When God Says No

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 1, 2017.  The Bible verses used are Luke 23:1-12.

            We continue looking at the last days of Jesus’ life on earth.  Jesus has been betrayed.  He’s been arrested.  He’s been questioned by the high priest.  Now, he’s been brought before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

            A Roman governor, at that time, served at the pleasure of the Roman emperor.  In other words, the Roman emperor could appoint anyone he wanted to serve as a governor, for any reason or no reason.  And the Roman emperor could remove any governor and appoint a different one, again for any reason or no reason.  

So, if you were a Roman governor, one of your main concerns was to keep the emperor happy.  And what was the best way to do that.  Well, two things.  One, make sure that money keeps flowing to the emperor’s treasury.  In other words, make sure all the taxes from your area that are supposed to go to Rome get to Rome.  And if you can send a little bit more than that, well, that would be appreciated.  Two, keep the peace.  Keep things under control.  Don’t let there be any unrest, don’t let the people get stirred up to the point where they try something.  Don’t make Rome have to send troops to your area to calm things down.  Keep them calm yourself.

So, knowing that, what are the two things the chief priests, the people out to get Jesus, tell Pilate?  First, they tell him Jesus opposes paying taxes to Rome.  Second, they tell him Jesus is getting the people all stirred up and things might get out of control.  The chief priests tell those things to Pilate precisely because they know those are the things that will get Pilate’s attention.

So, you’re Pilate.  You have the chief priests telling you these things about Jesus, and you’re concerned.  But on the other hand, you’ve heard that this Jesus guy has quite a following.  If you come out too strongly against him, maybe his followers will get even more out of control.  What do you do?

Well, you’re a politician, so you look for a way to pass the buck.  And Pilate thought he’d found one.  He finds out that Jesus is from Galilee, and he says, well, I’m the governor for Jerusalem. Herod’s the governor for Galilee.  I’ll let Herod deal with him.  And that’s the part of the story I want to talk about.

Now, this is not the same Herod the wise men talked to in the Christmas story.  This Herod, we’re told, had heard about Jesus and was eager to see him.  Why?  Because he was hoping Jesus would work some sort of miracle.  He wanted to see a show.  You can just imagine Herod pleading with Jesus to work a miracle, suggesting things he might do.  He had no interest in actually learning about Jesus or following him.  He was treating Jesus like a magician who was supposed to do tricks for him.  And when Jesus refused to do that, Herod sent him back to Pilate.  When he saw Jesus was not going to perform on command, Herod lost interest.

Now, when you put it like that, what Herod did sounds pretty crass.  It sounds really disrespectful of Jesus.  How could he treat Jesus like that?  How could he act like Jesus was one of his court jesters, someone who’s only worth was to entertain Herod?  How could Herod act so arrogantly to the divine Son of God?  You and I would never do anything like that.

And yet.  We’re tempted to.  We’re tempted to all the time.  And sometimes we give in to that temptation.  Not in that exact way, of course.  Not as obviously and crudely as that.

But think about it.  Have you ever been in a tough spot and asked God to bail you out of it?  Or, have you ever prayed for God to do something specific, and been disappointed when God did not do it?

Now, I’m not saying we do this just out of a desire to see God perform a magic trick.  We turn to God in this way for lots of reasons, and sometimes they’re very good reasons, or at least they seem that way to us.  Sometimes we’re convinced that what we want would be a good thing, not just for ourselves, but for everybody involved.  Sometimes we sincerely believe that what we want is, in fact, God’s will.  And of course, at other times, we turn to God in this way because we’re desperate.  We’re in a spot where we see no way out and have nowhere else to turn.  And of course, there can be lots of other reasons we pray this way, too.

But for whatever reason, we pray for God to do some specific thing.  And sometimes, God does those things.  But sometimes, God does not.  And so, the question is, how do we react to that?  How do we react when, maybe with nothing but the best of intentions, we ask God to do something and God does not do it?

Well, we’re probably disappointed.  And that’s pretty natural.  But what then?  Once we get over our disappointment, or at least get reconciled to it, then what?  Where do we go from there?

We saw what Herod did.  Herod completely lost interest in Jesus.  Herod decided that if Jesus was not going to do what he wanted, then he wanted nothing to do with Jesus.  He sent Jesus away and essentially decided that Jesus was never going to be a part of his life again.

But of course, Herod never really believed in Jesus in the first place.  He was curious about him, he’d heard some things, but he never actually believed.  And in fact, it appears that there was no chance that he ever would believe.  Again, he was not interested in faith.  He wanted to see a show.

You and I, presumably, do believe.  Or at least we’re interested.  I don’t know why we’d be here, in church, if we did not.  But what is it that we actually believe in?  Do we believe in a God who’s supposed to do what we want, at least if we ask sincerely and with good intentions?  Or do we believe in something more than that?

Because here’s what makes this hard.  A lot of us have prayed for very serious and important things.  The restoration of a relationship.  The healing of a loved one.  Protection and safety in a frightening situation.  All sorts of things that are very serious and very important.  And again, sometimes God does what we want.  But sometimes God does not.  So the question is, can we accept that?  Can we accept that God heard our sincere and heartfelt prayer, that God considered what we asked for with the best of intentions and with love in our hearts, and said no?  Can we continue to have faith in God when God does not do what we know God could do and what we truly believe God should do?

We know what the answer should be.  And it’s easy to say it when we’re not faced with it.  But I know some of you have been faced with it.  Some of you may be facing it now.  And if not, then at some point in your life you will.  It happens to all of us eventually, where we ask for God to do something, something that’s very important to us, something that we believe with all our hearts is the right and best thing, and God says no.

