Doubt and Belief

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 29, 2017.  The Bible verses used are John 20:19-29.

            The phrase “Doubting Thomas” is part of our culture.  Even people who have no idea who Thomas was and have no idea where the phrase comes from are still familiar with it.  If someone is a skeptic, if they never want to believe anything, if they always demand more proof, we refer to them as a Doubting Thomas.

            As I read that story, though, it seems to me that Thomas has gotten a bum rap.  Yes, he had doubts, but no more doubts than any of the other disciples.  And yet, we’ve come to read this story as Jesus criticizing Thomas for his lack of faith.  I think when we read the story that way, not only are we unfair to poor Thomas, but we miss a valuable lesson that comes from that story.

            These Bible verses pick up exactly where we left off last week.  In the morning, that first Easter morning, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.  She has told the disciples that she’s seen the Lord.

            Now, it’s evening.  The disciples are in a locked room, out of fear of being arrested.  Jesus appears to them, says peace be with you, shows them his hands where the nails had been pounded through and his side that was pierced by a sword, the disciples are overjoyed.  Jesus breathes on them and says “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

            So all the disciples believe Jesus is alive.  Except Thomas.  He was not there when Jesus came.  We don’t know why not, but he was not there.  The disciples tell him about Jesus being alive, but he says “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

            A week passes.  The disciples are all back in the same locked room.  This time Thomas is there.  Jesus again appears to them, says peace be with you, shows Thomas his hands where the nails had been pounded through and his side that was pierced by a sword.  And Thomas is overjoyed.  

            Do you see why I say Thomas got a bum rap?  What Jesus showed Thomas was exactly the same thing he had shown the other disciples a week earlier.  When Thomas was not there, Jesus had shown the other disciples his hands where the nails had been and his side that was pierced.  None of them believed he was alive before they saw that.  Thomas did not ask for any more proof than any of the others had, and he did not get any more proof than any of the others got.  And yet, poor old Thomas is the one who gets criticized.  Thomas is the one whose faith is said to be weaker than the others.  Thomas is the one who for two thousand years has been called the doubter, whose very name has been turned into a negative.  If just does not seem fair.

But of course, you know why we look at it that way.  It’s because of what Jesus said.  After Jesus shows Thomas his hands and his side, Jesus says to Thomas, “Stop doubting and believe.”  And then he says, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  It seems like Jesus himself singled Thomas out for criticism.

            But I was thinking about this.  That first time, when Jesus appeared to the other disciples without Thomas--why do you suppose Jesus did that?  I mean, I assume Jesus would’ve known that Thomas was not there.  Why would Jesus choose to appear then?  I mean, surely there must’ve been some other time Jesus could’ve appeared to the disciples, sometime when they’d all be there.  It’s almost like, that first time, Jesus deliberately excluded Thomas.  Why would Jesus do that?

            It could’ve been a coincidence, I suppose.  Maybe this was simply the time Jesus needed to appear to the disciples, and whoever was there was there and whoever was not was not.  I doubt that, though.  It’s possible, but it’s just hard for me to believe that Jesus would leave something like this to chance.  It seems like there must’ve been some reason why Jesus appeared to the others without Thomas being there.

            I wonder if, perhaps, Jesus thought Thomas would have enough faith to not need to see for himself.  I wonder if, maybe, the reason Jesus appeared to the disciples without Thomas there is that Jesus thought that, out of all the disciples, Thomas might be the only one who had enough faith to not need to see for himself.  Out of all the disciples, Thomas might be the one who could believe without seeing.  When we look at it that way, it looks like Jesus thought Thomas was the disciple who had the most faith, not the least.  And Jesus’ words to Thomas are not so much a criticism as they are an expression of disappointment.  Not that it was wrong for Thomas to want to see for himself, really.  It was just that Jesus was hoping Thomas had enough faith to not need to.

            But here’s what I think is the real point.  Jesus appears to the disciples without Thomas.  They all believe.  Thomas does not.  So what does Jesus do?  Jesus comes back.  He comes back specifically for Thomas.  Jesus comes back specifically so that Thomas can see and believe.

            Think about that.  The twelve disciples were down to eleven, of course, because Judas had betrayed Jesus.  Ten out of the eleven believed.  That’s ninety-one percent.  Pretty good.  But Jesus was not going to settle for that.  Jesus wanted each and every one of his disciples to believe.  He was not going to give up until each and every one of his disciples believed.  As long as there was even one who did not, he was going to do whatever it took to make that one believe.  Each and every one of his disciples was that important to Jesus.

            And each and every one of us is that important to Jesus, too.  Because most of us have doubts at one time or another.  We may try to hide them from others, we may try not to think about them ourselves.  But we still have them.  It may seem like everyone around us in church believes, and we’re the only one who doubts.  But we still have those doubts.  We might wish we did not have them--for all we know, Thomas may have wished he did not have them.  But the doubts are still there.

