because…

He’s a God of compassion – he cares about you.

More than just feeling for you, he has power to do something about it, because…

He’s a God of miracles.

And if you give him what you have, no matter how little, he’ll bless it and multiply it, because…

He’s a God of abundance.

Whatever you’re going through right now, God cares. He cares enough to do something about it – if you’ll just give yourself to him.

Sermon: "Glimpses of the Kingdom"

2011-07-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

GLIMPSES OF THE KINGDOM
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
July 24, 2011
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteousand throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

How we deal with life has a lot to do with our perception. Two people may look at the same situation from completely different perspectives.

For example, Thomas Wheeler, the former CEO of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, tells the story of a time when he and his wife were driving along the interstate when he noticed their car was low on gas.

Wheeler took the next exit and stopped at a rundown gas station with just one pump. He asked the lone attendant to fill it up with gas while he took a little walk around to stretch his legs. When he got back to the car he noticed that his wife and the attendant were engaged in an animated conversation. He paid for the gas and as they were getting back in the car he saw the attendant wave and say to his wife, “It was great talking to you.”

As they drove out of the station Wheeler asked his wife if she knew the man. She told him not only did she know him but they’d gone to high school together and dated steadily for about a year.

“Boy, were you lucky that I came along,” bragged Wheeler. “If you’d married him you’d be the wife of a gas station attendant instead of the wife of a chief executive officer.”

“My dear,” answered his wife, “If I’d married him he’d be the chief executive officer and you’d be the gas station attendant.”

We often think we have the proper perspective on an issue when in fact we’re way off.

Jesus had a way of turning people’s perceptions upside-down. He invited the disciples to look at things in a different way.

Jesus shook up lots of folks’ preconceived notions: about people, about God, about religion.

The Parables/Stories in Matt. 13 shed light on this idea of the “Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew used that wording instead of “Kingdom of God.” He was writing for a Jewish audience who didn’t use the word “God” lightly.

From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus announced that people should turn away from sin and turn to God because the “Kingdom of God/Heaven is near.” Jesus was getting people ready for God’s kingdom.

What does this phrase “Kingdom of God” mean? It means where God’s reign/rule is fully established. It’s where God’s will is “done on earth as it is in heaven.”

It’s not just “heaven” as we think about it – the place you go after you die. The Kingdom of God begins here and now, in this life – and extends to eternity.

I believe that’s why Jesus used so many common, everyday images to describe it – farmers planting seed, a woman making bread with yeast, a man digging for treasure or a merchant buying a pearl, fishermen casting their net.

In these stories Jesus is giving us glimpses of the kingdom, because it can’t be fully described in human terms. Jesus says it’s “like” this or “like” that. And the glimpses he gives are sometimes the opposite of what the world would expect. They turn our notions of God upside down.

Today’s reading contains five parables that illustrate three main points or lessons;
• The mustard seed and yeast go together;
• The treasure and the pearl go together; and
• The parable of the net teaches its own lesson

Let’s look at these lessons all together to see what lessons they teach us about the Kingdom of God.

The stories of the mustard seed and the yeast teach us that…

1) What we see isn’t always what we get.

We have very much bought into the cultural notion that “bigger is better.” Look at…
• The size of the cars we drive.
• The size of the houses we live in.
• The size of malls and ”superstores” (Home Depot, Super Walmart, Super Target, grocery stores) we shop at.
• The size of fountain drinks at 7-11 – 128 ozs.!
• The size of fast-food meals – “Super Size”
• Even the size of churches – “Mega-Church”

We tend to judge the worth/value of something by its size. We reason that if it’s bigger it must be better.

Jesus cautions people/the disciples against applying such standards to the kingdom of God. They may have wondered, if Jesus came to bring in the Kingdom of God, why don’t we see more signs? Where’s the evidence? Shouldn’t the world look a lot different?

People ask the same questions today. Where are the signs that God is in control? That Jesus is Lord?

Jesus says, the Kingdom of God doesn’t work that way. It’s not like the D-Day invasion. It’s not like launching a new brand of soft drink with a nationwide ad campaign.

Jesus says, Think smaller. Think mustard seed. Think yeast.

A mustard seed is very small. Proverbially, it’s the smallest of all the seeds. Imagine one mustard seed planted in the middle of a big field. No one would notice it. It’s not impressive.

But when the seed grows, it becomes a huge plant, like a tree, where birds can come and perch. Jesus is exaggerating, but that just makes the parable more interesting.

Today we might think of a small acorn growing into a mighty oak tree.

Just because something starts small, doesn’t mean it won’t grow into something impressive.

Or think about yeast. A woman is baking bread. She starts with three measures of flour (about 50 lbs.!) She must be baking lots of bread. Again, Jesus is exaggerating.

No one would notice the yeast in the bread. But it has a powerful effect if you give it time. The dough would rise and make enough bread to feed a large crowd.

What we see isn’t always what we get.

We might expect the Kingdom to be big, splashy, showy. Jesus says the kingdom is working more quietly, behind the scenes. We have to pay attention to see it. But one day, everyone will notice.

If we want to see where God is working today, we need to know where to look.

We expect to see God working in huge crowds, mass movements, giant structures, powerful personalities.

Sometimes God works that way. Back in the 1990s, Promise Keepers was a powerful men’s ministry. I attended PK events that filled Texas Stadium and they filled big arenas and stadiums across the country. Women of Faith is a similar kind of event for women, but I think it’s had more staying power than PK. We men tend to go to one event like that and think it’s enough to last us for the rest of our lives. Women know they need to get their spiritual batteries re-charged on a regular basis. Big events like these can reach thousands of people.

But more often God works in quiet, hidden, behind the scenes ways. A man goes to a PK rally, and his life is changed. He has an impact on his wife, his children, church, his community, the world. We may never know his name. But now he is part of the Kingdom. He starts working with the homeless; he organizes a shoe drive for children; he goes on a mission trip to Haiti; he starts leading a Bible study during the lunch hour at work.

One mustard seed, one packet of yeast, doesn’t have a huge impact. But millions of seeds can become a forest, giving shade and comfort to the world. Millions of packets of yeast can leaven enough bread to feed the world.

We can’t judge everything by the size it is now, but by what it will become.

A missionary who ended up becoming a martyr on the mission field in South America once wrote this in his journal:

“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”

That’s the second lesson Jesus is teaching in the stories of the hidden treasure and the very valuable pearl:

2) We are wise to give up what we can’t keep in order to gain what we can’t lose.

The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast speak to how God is working in the world – in hidden, unseen, behind the scenes ways.

These two parables, of the buried treasure and the pearl, speak to how we are to respond to God.

Lots of us dream of finding “buried treasure.” You see people with metal detectors at beaches and in parks.

There are the folks who bring their items to “Antiques Road Show” on PBS, hoping they have something really valuable.

People comb garage sales and flea markets to find a hidden gem.

There weren’t any banks in New Testament times. So people often buried their money for safekeeping. People may start that again with today’s economy!

Then they might die or forget where they buried it. This happens today with the lists of names the Texas Comptroller puts out of people who have unclaimed money in bank accounts. I always hope to find my name on there but I never have.

People would go out and search for this “treasure.” Jesus uses the example of a man who finds treasure in someone else’s field. (Don’t know about legality of this!)

He puts it back (at least he didn’t steal it!) and goes and sells all he has to buy the field, so he can own the treasure.

I read about a man who won a big lottery jackpot. He’d bought $100 worth of tickets. Before he won, he probably looked foolish for spending that much on lottery tickets. After he won, it looked like a wise investment.

The other story is about a pearl merchant on the lookout for fine pearls. He finds one. He sells everything he has to buy it.

We would think someone foolish to spend their life savings on lottery tickets, unless they somehow knew ahead of time that they had sure a winner.

The treasure hunter and the pearl merchant both know that they are “betting” on sure thing. There’s no chance for a loss.

Jesus says the Kingdom of God is so valuable that it’s worth selling everything we have. Remember, that’s what Jesus told the rich young man – go and sell all you have and come follow me. I am more valuable than all the money in the world, he was saying.

Jesus is not saying we can literally buy the Kingdom of God. But he is saying that it is so valuable that it’s worth anything we have to give up to get it.

Money, treasure, possessions all temporary. You can’t take it with you, as they say. There are no U-Hauls behind a hearse. There are no pockets in a shroud.

Only our relationship with God is eternal. That can’t be taken away from us. It is wise indeed to give up what you can’t keep in order to gain what you can’t lose.

The last glimpse of the Kingdom comes from the story of the fishing net:

3) It takes all kinds.

My idea of fishing comes from fishing shows on TV. You cast the bait or the lure out. You reel the fish in. You keep it if it’s big enough. You throw it back if it’s too small.

That’s some people’s idea of church. We only keep the “good” ones – we throw the others (sinners, problem people, people not like us) back.

We decide on a person by person basis. That’s a rather “exclusive” view of the church. Kind of like a country club. We admit some, reject others.

Jesus gives another picture. He says God works like a fisherman casting a big net out in the water. Nets aren’t very discriminating. They catch everything in their path.

Jesus says God’s net gathers fish of every kind.

They’ll be sorted out at the end, but in the meantime, we’re all in God’s big net together. That’s a very “inclusive” picture.

It’s not up to us to say who’s a good “catch” and who’s a bad one. Have you ever seen a flounder? A flounder is an ugly fish – it’s flat and has both eyes on the same side. But oh, it’s good eating!

That’s the way Jesus worked. He threw his net out and brought in all kinds of people – sinners, tax collectors, fishermen, businesspeople, prostitutes…

Religious leaders thought he shouldn’t have anything to do with those kinds of people. But Jesus could see what’s on the inside of a person; we can only see the outside.

Our job is not to decide who’s worth saving and who’s not. Jesus says the angels will do that. Our job is to enjoy the variety of people that God has drawn into this net and to look for the best in every one. God is inclusive, not exclusive. It takes all kinds to make up his kingdom.

So Jesus invites us to expand our perceptions of how God is working to bring about his kingdom.

 Size isn’t everything, because with God, what we see now isn’t necessarily what we’ll get in the end.
 It’s no gamble to give up what we can’t keep to gain what we can’t lose.
 Jesus is drawing all people to himself – enjoy the company!

Sermon: The War Within

2011-07-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

(I have not posted here for a while. I preached the following sermon on July 3. I had planned to go on our Senior High Mission Trip and be gone on July 10, but my dad's health took a turn for the worse and I stayed behind to be with him and my mom. One of our Lay Speakers preached that day. My dad died on July 12 and another of our Lay Speakers graciously offered to bring the message on July 17. I am very grateful for the love and support of God's people.)

THE WAR WITHIN
Romans 7:15-25a
July 3, 2011
Third Sunday after Pentecost

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The Apostle Paul is criticized for a lot of things, but lack of honesty isn’t one of them. I realize that today’s reading from the Letter to the Romans is a little hard to follow. Paul is making kind of a technical argument about the law and the flesh and sin.

But it really all comes down to verse 19:

“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. “

Paul is describing a kind of war or battle that goes on inside every one of us: we don’t do the good things we want to do; and the bad things we know we shouldn’t do – those are the things we end up doing.

It’s like those cartoons you used to see with the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. The angel is telling him to do the right thing. The devil is telling him to do the wrong thing. Which one do we listen to?

Paul is very honest about his struggles. He says, I go through this all the time. I know the good things I should be doing, the things the angel is whispering in my ear, but that’s not what I do. Instead, I do what that little devil is telling me to do.

I don’t understand my own actions, he says. It’s like there’s a war going on inside me, between what God wants me to do and what sin wants me to do, and sin wins the battle most of the time.

If we look at ourselves with the same kind of honesty that Paul applied to himself, we’ll have to admit that there’s the same kind of war going on inside us too.

I know Paul is describing an inward conflict that I have to fight every day. I don’t think this is necessarily what Paul had in mind, but I can relate it to food and diet and taking care of my body.

Every year about this time I have a wellness exam. This isn’t just for my own health, but my health insurance plan through the United Methodist Church offers certain incentives to have this done, including a lower deductible on my plan.

Part of this wellness exam includes a blood test to check for cholesterol, triglycerides, and good stuff like that. So for a few weeks before I know I’m going to have my blood tested I tell myself that I’m going to eat healthier so my blood results will be better than last year. So the doctor will congratulate me on how well I’ve been taking care of myself. I know, I’m supposed to do that the year ‘round, but I don’t always think about it.

I know the kinds of food I need to avoid: foods high in fat and calories. But still I end up eating them. And I know the kinds of food that are good for me: fruits, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, lean meat. But I still end up not eating enough of those.

“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. “

Of course, it’s about a lot more than food and diet and how we take care of our bodies. This “war within” goes to the very core of who we are. We know what’s right, at least most of time, but how do we do what’s right? And we know what’s wrong, most of the time, but how do we keep from doing what’s wrong?