That’s when we find out how real our faith is.  That’s when we find out if we truly have faith in God.  When God says no to something that’s very important to us, something we think would be the best thing not just for us but for everyone, that’s when we find out if we have enough faith in God to trust that God’s way is better than our way.  When we’re convinced that our plan is the best plan, when we cannot see that there could possibly be a better plan, can we still believe that somehow, God must have a better plan?  Do we trust God enough to believe that?

Again, we know what the answer should be.  But this is not a question we can answer with our heads.  It’s a question we have to answer with our hearts.  It does not matter what we should believe.  What matters is what we do believe.  It does not matter that we should have faith and that we should trust God.  What matters is whether we do have faith and do trust God.

            Now, if you struggle with this, it’s okay.  This is not an easy thing to deal with.  God knows that.  I have to think there are times when it’s hard for God to say no, even when God knows that’s the right answer.  Because in these situations, God knows how we’re going to feel when God says no.  God knows how much we’re going to hurt.  God does not want us to hurt.  But God knows that God’s plan is better than what we want, even if we cannot see how it possibly could be.  And so God has to say no, even knowing the hurt it’s going to cause us.

            Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about aligning our hearts with God’s heart.  We’ve talked a lot about doing God’s will rather than our own.  But this is where it gets real.  This is where we find out just how real our faith in God truly is.  This is where we find out if we can really mean those words we pray in the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday:  “Thy will be done”.

            It’s a question each of us has to answer for ourselves.  I’ll be happy to talk with you about it, of course.  If you’re struggling with something, please contact me.  I’ll do anything I can to be there for you and help you work through this.  And I’m sure there are other people who would do that, too.

            But ultimately, we each have to answer the question for ourselves.  May we get whatever help we need, and do whatever is necessary, to keep our faith strong, even when God says no.

The Radical Act of Happiness

I wrote last week about not complaining.  Let’s take that a little further.  What if, instead of simply not complaining, we went out of our way to try to be happy?  What if we made a specific effort to be cheerful and find joy in every day?

Now, I understand that there are some days this is not going to work.  No one can be cheerful and happy every day.  Also, there are sometimes real life situations that make being cheerful and happy an unnatural act.  If you’re sick, if you’ve just lost a loved one, if you or someone you care about has lost a job, those and many other situations are ones in which you are not going to be happy and cheerful.  In fact, if you were, people would start to question your grip on reality.

But I’m talking about the ordinary sorts of days, the ones we generally live in everyday life.  Those are days in which we can be happy and cheerful and joyful.  But for most of us, it’s not going to happen by itself.  We have to make a specific effort to feel those things.

Patch Adams once said that the most radical act anyone can commit is to be happy.  Why is that?  I think a major reason is that society discourages it.  Think about it.  When you turn on the news, do you ever see any people who are happy?  Very rarely.  The news, by its nature, is bad news.  Not only that, but every day on the news you see people who are upset and angry about something.  I’m not passing judgment on the validity of their anger.  The point is that those are the only people you ever see.  Happy people never make the news.

It’s the same on TV shows.  Very seldom do you see a character on a show who is happy and joyful about their life, and if you ever do they’re usually made fun of by the rest of the cast.  They’re treated like there’s something wrong with them. Society tells us that we should not be happy, that we should not feel joy in our lives.  Society tells us that we should either be angry or depressed or discouraged with our lot in life.

But you know what?  As Christians, we’re not supposed to do what society tells us.  We’re supposed to do what Jesus told us.  And Jesus told us to love people.  It’s pretty hard to love people if you’re angry or depressed or discouraged.  The only way we can truly love people is if we’re feeling happy ourselves.  So if we want to love people the way Jesus told us to, we need to make an effort to be happy ourselves.

So let’s do that.  How?  Well, I think a good first step is to think of all the things God has done for you.  There have been a lot of them.  Most of us have family members who love us.  Most of us have enough to eat, a warm place to sleep, and clothes to wear.  If nothing else, we all have the incredible gift of life and the incredible gift of love and salvation that God offers us through Jesus Christ.  Thinking of that should always give us something to be happy about.

So this week, don’t worry.  Be happy!  And have a great week!

No Rejection, No Argument

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 24, 2017.  The Bible verses used are John 18:12-14, 19-24.

            In our sermon series about the earthly life of Jesus, we’re approaching the end of Jesus’ time on earth.  Judas has betrayed him.  Jesus has been arrested.  Now, he’s been taken to the high priest for questioning.  The questions, we’re told, are about Jesus’ disciples and about Jesus’ teaching.

            The more I think about the way Jesus answered those questions, the more remarkable it seems to me.  Because there were a lot of ways Jesus could’ve played this, you know.  He could’ve denied everything.  He could’ve claimed he’d been taken out of context, that the things he’d said did not mean what it was claimed they meant.  He could’ve said that the accusations against him were a pack of lies--which, according to some of the other gospels, they actually were.  

There were other options.  He could’ve gotten angry, the way he did in the temple courts when he chased out the money changers.  He could’ve questioned their authority--he could’ve told them that he was the divine Son of God and that they had no right to question him about anything.  He could’ve even called on divine help--last week we read where Jesus said that all he had to do was ask and God the Father would send twelve legions of angels to help him.  These are just some of the ways Jesus could’ve played this, some of the ways he could’ve reacted to the questioning from the high priest.

But Jesus did not do any of that.  Here’s what Jesus said:

I have spoken openly to the world.  I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together.  I said nothing in secret.  Why question me?  Ask those who heard me.  Surely they know what I said.

