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Thursday, February 15, 2018

God Deserves It

This is the message given on Ash Wednesday in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.


            In our last reading tonight, Jesus talks about doing good works.  “Acts of righteousness”, as our translation puts it.  Jesus talks about people who want recognition for their good works.  People who, when they give to the needy, “announce it with trumpets”.  People who, when they pray, stand in public places so that everyone can see their praying.  People who, when they fast, going without food, try to make themselves look as bad as they can, so everyone will know they’re fasting.
Jesus says that’s not how we’re supposed to do things.  He says that we should do our good works in secret.  If we give to the needy, were not supposed to let anyone know about it.  “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”  Not only are we not supposed to tell anyone, we’re supposed to keep it hushed up.  When we pray, we’re supposed to go into a room by ourselves and close the door, so no one can see us.  People who fast are supposed to do everything they can to keep looking good, so no one can tell they’re fasting.
            Now, most of us would probably agree with Jesus’ point here.  We know we’re not supposed to make a big show of our good works.  Most of us would probably say that we don’t make a big show of our good works.  And I think most of us would probably be right about that.
            We don’t make a big show of our good works.  And yet...there’s a part of a lot of us that does like to receive recognition for them.  We may not announce what we do with trumpets, but a lot of times, there’s a part of us that hopes what we did will be found out.  We may not advertise it ourselves, but we do sometimes think it would be kind of nice if somebody found out and we got some compliments for what we did.
            Now, my point here is not to point fingers at anyone.  Maybe you’ve never felt like this.  I don’t know.  I suspect there are some of us who have, though.  I know I have.  Wanting recognition and praise for the good things we do is a natural human thing.
            Why?  Well, there can be a lot of reasons.  It’s not necessarily that we want to brag.  It’s not necessarily out of arrogance or self-righteousness.  It can be that, of course, and when it is, that’s wrong.  The Bible tells us a lot about God’s opinion of arrogance and self-righteousness, and none of it is good.  In fact, there’s quite a bit in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, about God punishing people for those things.
            But I think there’s another reason we want recognition and praise for the things we do.  I think a lot of times, people are just looking for acceptance and affirmation.  
I think there are a lot of times when we, as humans, don’t have all that high an opinion of ourselves.  We may like to pretend that we do, but deep down, we don’t.  We wonder, am I a good person?  Am I living the way I should?  Are the things I’m doing good enough?  Is my life really meaningful?  Am I really a valuable human being?
We want the answers to be yes.  We hope the answers will be yes.  But we’re not sure.  We want someone to tell us so.  We want someone to tell us, yes, you are a good person.  You’re doing it right.  Your life is meaningful.  You do have value.  And so, we do these things, and maybe we don’t brag about them or anything, but we hope the word will get out somehow.  We hope people will find out what we did and think well of us.  We hope someone will tell us that we really did a good thing, so we can get that affirmation and acceptance that almost all of us want.
Now, I’m not saying that wanting that affirmation and acceptance is a sin, necessarily.  I think it can be, if it becomes too important to us.  But God understands how we human beings are.  God understands how we are better than we do, because God created us.  Wanting affirmation and acceptance sometimes is not necessarily wrong.  
But it’s not exactly right, either.  It’s really not what God wants for us.  God does not want us to seek affirmation and acceptance from human beings.  God wants us to seek affirmation and acceptance from God.
            The thing is, if our goal is to get affirmation and acceptance from human beings, all we’ll get is whatever reward human beings choose to give us.  If our goal is to get affirmation and acceptance from God, we’ll get whatever reward God chooses to give us.  And we know that God’s rewards are awesome.  God’s rewards are salvation and eternal life.
            But even that’s not really right.  Because getting a reward, even a reward from God, should not really be our goal.  We should not worship God and love God and have faith in Jesus as our Savior because of what we think we can get out of it.  If we look at it that way, that’s not really love, is it?  It’s bargaining.  God, I’ll do this for you if you’ll do this for me.  I’ll have faith in Jesus if you’ll give me salvation.  That’s not love, that’s a business transaction.
            That’s one of the reasons good works are not enough to get us into heaven.  God wants us to do good things, of course.  But God does not want us to do good things so that we can get to heaven.  God does not want us to do good things with the expectation we’re going to get something for it in return.  God wants us to do good things out of love.  Love of God, and love of each other.
            God does promise that our faith in Jesus will result in eternal life.  But God does not promise that out of obligation.  God does not promise it because God has to.  God promises that because God loves us.  God promises us that because God is the all-loving, all-caring, all-merciful, all-compassionate, all-gracious God.
            That’s why we should worship God.  That’s why we should love God.  That’s why we should have faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.  Not for what we can get out of it.  Because of who God is.  Because God deserves our love.  God deserves our worship.  Jesus deserves our faith.  God does not owe it to us to give us salvation because of what we may have done.  We owe it to God to do what’s right, to worship God and love God, because of who God is.
            No matter how much we study the Bible, no matter how much we pray, no matter how many great scholars we read, no matter how much theology we read, I don’t think we human beings ever get anywhere close to really understanding all that God is.  We try so hard to capture it, we try so hard to come up with all kinds of words and phrases, trying to really put down on paper who God is, and I don’t think we even come close.  It’s not even really our fault.  It’s just that God is beyond our ability as human beings to truly comprehend.  We just cannot get our minds around all that God is.
            That’s one of the reasons Jesus came.  Jesus gave us a chance to know God in a way that we never could otherwise.  Jesus is God.  God the Son.  God in human form.  God with a face people could see and a voice people could hear.  God in a form you and I could relate to and could understand.
            Think of what an act of love that was.  God, the almighty, all-powerful God, a God who is beyond our comprehension, coming down to the level of a mere human being.  God the Son, giving up his place in heaven to live among we weak, sinful, imperfect human beings.  Doing that so that we could have some idea of who God really is.  That shows the incredible amount of love that God has for us.
            And that just shows all the more how much God deserves our love.  It shows all the more how much God deserves our worship.  That the almighty God would do something like that, would demean himself in that way, just for us.  It’s an awesome, incredible, mind-blowing thing that God has done for us.
            As we enter the time of Lent, let’s focus on that.  Let’s focus on how great, how awesome, how incredible God is.  Let’s focus on how worthy God is of our worship and our love.  And then, let’s give God that worship and that love.  Not because we want to go to heaven.  But because it’s the right thing to do.  Because God deserves it.
           


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