If we try to do it all by ourselves, we’re toast. If someone as spiritually strong as the Apostle Paul couldn’t do it all by himself, what chance do we have?

But the good news is that we don’t have to do it all by ourselves. Listen again to what Paul says at the very end of today’s reading:

Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

There’s the answer right there. Who will rescue us from this daily war within us between right and wrong, good and evil, flesh and Spirit, law and Gospel? Why, Jesus Christ, of course!

When Jesus Christ becomes the Lord and Savior of our lives, he comes to live inside us through the presence and power of his Holy Spirit so, as Paul says somewhere else, it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20).

Christ is not only the power in our lives for forgiveness and salvation, but he’s also the power that helps us become more and more like him in our daily lives.

We know that Jesus was just like us human beings: he hungered, he thirsted, he got mad, he grieved, he laughed, he cried, he was tempted. But there was one way he was different: he never sinned. Jesus always knew the right thing to do and he did it. And he always knew the wrong thing to do, and that’s what he avoided. And with the power of Christ living inside of us, we can become more and like Jesus, walking in his steps and learning how to choose the good and avoid the evil.

I always like to take the opportunity to work in a little United Methodist history and belief when I have the chance, so this seems to be a good time to remind us of something called the “General Rules” of Methodism.

When Methodism started in England in the 1700s, John Wesley, our founder, organized the Methodists into small groups called “classes” of about twelve members each. These classes would meet weekly and each class had a leader who was responsible for shepherding the class members in their spiritual growth.

The General Rules were developed as a simple sort of spiritual “check-up” for the class members to make sure they were making progress weekly in their spiritual growth.

There are just three “rules”:
1. Do no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind.
2. Do good of every possible kind to everyone.
3. Attend upon all the ordinances of God.

In his little book based on the General Rules, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, Bishop Ruben Job summarizes them this way: 1) Do no harm, 2) Do good, and 3) Stay in love with God.

The General Rules are a simple way to remember the bad things we should be avoiding and the good things we should be doing. Wesley tailored them to the kinds of things that were going on in the world of 18th century England.

The evil to be avoided included things like: taking God’s name in vain; drunkenness; slaveholding; fighting, quarreling, and brawling; wearing gold and expensive clothing; borrowing without planning to repay.

The good to be done was especially meeting people’s physical needs for food, clothing, and medical care; caring for their souls; and especially helping fellow members of the household of faith.

And “attending upon all the ordinances of God” simply meant things like going to church, reading the Bible, prayer, fasting, and what we will do in a few moments, participating in the Lord’s Supper. These are all ways that we keep growing spiritually and as Bishop Job puts it, ways we “stay in love with God.”

We might be surprised that a spiritual giant like the Apostle Paul continued to struggle with doing the right things and avoiding the wrong things. But he was honest and admitted that there was still a war going on inside of him.

If we are honest, we have to confess that the same war is being waged inside of us. Without Christ, there is no hope of victory. Evil will win out every time.

“But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57). With Christ’s Spirit living within us, we know the victory ultimately is ours.

We will continue to struggle. We will continue to fight. We won’t always do what’s right. We’ll still mess up, still make mistakes, still fall prey to temptation. That’s when we have to stop, confess our sins, and ask God to forgive us. And God will forgive us.

And as we keep worshiping, keep praying, keep feasting on God’s Word, and keep receiving the means of grace like Holy Communion, we will grow stronger and more and more we’ll do what’s right and not do what’s wrong. And in the end, we’ll be able sing like Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks sang at their victory parade after they won the NBA playoffs, “We are the champions.” Amen.

Sermon: "A Cup of Cold Water"

2011-06-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

A CUP OF COLD WATER
Matthew 10:40-42
June 26, 2011
Second Sunday after Pentecost

[Jesus said] “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Eight-year-old Jared and his dad, Joe, were playing a game of catch one hot summer afternoon, when Jared asked, “Dad, is there a God?”

Joe says he had the same helpless feeling he experienced on the high school baseball team when he lost sight of a fly ball in the blazing sun. He didn’t know whether to move forward, backward, or just stay put. A string of trite answers raced through his mind. In the end Joe opted for honesty, “I don’t know, Jared,” he replied.

Yet Joe’s agnosticism failed to stifle his son’s curiosity. Jared dug a little deeper, “If there is a God, how would you know him?”

“I really have no idea, Jared. I only went to church a couple of times when I was a kid, so I don’t know a lot about those kinds of things.

Jared seemed deep in thought for a few minutes as the game continued. Suddenly, he headed for the house. “I’ll be right, back,” he yelled over his shoulder. “I have to get something.” Jared soon returned with a Mylar balloon fresh from the circus along with a pen and an index card.

“Jared, what in the world are you doing?” Joe asked.

“I’m going to send a message to God – airmail,” the boy earnestly replied. Before Joe could protest, Jared started writing on the index card, “Dear God, if you are real and if you are there, send people who know you to Dad and me.”

Joe kept his mouth shut, not wanting to dampen his son’s enthusiasm. This is silly, he thought as he helped Jared fasten the card to the balloon’s string. But God, I hope you’re watching, he added to his silent petition. After Jared let go of the balloon, father and son stood with their faces to the sky and watched it sail away.

Two days later, Joe and Jared pulled into a free car wash that a church was holding as part of their outreach into the community on a Saturday morning. “How much?” Joe asked as he neared the line of buckets, sponges and hoses.

“It’s free,” the guy told him. “No strings attached.”

“Really!” Joe exclaimed. He was intrigued by getting something for nothing. “But why are you doing this?”

“We just want to show you God’s love in a practical way.”

It was as if that simple statement opened a hidden door to Joe’s heart. The look on his face was incredible, “Wait a minute,” he practically shouted. “Are you guys Christians?”

“Yeah, we’re Christians,” the man replied.

“Are you the kind of Christians who believe in God?”

The man couldn’t help but smile, “Yes, we’re that kind of Christians.”

After directing a big grin at Jared, Joe proceeded to tell the story of releasing the helium balloon with its message only days earlier. “I guess you’re the answer to one of the strangest prayers God’s ever received,” Joe said.
[Larson, Craig Bryan, Choice Contemporary Stories and Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (1998: Baker) pg. 145]

How often is it that our acts of kindness are an answer to someone’s deepest prayer?

Jesus mentions a simple act of kindness in today’s Gospel reading that can have profound results: a cup of cold water.

The mental image of a cup of cold water really catches my attention. It’s so simple, but is there anything that hits the spot better than a cold cup or bottle of water on a really hot day, sort of like the ones we’ve been having lately?

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus thought really carefully before using an image like that when he spoke, or if he just sort of threw it out there casually. Something tells me that Jesus probably didn’t do very many things casually or without a lot of thought. So I’d like to take apart that image of a cup of cold water this morning and see what it might tell us about how we can reach out to others in the name of Jesus Christ.

First, let’s start with the water. Water is some of the most common stuff on earth. They say water covers about 70% of the earth. The human body is made up of about 50-60% water.

But just because water’s common doesn’t mean it’s not important. Just ask the people out in west Texas who are suffering through one of the worst droughts in recent history how important water is.

Water is a basic human need. While a healthy person could live up to eight weeks or longer without food, most experts agree that 3-5 days without water is about as long as a human being can survive.

So it speaks to the importance of water that Jesus didn’t talk about giving a cup of hot oatmeal to someone. Food is a need, but water is an even more important need.

Giving water to someone is a way of saying that we are called to meet people’s needs. We can’t meet every need that a person might have, but we can try to meet the most important ones.

Some people have a literal need for clean drinking water, especially in developing parts of the world.

The statistics can be very sobering:
• Nearly one billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water.
• Waterborne diseases cause the death of 1.4 million children each year.
• The ancient Romans had better water quality than half the people living in the world now.
• Women spend thousands of hours each year collecting and carrying water in some parts of the world.

More and more Christians like Scott Harrison are answering the call to give access to safe drinking water to people around the world.

"The world would be better if more people lived like they were made to live." For Harrison, that meant leaving the lavish life in the Big Apple and committing his life to the billion people who don't have access to clean water.

After ditching his Christian faith at 18 years of age, Harrison "had been working at selfishness" for ten years, selling $350 bottles of vodka, promoting nightclubs and fashion events, and hanging out with beautiful people.

He should have been happy, he said, but he was instead confronted with how arrogant and selfish he had become.

Realizing he was spiritually bankrupt, Harrison began reading The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer, and praying. As he put it, he was "drinking heavily and partying at night, but praying by day."

It wasn't until six months later that he decided to leave New York and dedicate a year of his life in service to God and the poor. He volunteered to serve as a photojournalist with Mercy Ships, a global charity that operates hospital ships in developing nations.

The ship took him to Liberia where he faced poverty and human suffering that he had thought unimaginable. There was no public electricity, no running water, no sewage, and no mail. Families had to walk miles to collect water – and dirty water at that – from ponds and puddles.

So on his 31st birthday in 2006 Harrison started charity: water and already the non-profit has raised more than $20 million – every cent of which has gone to helping about 750,000 people in 16 countries get clean and safe water.

Harrison gave up birthday gifts for donations toward building water wells in Africa. Since then, hundreds of people have joined, giving up their birthdays each September. He doesn't plan to stop until every single person on the planet has clean and safe water to drink.
[Website: Christianpost.com, Sept. 2, 2009, "New Yorker Trades Lush Life for Water Wells," by Lillian Kwon]

Jesus made it clear later in Matthew’s Gospel in that great scene of dividing the sheep and the goats that we are to meet the physical needs of people: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink … I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me …” (Matt. 28)

But giving a cup of cold water can also mean meeting their spiritual needs as well. Too often Christian missions have chosen one or the other. Sharing the good news with someone whose stomach is empty. That doesn’t cut it, as James reminds us in his letter:

If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:15-17)

But it’s also not enough simply to offer food or drink and never share the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. We can’t fill their stomachs and ignore their hearts. We are called to care for people’s eternal souls as well as their physical bodies.

So giving water represents meeting the needs of others in practical ways.

Giving “cold” water means that we offer them our very best. When you’re really thirsty, which would you rather have, a glass of warm water or a glass of ice cold water? Most of us would prefer cold. Jesus took the time to say “cold” water specifically.

There’s the temptation sometimes to give less than our best when giving to others, as though the “poor” or those in need didn’t really deserve our best. When it’s time for the food drive, we reach way back in the pantry and pull out the cans of food that our family would never eat – the Brussels sprouts and artichoke hearts -- or that are out of date and that’s what we give.

We were in Wylie after the tornado of 1993. The community was inundated with donated clothes – they came by the semi-trailer full. And a lot of them were worn-out, dirty, torn. People even gave underwear, and they hadn’t been washed!

Jesus says that when we give to someone in need, we’re giving to Jesus himself. The next time we’re thinking about meeting someone’s needs we need to ask ourselves, Is this the kind of gift I would give to Jesus?

Finally, it’s a “cup” of cold water we give. To me that means that even small things mean a lot.

Jesus didn’t say, a gallon of cold water or a 55-gallon drum of cold water. Just a cup. A cup might not seem like very much but when you’re thirsty, a cup of cold water is mighty good.

I’ve always liked the saying I’ve heard attributed to Mother Teresa, who said of her work with the poorest of the poor in the streets of Calcutta: “We do no great things here. We do small things with great love.”

Mahatma Gandhi was stepping aboard a train one day and one of his shoes slipped off and landed on the track. He wasn’t able to go and get it back because the train was pulling away from the station.

To the amazement of his companions, Gandhi calmly pulled off his other shoe and threw it back along the track to land close to the first one.

Asked by a fellow passenger why he did that, Gandhi smiled. “The poor man who finds the shoe lying on the track,” he said, “will now have a pair he can use.” Even little things can make a big difference.
[Swindoll, Charles R., The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart (1998: Word Publishing), pg. 330]

Sometimes we might hesitate to help people in need because we can’t do a whole lot. We can’t make a huge donation. We can’t give a grocery cart full of food. We can’t give a week or a month of our time. So we don’t do anything at all.

But don’t think that way. Think instead: Can I give even a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name? Even little things can mean a lot – a few cans of food; a few dollars; an hour a week of your time.

In the body of Christ little things mean a lot because we’re not giving them or doing them all by ourselves. Our cup of cold water is joined together with dozens, hundreds, thousands, and millions of cups of cold water from other Jesus-followers all around the world, becoming a veritable river or ocean of living water, flowing out to the world to quench their thirst of body and of spirit. Amen.

Sermon: "I Am with You Always"

2011-06-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

“I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS”
Matthew 28:16-20
June 19, 2011
Trinity Sunday/Father’s Day

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

A dad took his 3-year-old son to the card store a few days before Father’s Day. He showed the little boy the cards for dads and told him that he could pick one out.

The dad looked back at the boy and saw him quickly picking up one card after another, looking inside, and then shoving them back in the slots, every which way.

“Tyler, what are you doing?” he asked. “Haven’t you found a nice card for daddy yet?”