            Jesus does not want us to go on with our doubts.  Jesus wants us to believe.  And Jesus is not going to give up until we do.  It does not matter if everyone around us believes and we’re the only one who has doubts.  Even if we were the only person on earth who had doubts, that would not matter to Jesus.  As long as there’s just one of us who does not believe, Jesus is going to do whatever it takes to make that one believe.  Each and every one of us is that important to Jesus.

But the thing is, you’re not the only one who has doubts.  Lots of us do.  Some of the greatest Christians in the world have confessed to having doubts at one time or another.  Mother Teresa said she had doubts.  Billy Graham has said he’s had doubts.  A lot of us are in the position of the man Jesus talked to in Mark Chapter Nine.  A man asked Jesus if he could heal his son.  Jesus says what do you mean, if I can?  He says, “Everything is possible for one who believes.”  And the man responds, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

            We believe, and yet we don’t.  We believe, and yet we have doubts.  And Jesus understands that.  He understood the disciples’ unbelief.  He understood Thomas’ doubts.  But Jesus did not want them to stay in unbelief and doubt.  Jesus wanted them to believe.  And Jesus did everything he could to help them believe.

            It would be nice if Jesus would appear right before us, just as he did with Thomas and the other disciples.  And of course, Jesus could do that.  But for most of us, it probably won’t happen.  That does not mean, though, that the Lord has abandoned us.  If we look around us, we can see God at work in all kinds of ways.  And if we look at our own lives, we can see God at work in all kinds of ways, too.

            I don’t know what those ways are for you.  Here are just a few of them for me.  God was at work when, coming out of law school, I took a job in Pierre rather than one in Laurens, Iowa.  God was at work when, without us even knowing each other, Wanda took an apartment directly across from mine.  God was at work when, out of the blue, we got a call offering us the chance to move to Wessington Springs.  God was at work when, through a series of events that would take too long to go into now, we felt God calling us into the ministry.  And I believe that God was at work when the Dakotas Conference sent Wanda and me to this parish.

            If you think about your life, I suspect you can think of those moments, too.  Those moments when God was at work in your life.  Those “coincidences” that just all lined up perfectly for things to happen the way they did.  That’s God at work.  That’s Jesus doing whatever it takes to make each one of us believe.  That’s Jesus saying to us what he said to Thomas.  “Stop doubting, and believe.”

            So, it’s okay if we have doubts.  But let’s not stay stuck in our doubts.  Let’s look for all the times in our lives when God has shown up.  Let’s look for the times when God is showing up now, leading us and guiding us.  Let’s look for all the ways Jesus is saying to us “Stop doubting, and believe.”

            Our doubts are real.  But God is more real.  If we trust God, and if we look for the ways that God is at work. God will give us the faith to overcome our doubts.

Belief Without Understanding

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 22, 2017.  The Bible verses are John 20:1-18.

            We’ve been looking at Jesus’ life on earth from beginning to end.  Last week, we talked about Jesus death.  Which, of course, everyone on earth thought was the end.  Jesus had told the disciples what was going to happen, that he was going to overcome death and rise on the third day.  But they either did not understand what he meant or did not believe it.  I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that everyone on earth thought Jesus’ life was over when he died on the cross.

            Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb.  She’s going there to anoint Jesus’ body, as part of the Jewish burial ritual.  She sees the tomb empty, but does not know what’s happened.  She assumes someone has moved Jesus’ body.

            She goes back and tells Peter and John.  They go running out to the tomb.  Peter goes into the tomb first, and sure enough it’s empty.  He sees the strips of linen that had been wrapped around Jesus’ body and the cloth that had been wrapped around his head.  Then John goes in.  And then the Bible says this:  “He saw and believed.  (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead).”

            We’ll come back to that.  But then Peter and John leave.  And apparently they don’t say a word to Mary Magdalene.  They just walk away and leave Mary outside the tomb.  Crying.  Still thinking Jesus’ body has been moved someplace, and not having any idea where.

            Mary sees two angels.  They ask her why she’s crying, and again she tells them someone has taken Jesus’ body.  She sees Jesus himself, but of course does not recognize him.  She again wants to know where Jesus’ body was taken.  Then, Jesus says her name and she recognizes him.  That was probably the last thing Mary expected.  And of course, she’s overjoyed.  Jesus tells her to go and tell the others that he is ascending to God the Father, and of course she does that.

            I’ve said before that when we read about these Biblical events, we need to try to imagine ourselves there.  Try to imagine ourselves as one of the people in the story.  Try to imagine what they were thinking or feeling.  I think when we do that here, what we do is realize how important it is to believe even when we don’t understand.