Jesus knew that the high priest’s mind was closed.  He did not know who Jesus was and was not interested in finding out.  The high priest was not looking for information.  He was looking for a reason to have Jesus killed.  It did not matter what Jesus said.  The decision had already been made.  So Jesus refused to play along.  He was not going to get angry.  He was not going to argue.  He simply says, everyone knows what I said.  What’s the point of asking me?  Without saying so, he makes it clear to everyone that the high priest has no intention of giving him a fair trial.  This is just all for show, and Jesus is not about to put on a show.

And it’s interesting, I think, that the officials had no idea how to handle that.  One of them gets mad and slaps Jesus.  And Jesus again refuses to play along with the charade.  He simply says, “If I said something wrong, testify as to what is wrong.  But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”

I think there are some important lessons here for us.  We’ve talked before about how Jesus told us to go and make disciples.  In doing that, it’s important that we live lives that show our Christian faith, but it’s also important that actually spread the word.  It’s important that we tell people about our church and about our faith in Jesus Christ.  

One of the things that keeps us from doing that is fear.  That fear can take several forms, but among them are the fear of rejection and the fear of starting an argument.  But I think that the way Jesus handled this shows us ways we can deal with those fears.

Let’s look at the fear of rejection first.  Now, Jesus was rejected.  Absolutely he was.  But look at the people who rejected him.  They were people, like the high priest and like the officials surrounding him, whose minds were closed.  They were people who were not receptive to Jesus’ message in any way, shape, or form.  They were not interested in hearing anything Jesus had to say.  They were not interested in hearing why he said what he said.  Without even hearing what Jesus had to say, they were already opposed to him.

These were not the first people Jesus had run into who had that attitude, of course.  It happened at various times during his ministry.  And basically, Jesus reacted the same way to all of them, which was that he was not going to waste his time with them.  Essentially, Jesus knew that there’s no point in talking to a brick wall.  He tells the disciples the same thing.  In Matthew Ten, Fourteen, Jesus says, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.”  Jesus knew there would be plenty of other people who would be receptive, or at least open-minded, so there was no point in wasting time on those who were not.

            When we look at this way, we can see we don’t need to fear rejection.  We just need to move on from it.  If we’re talking about Jesus and we get rejected, it’s okay.  You and I don’t need to take it personally, because they’re not rejecting us personally.  They’re rejecting Jesus.  It’s not an insult to us.  It’s an insult to Jesus.  So let Jesus handle it.  Move on.

            So let’s look at the fear of starting an argument.  That can happen, of course.  We all know people who love to argue, right?  And they’ll argue about almost anything, including religion.  But just because someone wants to argue does not mean that you and I have to join the argument.

            Now we should make clear, there’s a difference between an argument and a discussion.  Jesus welcomed discussion.  You and I should welcome it, too.  If someone wants to know more about Jesus, if someone wants to know more about the Christian faith, that’s an awesome thing.  We need to encourage that.  If someone has honest questions about God and is really interested in finding the answers, that’s a great thing.  Asking honest questions is one of the best ways to learn.

            That’s far different from an argument.  And again, it gets back to the distinction between someone whose mind is closed and someone whose mind is open.  And we can usually tell that difference through the course of talking to someone.  If the person we’re talking to is actively engaged in hearing what we have to say, if they’re responding to it, if they’re being respectful and asking questions out of a desire to learn more, we can usually tell that.  If the person we’re talking to is not interested in hearing what we have to say, if they’re just interested in making their own points and don’t even seem to be paying attention to what we’re saying, we can usually tell that, too.  That’s when it becomes an argument.

            Jesus showed us how not to get involved in an argument.  The more I read what Jesus said, the more impressed I am by it.  He says, basically, you don’t have to ask me what I taught.  Everyone knows it.  Everything I said was out in the open, in public.  If you really want to know what I said, ask the people who heard me.  If I said anything wrong, say what it is.  If not, what are we doing here?

            That’s an example for us.  If someone is not interested in hearing what we have to say, if they just want to argue, we don’t need to fall for it.  And again, we don’t need to take it personally, either, because the fact is that they’re not really arguing with us.  They’re arguing with Jesus Christ.  All we need to do is say, hey, I’m just telling you what Jesus said.  I can show you where Jesus said it, if you like.  But if you don’t want to like it or don’t want to hear it, that’s your choice.  Your problem is with Jesus, not with me.

            Jesus had told the disciples that was going to happen, too.  In Matthew Ten, Forty, Jesus says, “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”  The implication, then, is that anyone who does not welcome the disciples does not welcome Jesus, and does not welcome God the Father who sent him.  So it’s not us that’s not welcomed.  It’s Jesus.  It’s not an insult to us.  It’s an insult to Jesus.  So again, let Jesus handle it and move on.

            There’s one other point to make about moving on.  By moving on, we’re not giving up on anyone.  If someone changes their attitude, if they become receptive to God’s word, if they want to hear about Jesus, we should always be ready to talk to them.  Jesus would’ve been more than happy to talk to the high priest if the high priest had actually been interested in hearing what he had to say.  Moving on does not mean slamming a door on anybody.  We should always make clear that, if someone truly wants to know more about Jesus Christ, we’ll be more than willing to talk with them.  

            But if not, then we need to do what Jesus told us to do.  Focus on the people who are interested, not on the people who are not.  And know that they are not rejecting us and they are not arguing with us.  They are rejecting Jesus and arguing with Jesus.  So we can let Jesus handle it and not worry about it.

            Jesus told us to go and make disciples.  You and I can do that without fear.  If we keep our eyes open and our hearts open, God will show us people who’ll be interested in Jesus’ message.  Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to lead you to those people.  Then, trust that God will tell you what to say, so that they may be led to faith in Jesus Christ.