“No,” Tyler said, “I’m looking for one with money in it.”

Even if you didn’t get a Father’s Day card with money in it, I hope you all have a happy Father’s Day.

Fathers are known to sometimes make grand pronouncement like, “I’ll never let my kids do such and such,” and someone will come back with the reply, “Famous last words.”

Have you ever said something like, “No son of mine will ever have an earring/tattoo/mohawk/electric guitar?” Famous last words.

Or “My daughter won’t have her own car until she can pay for it herself.” Famous last words?

In the “olden days” famous people tried to leave the world with some memorable words. We all probably learned Julius Caesar’s famous last words in high school English: “Et tu Brute?”

In answer to his doctor who saud, “General, I fear the angels are waiting for you,” Ethan Allen, the American Revolutionary hero, said, “Waiting are they? Waiting, are they? Well – let them wait!”

John Wesley’s parting words were said to have been, “Best of all, God is with us.”

Jesus’ last words have always held special importance for Christians. During Holy Week especially we remember the so-called “Seven Last Words from the Cross,” including:
• “Father, forgive them ….”
• “It is finished …”
• “Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit.”

But those weren’t Christ’s last words. Remember, the risen Christ appeared to the disciples and spoke several more words. Each Gospel records its own version of our Lord’s parting words before he ascended to his heavenly throne.

This morning we look at Jesus’ last words according to Matthew. Let’s hear those words again:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Usually what someone says last is what they want us to remember the most. So let’s pay special attention to what Matthew gives as the last words of Jesus.

This passage is usually called the Great Commission. But there’s actually more than just a Great Commission being given here. I count three distinct parts:
1. A Great Claim
2. A Great Commission, and
3. A Great Promise

First, Jesus makes a Great Claim:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Has anyone ever made a greater claim than that? Jesus actually made a lot of great claims about himself. Here are just a few:

• Everything has been put into My hands by My Father and nobody knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son—and the man to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Matt. 11:27)

• I myself am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live even though he dies, and anyone who is alive and believes in Me will never die at all (John 11:25-26).

• I myself am the way, the truth and the life. No one approaches the Father except through Me (John l4:6).

Jesus is claiming that all authority, all power, has been given to him. That means that he claims authority as the Lord of all life and the Lord of all lives. We are faced with a decision: do we accept that claim or not?

Probably none of us here this morning would deny Jesus’ claim of authority and Lordship. But sometimes we may not be sure if we want to give him all authority. We want to hold some back for ourselves.

“Jesus is Lord of my religious life, but not of my business/family/finances.”

Or, “Jesus is Lord of Sunday, but not of Monday through Saturday.”

But listen again: “All authority has been given to me.” Christ has won the right of authority over our lives because he has redeemed us – he paid the price on the cross for our sins and for our salvation.

Jesus will never force us to accept his authority. He always leaves the decision up to us. But it’s not a partial deal. We can’t just give him some authority. He claims it all; he’s earned it all; he deserves it all.

Believe me, we should want to give Jesus complete authority because he always knows what’s best for us. When we try to run our own lives we mess it up. But when Jesus is in control, our lives go the right direction.

Second, Jesus gives a Great Commission:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

There can be no Great Commission without first accepting the Great Claim we just talked about. But if we accept Jesus’ claim of authority over our whole life, then we’ll want to listen carefully to what he wants us to do.

In the “army” of Christ, there are no “non-commissioned officers” – we’ve all been commissioned with these words: to make disciples of all nations.

We’re in the disciple-making business, going to the whole world, in the name of the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our mission is to “make disciple of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

Making disciples may sound like hard work, and it is. But it’s one of the most rewarding things we can do. When we form a relationship with someone, getting to know them and their needs, and then we invite them into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ – that’s one of the greatest feelings in the world.

As fathers and mothers, one of our main callings is to make disciples of our children. Hopefully, we surround them with the love and grace of God while they’re growing up, so that when they’re old enough to make the decision for themselves, they will choose to follow Jesus.

The opportunities to make disciples are all around us. People need God, whether they are the friends we go to school with, the people we work with, the neighbors down the street. Look around and find one person that you can invite to youth group, Sunday School, VBS, or worship.

I got active in youth group as a teenager because a friend from school, Gary French, invited me to come. And that involvement helped me get started on the road to discipleship.

Finally, Christ’s last words leave us with a Great Promise:

“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Remember, when Jesus was born he was called “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.” Jesus closes by saying he will always be with us.

This great promise gives us strength because we know that we aren’t out making disciples by our own power, but through the power of Christ which is always with us.

I imagine this promise was really important for the disciples. They hadn’t really done anything apart from Jesus for three years. Now he was leaving them, at least in body. How would they get by? What would they be able to accomplish without him?

So Jesus told them, and he tells us, that he is with us always – and we know that Christ is present with us through his Holy Spirit. That means we’re never alone. In good times, in bad times; when the road is smooth and when it’s rough; when life is at its best and when it’s at its worst, Jesus is with us.

When Christ says, “I am with you always,” it literally means “all the days.” Every day Christ is here with us. He’s not just with us on Sunday, but on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday too. What a promise that is – that Jesus is with is all our days.

So Jesus’ last words begin by claiming final authority over our lives. We accept that authority by giving our lives – all of our lives – to him in faith and trust.

Then Jesus gives us our “marching orders”: to claim as disciples the whole world in the name of the Three-in-One God.

And they conclude by promising his everlasting presence with us through his Holy Spirit.

May Jesus’ “last words” be the last word about who we are, what we are called to do, and in whose name we are sent. Amen.

Sermon: "What Makes a Great Church?

2011-06-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

WHAT MAKES A GREAT CHURCH?
Acts 2:1-21
June 12, 2011
Day of Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

People love to put together lists of the “greatest this” and the “greatest that.” The 100 Greatest Movies of all time. The Top 25 Greatest TV Shows. The Top 10 Greatest Vacation Spots in the World.

I don’t know that anyone has tried to make a list of the greatest churches, but it would be interesting to read it if they did. There are probably a lof of different ideas about just what makes a great church.

I imagine some people would say that what makes a great church is great facilities. A great church has to have a beautiful and inspiring worship space with room for lots of people, the latest in video and audio technology, a huge pipe organ, and dramatic stained glass windows. It also has to have a kids’ play area, a regulation size gym, ample fellowship space, a bookstore, and a Starbucks.

Other people might say that what makes a great church is great programs: something for people of every age to get involved in. A great children’s ministry, an exciting youth program, lots of active Sunday School classes, a dynamic singles group, a world-class music ministry. A great church would have something going on seven days a week and almost 24 hours a day.

For others the essential ingredient of a great church would be a great preacher – a gifted communicator who can keep a diverse congregation hanging on his or her every word each and every Sunday.

Those are just some of the qualities that we might use nowadays to define a “great church.”

Today is the day of Pentecost – the day we remember the “birth” of the Christian church almost 2,000 years ago. The church as it existed in its earliest days really had none of these modern qualities of “greatness.”

In terms of facilities, the early church really had none to speak of. They met in homes mostly, or outdoors, or in borrowed spaces. Sometimes they had to meet in secret if there was a threat of persecution or punishment. It would be several centuries before the beautiful churches and soaring cathedrals would be built.

In terms of programs, again, the early church probably wouldn’t even know what that meant. No Sunday School, no youth or men’s or women’s groups, no choirs, no support groups. One of the few “programs” mentioned by the New Testament is the program to feed the widows in Jerusalem that Stephen was put in charge of in Acts 6.

And in terms of preachers, we think of successful proclaimers of the word like Peter and Paul and Silas in the early church, but none of them were preachers in the modern sense where they filled the pulpit of a church Sunday after Sunday, year after year. They were more like traveling evangelists.

The early church seems to have had almost everything going against it in the early days – persecution, opposition, poverty, untrained leaders. And yet it became one of the greatest, if not the greatest, movment in human history. So maybe we need to revise our definitions of greatness.

Let’s look at the “seeds” of greatness that were present in the early church, even on the Day of Pentecost when it was born. Maybe it can teach us some things about what it means to be a great church in 2011 and beyond. This morning I’d like to lift up four qualities of the Pentecost Church that helped lead to its greatness.

First of all, the Pentecost Church was a church where the Spirit of God was free to move.

In the story of Pentecost that we read this morning, the things that tend to catch our attention are the “supernatural” happenings: the sound of wind from heaven; the tongues of fire; the speaking in other languages. Those really are impressive. But none of that would have really mattered without what we have in verse 1:

When the Day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

None of those other things would have mattered as much – the wind, the flames, the languages; all signs of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit – if the disciples had all just decided to go their own way and do their own thing after Christ had returned to heaven.

But the disciples didn’t take off on their own. They were obedient to the risen Christ and they had faith in his promise. As we saw in last week’s readings for Ascension Sunday, Jesus had told the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the gift that his Father was going to give them. Jesus had promised that in just a few days they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So they were obediently and faithfully waiting in Jerusalem when the gift of the Holy Spirit came, and the Holy Spirit is the one who empowered them to do great things and to help found a great church. On their own none of the disciples could have accomplished very much. They were simple fishermen, tax collectors, husbands, brothers, sons. But with the power of the Holy Spirit giving them strength and courage, they were able to be a part of something great.

A church where the Holy Spirit is free to move isn’t necessarily one where there’s no discipline or order – where everyone just sort of does his or her own thing. The Day of Pentecost shows us that the Spirit is free to move where there is obedience to God’s word and faith in God’s promises.

Second, the Pentecost Church was a church that grabbed the attention of outsiders.

What happened on the Day of Pentecost was too powerful to be ignored: the wind, the flames, the languages. People saw it and wondered what was going on.

A great church attracts attention to itself. I don’t mean it uses clever gimmicks and giveaways to get attention in the media. People can see through those kinds of things pretty quickly.

I mean it grabs the attention of people outside the church because they see lives being changed, sometimes in dramatic ways; they see people loving and caring about one another; and they see a community of faith that wants to make a positive impact on the world and to help people who may never be a part of the that church.

When the world looks at the church they shouldn’t just see an institution that mirrors the world at its worst – scandals, divisions, hypocrisy, greed, pettiness. Unfortunately, the church plays into people’s poor image of the church too often.

Instead, when the world looks at the church they should see people living life at its best – in love, forgiveness, caring, concern, friendship, and generosity. That kind of church will grab the world’s attention every time.

Third, the Pentecost Church was a church that opened its doors to everyone.

Peter made it clear that Christ’s church was open to everyone. There would be no more division or discrmination based on language, race, gender, or age. Quoting the prophet Joel, Peter proclaimed that the Holy Spirit was being poured out on all kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles; sons and daughters; young and old; slaves and free; men and women.

I don’t believe a church can ever be great if it acts more like an exclusive country club than the inclusive body of Christ.

A truly great church lives in the way that the United Methodist Church has advertised itself in recent years: with “open hearts, open minds, and open doors.” That doesn’t mean that we have no standards whatsoever or that, like one of my professors used to say, we’re the “Will Rogers” of churches because “we never met a belief we didn’t like.”

We draw lines and standards where Scripture draws them, but not where it doesn’t. And that means we embrace the gifts and the presence that all kinds of people bring to the body of Christ – young and old, male and female, rich and poor, black and white and brown and all the colors of humankind.

Finally, the Pentecost Church was a church that proclaimed the message of salvation.

Peter proclaimed: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

When he finished preaching, the people asked them what they had to do, and he told them to repent and be baptized and their sins would be forgiven and they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And Acts reports that about 3,000 people were added to the church that day.

For the church to be great, it must continue to proclaim the message of salvation. That’s as important now as it’s ever been. The church has gotten off track when it’s tried to proclaim anything else, whether it’s a feel-good message of “I’m OK, You’re OK;” or a message of judgment and punishment without grace; or a message of salvation by works; or a message of the political agenda of the day.

The church is great when it sticks to the message of salvation: that forgiveness and new life are found when we receive the free gift of salvation offered to us in God’s Son Jesus Christ, and then we seek to live out of that gift every day in love and service toward others.

In the end it doesn’t really matter if a church is “great” in the eyes of the world, however the world decides to define greatness. It only matters if we're great in the eyes of God. We are truly “great” when we are the kind of church that was born on the Day of Pentecost:
• Where the Spirit of God is free to move.
• That grabs the world’s attention by the way we love one another and change lives.
• That opens its doors to everyone.
• And that proclaims the message of salvation to everything that moves until Christ returns.

Amen.

Sermon: "Waiting for God"

2011-06-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

WAITING FOR GOD
Luke 24:44-53
June 5, 2011
Ascension Sunday

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

After being a pastor for 30 years now, sometimes I feel like I’ve spent enough time in hospitals to be a doctor, or at least to have earned a Ph.D in “waiting.” Waiting is just something you have to learn to do when you’re in the hospital.