            Look at John.  Remember what it said about John?  We’re told that he went into the tomb, and “he saw and believed”.  But then, in the next sentence, we’re told that neither he nor Peter understood from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

So John believed.  But what, exactly, did he believe?  He believed that the tomb was empty, but he could see that.  That did not take any belief--any fool could see the tomb was empty.  Did he believe Jesus had risen from the dead?  Maybe.  But even if he did, neither he nor Peter understood what that meant.  Again, they “did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”  They may have understood that this was a miracle, but what it meant--what it meant for them and for everyone else--they don’t appear to have had a clue.

            Mary Magdalene still thinks someone has moved the body.  Jesus rising from the dead does not even seem to have occurred to her.  She does not seem to even consider the possibility of it.  She knows Jesus is dead.  She just wants to know where the body is, so she can do what her faith requires her to do and so that she can mourn properly.

            And yet.  Through all this, Mary continues to refer to Jesus as “Lord”.  Not by name.  Not as just a man.  As “Lord”.  She tells Peter and John, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.”  She tells the angels “They have taken my Lord away.”  Even though Mary Magdalene believes Jesus is dead--actually more than believes, Mary knows it as a fact--despite that, she continues to refer to Jesus as “Lord.”  That’s a title she would only have used for the divine Son of God.  Somehow, in some way, even though she’s convinced Jesus is dead, she continues to believe in him as the Lord.  She might not have been able to explain that.  She might not even had understood it herself.  But somehow, in some way, even though she did not understand, she continued to believe.  And, of course, her belief is rewarded.  Jesus says her name, she turns and sees him, the last person she expected to see there, and is overjoyed that Jesus is alive.

            Belief without understanding.  That’s one of the definitions of faith, really--when we continue to believe even when we don’t understand.  

            As we look around us, we see a lot of things we don’t understand.  It seems like every week we hear about another natural disaster.  Hurricanes.  Earthquakes.  Fires.  Mudslides.  And we hear about unnatural disasters, too.  Terrorist attacks.  Serial killings.  And of course, there are the things that hit closer to home.  Cancer and other diseases.  Heart attacks.  Motor vehicle accidents.  And we could go on to name systemic problems like racism and injustice and oppression and religious persecution and all kinds of other things that are happening in the world.

            We don’t understand these things.  We don’t understand why they happen.  We don’t understand why God allows them to happen.  Some of them we can explain away by saying that God allows us to make choices and sometimes we make bad ones.  And of course, those bad choices we make affect a lot of people other than just ourselves.  And that explains some of the things that happen, but not all of them.  

            We say that God is good.  In fact, that’s one of the most basic articles of our faith as Christians--that God is good.  And yet, we struggle to understand why this good God would allow the world to be the way it is.  Even if we say that God did not cause it to be the way it is, we know God could do something about it.  God can do anything--that’s a basic part of being God.  But God clearly is not doing anything about it.  Well, that’s not necessarily true.  God does all sorts of things that we don’t see and maybe never will see.  But God is permitting things to be the way they are, at least for now.  This good God, this perfect God, is allowing the world to be anything but perfect.  This good God is allowing a lot of misery and sadness to go on in the world.  And we don’t understand why.

            But the question is not “Do we understand?”  Don’t get me wrong, it’s okay to try.  It’s okay to ask questions and try to understand.  But the question is not “Do we understand?”  The question is “Do we believe?”  Are we able to believe, even though we don’t understand?  Are we able to believe, despite everything we see around us, that God is still good?  Are we able to believe, no matter how things look to us right now, that God has reasons for allowing things to be the way they are?  Are we able to believe, no matter what’s happening and no matter what does happen, that somehow God is going to make everything work out all right in the end?  And in fact, are we able to believe not only that everything is going to work out right in the end, but that somehow, in some way that we don’t understand and never will understand while we’re on earth, this is all part of God’s plan and that all these things are necessary to bring about the fulfillment of God’s plan?

            When you put it that way, it kind of seems like it’s asking a lot.  Believing those things when we don’t understand them is not easy.  But on the other hand, Jesus never promised that faith would be easy.  It was not easy for Peter and John.  It was not easy for Mary Magdalene.  Think of the position they were in at this point.  They believed Jesus was alive, but they did not understand any of it.  They did not understand what had happened.  They did not understand how it had happened.  They did not understand why it had happened--I mean, they knew it had to do with Jesus being the Son of God, but again, we’re told that they “did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”  They did not understand what it meant, for them or anyone else.  They did not understand what was going to happen next or how it was going to affect them.  They believed, but they did not understand anything about it at all.