Closing the Complaints Department

One of the things most of us human beings tend to be pretty good at is complaining.  We do it all the time.  We can complain about almost anything.  It’s too hot.  It’s too cold.  I have too much to do.  I don’t have enough to do.  Too many people call and interrupt me.  Nobody ever calls me.  No matter what happens, we manage to find a way to complain about it.

Now, I’m not pointing fingers here.  I’m as guilty of this as anyone.  I try not to do it too often in public, although I’m not always successful at that.  But even when I am successful at it, that just means Wanda has to hear more of it.  That’s not very fair to her.  It’s probably not very pleasant for her, either.

So, I’ve made a New Year’s resolution.  Yes, I know it’s September 21st, but I don’t see any reason to wait three months for this.  My new year’s resolution, which I’m starting today, is to stop complaining.  

Now, let me explain that a little bit more.  I’m not saying we have to like everything that happens.  Some things happen that we should not like.  But even so, sitting around and complaining about those things does no one, including ourselves, any good.  If we don’t like something that’s happened, rather than sitting around complaining about it, we should see what we can do about it.

And I can already hear some people saying, “But what if there’s nothing I can do?”  That’s true sometimes.  But I suspect it’s not true as often as we think.  There’s usually something we can do.  We may not be able to stop hurricanes or fires, but we can donate to organizations who can help the victims of them.  We may not be able to keep a loved one from getting sick or even dying, but we can be there for them and show our love to them.  There is almost always something we can do.  Even if the only thing we can do is pray for someone, that’s still something.  In fact, it may be the most important thing for us to do.

But what if there truly is nothing we can do?  Then it’s time to accept the situation and move forward.  Sitting around and complaining won’t help.  It won’t change anything.  It’ll just keep us stuck where we are, and obviously we’re not happy where we are or we wouldn’t be complaining!  So if there’s nothing we can do, it’s still time to stop complaining and get on with things.  As the old saying goes, if you can’t get over it, get on with it.  It’s about the only productive thing we can do.

Complaining can be an easy habit to get into and a hard habit to break.  I’m sure I’ll probably slip sometimes.  Feel free to call me on it, in a nice way please, when I do.  But I invite you to make this resolution with me.  Let’s stop complaining.  It’ll help us get more enjoyment out of this amazing gift called life that God has given us.

The Numbe One Principle

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish Sunday, September 17, 2017.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 26:47-56.

            All of us have principles that we live our lives by.  Whether we could put them into words or not, whether we’re even aware of all of them or not, we all have these principles.  Ideally, at least, they’re good principles.  Things like honesty.  Integrity.  Love.  Kindness.  But whatever they are, whether they’re good or bad, we all have these principles, and they guide the way we live our lives.

            The thing is, though, that it’s easy to have principles in the abstract.  It’s easy to have principles when following those principles does not cost us anything.  It’s when there’s a cost to following our principles that we find out how much those principles really mean to us.

            Take honesty as an example.  Most of us would probably agree, in the abstract, that being honest is a good thing.  But have you ever been in a situation where telling the truth was really not a very convenient thing?  Have you ever been in a situation where being honest could get you into trouble, and where telling a lie or even a half-truth or even just avoiding telling the whole truth would make things a whole lot easier for you?

            I would think a lot of us have been in that position at one time or another.  And when we are, that’s when we find out how important that principle of honesty is to us.  That’s when we have the chance to prove that we really believe in honesty, as opposed to only believing in honesty when it’s convenient for us.

            When Jesus was on earth, he had principles that he lived by.  And one of those was non-violence.  Jesus talked about it several times.  He said, “Love your enemies.”  He said, “Pray for those who persecute you.”  Jesus said, “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other also.”  Jesus said, “If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt.”  Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”

            Jesus said all those things.  And I have no doubt that he meant them and that he lived by them.  But it’s easy to believe in non-violence in the abstract.  In today’s Bible reading, Jesus is in a situation where sticking to that principle of non-violence is going to cause him a lot of problems.  He’s in a situation where he had the chance to prove he really believes in non-violence, as opposed to only believing in non-violence when it’s convenient for him.

            Judas comes up to Jesus in Gethsemane.  The disciples are there too, of course.  But so are what’s described as “a large crowd armed with swords and clubs”, which the chief priests and elders had sent to come and arrest Jesus.

            Jesus knew they were coming.  We talked last week about how Jesus knew he was about to be arrested, tortured, and killed.  He prayed to be allowed to avoid it, but he prayed in the end for God’s will to be done.  And now, here it is.  The guys with swords and clubs are there.  And the disciples are there.  And some of them have swords, too.

            If you or I were there as onlookers, we’d have expected a fight.  The chief priests and elders expected a fight.  The disciples expected a fight.  That’s why there were all those people with swords and clubs.  Everyone there expected the arrest of Jesus to be a really violent thing.

            And it had to be tempting to Jesus to let it happen that way.  For one thing, it’s a natural human tendency to fight back when we’re attacked.  And again, Jesus was fully human as well as being fully divine.  He felt that desire to fight back just as much as you or I would feel it if we were in that situation.

            For another thing, the disciples wanted a fight.  Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we talked about how all the disciples said they would die rather than disown Jesus?  This is the kind of thing they were thinking about.  They were willing to die in a fight, in a battle.  They would defend Jesus to the death.  In fact, it sounds like it was one of the disciples who actually struck the first blow.  Matthew says, “One of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out, and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.”