I got a refresher in waiting this past week when my dad was in the hospital in Wichita Falls. He was having trouble breathing and I couldn’t convince him over the phone to go to the emergency room, so I drove over there on Tuesday and took him myself.

I know it’s become popular for E.R.s to advertise recently on billboards with digital displays about how short their waiting time is. When they say the wait time is something like 27 minutes, that must mean that’s how long it takes to get you out of the waiting room and into an exam room. But that’s only part of the wait.

On Tuesday we waited to be admitted. Then we waited for blood tests. And x-rays. And EKG. And then for the doctor to come and give my dad a diagnosis.

In all, I think we were in the ER for about three hours before they admitted my dad to the hospital with what turned out to be a “trapped lung” and a great deal of fluid (about three quarts) trapped in his chest cavity. That’s why he was having such a hard time breathing.

I’m not complaining about the wait. I realize that ERs are busy and personnel have lots to do and tests take time to read and interpret. When I go to an emergency room I just figure I’ll be there for at least 3-4 hours.

But my 92-year-old mother doesn’t realize all that. She went with us to the ER and waited while all this was going on. My mom is a retired RN so you’d think she’d remember how slowly things can move in a hospital, but I guess she’s not used to seeing it from the patient side of things. She gets very impatient waiting at the hospital. She thinks everything should happen right now. When a doctor or nurse says, “I’ll be right back,” she thinks they mean it literally – not that it could mean 30 minutes to an hour.

So if you’ve ever had to spend much time at the hospital, you know there’s a lot of waiting involved. My dad likes to quote a saying that those of you who’ve been in the military will be familiar with: “Hurry up and wait.”

Some of us are good at waiting and some aren’t so good. Kids aren’t very good at waiting. It seems like as a kid you’re always waiting for something. You’re waiting for school to get out for the summer, and then you’re waiting for it to start again in the fall so you can see your friends. You’re waiting for Christmas or your birthday. You’re waiting to be old enough to drive and then to graduate from high school. And time always seems to move in slow motion.

As we grow older, waiting doesn’t seem so hard, because we’ve gotten used to it, and we wish time would pass a little slower because we realize how precious every moment is.

As people of faith we are sometimes called to wait. This whole business with the end of the world supposedly happening on May 21 was another reminder of this. Some people, like good old Harold Camping of Family Radio Network, just can’t wait for judgment day to come, so he convinces a lot of folks that he knows when it’s going to happen, although Scripture cautions against this very thing.

His May 21 prediction was a complete flop, so now he’s re-adjusted his prediction, as I knew he would, and he’s saying it will happen on Oct. 21. Will he give up when that day comes and goes and the world’s still here? I doubt it. People like that never give up.

But as people of faith we keep waiting patiently for God because we know God’s timing is always right. Whose timing are we going to trust – our own or God’s? I think it’s a safer bet to trust God, because God hasn’t gotten it wrong yet.

In today’s readings for Ascension Day (which was actually last Thursday but we celebrate today), the risen Christ asks or tells the disciples to wait. In the Acts reading he orders them not to leave Jerusalem, “but to wait there for the promise of the Father,” which Jesus knows will be fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost when they are given the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In the Luke reading, he tells them, “See, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high,” again meaning the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

The disciples had lots of questions about the timing of all this. They asked Jesus if this was the time he would restore the kingdom to Israel. Jesus told them it wasn’t for them to know the day or the time. Their job was to wait and to trust God’s timing.

God had already worked out all the timing. God sent his Son into the world at the perfect time – in the “fullness of time” as Scripture says (Gal. 4:4). Jesus had begun his earthly ministry at the perfect time – to coincide with John the Baptist being out in the wilderness. He was crucified at just the right time. He was resurrected three days later, as Scripture had foretold. And now, forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven to sit at the “right hand of the Father.”

It was all part of God’s perfect plan to bring about the reconciliation of the world to himself and to make the power and presence of the living Christ available to every person on the planet.

There was still one key event yet to take place as the disciples stood gazing up toward heaven, where the cloud had taken Jesus out of their sight. That was the gift of the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit that would be given to them on the Day of Pentecost, just ten days in the future. They didn’t know that was God’s plan yet – they were just told to wait for it to happen, which the disciples did until all was fulfilled. Next Sunday we’ll remember the story of the Day of Pentecost.

In the meantime, we are also called to wait for God’s perfect timing in our own lives as followers of Jesus Christ. I had a New Testament professor in seminary, Dr. Victor Furnish, who attended school in the days of train travel. He said there was a sign at a train station that used to fascinate him. The sign said, “Waiting room. No loitering.” There’s a difference between waiting and loitering, isn’t there?

Loitering is just kind of hanging around, wasting time, with no real purpose or plan. But waiting, at least for the Christian, isn’t like that. As Christians, we are called to wait for God and God’s timing with patience, with expectancy, and with faithfulness.

We wait for God with patience because we know God’s timing isn’t always our timing. We like for things to happen right now. But God knows that sometimes “right now” isn’t always good for us. We may not be ready yet. We need some time to mature, to grow, to prepare for God to use us.

We wait for God expectantly because we know that God always keeps God’s promises. There’s a play by the absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett called “Waiting for Godot.” Two characters, named Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. We trust that God give us all the things that God promises – faith, hope, love, strength, power, blessing, grace – because God is real and God loves us.

And we wait faithfully for God because we know that we are called to be about God’s business while we wait. As the angels told the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

While we wait for Christ’s return at the fulfillment of history, we’re not supposed to stand around, gazing toward the heavens, trying to calculate the day and time. We’re supposed to be faithfully employed with the work that Christ has given us – to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit the imprisoned, and to share the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ as we make disciples for the transformation of the world.

Life does involve a lot of waiting – at hospitals, in traffic, in line at the store, for a computer program to download. Sometimes it might seem like a lot of wasted time. But time spent waiting for God is never wasted. As Isaiah 40:31 promises:

“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
They shall mount up with wiongs like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”

Sermon: "Is Suffering Ever Good?"

2011-06-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

IS SUFFERING EVER GOOD?
1 Peter 3:13-22
May 29, 2011
Sixth Sunday of Easter

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

We’ve had a young man on our prayer list for some time: Andrew Small. Andrew was diagnosed with leukemia and a brain tumor six years ago. You didn’t know Andrew, but when we lived in Dallas, Suzanne had his younger sister in her preschool class. Liesl donated bone marrow for her big brother. Our church had a blood drive for him. We were so hoping and praying for a cure.

Andrew died last Monday at the age of eleven. More than half of his short life was spent battling serious disease. Let me quote from his obituary which was in Friday’s Dallas Morning News:

"Despite the years of treatments and surgeries, Andrew lived his life to the fullest and gave us 11 glorious years that we will never forget. He brought beauty and joy to so many people with his wit, his concern for others, and his 'old soul' understanding of things around him. He would be proud if we all would make it our life mission to love everyone and to help those less fortunate."

It’s natural that we wonder why such a young life has to go through so much suffering along with his family and friends. Stories like that happen all the time, all around the world.

The question of suffering is one that has puzzled those who believe in an all-powerful and all-loving God from the very beginning. We’ve probably all wondered why God doesn’t use his power to step in and put an end to innocent suffering. We wonder why a God of love would allow such suffering to happen.

It’s a good question. It’s one we need to keep thinking about and wrestling with. But I’m not sure we’ll ever find an answer that will satisfy us. It has to do with the powers of nature and human freedom and sin and the presence of evil in this world.

This has been quite a year for tornadoes and other natural disasters. It makes us wonder what hurricane season might bring. Just when we thought the storms in Alabama were the worst we’d seen, then came the terrible devastation in Joplin, and more storms this past week in Oklahoma and other places. There’s still the flooding along the Mississippi that may go on for quite a bit longer.

We don’t have much, if any, control over nature. We are just forced to suffer at its cruel hands and clean up the mess afterwards.

The freedom that God has given us is a wonderful and treasured gift. It’s one of the things, maybe the main thing that makes us truly human.

But some people use their freedom, not to serve and help others as the Bible instructs us, but to harm themselves or others, and they create all kinds of suffering. Every day we read of murders, attacks, violence and scandals.

The recent effects of the greed of the Bernie Madoffs and Enron and the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in just the last few years will cause suffering to untold millions through their pensions and savings.

We have to admit that some of our suffering is our own fault. We make bad choices – in our families, on our jobs, in our classroom, with our diets – and we suffer the consequences.

But unless we give up our faith in God altogether, we keep searching for a redemptive purpose to at least some of the suffering we go through, especially when we suffer through no fault of our own or even in pursuit of a noble or righteous goal.

Most of us would like to believe what Peter says in verse 13:

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?

This is the way we’d like life to be and the way we believe it should be. Who would want to do us harm if we’re doing what’s right and good?

We mind our own business, obey the law, pay our taxes, turn in our assignments on time, go to church, put money in the offering plate, and expect that life will treat us fairly and everything will work out in the end.

But we know this isn’t always true. We know lots of people who were doing the right thing, yet they suffered. They never smoked a cigarette in their life, yet they got lung cancer. They never took a sip of alcohol, yet they were paralyzed in an accident caused by a drunk driver.

Verse 13 is the way we wish the world was. Verse 14 is the way we know it is: sometimes we do the right thing and we still suffer.

Memorial Day is a day we remember and give thanks for those who suffered and even died in the cause of good – defending our country and our freedom against foreign aggression and the threat of tyranny. We are especially mindful of those who gave their lives on the fields of battle or in the skies overhead or on the strife-filled seas, but we are thankful for everyone who answers the call of duty to serve their country in times of conflict.

I was reminded once again of the cost that many members of the military paid when I read a book a few weeks ago titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand.

I mentioned this book when I spoke at the Lenten Luncheon last month, so excuse me if you’ve read the book or heard me talk about it. I highly recommend that you read it.

It tells the story of a man named Louis Zamperini. He was the son of Italian immigrants who settled in southern California. Louis led a wild, undisciplined childhood (not that his parents didn’t try to rein him in!) during Depression days. He might have ended up in jail or worse, but he was saved by his God-given ability to run fast.

His older brother got him involved in running track at age 14, and soon he was winning every race in sight. He qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in the 5,000 meters in 1936 and ran in front of Adolf Hitler in Berlin. Many thought he was on his way to breaking the 4-minute mile.

But World War II happened and he was drafted into the Army Air Corps and he ended up a bombardier on a B-24. After narrowly escaping death in a harrowing air battle over the Pacific, Louis’ plane was shot down on a mission to find a missing bomber.

Only three crewmen survived. Two of them miraculously survived 47 days in a life raft, drifting in the Pacific Ocean, until they washed ashore on a Japanese-controlled island, and became POWs.

Louis survived another two years of brutality, starvation, and the constant threat of death in the POW camps, until they were liberated in 1945.

When Louis returned home at the end of the war, he just couldn’t make a go of his life. He drifted back into drinking, partying, and fighting. He had nightmares every night of his cruel captors in the POW camps. He got married but his wife finally got fed up and threatened to leave. He had cheated death countless times during the war, but now he wasn’t sure if he could survive life after the war.

He finally decided that the only way he could make sense of his sufferering would be if he went to Japan, hunted down the guard who had beaten him almost daily, and executed him.

But before that could happen, his wife decided to give him one last chance, but only if he attended a crusade that a young evangelist named Billy Graham was holding in Los Angeles. Louis went the first time under protest, but got up and walked out when the invitation was given.

She convinced him to go back the next night, and something in him broke. He remembered a promise he’d made to God on the raft when he was dying of thirst: “God, if you save me, I will serve you forever.”

So Louis walked the aisle and gave his life to Christ. And he never had another nightmare about prison camp.

A year later he was sent by the Graham ministry back to Japan to preach in a prison that held some of the very guards who had made the lives of Louis and so many others a living hell. Louis forgave them and hugged them. And he has spent the rest of his life serving Christ and serving others, especially young men in southern California who are in danger of getting off the right path, like Louis was before he discovered running and found Christ.

The story of Louis Zamperini is just one example of a person who can undergo unimaginable suffering, and yet find meaning and purpose in that suffering and use their experience to help others and to share the love of Christ.

When we suffer for our own evil acts and bad choices, Peter says, then we should expect it.

But even if we’re doing what’s right, and proclaiming the Gospel or standing up for our faith or fighting in a noble cause for freedom, we should still expect to suffer. But in that kind of suffering, Peter says, we will be blessed.

How can it be a blessing to suffer? Because we are following Christ’s own example. Jesus is the supreme example of innocent suffering. He suffered not for himself, but for us, that we might be reconciled to God, be forgiven of our sins, and find new and eternal life in him.

We may not always be blessed in this life, even when we’re on the side of righteousness, but we will be blessed in the life to come.

Suffering itself may not be good. But sometimes it is necessary to bring about something good.

As Paul says in Romans 8, God has a way of making “all things work together for good when we love God and are called according to God’s purposes.” Not all things are good, but God can bring good out of them.