            So that’s the challenge.  Can we believe, even though we don’t understand?  Can we continue to have faith in God, even though we don’t know why things are the way they are?  Can we continue to believe that God is good when it seems like so many things happening in the world are bad?  Can we continue to believe God loves us when it seems like our lives are being turned upside down, especially when it seems like that’s happening through no fault of our own?  Can we continue to believe?  Can we continue to have faith?

            Peter and John believed Jesus was alive, even though they did understand how or why.  Mary Magdalene believed Jesus was Lord, even though she did not understand how or why.  

Because they believed, Jesus was with them, even though when they were not aware of it.  And he made himself known to them, even when they did not expect it.  If we keep believing, even though we don’t understand, Jesus will be with us, even when we’re not aware of it.  And even though we don’t expect it, Jesus will make himself known to us, too.

Poles Apart

There was a poll recently about what the most polarizing brand names are in the United States right now.  By “polarizing”, what is meant is that there are lots of people who strongly favor them and there are lots of people who strongly oppose them.  There are not a lot of people who are neutral.  Someone either really likes them or really doesn’t.

Of the first ten most polarizing brands, eight of them are news organizations.  They are, in order, CNN, NBC News, The New York Times, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC News, the Huffington Post, and CBS News.  For each of those organizations, there are a lot of people who really like them, and a lot of people who really don’t.  There are not a lot or people who are neutral.

My point is not to tell you what you should think about any of these organizations, or even that you need to think anything about them.  My point is this:  news organizations are, in theory, supposed to report facts.  Maybe you think some of them don’t, but in theory that’s what they’re supposed to do.  And yet, these are the organizations that are the most polarizing.  People have chosen sides about these organizations and either strongly like them or strongly don’t.

It’s no wonder, then, that the country appears to be so divided.  Not only do we all have differing opinions, we really can’t even agree on what the facts are.  And of course, the facts are what form and shape our opinions.  If we believe the facts of a situation are A, B, and C, our opinion will be one way.  If we believe the facts of a situation are X, Y, and Z, we’ll have a completely different opinion.  

Because we cannot agree on the facts, it can be very hard for us to even have a reasonable discussion with someone who has a different opinion than we do.  We hear what they say, but it does not make any sense to us, because we don’t believe the facts that they do.  They hear what we say, but it does not make any sense to them, because they don’t believe the facts that we do.  And so we talk past each other, failing to understand anything about where the other person is coming from.  We cannot agree to solutions to problems because we cannot even agree on what the problems are.  We cannot agree on how to make progress in a situation because we cannot even agree on what the situation is.  And so it seems we move further and further apart.

I don’t have a solution.  But I think one of the things we need to do is to make more of an effort to truly listen to and understand each other.  When someone disagrees with us, we need to try to understand what they’re opinion is based on.  And we need to be willing to explain what our opinion is based on, so they can understand it.

This is not to say there is no such thing as truth and falsity or no such thing as right or wrong.  There is.  I’m not saying we have to accept someone else’s version of the facts.  But if we want to become less polarized and find some form of common ground, we all need to understand where each other is coming from.  That’s the only way we’ll ever be able to stop talking past each other and really have a conversation that leads to coming together, rather than pulling apart.

So if you find yourself disagreeing with someone this week, try to truly listen to what they’re saying.  Try to find out what their opinion is based on.  Try to really have a conversation.  You don’t have to agree.  But maybe, if we try harder to understand each other, we can come closer together.  In fact, if we try harder to understand each other, it might lead to more of us loving our neighbors.  That would be kind of cool, I think.

Walking Through the Door

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 15, 2017.  The Bible verses used are John 19:17-30.

            Many of you know that I was a lawyer before I became a pastor.  For my first two years of seminary, before I had my first United Methodist appointment, I continued to work part-time as a lawyer.  I knew, though, that once I had an appointment, my days as a lawyer would come to an end.

            Once in a while, during those two years, I wondered how I would feel when I walked out the door of the law office for the last time.  Don’t get me wrong, I was confident that going into the ministry was the right thing for us to do.  Still, I’d worked in that law office for seventeen years.  How was it going to feel to leave it?  Would I feel sadness?  Regret?  Nostalgia?  How was it going to feel when I closed that office door for the last time?

            Well, as it turned out, I did not feel any of those things.  What I felt, really, was a sense of appropriateness.  It felt right to be leaving the law office.  Not that I had hated my time there or anything, I don’t mean that.  I just had this sense that things were going the way they were supposed to go.  I had enjoyed my time in law, I had done everything I was supposed to do there.  Now it was time to walk through that door and go on to find out what would happen next.

            When I thought about it later, it occurred to me that it would be really cool if death felt like that.  If, in fact, we’re blessed to live a long and full life, it would be nice to have that feeling at the end of life.  To have no sadness, no regret, no nostalgia.  To feel that death, at that time, is simply appropriate.  To have it feel right to be leaving this life.  Not that we hate our time here.  But just to have the sense that things are going the way they’re supposed to go.  We’ve done everything we’re supposed to do here.  Now it’s time to walk through that door and go on to find out what happens next.