            We don’t know what would’ve happened if there had been a fight.  Maybe Jesus’ disciples would’ve won.  Maybe, even if they’d lost, Jesus could’ve gotten away in the confusion.  Even if Jesus had been killed, at least he would’ve avoided the torture and died an easier death.

            It had to be very tempting for Jesus to allow the fight to happen.  But he did not.  And the reason why is what we talked about last week.  Jesus’ heart was aligned with God’s heart.  Yes, Jesus had a principle of non-violence, but there was something going on here that was more important than that.  Jesus’ number one principle was to do God’s will.  And Jesus knew that God’s will was not for there to be a fight.  Here’s how Jesus put it:

Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?

Jesus knew that the things that were happening were only happening because God was allowing them to happen.  In fact, they were happening exactly in accordance with what the Scriptures had said were going to happen.  If God the Father wanted to stop these things from happening, they would have been stopped.  Jesus knew things were supposed to happen this way.  If Jesus had allowed there to be a fight, it would have been a fight against God’s will.  And Jesus had determined that he was not going to fight against God’s will.  Again, Jesus had a principle of non-violence, but more importantly, his number one principle was following God’s will.  And he was going to uphold that principle, no matter what the consequences were.  He was going to uphold that principle even if it meant his own death on earth.

So here are the questions you and I have to answer.  Regardless of what our principles are, is our number one principle to follow God’s will?  And are we willing to uphold that principle, no matter what the consequences are for us?

It gets back to what we said at the beginning of this message.  It’s easy to say yes in the abstract.  It’s easy to say that our number one principle is following God’s will when following God’s will does not cost us anything.  It’s only when there’s a cost to following God’s will that we find out just how important following God’s will is to us.

Jesus tried to tell the disciples about that cost.  He did it many times over the course of his ministry.  He told them that anyone who followed him had to be willing to give up everything else.  He told them that anyone who followed him needed to be ready to take up a cross to follow him.  And the disciples all said, yes, of course, we’ll do that.  We’ll follow you.  But here, when the crunch came, they could not do it.  The last sentence of our reading for today says “Then all the disciples deserted him and fled”, just as Jesus had told them that they would.

            There was a cost for the disciples to follow Jesus.  There’s a cost for you and I to follow Jesus, too.  We may not be asked to give up our physical lives for Jesus.  We may be, though.  There are people who are, all the time.  There are places in the world where you can be killed just for saying that you are a follower of Jesus.

            Most of us probably won’t face that.  But I think there’s another sense in which we’re asked to give up our lives for Jesus.  It gets back, again, to what we talked about last week--following God’s heart rather than following our own heart.  Any time we do what we know God wants us to do, rather than what we would like to do, we’re giving up a bit of our lives for Jesus.  Any time we go where we know God wants us to go, rather than going where we’d like to go, or even just staying where we are, we’re giving up a bit of our lives for Jesus.  Any time we say what we know God wants us to say, rather than saying something else or just staying silent, we’re giving up a bit of our lives for Jesus.  And if we do those things constantly, consistently, over a long period of time, pretty soon we’ll discover that we have, in a sense, given up our lives, or a large part of them, anyway, to follow Jesus Christ.

            So again, we come back to those questions.  Regardless of what our principles are, is our number one principle to follow God’s will?  And are we willing to uphold that principle, no matter what the consequences are for us?  Are we willing to give up our lives, whether all at once or a bit at a time, for Jesus Christ?

            It’s not something to just answer now.  We need to answer that question every day.  Sometimes we need to answer it several times a day.  Because these chances to prove whether we believe in our principles come up lots of times.  Sometimes they come when we don’t expect it.  Sometimes they come when we’re not even thinking about it.  But we know those chances will come.  

Jesus showed us the way.  If our heart is aligned with God’s heart, our number one principle will be to follow God’s will.  And then, we will be able to give up our lives for Jesus, whether all at once or a bit at a time.

Don't Give Up and Quit!

I had a conversation with someone recently about the future of the church.  That person essentially said that it doesn’t have one.  That was not what this person wanted, but it was what they foresaw.  It was this person’s opinion that young people won’t come to church and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.  We’ve tried, lots of churches have tried, and nothing we try works.  Yes, there may be a few churches who’ve succeeded, but that’s the exception that proves the rule.  Young people just won’t go to church, so when the old ones die off, that’ll be it for the church.

Do you agree with that?  Maybe you do.  There is some truth in it, after all.  We have tried, ever since I got here and probably long before that, to get more young people in church.  And we’re certainly not the only ones who are trying.  And yes, nationwide, statistics indicate that younger people don’t go to church as often as older people do.

But while there may be some truth in it, I hope you don’t agree with that person’s solution, because that person’s solution is that there’s nothing we can do about it, so we should just give up and quit.  Now there’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if I’ve ever heard one.  Because if we give up and quit, the church certainly will have no future.

But you know, I’ve read through the Bible, and I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where it tells us to give up and quit.  In the Old Testament, God never tells the people of Israel to give up and quit.  In the Gospels, Jesus never tells his disciples to give up and quit.  In Paul’s letters, Paul never advises the early church to give up and quit.  You can read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and not once in there will you find God saying that God’s people should give up and quit.  It’s not there.  In fact, Jesus said the exact opposite.  Jesus did not say give up and quit.  Jesus said go and make disciples.

Now, Jesus did not say this would always be an easy thing to do.  And in fact, sometimes it’s not.  It takes time.  It takes patience.  It takes persistence.  And we won’t always succeed.  Those statistics I mentioned earlier are real.  It’s not an easy thing to make disciples of anyone, and when we’re talking about younger people, sometimes it’s even harder.