I’m impressed that Andrew Small’s family is trying to bring something good even out of the tragic death of their eleven year old son and brother. As his obituary said:
He would be proud if we all would make it our life mission to love everyone and to help those less fortunate.

And the family is also exploring options to carry out Andrew’s wishes through the creation of a charity to support families like theirs and to further research to eradicate this horrible disease.

So Peter’s advice to us is simple: Keep doing good, and trust God not always to take away our suffering or to keep us from suffering, but to be with us in the suffering, and to bless us, and to use us to bless others. Amen.

Sermon: The Way, the Truth, the Life"

2011-05-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

John 14:1-14
May 22, 2011
Fifth Sunday of Easter

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
And you know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

Godfrey Saxe wrote a poem back in the 1800s titled, “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” The poem is based on an old fable from the country of India. In the poem, six blind men go to observe an elephant to understand what one really is. One blindly walks into the elephant’s side and proclaims that an elephant is like a wall. The second felt his tusk and confidently said the elephant was like a spear. The third grabbed its trunk and said, “Why of course, the elephant is like a snake.” The fourth, feeling the elephant’s leg, said that it was obvious to any thinking person that the elephant was like a tree. The fifth blind man ran his hand across the elephant’s ear. He was sure that the elephant was like a fan. Finally, the sixth man took hold of the tail and announced the elephant to be like a rope. Saxe sums up the poem by saying…

Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

It’s a problem when we claim to know all about something but really only have a part of the story. It can be amusing when we’re talking about elephants, but it gets serious when we start talking about God.

You see, as human beings, whatever we claim to know about God through our own experience or feelings is always going to be partial and incomplete. At best, it’s only going to tell part of the story, like a blind man holding on to an elephant’s tail and being sure that this huge animal is like a rope. That’s why we have to depend on more than just our own experience or feelings when it comes to knowing God. And thank God, God has given us more to go on – it’s called revelation. God has chosen to reveal himself to us in many marvelous ways, and especially in God’s Word, the Scriptures. But most and best of all, God has revealed himself to us in his Son Jesus Christ. In telling us about himself, Jesus is telling us about God. As Jesus says in today’s reading…

“If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:7)

This morning we’re looking at one of the seven “I Am” sayings of Jesus in John’s Gospel, probably the most controversial one:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

That’s a very radical and life-changing proclamation. It’s one that people down through the ages have staked their very lives on and some have given their lives for it. But it’s not a proclamation that is especially popular in the world today. You see, if Jesus had just said…

“I am a way, I am some truth, and I am part of life,”

…then people would be okay with it. But a lot of folks have trouble with the exclusivity of Jesus’ claim about himself…

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

It sounds like Jesus meant that he is the only way to God, that he has some kind of exclusive handle on truth, and that if we want life, we’ll have to go through him. That’s not what a lot of people want to hear nowadays. As I read somewhere recently, it’s popular nowadays to be a seeker of spiritual truth. But you just better not say you found the truth. Then you become exclusive and intolerant and definitely politically incorrect.

This is one of those times when people have hold of only part of the elephant and they don’t want to admit that someone else may have the whole picture. But I have to take Jesus at his word. And Jesus doesn’t say that he is one way among many ways, one version of truth among many versions of truth, and one life-style among many alternative lifestyles. He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

He doesn’t say, “Some people come to the Father through me, but there are other valid ways to get to the Father. “He says, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” So let’s take Jesus at his word and draw the implications from this very radical “I am” saying of Jesus. The first thing that this saying means is this…

1) We Are Not the Way

There are two kinds of errors which cause people to believe that they are the way: new age philosophy and a religion of works.

The new age religion convinces some people that since they are spiritual beings, they are, in effect, a god. This is very appealing, because it means that if I am my own god, then I get to make my own rules. I don’t have to submit to the rule of another God, I submit only to my own will and desires.

What we have today are people who are trying to be spiritual without having any experience or relationship with any God other than themselves. They make no differentiation between religions or gods, good or evil, conflicting ideologies or moral distinctions. As long as it is “spiritual” it is good. It makes no difference. People may be into Eastern mysticism, astrology, astral projection and feel in tune with the spiritual realm, but for some reason they don’t consider Christ an option. You have to ask yourself why.

Christian evangelist Ravi Zacharias answers the question of why people are willing to try anything but Jesus Christ by saying:

“Because he calls you to die to yourself. Any time truth involves a total commitment in which you bring yourself to complete humility, to the surrender of the will, you will always have resistance. Christ violates our power and autonomy…At the heart of the rejection [of Jesus Christ] is resistance to the claim of who he is.”

The attractive thing about the new age religions is that you get to be your own god. You are your own savior.

But even within Christianity there are those who want to be their own savior. It is the error of legalism or good works. The legalist believes that instead of him/her being in debt to God, God is in debt to him/her. The legalist believes God owes him/her something, because s/he believes s/he has earned his/her way into heaven by his/her own effort and merit. The legalist cannot admit s/he is a sinner. It seems beneath him/her. She feels like a very good Christian, even though she is not depending on Christ to be her savior. She is her own savior. She has saved herself by her works. Legalists are people who are trying to be Christians without Jesus.

But I say to you, we are not the way, and we can never be the way, no matter how hard we try. Jesus is the way. He is the way we can come to God. We are not God and cannot become a god. Neither can we be our own saviors. If we could be good enough to get to heaven on our own, Jesus Christ died on the cross for nothing. It was unnecessary for him to come to earth and die in our place. It wouldn’t be necessary for us to believe in him since we would believe in ourselves. But Jesus said, “I am the way.” Either he is right, or we are right.

The second thing this saying means is…

2) Other Religions Are Not the Way

This is one of the real objections people have about the Christian faith. They say it is exclusive, that is, it excludes the claims of other religions that they are also the way. The idea is that Christianity should say that it is one of the many ways.

The World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) says that there are 10,000 distinct religions in the world. 150 of them have a million or more followers. Is it reasonable to believe that Jesus is the only way and the other 9,999 are not?

But let’s imagine that through genetic research there is a sudden breakthrough in the search for a cure for cancer. A completely noninvasive, painless, one-time treatment with no side-effects would reverse the spread of the cancer and it would simply dry up. Let’s imagine that this is not just a partial cure for some people, but that it works every time for everyone. Now let’s imagine that everyone on the planet has cancer and is in need of a cure. Would it be closed-minded, narrow, or arrogant for the scientists to say, “The gene therapy way is the only way”? Or would it be the kindest and most loving thing they could say — born out of concern and compassion? Others might still have confidence in what they have been used to and would be free to try dietary cures, chemo, radiation or acupuncture, and no one would stop them if that is what they chose to do. But would it be wrong to try and convince them that there was only one way? Would it be wrong to believe in the only true cure?

This is not to say that the other religions of the world do not have some truth in their teachings. Neither does it say that the followers of these other religions may not be good and decent human beings who deserve to be treated with courtesy and respect. But the question is, are these other religions the way to God? Are they the true cure for our sin and separation from God? Having some truth is like holding the tail of an elephant and believing you know all about it. When humans try to figure God out, it is like blind men reaching for an elephant. But the Christian faith is not about people reaching for God, it is about God reaching for us, revealing himself to us, giving us the Scriptures, coming to us, giving himself for us in his Son Jesus Christ.

The last thing this saying means is…

3) Jesus Christ Is the Only Way to God

Here is what we are left with: either Jesus Christ is who he said he was or he is a fraud. When he said, “No one comes to the Father except through me,” he was stating a truth or a lie. There is no in- between here. Unquestionably, the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is the universal Savior. The witness of the church throughout the ages has been that Jesus is the only way to God. The witness of countless millions of people down through the corridors of time attest to the fact that after placing their belief in Jesus and receiving him into their lives they have found his claims to be true.

Now exactly how salvation “through Jesus Christ” is accomplished, we leave up to God. We know that God desires that no person should perish, and that God will treat every person with perfect love and justice. We trust that salvation “through” Jesus Christ will be as generous and gracious as God himself. We leave judgment up to God.

But if we reject the claim that Christ alone is God’s ultimate means of salvation, we are not only rejecting the words of Jesus himself, but we are rejecting the witness of Scripture, the proclamation of the historic church, and the testimony of all those who have experienced this reality in their personal lives.

Maxie Dunnam, the former president of Asbury Theological Seminary, tells of attending a conference on world evangelism where several speakers talked about the importance of religious pluralism and the need for inter-religious dialogue. Some even talked about the negative impact of Christians witnessing to people of other religions and the danger of imperialism in churches which had a passion for evangelism. Dunnam says, “We heard that Jesus is our Savior, but not necessarily the Savior of humankind and that the paths to salvation in other religions are as legitimate as the way of salvation in the Christian religion.” But then a bishop from Pakistan, a country where Christians are definitely a minority who suffer for their faith, stood up, and with conviction and passion said, “If what all of you are saying is true, then I must go back home and tell the Christians in our land that they don’t have to die for the faith any more.”

The belief that Jesus Christ is the only true way to God is not just some abstract theological consideration, it is the belief that Christians for two thousand years have based their lives on. They have bled and died for that belief, as they are still doing today. What difference is this belief making in your life?

Sermon: "The Good Shepherd"

2011-05-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

THE GOOD SHEPHERD
John 10:1-10
May 15, 2011
Fourth Sunday of Easter

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

There is a wonderful story about Charles Laughton, the famous British actor, who was at a dinner party near the end of his career. After dinner the guests gathered in the living room. The host called upon this great actor and orator to recite the 23rd Psalm. He said he would. By all accounts it was great, such a beautiful actor’s voice. His timing and intonation were just perfect. Then they went around the room and others were invited to offer something. There was an old woman sitting in the corner. She happened to be the aunt of the host and was staying with him. She was asked if she would recite something. She was nearly deaf so she hadn't heard what had gone before. She stood up and started to recite the 23rd Psalm. People at first were embarrassed. It was an awkward situation to have her recite the same psalm as the great actor Charles Laughton.

There was something in the way she recited this psalm, though, that touched the hearts of those listening. When she finished, the room was quiet and everyone was truly touched. Why had this nearly deaf old woman been able to say the same words as Charles Laughton, with none of his training but with so much more power? Laughton, sensing the question, got up and said…

"I know the psalm. But she knows the shepherd."

Do you know the shepherd, really know him? He is someone we all ought to know. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” Let’s get to know the Good Shepherd better by looking at a Picture of the Shepherd; the Priorities of the Shepherd; and the Power of the Shepherd.

1) A Picture of the Shepherd

The church I grew up in had a stained glass window of Jesus as the Good Shepherd up front, behind the choir. You may know the image I’m talking about: Jesus is walking along a path, his shepherd’s staff in one hand and cradling a little lamb safely in the other arm, with the flock following along behind. When I think of the Good Shepherd, that’s the picture I usually have in mind.

The scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments, present a wonderful picture of the Good Shepherd. Let me call your attention to the picture painted in two Old Testament passages in particular.

A. Psalm 23
These very well-known words paint one of the most beautiful pictures of the Lord as our shepherd. The 23rd Psalm is deserving of a sermon all by itself, so let me just note a couple of facets that I find especially appealing.

First, I like that the psalmist makes it so personal. He doesn’t say, “The Lord is the shepherd” or “The Lord is our shepherd.” He says, “The Lord is my shepherd.” The Bible often spoke of God as the shepherd of the whole people, the nation. But David brings it down to very personal terms. Jesus expressed the personal care and love of the shepherd for each and every sheep in the parable of the lost sheep…

“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4)

God is never so focused on the whole group that God loses sight of the individual.

The second reason this picture of the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23 appeals to me so much is because the shepherd is depicted in such caring terms. “The Lord is my shepherd. He takes care of me. He gives me everything I need.” Green pastures, still waters – they represent God’s constant and loving care for the sheep.

B. Ezekiel 34
This chapter is too long for me to read to you this morning but you might want to read it on your own. In the first part of the chapter, God indicts the “shepherds” of Israel, that is, the leaders, both political and religious, because they have not been good shepherds. They’ve been feeding themselves instead of feeding the sheep and they’ve not been caring for the “sheep” the way they should.

But then in the next part of the chapter God speaks an encouraging word. Because his shepherds haven’t been doing their job, God tells the people that God himself will be their shepherd. Listen to the beautiful picture these words paint…

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak… (Ezek. 34:15-16)

Passages like Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34 stand in the background of the picture the New Testament paints of Jesus as our Good Shepherd. I’ve already mentioned the times when Jesus promises to search out and find the one lost sheep (Matt. 18:10-14; Luke 15:3-7). Here are some other examples…

 Mark 9:36 – He had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd…

 Luke 12:32 – “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

 1 Peter 5:4 – And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.

 Hebrews 13:20 – Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep…

Jesus is not just the “good” shepherd, he’s the “chief” shepherd and the “great” shepherd as well.