            I don’t know if that’s how it actually will feel.  I don’t think we can possibly know how it will feel until we actually experience.  But I have hopes.  And one of the reasons for my hope is the description of Jesus’ death on earth in our reading from the gospel of John.

            Jesus is led out to the place of crucifixion.  Jesus had known for some time that this was going to happen.  He had told the disciples many times that he was going to be killed.  He had told them how he was going to be killed.  None of this came as a surprise to Jesus.  It was what he had been sent to earth to do.

            Jesus is on the cross.  His work on earth is done.  And in looking into this, to help me picture it, I discovered that the way we sometimes picture Jesus’ crucifixion is probably wrong.  We picture him way up on the cross, several feet off the ground.  What I read was that this was not true.  When you were crucified, you were just barely off the ground, maybe a foot at most.  Nobody would’ve had to lean way back or crane their necks to see Jesus.  Jesus and the other people who were being crucified were not towering over everyone.  They were not that far from eye level.

            Jesus is on the cross.  His work on earth is done.  Except for one thing.  Hanging on the cross, Jesus sees one more thing he can do.  He sees his mother, Mary, standing there near him.  Next to Mary is someone described as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, which we assume is John.  He says to Mary “Woman, here is your son” and he says to John “Here is your mother”.  Jesus, hanging on the cross, does one last thing out of love.  He makes sure that his mother, Mary, has someone to take care of her now that he’s going to be gone.

            After that, were told that Jesus knew “that everything had now been finished”.  He asks for a drink and gets one.  Then he says “it is finished”.  And he dies.

            It sounds to me like Jesus had that feeling I talked about earlier.  At the end of his life on earth, he had no sadness, no regret, no nostalgia.  He knew that death, at that time, was simply appropriate.  It was right for him to be leaving this life.  He had the sense that things were going the way they were supposed to go.  The Scriptures had been fulfilled.  Jesus had done everything he was supposed to do here.  Now it was time to walk through that door and go on to find out what would happen next.

            The difference between Jesus and you and me is that Jesus knew what would happen next.  He knew that he would rise from the dead, that he would spend a little more time with his disciples, and then he would go back to heaven.  Jesus had been in heaven before he came to earth.  He knew what it was like.  He knew that he would be going back to be with God the Father.  In effect, Jesus knew that when he left earth, he would be going home.

            Now, that’s a phrase we use a lot, too.  We talk about dying as going home or as God calling us home.  And there’s truth in it, of course.  Earth may be our home for now, but we know our time here is only temporary.  We know that, if we believe in Jesus as our Savior, we will go on to our future home, our permanent home, our eternal home.  We, too, will go to be with God the Father in heaven.

            But while we believe that, and we may even say we know it, you and I have never been to heaven.  We don’t know what it’s like there.  We cannot picture it.  The Bible tells us a few things about it, the streets being paved with gold and so forth, but we don’t really know whether that’s something we’re supposed to take literally.  The fact is that we don’t really know what heaven is like.  We don’t know what we’ll be like there.  For us, even if we believe in heaven, what happens next is still a mystery.

            But you know, I wonder if it might have been a mystery to Jesus, too.  Now, don’t take that the wrong way.  I believe what I said earlier, that Jesus had been in heaven before he came to earth and that he knew that when he left the earth he would be going back there.

            What I wonder is, while Jesus was on earth, was he able to remember everything about what heaven is?  This is one of the many things we don’t understand about the fully human and yet fully divine Jesus.  While Jesus was on earth, he was not connected to God the Father in the same way that he had been in heaven.  That’s why he would often go off by himself to meditate and to pray.  He was trying to get that connection to God the Father again.

            Now, Jesus knew who he was.  He knew he was the divine Son of God.  And he knew what that meant.  He knew that he had come from heaven and would return to heaven.  Jesus knew all that.

            What I’m wondering is how well he was able to call to mind what heaven really was.  We think Jesus was about thirty-three years old when he was crucified.  That means it had been thirty-three years since he had been in heaven.  Now, thirty-three years is the blink of an eye in heavenly terms, but it’s a long time in earthly terms.  I mean, thirty-three years ago Ronald Reagan was president.  The big pop song of 1984 was Tina Turner singing “What’s Love Got to Do with It”.  The big movie of 1984 was the original Police Academy movie.  Thirty-three years ago I was twenty-five and just starting my career as a lawyer, with no thought that I’d ever become a pastor.

            The point is that, in human terms, thirty-three years is a long time.  And again, Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine.  Could the fully human Jesus really remember what heaven was?  Could he remember what it looked like?  Could he remember what it smelled like?  Could he remember how it felt to be there?  

