Faith

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, August 26, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Hebrews 11:1-16.

            Today we start a new sermon series, “What’s the Good Word?”  We’re going to look at some of the words we throw around in church a lot and talk about what they really mean.  

Now, maybe you’re thinking, “But I already know what these words mean.”  And maybe you do.  But even so, we sometimes get so used to saying these things that we stop thinking about them.  They become just words that we use, without thinking about the real meaning behind them.  As you may have guessed from our Bible reading, and from the hymns we’ve used, the word we’re going to look at today is “faith”.

We use that word “faith” a lot.  We say that we are saved by faith, faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  When Jesus healed people, he would often say, “Your faith has made you well”.  We refer to our religion as a “Christian faith”.  So when we use that word “faith”, what is it that we actually mean?

Our reading from the letter to the Hebrews tells us a little about it.  It gives us what seems to me a really good definition of faith.  It says, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

If you think about that, it makes perfect sense.  I don’t have to have faith that this pulpit exists.  I can see it.  I can feel it.  I don’t have to have faith that the keyboard is over there.  I can see it.  If our pianist bangs on the keys, I can hear it.  If I walked over there, I could touch it.  Those things don’t require any faith at all.

There are other mundane things that take a little bit of faith.  As I stand here right now, I cannot see my car.  It was out there when I walked in here this morning.  I think it’s probably still there.  But it might not be.  Someone could’ve stolen it.  It takes a little bit of faith to believe that my car is still there.

The same thing with the parsonage.  The parsonage was there when we left this morning.  All of our stuff was in it.  I don’t know that it’s still there.  But I have faith that it is, and that all of our stuff is there, too.

And of course, there are various things in our lives that require more faith.  I have faith that Wanda loves me.  I have faith that when I take a check to the bank, it’s going to go into my account.  I have faith that when I get here for church on Sunday, the lights will be on and someone will be there to play the piano and to run the power point and to act as ushers and to do all the other things that need to be done for us to have church today.  There are all sorts of things we do every day that require faith.

But of course, when we talk about faith in the church, we’re talking about something quite a bit more serious.  We’re talking about faith that God exists.  We’re talking about faith that God loves us.  We’re talking about faith that God knows what’s best for us and that we need to follow God, even when we have no idea what God’s up to and even when what God’s telling us may not make any sense to us..  

Our Bible reading addresses that.  It gives all kinds of examples of people in the Bible who had faith.  It starts out with the example that it is by faith that we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.  It then talks about the faith of Abel, the faith of Enoch, the faith of Noah, the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah--we’re given all kinds of examples of people who had faith.

But what does the letter to the Hebrews say about their faith?  It says their faith was shown by their actions.  We know that Abel had faith because of the offering he gave to God.  We know that Noah had faith because he built an ark, even though he was living in the desert and there was not a cloud in the sky.  We know Abraham had faith because he went to a strange place at God’s command, even though he knew nothing about it and knew no one there.  

That tells us two things about faith.  One is that faith must be revealed by our actions.  It’s no good to say we have faith in God if the way we live does not show that.  That may seem like kind of an obvious point, but think about it.  Think about how we live our lives.  Does the way you live your life show that you have faith in God?  Does the way I live my life show I have faith in God?  If someone did not know you, and just observed how you live, would that person be able to tell that you have faith in God?

That’s more important than we may think.  We tend to believe that in a little town like this everyone believes in God, but it’s not true.  There are people in our parish who do not believe in God.  There are people in our parish who do not accept Jesus as the Savior.  And they’re not likely to open up the Bible and change their minds.  You and I, as Christians, are representatives of God.  We’re representatives of Jesus Christ.  What people can observe of you and me is going to be what they think a Christian is.  It’s a big responsibility.  But it’s a responsibility God gives us.  If we have faith, our faith needs to be revealed by our actions, just as the faith of those Bible heroes our reading tells us about was revealed by their actions.