But in the New Testament, no passage paints a more vivid and complete picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd than John 10, in Jesus’ own words, so let’s turn to those verses now to see what they tell us about the priorities and the power of the Good Shepherd. We read verses 1-10 this morning, but I’ll be referring to verses 1-18 also.

2) The Priorities of the Shepherd

When Jesus talks about himself as the Good Shepherd, he points to some priorities that a good shepherd, a shepherd who is really doing his job, would have. Let me list four priorities of the shepherd…

A. Knows his sheep.

The first priority of a good shepherd is to know his sheep. This is what Jesus says in verse 14…

“I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me.” (Jn. 10:14; The Message)

In Palestine sheep from many different shepherds’ flocks were often kept in the same fold at night. In the morning, the shepherd would come and call his sheep, and they would follow him out of the fold. Jesus is saying that as our Good Shepherd, he knows each one of us, his “sheep,” by name. Isn’t that a comforting thought? We’ll never get lost in a crowd. The Good Shepherd knows us. We are priceless in his eyes. And if we ever get lost, he will come looking for us until we are found.

B. Nurtures his sheep.

The next priority of a good shepherd is to nurture his sheep. A shepherd spends most of his time finding pasture for his sheep. Ancient Palestine was not exactly a lush garden spot. There wasn’t a lot of grass there. But the good shepherd will do whatever it takes to make sure his sheep have enough food and water – that their needs are taken care of. Jesus said in verse 9…

“I am the gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for – will freely go in and out, and find pasture.” (Jn. 10:9; The Message)

The Good Shepherd not only knows his sheep, he grows his sheep. He provides all they need to grow physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally into the people God wants us to be.

C. Gathers his sheep.

I’ve never done any shepherding (I did play one a few times in Christmas pageants when I was a kid), but I suppose a shepherd spends a lot of time gathering his flock – keeping them together, making sure they’re all there, counting heads, preventing them from getting mixed up with another shepherd’s flock. Jesus speaks of how he gathers his flock…

“You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They’ll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd.” (Jn. 10:16; The Message)

This word gives me hope that while we may be divided right now into our Methodist flock and our Baptist flock and our Catholic flock, one day the Good Shepherd will gather us all into one great flock.

D. Protects his sheep.

The last priority of the shepherd I want to mention today is vital: the job of a good shepherd was to protect the flock from danger. There were wild animals and there were thieves against whom the sheep needed to be protected. A shepherd wasn’t much good if he couldn’t return at night with as many sheep as he left with in the morning. Jesus lets us know how far he was willing to go to protect his sheep…

“The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary.” (Jn. 10:11; The Message)

That’s what Jesus did – he sacrificed his very life on the cross for us, to protect us from the greatest danger of all: death and eternal separation from God. Our Good Shepherd can protect us from any and all dangers. And he is able to do that because of the last thing I want us to look at this morning…

3) The Power of the Shepherd

In ancient times a shepherd had to be powerful, either through his own strength, his wits, or his use of available weapons, to protect the sheep. One of the greatest shepherds in the Bible, David, was just a boy, but he was powerful because he was deadly accurate with a sling and stone.

But Jesus’ power as Good Shepherd did not come from physical strength or size or superior weapons. Jesus shares with us where his power as the Good Shepherd comes from…

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I received this command from my Father.” (Jn. 10:17-18)

That’s the secret to power in God’s Kingdom – it’s the power of self-sacrifice, the power of servanthood. As Jesus said so many times, the last shall be first; whoever would be great must be a servant. Jesus was given the power, as God’s own Son, to take away the sins of the world. But to exercise that power Jesus had to make a choice: keep his life or lay it down? Jesus freely chose to lay down his life, and we were saved.

We are also given power by Christ, but it’s not so we can lord our power over others, but rather it’s so we can serve others, as Jesus did, and give our lives, if necessary, to save them. The power to serve, the power to sacrifice, the power to give – that’s the power of the Good Shepherd, and that’s the only power we need.

I hope you will always have this picture of the Good Shepherd with you when you need it: he knows you; he nurtures you; he gathers you; he protects you. And he has the power to lay down his life for you, which he’s already done. All you have to do is recognize his voice and follow where he leads. Amen.

Sermon: "Love Deeply from the Heart"

2011-05-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

Love Deeply From the Heart
1 Peter 1:17-23
May 8, 2011
Third Sunday of Easter

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

On Mother’s Day, we often think of things that we learned from our mothers – the bits of wisdom they passed along to us through the years.

But it’s also true that mothers can learn a lot from their children. Here are a few things moms have learned from their kids:
• A three-year-old’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
• When you hear the toilet flush and the words “Uh-oh,” it’s already too late.
• A king-size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2,000 square foot house four inches deep.
• Legos will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year-old. Duplos will not.
• Pla-Do and microwave should never be used in the same sentence.
• Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.
• The spin cycle on the washing machine will not make worms dizzy. It will, however, make cats dizzy.
• 9-1-1 will bring the police to your house, even if the older sister dialed them just to scare her younger brothers.

I hope all of you have a very happy Mother’s Day and that it doesn’t bring too many lessons like these!

How many of you speak more than one language? I studied French in high school and college and got where I could read it pretty well but never really could speak. I think I would have needed to spend some time in France for that to happen.

I also studied German for a reading exam in theological German that I had to pass for a Ph.D. program, but I never got very good at that either.

I really admire people who can speak other languages. It takes lots of study and practice. It would be cool to go to another country and be able to speak their language.

However, one summer Suzanne and I were camping in a National Park out west and we met some people from Europe – Belgium, I think. They said how much they enjoyed traveling in the United States because they could go for thousands of miles and only have to speak English, where in Europe there were so many countries and so many languages that you could never learn them all.

There’s a course called “Rosetta Stone” that was advertising heavily on TV a year or so ago. It’s a computer-based language program that claims it could teach anyone to speak another language in a short amount of time. I don’t know if their claim is true, but I plan to teach you five languages this morning during this sermon, and I guarantee that every one of you can learn them!

In today’s Scripture reading from 1 Peter, the writer invites us to “love one another deeply from the heart.” Since it’s Mother’s Day and we’re thinking about showing love to our mothers and in our families, let me share this idea of the “Five Love Languages” with you as a way that we can love one another deeply from the heart.

Je t’aime. Ich liebe dich. Te amo. S’agapo. (Hold up right hand with thumb, index and little fingers extended; middle and fourth fingers folded against palm). Those are five ways to say “I love you” – in French, German, Spanish, Greek, and Sign Language. But that’s not the kind of “love language” I’m talking about.

The 5 Love Languages is the title of a book by Dr. Gary Chapman. It’s very practical and down-to-earth. Through 30 years of experience as a marriage and family counselor, Dr. Chapman discovered that everyone he ever counseled had a “love language,” a primary way of expressing and interpreting love. He also discovered that, for whatever reason, we are usually attracted to someone who speaks a different “love language” than we do.

These are the five love languages that Dr. Chapman has found are universal:
1) Words of Affirmation
2) Quality Time
3) Receiving Gifts
4) Acts of Service
5) Physical Touch

These are all ways that we either give or receive love. Love may seem like some grand romantic concept that is impossible to define, but when it comes right down to it, we experience love in very concrete, practical ways. There’s not just one way to say or to show “I love you.” For Mother’s Day, we may think the only way to tell mom we love her is with a gift. But that’s just one of the five ways.

And we don’t all experience love the same way. What conveys love to me may not convey love to you.

So let me say a little more about each one of the five love languages, and by the time we all leave here today, we’ll be able to speak all five fluently.

1) Words of Affirmation
Actions don’t always speak louder than words. If this is your love language, unsolicited compliments mean the world to you. Hearing the words, “I love you,” are important—hearing the reasons behind that love sends your spirits skyward. Insults can leave you shattered and are not easily forgotten.

We all like to hear positive, affirming words:
• You look great today.
• You’ve lost some weight.
• You did a beautiful job on that flower bed.

If this is your love language, those kinds of affirmations fill your “love tank” to the brim. Unfortunately, a lot of us are better at handing out criticism than compliments.

2) Quality Time
Love is spelled T-I-M-E. In the vernacular of Quality Time, nothing says, “I love you,” like full, undivided attention. Being there for this type of person is critical, but really being there—with the TV off, fork and knife down, and all chores and tasks on standby—makes your significant other feel truly special and loved. Distractions, postponed dates, or the failure to listen can be especially hurtful.

3) Receiving Gifts
Don’t mistake this love language for materialism; the receiver of gifts thrives on the love, thoughtfulness, and effort behind the gift. If you speak this language, the perfect gift or gesture shows that you are known, you are cared for, and you are prized above whatever was sacrificed to bring the gift to you. A missed birthday, anniversary, or a hasty, thoughtless gift would be disastrous—so would the absence of everyday gestures.

4) Acts of Service
Can vacuuming the floors really be an expression of love? Absolutely! Anything you do to ease the burden of responsibilities weighing on an “Acts of Service” person will speak volumes. The words he or she most wants to hear: “Let me do that for you.” Laziness, broken commitments, and making more work for them tell speakers of this language their feelings don’t matter.

5) Physical Touch
This language isn’t all about the bedroom. A person whose primary language is Physical Touch is, not surprisingly, very touchy. Hugs, pats on the back, holding hands, and thoughtful touches on the arm, shoulder, or face—they can all be ways to show excitement, concern, care, and love. Physical presence and accessibility are crucial, while neglect or abuse can be unforgivable and destructive.

You probably know which one of these five expresses love to you. For me, it’s #1 – Words of Affirmation. I don’t mind the other four, but to get a simple card or email or spoken word that tells me, “Don, I appreciate what you did,” or “Thanks for being who you are” – I can survive on that for a long time.

If you’re not sure about your love language, Dr. Chapman’s website offers a free assessment. It’s also important to know the love languages of the people who are important to you – your spouse, your children, your family and friends.

I mentioned that Dr. Chapman discovered that we’re often attracted to people who have a different love language than ours. That means that what says “I love you” to you may not send that same message to your spouse. Even though receiving gifts may send you over the moon, you may have noticed that your spouse doesn’t react the same way. “Honey, don’t you know I love you? I bought you a diamond ring.” What they may be craving is a word of affirmation or just a few hours of your undivided attention. Learn your loved ones’ love language and speak it as often as you can. Your marriage, your family, your relationships will all benefit.

“Loving deeply from the heart” means learning how to say “I love you” in the language that the other person will understand and accept. That’s what God does for us. When Jesus wanted to show other people how much he loved them, and how much God loved them, he showed it in diferent ways. Jesus spoke all five love languages fluently.

Sometimes it was with words of affirmation. When the disciples criticized a woman for pouring expensive ointment on Jesus’ head instead of selling it and giving the money to the poor, Jesus told her what a beautiful thing she had done and that it would be told in remembrance of her for a long, long time.

Sometimes it was with quality time. Jesus went and ate dinner with the hated tax collector, Zacchaeus to show him that God cared about him. He ate dinner with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and Mary drank in that special time with him, even while Martha was busy cooking and serving and cleaning up.

Sometimes Jesus gave gifts to show his love. To the hungry multitudes gathered on the hillside, he gave enough bread and fish to fill them all, with plenty left over.

Sometimes it was acts of service. On his last night with his disciples, he knelt down and washed their feet as an act of loving servanthood, and told them to do the same for one another.

Sometimes it was with physical touch that he conveyed God’s love. This happened lots and lots of times, especially when he healed. He touched lepers. He touched Peter’s mother-in-law. He touched an unclean woman. He touched the children who crawled into his lap for a blessing.

Jesus loved us deeply from the heart, and he loves us still.

If our moms are still living, we’ll show them our love in all kinds of ways this Mother’s Day – with cards, with gifts, with flowers, with candy, with phone calls if they’re far away, by taking them out to eat, by placing a candle on the altar. Those are all wonderful ways to say, “I love you.”

Perhaps the best gift we can give to those we love is learning what love language they speak and becoming fluent in that language. Happy Mother’s Day!

Sermon: "God Never Gives Up"

2011-05-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

GOD NEVER GIVES UP
John 20:19-31
May 1, 2011
Second Sunday of Easter

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

I’m a pretty good driver. I’ve been driving for over 40 years now and I’ve only gotten a handful of tickets and been in a couple of minor accidents.

My first ticket and my first accident happened at the same time. I was 16 years old and I’d only had my driver’s license for a month. My biggest mistake was having my parents in the car at the time.

We were driving from our house to a basketball game at the high school gym and, of course, I was driving. I approached an intersection where there was no stop sign, no yield sign, no traffic light. It’s what the drivers ed book calls an “uncontrolled intersection.”

Another car was approaching the intersection from a cross street on my right at exactly the same time. We both assumed that the other person would yield the right-of-way and neither of us did. I had almost made it through, but the other car hit me in the right rear fender of our black 1963 Ford Galaxie.

Even though he hit me, I found out from the policeman who came that it was my fault because I hadn’t yielded the right-of-way to the car on the right at an uncontrolled intersection.