            Maybe he could.  But we really don’t know.  And maybe he did not need to.  Maybe Jesus did not need to know exactly what was waiting for him in heaven because he knew who was waiting for him in heaven.  Jesus knew that when he returned to heaven, he would be reunited with God the Father.  And maybe that was really all he needed to know.

            And maybe that’s all you and I need to know, too.  Yes, it would be nice if we could picture heaven.  It would be nice if we knew what it looked like and what it smelled like.  It would be nice if we knew how it feels to be there.  But you and I really don’t need to know that.  We don’t need to know what’s waiting for us in heaven because we know who’s waiting for us in heaven.  We know that we’ll be in the presence of the almighty, all-powerful, and yet all-loving and all-caring God.  And that’s really all we need to know.

We all know that, for each of us, the day will come when it’s time for us to walk through that door.  Whenever that day comes, may we meet it with no sadness, no regret, no nostalgia.  May we have that feeling that what is happening is simply appropriate.  Things were going the way they were supposed to go.  We have done everything we are supposed to do.  May we walk through that door eager to find out what happens next.  And may we be confident that the door will lead us to the almighty, all-powerful, all-loving, all caring God.

Go-to Music

You probably know how much I love music.  I love lots of kinds of music.  I love the old hymns and I also enjoy much of contemporary Christian music.  I enjoy the big band music that my parents love.  I enjoy some of the classic country music that Wanda likes so much.  I even enjoy some of the newer country and some of the current pop music.  I enjoy cowboy music and folk music.  There’s just so much music that I enjoy.

But my go-to music, the music that I love the most, is the music of the ‘70s, the music I grew up with.  I’m not talking about disco--that’s more late ‘70s to early ‘80s.  I’m talking about Fleetwood Mac and Chicago.  I’m talking about ELO and Crosby, Stills and Nash.  I’m talking about Jim Croce and Gordon Lightfoot.  I’m talking about Gerry Rafferty and Al Stewart.  And as you’ve probably guessed by now, I could go on and on and list a whole lot more individuals and groups from that time.

The thing is, though, I’m not sure why I love that music so much.  I mean, I could say, “Because it’s great music”, and of course I think it is.  But that’s not really an explanation.  After all, “great music” is in the ear of the beholder.  What I may think is great music you may think is lousy, and vice versa.  It’s not like there’s some universally recognized standard of what makes great music.  “Great music” is whatever you happen think it is.

I could say it’s because listening to the music I grew up with takes me back to that time.  It makes me think of my high school days and takes me back to a happier time.  The problem with that, though, is that I was not really all that happy in high school.  I was actually pretty lonely most of the time.  I wanted nothing more from high school than to leave it, to be able to go out into a bigger world where, I hoped, I would find some people who would accept me and like me for who I was.  Which I did, and I don’t mean to get off on a tangent whining about my high school days.  The point is, though, that listening to ‘70s music does not take me back to a happier time.  I’m much happier now than I was then.

But perhaps it doesn’t really matter anyway.  Maybe it doesn’t really matter why something makes you happy, as long as it does.  I mean, if something that’s hurtful to you or someone else makes you happy, that’s a problem.  But if something makes you happy and it doesn’t hurt anyone else, then maybe you don’t worry about why.  Maybe the thing to do is just go with it and be happy.

I’m not saying that our own personal happiness should be our only goal in life.  I think God wants us to be happy, but God also wants us to love our neighbor.  God also wants us to go and make disciples.  God also wants us to love God and to serve God in whatever way we can.  The process of doing that will make us happy in a much deeper way than just listening to music ever will.

But music, and art, and sports, and lots of other things, can bring some happiness in our lives, too.  And in proper proportion, there’s nothing wrong with that.  So I’m going to keep listening to my ‘70s music.  And I hope this week, you’ll spend some time doing something that makes you happy, too.

Changing the World

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 8, 2017.  The Bible verses used are John 23:13-25.

            Our Bible reading today picks up where we left off last week.  Jesus has been arrested, he’s been questioned by the high priest, and now he’s been brought to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.  Pilate thought he’d gotten rid of this problem of Jesus by sending him to Herod, but Herod sent Jesus right back.  So now, Pilate has no choice but to deal with him.

            Pilate tells the people there’s no basis for the charges against Jesus.  He says he’s going to release Jesus.  Three times he says that.  And each time, all the people say no.  They don’t want Jesus released.  They want him crucified.  They want him killed.  So Pilate, who really does not care about Jesus one way or another and just wants to keep the peace, agrees.  Jesus is led away to be crucified.