But it’s worth it.  If we keep at it, if we keep trying, we will succeed.  Not all the time, but sometimes.  And the times we do succeed will more than make up for all the times we don’t.  Jesus said there will be rejoicing in heaven over just one sinner who repents.  And if we can help somehow, in some way, to make that happen, you and I can share in that rejoicing.

Don’t think you cannot do this.  You know young people who aren’t part of a church.  Maybe they’re even part of your family.  You can talk to them.  You can invite them.  You can pray for them.  You can pray for others who are trying to reach younger people.  You can pray that God will show us how to do this.  You and I may not know how to reach younger people, but we know who does.  God does.  Pray for God to lead us, and pray for us to accept God’s leading.

Jesus never promised that anything he told us to do would be easy.  Life on earth was not always easy for Jesus, either.  But if we truly accept Jesus as our Savior, we need to do what Jesus told us to do.  That does not mean giving up and quitting.  It means going and making disciples, whenever and wherever we can.  It will be hard sometimes.  Sometimes, it may even seem impossible.  But it’s not.  Remember, with God all things are possible!

Follow God's Heart

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 10, 2017.

            One of the things you’ll hear people say, one of the pieces of advice people give, is that you should always “follow your heart”.  Have you ever heard that?  “Follow your heart.”  Listen to that inner voice inside you.  It’ll tell you what you need to do.

            Now, there are times when that’s good advice.  But there are times when it’s not, too.  I mean, I don’t know about you, but there are times when my heart is not very reliable.  There are times when my heart tells me to watch the ball game when I know I really should be going to visit someone.  There are times when my heart tells me to go have a big bowl of ice cream when I know I need to watch my weight.  There are times when my heart tells me to go buy something I cannot afford when I know my checkbook is telling me not to.  In other words, there are plenty of times when following my heart could get me into a lot of trouble.

            It’s not always bad to follow your heart.  But if we’re going to follow our hearts, we’d better make sure our heart is in line with God’s heart.  Because it’s God’s heart that we really need to follow, not our own.  I think that’s one of the many things our Bible reading for today shows us.

            Jesus and the disciples have just had what we now call the Last Supper.  They’ve left the Upper Room.  They go to Gethsemane.  It’s interesting, to me at least, that we always refer to this as “the Garden of Gethsemane”, but the Bible never uses that phrase.  Mark and Matthew just say that they went to “a place called Gethsemane”.  John says they went to a garden, but does not give the garden a name.  Luke says they went to the Mount of Olives--from what I read, Gethsemane is at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

            Anyway, they go there.  Jesus tells most of the disciples to sit and wait.  He takes Peter, James, and John with him, and they go a ways farther.  Then he tells them to stay and keep watch.  Jesus goes on a little farther and prays.

            Listen to what Jesus prays.  We’re told that he “fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.”  He says, “Abba, father, everything is possible for you.  Take this cup from me.”

            Jesus knew what was coming.  He knew that the authorities were coming to arrest him and kill him.  He had told the disciples many times this was going to happen.  In fact, he’d just told them that again, in the Upper Room at the Last Supper.

            But now, the moment had actually come.  It was time for Jesus to face it.  And when he did--he looked for a way to get out of it.  He wanted desperately to avoid what was coming.  He was praying with all his might for God to somehow, some way, take him out of this situation.  Luke tells us that Jesus prayed so hard that he was sweating, and that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

            This is why I say that “follow your heart” is not always good advice.  Because if Jesus had followed his heart at that moment, he’d have run away, right?  He’d have gotten out of Dodge as fast as he could.  His heart was saying, “I don’t want to do this.  There’s got to be some other way.  God the Father can do something else to save human beings.  After all, he’s God the Father.  Everything is possible for Him.  There has to be some other way this can work.  I don’t want to suffer and die.  I want to get out of here.”

            It’s pretty understandable, right?  I mean, yes, Jesus was the divine Son of God, but he was also fully human.  And as such, he had all the same feelings and fears that you and I have.  Jesus did not want to die.  He especially did not want to die in an incredibly cruel, painful way.  Who would?

            When I think about that part of Jesus’ prayer, it sounds a lot like prayers I’ve prayed at times.  Not that I’ve ever thought I was going to die, I don’t mean that.  But there are times where I was faced with a situation, and I knew I was supposed to go through with it, but going through with it was the last thing in the world I wanted to do.  Have you ever had a time like that?  I would think some of you must have.  A time where you knew what you should do, knew what you were supposed to do, but it was the last thing you wanted to do.

            When that happens to us, our heart tells us to avoid the situation.  Either run away, or quit, or give in, or do something different, or something.  Find a way to get out of it.  Never mind what we may be “supposed” to do.  Follow your heart and get out of there.

            And so we pray.  We pray for God to show us the way out.  We pray for God to do something that somehow, in some way, will allow us to follow our heart and avoid doing what we know we should do.

            When you’ve done that, what’s happened?  Did it work?  It never has for me.  In fact, the times I’ve prayed that way have really been the times when I felt farthest away from God.  I would pray and pray, and it felt like my prayers were just hitting the ceiling and bouncing back from me.  It felt like God was not there at all, or if God was there God was ignoring me.

            That was not true, of course.  God was there.  God was not ignoring me.  God was answering my prayer.  I just did not want to hear the answer, because the answer was no.  God was telling me that God was not going to take me out of the situation.  God did not want me to follow my heart.  God wanted me to follow God’s heart.  And God’s heart was for me to face up to the situation and do what I knew I should do, what God wanted me to do.