So there I was, driving for only a month, and already I’d had a wreck and gotten a ticket. I figured my short-lived driving career was pretty much over, at least for a while. My dad wasn’t too happy, and I couldn’t make up a story about the sun being in my eyes or a dog running in front of the car – he’d seen the whole thing from the front seat!

But do you know what my dad did? He let me get back in the driver’s seat and drive the rest of the way to the game! I’d made a mistake, but my dad didn’t treat it like it was the end of the world. He did wonders for my confidence and self-esteem by trusting me enough to let me drive the rest of the way to the game.

Have you ever failed someone or let them down or messed things up so you thought they might never forgive you or trust you ever again? But then you found out that they believed in you enough to give you another chance? If so, then I think you can identify with what the disciples must have been feeling that first Easter evening.

They must have felt like they’d failed Jesus miserably. They’d let him down, denied, and deserted him. They were hiding behind closed doors for fear that the authorities might come and arrest them too.

The last one they’d want to face would be Jesus. So what were their thoughts when Jesus suddenly appeared in the room? Shock? Surprise? Disbelief?

“What’s Jesus going to say to us?” they might have thought. Will he be mad at us for running away at his time of greatest need? Will he be disappointed with us? Peter, who’d denied him three times, must really have wondered how Jesus would treat him.

Imagine how shocked the disciples must have been when Jesus came into the room and greeted them not with words of anger or disappointment or accusation, but with words of comfort: “Peace be with you,” he said.

And then he held out his hands to show them the wounds, and the place in his side where he’d been pierced with the spear. No mention of Peter’s denial, Judas’ betrayal, the disciples’ desertion: he just showed them his wounds.

Then he told them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

“What?” they must have thought. You mean we still have a future as disciples? You still want to use us, Jesus, even after we failed you miserably? Jesus was telling them that he hadn’t given up on them. They were still his disciples. They still had work to do.

A girl goes off to college. Never been really wild but a taste of freedom goes to her head, like that first sip of beer. So she parties a little too much, studies not enough. Home at Christmas break. She knows she messed up. She won’t make the same mistake next semester. The grades come in the mail, but she already knows what they are, what they have to be. What will mom and dad say? Is there such a thing as a second chance?

A young man gets off the bus in the kind of suit you can get for 50 bucks, but it’s all he has because they took it all away when he went in to serve his time. A youthful mistake. In over his head. But now he’s paid his debt. Will anyone give him a job? Is there such a thing as a second chance?

After he’d said “Peace be with you” for the second time, Jesus breathed on them and it was the Holy Spirit that filled them. Jesus didn’t just re-commission them as disciples. He gave them power – Holy Spirit power – because he knew they’d need it.

They were being sent out on a special assignment, to do the work of forgiveness. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Who better to do the work of forgiveness than these men who had just been forgiven by the hands that bore the print of the nails?

Jesus had said once, “The one who is forgiven much, loves much.” Who better than the disciples to go out in the world to proclaim the forgiveness of God who forgives even those who allowed the death of his own Son?

But one of them was missing that night. Thomas, for his own reasons, was absent from the hiding place, so he didn’t see the wounds; he didn’t hear the blessing of peace; he didn’t receive the breath of the Holy Spirit that sent them out to forgive the sins of the world.

What would Jesus do about Thomas? Is there such a thing as a second chance or even a third? Had Jesus given up on Thomas, with his insistence on seeing the proof for himself, touching it even, before he’d believe?

No, Jesus didn’t give up on Thomas. He came back a week later just so Thomas could see whatever it took to make him believe. He said, “Peace be with you” for the third time. And he told Thomas, “Do not doubt but believe.”

God never gave up on these disciples, despite their lack of faith, their weakness, and their need.

And you know what? God hasn’t given up on us either! As much as we’ve let him down, failed him, denied him, or just plain left him out of our lives, God still loves us.

Is your attitude, “I’m too broken, too weak for Jesus to forgive me and to be used by God?” More broken than Peter, who denied Jesus three times? Weaker than Thomas, who had so boldly proclaimed just a short time before, “Let’s go with Jesus, that we may die with him” (Jn. 11:16)?

We all have parts of our lives that we’re not especially proud of. We’ve all done things, hurt people, made mistakes, messed up, failed, so we wonder if God could ever put the broken pieces back together again.

Like the disciples, we may hide in fear in our secret places, too afraid to move beyond our doubt and guilt. We may be afraid that God has finally given up on us.

If this describes you, then simply close your eyes. See Jesus standing before you, here at the Communion table. He shows you his nail-scarred hands, the wound in his side. No words of accusation or disappointment. He simply says, “Peace be with you. This is my body. This is my blood. Given for you. Given for all. Come and join me. We have work to do.”

Amen.

Sermon: "Easter: An Anchor for Your Soul"

2011-04-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

EASTER: AN ANCHOR FOR YOUR SOUL
John 20:1-18
April 24, 2011
Easter Sunday

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

We’ve all heard the old saying: “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

Occasionally, tax day falls during Holy Week, as it did this year. If it had been on April 15, like normal, it wouldn’t have. But because of a District of Columbia holiday observed last Friday, the 15th, our tax returns weren’t due until April 18, which was during Holy Week.

That quirk of the calendar creates an interesting opportunity to meditate on those two life certainties: death and taxes.

As I was working on a sermon for Easter Sunday (and you can’t have the resurrection of Jesus without his death), I was also doing last-minute tax preparation.

I couldn’t help but notice the contrast:
• One seems very heavenly, the other very earthly.
• One minute I’m at Calvary, the next the checkbook.
• One reminds of how God paid it all, and the next reminds me of how much I have to pay.

Then it hit me! What a time to study God’s masterpiece plan to save his children.

For if the cross and Easter don’t make sense in a common week full of common tasks, when does it make sense?
That is the beauty of the cross. And the relevance of the empty tomb.

They both occurred in a normal week involving flesh and blood people and a flesh and blood Jesus.

It was an ordinary week packed with kids being dressed by impatient parents rushing off to work.

A week of dishes being washed and floors being swept.

Nature gave no clue that the week was different than any other thousand before.

The sun took its usual route. The clouds puffed the Judean Sky.

The grass was green and the cat-tails danced in the wind.

Why did God do that? Why did he make it in an ordinary week?

Because he wanted this holy week to be an anchor of your ordinary week. A week full of hurts and disappointments.

He wanted the Easter message to be an anchor for those who have ever:
• Felt the weight of yesterday’s failures.
• For those who are tired of being slapped by the waves of broken dreams.
• For the middle-aged mother who has been traded for a younger model.
• For those who have had the policeman make a knock on the door.
• For those who have crossed a line they thought they would never cross.
• For those who are familiar with the funeral songs as they lose their loved ones.

He wanted to give hope to those who feel like giving up.
For those who want to wave the white flag of surrender.
For those who live with a constant fear of failure and the finality of death.

The message of Easter confronts our fears & doubts and anchors two life-changing truths:
1) Failure is not fatal.
2) Death is not final.

I would argue that those two truths are as certain as death and taxes will ever be, because they are anchored by Easter.

Let’s look at them this morning.

1) Failure is not fatal.

Here are some people whose early lives might be described as a failure:

Dismissed from drama school with a note that said, “She’s wasting her time; she’s too shy to put her best foot forward” – Lucille Ball

Turned down by the Decca recording company that said, “We don’t like their sound and guitar music is on the way out” – The Beatles

A failed farmer, soldier and real estate agent. At age 38 he went to work for his father as a handyman – Ulysses S. Grant

Cut from the high school basketball team, he went home, locked himself in his room, and cried – Michael Jordan

Fired from a newspaper because he had no imagination and lacked original ideas – Walt Disney

His fiancée died; he failed in business twice; he had a nervous breakdown; he was defeated in eight elections – Abraham Lincoln

Some people bounce back from failure with amazing perseverance. They don’t accept the idea that “failure is fatal.”

An assistant of Thomas Edison’s once tried to console the inventor over the failure to achieve what he’d set out to find in over 700 experiments. “It’s too bad to do all that work without results,” he said. “Oh,” said Mr. Edison, we have lots of results. We know 700 things that won’t work.”

For some people, though, failure is worse than death. They’d rather not risk anything at all than risk the chance of failing.

One of my regrets from high school is not going out for the baseball team. IPHS started varsity baseball in my 10th grade year.

I had always loved baseball, but I’d never had the chance to play on an organized team. When my grade school finally started a school baseball team in the sixth grade, I got chicken pox, missed two weeks of school and the first game, and then we moved to Texas!

By the 10th grade, I thought I didn’t stand a chance against boys who had played for years in Little League or Pony League. I was afraid I would be a complete failure – so I didn’t even try.

A year or so later, our school started a golf team. I’d only been playing golf a short time, but this time I didn’t make the same mistake. I tried out for the golf team. I didn’t make it, but I had fun and at least I tried!

There are lots of failures in the Bible.

Imagine how Peter felt after he had denied Jesus three times on the night before the crucifixion, especially after claiming he would follow Jesus to the very death if necessary.

There’s Paul, who had devoted his life to hunting down Christians and bringing them to trial – just think how he felt when the risen Christ appeared to him on the Damascus Road and asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Of course, there’s Judas – he betrayed Jesus to those who arrested him and put him to death. He was so overcome by his sense of failure that he hanged himself.

Some of you here today may be so overwhelmed with a sense of failure that you wonder where you’ll find the strength to go on. It might be:
• A failed marriage.
• A failed relationship.
• A failed job.
• A failed life.

The message of the cross has a truth to which you can anchor your soul: Failure is not fatal.

As much as it might feel like it at the time, failure does not have to have the last word. The cross proved that once and for all.

On Friday, as the followers of Jesus saw him die on the cross, they must have thought that was the ultimate failure. All their dreams had died. The disciples locked themselves in a house out of fear. Maybe they were wondering why they’d wasted three years of their lives following a man whom they’d hoped was the Messiah, butt who was now lying in a tomb.

The women went to the tomb early on Sunday morning, expecting to anoint a body that had lain dead for three days.

But what they came to find out was that what the world saw as a failure, God could use for ultimate good.

Because the cross means forgiveness for the worst failure of all – sin. Failure would be fatal if there was no possibility of forgiveness. Sin dooms us to an eternity of separation from God. As Paul says: “The wages of sin is death.”

But sin and death were defeated on the cross. The message of the cross is that our sins are forgiven!

That’s the first truth that anchors our soul: Failure is not fatal.

But there’s another truth, and it’s just as important:

2) Death is not final.

Easter means that failure is not fatal and that death is not final.

The proverb is certainly correct: death, like taxes, is certain.

And facing that certainty causes lots of people stress and anxiety and worry. No matter how we try to avoid it, our mortality has a way of coming up and smacking us in the face.

There’s even a website: www.deathclock.com. You enter the month, day, and year you were born. Whether you are normal, pessimistic, sadistic, or optimistic. Your “Body Mass Index.” Whether or not you’re a smoker. And it tells you how many seconds you have left.

I have about 521 million seconds left. Being optimistic adds 18 years. Being pessimistic subtracts 22 years.
But let me warn you: if you’re over your early 70s, it will tell you that your time has already expired!

We don’t need such a device to remind us of the truth that we all are mortal.

Though death is certain, it is not final.

That’s because the empty tomb and the risen Christ have taken the “sting” out of death.

As Paul says in Rom 15:54-55 –

“Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where…is your sting?”

All of us must pass thru the “valley of the shadow of death,” as Psalm 23 calls it, but Easter anchors us to the truth that it’s just a shadow.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse told of the occasion of his first wife’s death. He and his children were driving home from the burial, overcome with grief.

He searched for a word of comfort to offer them but he could think of nothing. Just then, a large moving van drove by. As it passed, the shadow of the truck swept over the car.

An inspiration came to Dr. Barnhouse. He turned to his family & asked, “Children, would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow?”

The children said, “Well, of course, Dad, we’d rather be run over by the shadow. That can’t hurt us at all.”

Dr. Barnhouse explained: “Did you know that 2,000 yrs. ago the truck of death ran over the Lord Jesus … in order that only its shadow might run over us?”

We face death, but thanks to Jesus, we only face its shadow.
[M. Lucado, Traveling Light, pgs. 93-94]

And because of the empty tomb and the risen Lord, we emerge from the shadow into the light of eternity, where we are privileged to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Death is not final. Death is simply the passageway to life after death. That is Christ’s promise to everyone who believes in him:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 1:25-26).

Remember:
Failure is not fatal. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. The mistakes you’ve made. Jesus’ death on cross means you’re loved and forgiven.

Death is not final. If this life is all there is, none of this would make any difference. But this life is a brief moment compared to eternity. Because Jesus was raised, you and I can live with him in eternity. All it takes is to trust in him as Lord and Savior.

Sermon: "Called to Die"

2011-04-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

SERIES: WHEN GOD CALLS
“Called to Die”
Matthew 27:32-54
April 17, 2011
Palm Sunday

As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross.