            This whole crowd of people wanted Jesus killed.  Listen again to how Luke says it:  “With one voice they cried out, ‘Away with this man!  Release Barabbas to us!’”  “They kept shouting, ‘Crucify him!  Crucify him!’”  “With loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified.”

            I wonder if that’s really the way it was.  I mean, I’m not questioning the accuracy of the Bible or anything.  I’m just thinking about it.  We’re not told how big the crowd was.  It’s described as “the chief priests, the rulers, and the people.”  Maybe it was a hundred, maybe it was a thousand, maybe more, we don’t know.  But out of all these people, was there not one who disagreed?  Was there not one who thought, “Wait a minute.  Does this man, this Jesus, really deserve to die?”  Was there not one person there who thought, “Maybe Pilate’s right.  Maybe we should think about this a little more”?  Is it literally true that every person there was shouting for Jesus to be crucified?

            It may be.  Remember when we talked about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday?  We talked about how a lot of people there probably did not believe in Jesus.  They just got caught up in the emotion of it.  That may well have happened here, too.  People who did not know who Jesus was might have been there demanding his death.  People who had heard Jesus and had questions might have been there demanding his death.  In fact, some of the same people who, not very many days before had been shouting “Hosanna” and waving palm branches might have been there demanding Jesus’ death.

            It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion of a situation.  Most of us have probably had it happen at one time or another.  But there’s another thing going on here, too.  There may very well have been people who did think Jesus should not be killed, but who simply did not have the courage to say so.  They may have, privately, been on Jesus’ side, but simply have been afraid of what might happen to them if they spoke up about it.

            What do those two things have in common?  Peer pressure.  Going along with the crowd.  Not wanting to rock the boat.  Doing what everyone else does.  Thinking the way everyone else thinks.  Believing what everyone else believes.  Living the way everyone else lives.  Wanting to fit in.  Wanting to be popular.  Not wanting to be different, not wanting to be the oddball.  Wanting to be part of the crowd.

            We talk about peer pressure in regard to young people a lot, but it’s not just young people who feel it.  I think every person here probably feels peer pressure at one time or another.  We might not realize it, we might not think about it that way, but we do.  In fact, one reason we don’t realize it or think about it that way is that we’ve done it for so long we no longer realize we’re doing it.  We think we’re making independent decisions, entirely on our own, when in fact we’re just doing things the way everyone does them and thinking about things the way everyone else thinks about them.

            But here’s the thing.  As Christians, fitting in should be the last thing we think about.  It should not matter to us whether we think or believe or live the way other people do.  What should matter to us is whether we think or believe or live the way God wants us to.  Our goal as Christians is not fit into the world.  Our goal as Christians is to change the world.

            That was Jesus’ goal too, of course.  Jesus could’ve saved himself a lot of trouble if he’d been willing to go along, to fit in.  If Jesus had just gone along with what the high priests and elders wanted, he would not have been killed.  In fact, I think that even at the point of our reading for today that option was still open to Jesus.  If Jesus had apologized, if he’d said that the chief priests were right and he was wrong, he’d probably have saved his life.  He might’ve even gotten praise from the chief priests as a sinner who’d seen the light.  Things would’ve been so much easier for Jesus if he’d just tried to fit in.  Just as, many times, it seems like things are easier for us if we just try to fit in.

            But Jesus was not sent to Earth to fit in.  Jesus was sent to Earth to change the world.  And you and I, as Christians, were not put here fit in, either.  You and I were put here to change the world, too.

            Now that sounds like a pretty lofty goal.  In fact, it probably does not sound very realistic.  You and I are just ordinary people.  We’re out here living in a small town in a state that most people consider the middle of nowhere.  How in the world are you and I supposed to change the world?  It sounds ridiculous.

            But it’s not.  For one thing, Jesus was just a guy from a small town in the middle of nowhere, too.  Remember in John Chapter One, when Jesus is gathering his first disciples?  Jesus calls Philip, and Philip goes and tells his friend Nathanael about how they’ve found the Messiah, and it’s Jesus of Nazareth.  Nathanael says, “Nazareth!  Can anything good come from there?”  Nazareth was considered nowhere.  Nobody worth knowing could come from there.  But Jesus did, and he changed the world.

            But we think, sure, but Jesus was the divine Son of God.  I’m not the divine Son of God.  I’m not the divine anything.  How am I supposed to change the world?

            But we can.  And we do.  You and I change the world every day, in a hundred ways, large and small.  Because every action we take is seen by someone.  Every word we say is noticed by someone.  You and I have influence over more people than we will ever know.  That influence changes the world, every day.  The question is whether we’ll have the courage to not fit in.  The question is whether we’ll have the courage to change the world in a way that brings people to Jesus Christ.