            That’s pretty much how it worked for Jesus, too.  Jesus was praying for God to show him a way out.  Jesus wanted God to allow him to follow his heart.  Three times, Jesus prayed that way.  And God gave him an answer.  But the answer was no.  This was what Jesus had been sent to earth for in the first place--to die, to take the punishment for our sins that should go to us.  God the Father was not going to take him out of that situation.  God the Father wanted Jesus to follow God’s heart.

            And of course, Jesus did.  Some of you are ahead of me on that.  You know the last line of Jesus’ prayer, the line I left out earlier.  The last line of Jesus’ prayer is “Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

            Jesus knew what his heart was telling him.  But he knew that what his heart was telling him was not the most important thing.  The most important thing was for Jesus to follow God’s heart.  And he did.  Even when it was not what Jesus wanted to do--even when it may have been the last thing in the world Jesus wanted to do--he still did it.  Even when he knew it would cost him his life on earth, he still did it.  Jesus followed God’s heart all the way, all the way to death on a cross.

            The Bible does not tell us this next part.  But I suspect, when Jesus said that last line--”Yet not what I will, but what you will”--he felt as close to God the Father as he ever had while he was on earth.  The reason I think that is because that’s how it works for me.  Any time I stop praying for God to do what I want God to do, and instead pray that God’s will be done, that’s when I feel God’s presence with me the most.  

That, more than any other time, is when I feel God with me.  When I stop trying to tell God what to do, when I stop telling God to take me out of hard situations, and instead just ask God to help me do God’s will.  When I stop listening to my own heart, and start following God’s heart.  It does not mean things always go smooth and easy.  For Jesus, doing God’s will meant things went about as hard for him as they could possibly go.  But even though things are very hard, he knew that God the Father was with him.  And when you and I do God’s will, we will know that God the Father is with us, too.

            God asks us to do some hard things sometimes.  We don’t want to do them.  Our heart tells us there must be some other way.  We pray, as Jesus did, God, everything is possible for you.  Take this away from me.

            But God never promised to keep hard things away from us.  But God does promise to be with us through the hard things.  If we do what Jesus did, if we follow the heart of God the Father, we will feel God keeping God’s promise.  We will know that God is with us.  And with God’s help, we’ll be able to face anything we need to face.

What Are We Waiting For?

There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world right now.  We’re sending more troops to Afghanistan.  There’s the threat of war with North Korea.  There are protests in Charlottesville and other places.  There was just a hurricane in Texas and now there may be one headed for Florida.  So, for some, this raises a question:  are we in the end times?

Well, I’ll tell you--I don’t know.  Jesus described the signs of the coming of the end times:  “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.  But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.”  (Luke 21:10-12).  You could make the argument that this description fits where we are now.  On the other hand, there have been many times over the last two thousand years when you could make the argument that what was going on fit Jesus’ description, and the end times haven’t happened yet.  So again, I don’t know.

If we are in the end times, of course, we’ll know for sure soon enough.  But here’s what I think is a more relevant question.  If you were firmly convinced that we are in the end times, what would you do?  Would you live your life differently if you believed that the end times are here now, and if so, how?

Would you spend more time in prayer?  Would you spend more time in church?  Would you read the Bible more?  Would you make more of an effort to love your neighbor, the way Jesus told us to?  Would you make more of an effort to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ, the way Jesus told us to?  Think about it.  In what would you live your life differently if you believed we are in the end times?

And here’s an even more relevant question:  Why are you not doing that now?  For that matter, why am I not doing that now?  Because, if you believe in the end times at all, you know that the end times could happen at any time.  Jesus did not give the disciples an exact time--in fact, he told the disciples that only God in heaven knows the exact time--but he told them to always be ready.  “Always be on the watch” is how Jesus put it (Luke 21:36).  And even if you don’t believe in the end times, each of us is going to have our own personal end time at some point.  That’s true even if you’re young--you hear about young people dying every day.  So why are we not getting ready now?  What are we waiting for?

I’m not suggesting that we live each day as if it was our last.  That’s not practical.  What I am suggesting, though, is that most of us--most definitely including me--need to take our faith a lot more seriously.  We need to stop making faith in God just another one of the many things that compete for our time and our attention.  Faith in God, faith in Jesus Christ, doing the things Jesus told us to do, needs to be the pre-eminent thing in our lives.  

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says of God’s commandments “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”  I’m not telling you that you have to take that literally, although it certainly would not be wrong if we did.  We do need to take that idea to heart, though.  We need to do whatever we have to do to make sure we’re living with an awareness of God and of doing God’s will all the time, not just when we think we have the time.

The time to start doing that is now.  Because we never know when our time might run out.

The Promise of Communion

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 3, 2017.  The Bible verses used are Luke 22:7-23.

            As many of you know, the events described in our Bible reading are what we now refer to as The Last Supper.  It’s what we commemorate whenever we celebrate Holy Communion, which we’ll do in a little while.  None of the disciples knew it was The Last Supper, of course.  They thought they were simply celebrating the Passover meal, in accordance with the Jewish faith.  But of course, Jesus knew.

            Jesus sends Peter and John on ahead to get things ready.  He sends them to a certain place and a certain man.  Now, some people think Jesus must have made arrangements with this man ahead of time, others think it was a use of divine power.  However, it happened, though, the arrangements were made.  Jesus and the disciples go to what Luke describes as “a large room upstairs”, what we now refer to as The Upper Room, to share their Passover meal.

            Now if this truly was the Passover Seder, as many believe, there would’ve been a lot more to it than just bread and wine.  According to Wikipedia, there’d be two types of herbs, charoset, which is a paste of fruits and nuts, a vegetable (usually parsley), a roasted lamb, and a hardboiled egg.  The bread, which of course would’ve been unleavened, would be on a separate plate.  There were four cups of wine, which were drunk at specific points during the meal, each of which had a special significance.