And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; then they sat down there and kept watch over him. Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’” The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.

From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o”clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”
Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

For most of us to say those words, we wouldn’t really be taken seriously. But the man who wrote them not only meant them, he lived them.

His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and he was one of the leading theological voices of the 20th century. He was born in Germany in 1906, so he lived through Hitler’s rise to power.

Bonhoeffer was an avowed pacifist, but he opposed Hitler and his policies from the very beginning. He spoke out against the persecution of the Jews. When Hitler took over the Christian Church in Germany, Bonhoeffer joined with others in forming the “Confessing Church,” the major source of Christian opposition to the Nazi regime.

Bonhoeffer had an opportunity to escape the looming war in 1939 when he was invited to come to Union Theological Seminary in New York. He accepted the invitation, but almost immediately regretted his decision. He said that he would have no right to participate in the re-building of the church in Germany if he didn’t go through this dark time with his countrymen, so he returned to Germany on the last scheduled steamer across the Atlantic before the start of the war.

Bonhoeffer joined the anti-Hitler resistance movement and participated in unsuccessful plots to assassinate the Fuhrer. His involvement was found out in 1943 and he was arrested and thrown in prison, where he stayed for 2 years. He even plotted in prison with those who wanted to kill Hitler. Sympathetic guards smuggled some of his letters from prison to family and friends.

Just a month before Germany’s surrender in 1945, Bonhoeffer was executed at Flossenburg concentration camp for his part in the plots against Hitler. The camp doctor who witnessed his execution said: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer ... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

He has been recognized not only as a great theologian but as a martyr who lived out his faith.

Even though he wrote those words eight years before his death, Bonhoeffer knew exactly what he was saying:

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

Jesus’ disciples knew the seriousness of that call. They had heard Jesus say on more than one occasion, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross, and follow me.”

They had heard Jesus say, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

They had heard Jesus speak of his own impending death: that he would undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the religious leaders, and be killed.

Peter had even rebuked him one of the times when he said this, but Jesus had said, “Get behind me, Satan!”

The disciples had tried to gloss over Jesus’ words, thinking that maybe he just meant them figuratively – he couldn’t really be serious about dying.

But then came Good Friday and they saw how serious he was. Almost all of the disciples deserted him at the time of his greatest need, but there were faithful women there at Calvary, looking on from a distance, to see how it all went down.

The Gospels describe the crucifixion in excruciating detail. We are tempted to turn away or to watch from a comfortable distance. But if we want to really celebrate Easter Sunday, we must go through Good Friday. So we look on with the women.

They saw Jesus stumbling under the weight of his cross as he was forced to carry it from the place where Pontius Pilate had finally condemned him to the Place of the Skull, Golgotha, where he was to be crucified. It was not a long way, about a third of a mile, but after the horrible beating and scourging he’d suffered, he was too weak to go the whole way, so a passerby, a man from Cyrene named Simon, was forced to carry his cross the rest of the way.

They saw him taste, and then refuse, the wine mixed with gall that he was offered. His tormentors might have meant it as one more cruel joke, giving him bitter wine, but Jesus did not want anything that would deaden the pain of what he was about to endure.

Then they nailed him to the cross. Surprisingly, none of the Gospels describe the actual crucifixion. From what we know from archaeology and history about ancient Roman crucifixion, it was usually done along a public road, to serve as a deterrent to any would-be criminals.

The cross itself could be in any of several different shapes, such as the lower case “t” we’re used to, or more like a capital “T” or even an “X.” The victim would not have been very high off the ground – just maybe two or three feet above eye level for those standing on the ground.

They were usually nailed to the cross-piece at the palms or the wrists. A heel bone with a nail still in it from a 1st-century crucifixion victim found in 1968 shows that that the feet weren’t always nailed to the front of the cross, as we usually picture it. This one’s feet were nailed to the sides of the cross.

Crucifixion victims weren’t meant to die from the nail wounds. It was meant to be the most excruciating death possible, leaving the victim to hang there a few days, finally dying of exposure or suffocation.

For the maximum humiliation, the victims were stripped of their clothing. Witnesses saw the guards gambling for Jesus’ clothes.

They saw the placard hanging above Jesus’ head with the official Roman charge against Jesus, the crime for which he was judged worthy of execution: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” It was illegal for anyone to claim to be a King of the Jews – only Caesar was king. The Romans meant this as a cruel joke, but his followers knew it was the truth – Jesus was the King, just not in the way the Romans meant it.

They saw the two bandits who were crucified with Jesus. Jesus was not crucified all alone, but with common criminals.

They heard all the cruel taunts hurled at Jesus from those who passed by the cross. They challenged him to come down from the cross and save himself – anyone who calls himself the “Son of God” should be able to do that. Little did they know that Jesus had struggled with that temptation the night before, in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had prayed to God to let the cup of suffering pass from his lips. But he finally yielded himself to God: “Not my will, but your will be done.”

They saw the sky turn black at noon and stay black for three hours, until 3:00, when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That was the human voice of Jesus expressing the feeling of utter abandonment he must have felt on the cross.

The bystanders thought Jesus was finally crying out for help, and they waited to see if heavenly beings would come and rescue him. But with one final cry, Jesus breathed his last and died.

The earth shook. Rocks split apart and tombs were opened. The curtain in the Temple, the one that concealed the “Holy of Holies” where only the high priest could enter once a year on the Day of Atonement, was torn in two, symbolizing that complete access to God was now open to all.

This whole scene so moved one of the centurions, the Roman soldiers who were keeping guard over the crucifixion, that he was moved to proclaim as clear a declaration of faith as anyone in the New Testament: “Truly this man was the Son of God..”

The disciples took all this in over the next day or two, and they began to understand now what Jesus had meant when he said that he would suffer and die, and that those who would be his disciples would have to take up their cross and follow him.

The call to take up our cross is the call to die. That’s a hard word to hear, isn’t it? We would prefer to hear that when Christ calls a person, he bids him or her to come and … live … or be happy .. or be blessed .. or be successful.

But to come and die? Who in their right mind would want to accept such a call? No one except those who truly want to live. Because only in dying to ourselves and taking up the new life that Christ offers us can we find the true meaning of life. How ironic that we must die in order to live. But that’s what Jesus tells us, and that’s what we know deep down in our heart of hearts to be true.

We will probably not be called to lay down our lives like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or the other great martyrs of the faith did. But we must die to self in order for Christ to live in us.

We die to self each time we put someone else’s needs before our own. We die to self when we adopt the servant’s posture and wash one another’s feet. We die to self when we give a sacrificial gift to help another person in need.

When Christ calls a person, he bids him come and die. But only in dying do we find true life. Let us consider Christ’s call to take up our cross during this Holy Week, so that we may truly live. Amen.

Sermon: "Called to Live"

2011-04-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

SERIES: WHEN GOD CALLS
“Called to Live”
John 11:17-27
April 10, 2011
Fifth Sunday of Lent

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’

Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

Your phone rings in the middle of the night – is there any sound more disturbing? No good news ever comes after we go to bed.

We immediately think of every bad thing that could possibly happen. After glancing at the clock to check the time, we stumble through the dark to find the phone – gotta remember to move it next to the bed – our heart beating a mile-a-minute.

We hesitate a moment before picking it up, hoping it’s a wrong number, hoping it’ll stop ringing, but when it doesn’t we lift the receiver to our ear and hear the words both expected and dreaded: “There’s been a death in the family.”

Who? When? Where? How’d it happen? We’d better find a pen and write this down because we may not remember it all in the morning. We ask a thousand questions because we can’t really think of anything else to say at a time like this. “Honey, you’d better put on a pot of coffee. There’s been a death in the family.”

There’s been a death in the Lazarus family. Lazarus himself has died. When he first got sick, his two sisters, Mary and Martha, didn’t waste any time letting their friend Jesus know. They sent him word: “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” He’d know who they meant. After all, they felt so close to Jesus that he was like family. They wanted him to know right away.

But Jesus did something strange. Instead of leaving for Bethany, where Lazarus and his sisters lived, as soon as he got the news, he waited for two days. It was like he was sure there was plenty of time.

The disciples didn’t think he should go at all. Bethany was just a couple of miles from Jerusalem and Jesus had narrowly escaped being stoned for blasphemy the last time they’d been to Jerusalem, not all that long ago. They thought it would be too dangerous to go back so soon.

But Jesus made up his mind to go see about his friend. Death hangs heavy over the scene, and it’s not just Lazarus. Thomas urges his fellow disciples: “If Jesus is going, let’s us go too, and we’ll all die together.” Bold words, considering how all the disciples acted when it actually came time for Jesus to die.

When Jesus gets to Bethany it’s clear he’s waited too long. Lazarus has already been dead four days! The family and friends are there, consoling each other. Children are playing in the yard, but that’s okay; they don’t really know what’s going on.

There’s food piled on the table and stacked in the kitchen – jello salad, the strawberry kind with the marshmallows and the little mandarin oranges; tuna casserole; fresh-baked bread; a pecan pie. Neighbors are still bringing it by. When there’s a death in the family you bring food. So much food, but no one’s really hungry. Oh well, it’ll freeze.

Martha spots Jesus coming through the gate so she runs out to see the one she’d been waiting for – the only one who can possibly make it all right. Half in anger, half in faith she says to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even so, just ask God, and God’ll do whatever you ask him.” That sounds strange to the people standing around outside, but they decide it must just be the grief talking.

Martha’s asking for the impossible – that her brother, Lazarus, whom she loves, be brought back from the dead. Why can’t she just accept the fact that there’s been a death in the family and move on?

But Jesus tells her not that she’s asking for too much, but she’s not asking for enough! Not asking for enough? She wants life for her brother, and Jesus says he will give life to the world.

“Not only will your brother Lazarus rise again,” he tells her, “but I am resurrection and life, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Jesus says that the life he wants to give to the world doesn’t start at some far-off resurrection day at the end of time, but it begins right now for those who live and believe in him.

But even those words, that have brought so much comfort to countless millions in funeral home chapels and cemetery gravesides, don’t lessen the depth of sister Mary’s grief.

Mary runs out of the house and falls in tears at Jesus’ feet. She’s crying. Martha’s crying. The aunts and uncles and cousins are crying. And before you know it, Jesus is crying too.

Jesus is crying!? Why’s he crying? Doesn’t he know that it’s going to be all right? There’s going to be a resurrection!

Jesus is crying because he’s human, and people cry when there’s been a death in the family.

Most of the time, John seems to go out of his way in his Gospel to portray a Jesus who is always in control of his emotions. There’s no scene in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus sweats drops of blood and struggles with the cup that God is asking him to drink. There’s no cry of abandonment or dereliction from the cross. When the time comes, he pronounces that “It is finished,” and he is the one who bows his head and gives up his spirit.

But here at Lazarus’ tomb we glimpse a very human Jesus who is moved by the death of his friend and the emotions of his family. Maybe Jesus’ tears give us permission to show our own grief.

But is there a deeper reason? When Jesus saw Lazarus’ tomb, a sort of cave with a big rock covering the opening, John says that Jesus was “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” As he stared at the tomb that held his dear friend Lazarus, could it be that Jesus was so deeply moved because he knew that just as surely as Lazarus was going to step forth from the tomb, he, Jesus, must enter it?

We must remember that just as soon as Lazarus emerges from the grave, some of the spectators run off to inform the Pharisees what happened. A meeting of the council is called – that is, the chief priests, scribes, and elders – and it’s at that meeting of the council that Caiaphas, the high priest, makes the fateful decision: it’s expedient that one man, Jesus of Nazareth, should die for the people, so that the whole nation should not perish in a Roman crackdown on religious enthusiasm such as Jesus was stirring up among the masses with all his signs and miracles. A man who can raise people from the dead must be stopped before he starts a riot! So from that very day on, John says, the religious authorities began to plan how they could put Jesus to death.

So the very act that restores life to Lazarus, that brings overwhelming joy to Mary and Martha, and that brings hope to mortal people everywhere that trust that in Jesus there really is resurrection and life – that very act is the one that sends Jesus to the cross and to his own tomb. But that’s next week’s story.

Right now, the people of Bethany don’t know all that. All they know is that they came that day to share the grief of Mary and Martha because there’s been a death in the family, and they ended up watching a bandaged, befuddled corpse emerge from the dark tomb into the light of day.

Lazarus is called forth from death to life, and we are given that same call – to leave behind all that holds us captive to a culture of death, and embrace the life that God offers us in Jesus Christ: life abundant, life eternal.

Right now all is joy and happiness. We can get that food out now. Lazarus is bound to be hungry. Death is forgotten for the moment in a celebration of life.

Someone says we ought to have a parade for Jesus. Show how much we love him and appreciate him for what he’s done for Lazarus and his family. We could wave palm branches or something. Maybe get a donkey for him to ride on. Do it up right. But that’ll take some planning. Maybe next week.