            When you decided to come to church today, rather than staying home or going someone else, someone saw that.  Maybe it was your kids or your grandkids.  Maybe it was your neighbor.  Maybe it was somebody driving by who saw you pull up to the church or walk in the door.  But somebody noticed.  And them noticing that changed the world.  Maybe just a little bit, maybe not even enough to be noticeable.  But it still changed the world to some small extent.

            Everything we do is noticed by someone.  When the cashier at the convenience store gives us too much change, how we react to that will change the world.  When we’re talking to someone and they criticize someone else, how we react to that will change the world.  When someone wants us to do something we know is wrong, but we know will be popular, how we react to that will change the world.  When we do something we know is right and we get criticized for it, how we react to that will change the world.

            And when we have the chance to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, how we react to that will change the world.  And when we have the chance to show God’s love to people, how we react to that will change the world.  It won’t change the whole world all at once, but it will change some part of it.  It will change the world for at least one person.  And that one person will change the world for someone else, who’ll change the world for someone else, and on and on it goes.  And when enough of these changes happen, the whole world will be changed.

            If Pontius Pilate would have had the courage to stand up to the crowd, he might have changed the world.  If someone, even just one person, in the crowd shouting “crucify” would have had the courage to stand up and say no, that person might have changed the world.  But none of them did.  And the thing is that by not having that courage, they still changed the world.  They just did not realize it.

            You and I claim to be Christians.  The way we live out our Christian faith will change the world.  We will either change the world by going along with the crowd, or we’ll change the world by loving our neighbor and making disciples of Jesus Christ.

            Which way will we choose?

The Outside of the Asylum

One of my favorite authors is Douglas Adams.  He wrote a series of books which are known as “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.  They follow the life of Arthur Dent, a rather ordinary Englishman who, without any real warning, suddenly finds himself on a series of adventures traveling through time and space.

On a trip back to Earth, Arthur meets a man named John Watson.  Mr. Watson--well, I’ll let wikipedia explain it:  

John Watson, also known (at his own request) as Wonko the Sane, was a marine biologist and scientist.  He and his wife lived in a curious place called The Outside of the Asylum.  John calls himself “Wonko” in order to remind himself that a scientist must be like a child in having no preconceived notions--”Wonko” being a childhood nickname bestowed by his mother.  Wonko added the epithet “the Sane” to his name in order to reassure people of his sanity.

The Asylum was set up one day after Watson came across a set of detailed instructions on a set of toothpicks:  “Hold stick near center of its length.  Moisten pointed end in mouth.  Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum.  Use gentle in-out motion.”  Watson, distressed and fearing for the sanity of a world which needed detailed instructions in order to use a toothpick properly, built the Asylum to put it in and help it get better.  The Asylum is a four-walled house turned inside out.  That which one would be inclined to take as the door into the house opens into a lawn with benches and walking paths.  This is the area Watson calls outside the Asylum.  Thus, the Asylum contains the entire world, save for that small outside area.  Within that small outside area, Watson has mounted the instructions for the toothpicks, in order to discourage himself and others from going back into the Asylum.

So other than showing I like strange books, what’s the point?  The point is that I sometimes have days where I feel like Wonko the Sane.  I watch the news and I feel like the whole rest of the world has gone crazy, and I’m the only sane one left.  The idea that men should use the men’s room and women should use the ladies’ room has become controversial.  Choosing whether to watch an NFL game has become a political statement.  And then, of course, we have things like the Las Vegas shooting that make the feeling even stronger.  I could go on and on, and so could you.  And I suspect, sometimes, you feel the same way--like the world has gone crazy and you’re the only sane one left in it.

It’s tempting, when we feel like that, to do what Wonko did.  It’s tempting to just withdraw from society.  Let the crazy world go crazy.  Don’t try to do anything about it.  Live a quiet life, keep to yourself, and just watch the world go by in whatever way it decides to go.

The thing is, though, that’s not what Jesus told us to do.  Jesus told us to go and make disciples.  Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  It’s pretty hard to make disciples if we’ve withdrawn from society.  It’s pretty hard to love our neighbors if we keep to ourselves and watch the world go by.  The only way we can make disciples of Jesus Christ is to go out and be part of the world.  The only way we can love our neighbors is to go out and meet them where they are and become a part of their lives.  In other words, the only way we can really be followers of Jesus Christ is to be a part of the messy, crazy world that’s out there.

Jesus never withdrew from the world.  We shouldn’t, either.  Wherever you are, whatever you do, find a way to be engaged and involved in the world around you.  Interact with the people you can interact with.  Influence the people you can influence.  Do what you can to bring people to faith or to strengthen the faith of those who already have it.

It’s okay to step out of the Asylum once in a while, to recharge--Jesus did that, too.  But ultimately, we need to get back into the world and do what we can to love our neighbors and make disciples of Jesus Christ.