            So Jesus and the disciples are ready to start the meal.  Jesus says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.  For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”  Then he takes the cup of wine, and he says, “Take this and divide it among you.  For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

            And the disciples go, “Huh?”

            Well, Luke does not say that, but don’t you think that’s the likely response?  I mean, is that not how the disciples usually react when Jesus says something like this?  Maybe not, maybe they understood what Jesus was talking about.  But I doubt it.  I mean, they did not say anything.  They did not want to appear stupid.  But I doubt they had a clue what was going on.

            Then Jesus takes the bread.  He gives thanks, he breaks the bread, he gives it to the disciples, and he says, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

After supper, he takes the cup, and he says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

            And the disciples go “Huh?” again.

            Luke goes on after that.  He talks about the betrayal of Jesus, which we talked about last week.  Then he talks about a dispute arising among the disciples about which of them was considered to be the greatest.  By the way, I would think that would’ve really frustrated Jesus, don’t you?  I mean, after all he’s tried to teach them, and after he’s just said he’s going to be betrayed and die, here they are, arguing about which one of them is the greatest.  I would think Jesus would’ve just buried his head in his hands at that one.

            But it’s strange, don’t you think, that for all the emphasis we as Christians place on our commemoration of the Last Supper, what we call Holy Communion, what we’re going to celebrate here in a little while, the gospels really don’t make a big deal out of it.  They mention it, but really it’s just one of the many things we’re told about Jesus in the last week of his life.

            The thing is, though, that it was not long after Jesus’ death that the celebration which we now call Holy Communion became a big deal.  There are mentions of it in the book of Acts and in Paul’s letters.  What may have happened is that, at the time it happened, the disciples really did not understand what Jesus was doing, but that later, they came to understand it.

            I’m no Jewish scholar, but what I read is that the bread at a Passover Seder is meant to symbolize the three great patriarchs of the Jewish faith--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Each of the cups of wine has a meaning, too.  In the Last Supper, Jesus took the last one to symbolize his blood.  The last cup of wine, according to what I read, symbolizes the world to come and the redemption of the Jewish people at the end of the world.

            So it would seem that, by calling the bread “his body” and the wine “his blood”, Jesus was telling the disciples that he truly is the divine Son of God.  He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.  He is greater than the great heroes of faith at the beginning of history, and he is the one who will redeem his people at the end of history.  His body was given as a promise of God’s blessing.  And his blood is poured out as a new covenant, that his death is the promise of our redemption by God.  And while the disciples did not understand all that at first, they did later on, after they thought about all that had happened.

            So what does all this mean for us today?  After all, we’re going to take Holy Communion in just a few minutes.  We do it every month on the first Sunday.  How does it change anything about it to know all this stuff about the symbolism of bread and wine two thousand years ago?

            Well, I hope just knowing some of the history behind it will help give it some meaning.  But it’s more than that.  Because Jesus is still truly the divine Son of God.  He is still the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.  He is still greater than the greatest heroes of faith at the beginning of history.  He is still the one who will redeem his people at the end of history.  He still died as a promise of God’s blessing and the promise of our redemption by God.

            We refer to Holy Communion as one of God’s “means of grace”.  In other words, Holy Communion one of the ways in which God’s Holy Spirit comes into us.  This is part of the reason why we refer to it that way.  By sharing in Holy Communion, by doing this in remembrance of him, we acknowledge the promises made in the Last Supper.  In fact, we more than acknowledge them, we claim them.  We say, yes, I accept that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of God’s blessing.  Yes, I do believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God.  He is the Savior.  I believe that his life, death, and resurrection are the promise of our redemption and salvation by God.

            And it’s okay if we believe that without understanding all of it.  The disciples did not understand it all at first, either.  Maybe some of them never did, we don’t know.  But Jesus gave the disciples the bread and wine even though they did not understand.  Jesus gave them the blessing and the promise of redemption by God even though they did not understand.

            It’s okay if we don’t understand everything.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to try.  It’s good to understand as much as we can about Holy Communion and about all the other rituals we perform as Christians.  It’s good to study the Bible and to read commentaries and to do all the things we can to understand God and God’s word.

            But the thing is, that’s a process that takes a lifetime.  And even after we take a lifetime, we still don’t come close to understanding all there is to understand about God.  It’s impossible for us to understand all there is to understand about God.  The only way we could do that is if we were on God’s level, and we’re obviously not.  We’re obviously nowhere close.  And we never will be.

            But it’s okay.  When we take communion, and when we do it with the desire to know God, God’s Holy Spirit comes into our hearts.  And then, we don’t have to understand.  All we need to do is follow.  All we need to do is follow where God’s Holy Spirit leads us to go.  Do what God’s Holy Spirit leads us to do.  Say what God’s Holy Spirit leads us to say.

            How do we know when we’re following God’s Holy Spirit?  When we’re doing what Jesus told us to do.  When we love our neighbors as ourselves.  When we love our enemies.  When we pray for those who persecute us.  When we go and make disciples of Jesus Christ.  Left to ourselves, a lot of times, we don’t want to do those things.  But when we follow God’s Holy Spirit, we will do them.  And we’ll do them willingly, because we know we are pleasing God when we do.

            As we come to take Holy Communion today, please think about these things.  Claim Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s blessing for your life.  Claim Jesus as the Divine Son of God and as the Savior.  Claim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the promise of your salvation by God.  Feel God’s Holy Spirit entering your heart.  Then, let’s re-dedicate ourselves to following God’s Holy Spirit and doing those things Jesus told us to do.