And another thing it tells us about faith is that faith requires us to follow God even when we don’t know what the outcome is going to be.  Faith requires us to follow God even when we don’t understand what’s going on.  Abel did not know what was going to happen when he made his offering to God.  I’m sure he hoped God would be pleased, but he did not know.  He gave the offering because he had faith.  Enoch did not know he was going to be able to escape death, and be taken directly to heaven, when he decided to follow God.  He followed God because he had faith.  Abraham had no idea what he was going to find when God sent him to a strange land.  He went because he had faith.

And those things together--having our faith revealed by our actions, and acting in faith even when we don’t know what will happen--show one more thing about faith.  They show that faith is incredibly powerful.  Jesus said that if we have even as much faith as a mustard seed--a very tiny seed--we can move mountains.  Again, when Jesus healed people, he would generally tell them, “Your faith has made you well.”  Faith--faith in God, faith in Jesus as the Savior--has incredible power.  Faith allows us to do things that we might think are impossible.  But they’re not, because as Jesus also said, with God, all things are possible.

And that’s important.  Because a lot of times, as human beings, and even as Christians, we feel like we don’t have much power.  That can be especially true in our situation, when we’re part of a small church in a small town.  We see all kinds of things happening, and we think, “I cannot do anything about that.  I cannot affect that.  There’s nothing I can do.”

It’s not true.  We may not be able to do everything, but there are things we can do.  Remember what I said a little while ago.  There are people in this parish who do not believe in God.  There are people in this parish who do not accept Jesus as the Savior.  It’s not good enough for us to say, “There’s nothing I can do about that.”  If we don’t do something about it, who will?  If we, as Christians, don’t reach those people who are our neighbors, who else will do it?  The answer is no one.  There is no one else.  Nobody is going to come to Gettysburg, or to Onida, or to Agar, and reach those people who don’t have faith.  It’s up to us.  There is no one else.

How do we do that?  Well, I’ll tell you--I don’t know.  I don’t have the magic bullet solution.  But we’ve got to try.  We’ve started a Sunday evening service in Gettysburg--that’s one way to try.  Our parish posts things on Facebook--that’s one way to try.  Will those things work?  I don’t know.  Do we need to do more?  Probably.  But here’s one thing I do know:  if we do nothing, nothing’s going to happen.  Those people who don’t believe now will continue to not believe.  And if we believe what Jesus said--that no one comes to the Father except through him--then there are people in our parish whose eternal life is in jeopardy.  I don’t like to think that there are people around me--people that I know--who may not be going to heaven.  And I don’t think you like to think that, either.

If we claim to have faith, that faith has to be revealed by our actions.  We need to go where God sends us, to do what God asks us, to say what God tells us.  We need to do that even when we don’t know what’s going to happen.  That’s what faith is.  And when we act in faith, God will bless our efforts.  And then, all kinds of things can happen, things we never even dreamed of.  Because with God, all things are possible.

What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

            As some of you know, Wanda and I were gone last week.  We spent a week in the Seattle area.  The main purpose of the trip was a nephew’s wedding, but we also took a few extra days for a vacation.  Who knows when or if we’ll ever be out there again, so we wanted to see more than just the hotel and the airport.  We took some tours and did some general sightseeing.

            It had been a long time since we’d taken a real vacation, and I learned a few things.  Well, “learned” probably isn’t the right word—there are no stunning insights here or anything.  A better way to say it is that I was reminded of some things I should have already known.  Anyway, I thought I’d share them with you.

1.       Wanda and I need to find a way to spend more time alone together.  Don’t get

me wrong, the time we spent with Wanda’s family was wonderful.  However, because we got out there a few days before the family, Wanda and I had a few days just to ourselves.  For me, that was the highlight of the trip.  I’m sure we have this in common with a lot of other people, but we both stay pretty busy, and most of the time we are together we’re doing something or other.  We somehow need to have more time for just the two of us.  I’m not sure yet how it’s going to happen, but we’ll work on it.  If you’re part of a couple that stays busy, and most of your time together is spent doing something or other, I’d suggest you work on it, too.  It’s something we all need.  And you just might find out that your spouse is kind of fun to hang out with, you know?

2.       There are a lot of nice people in the world.  Because Wanda and I don’t travel

much, there are a lot of things about travel we don’t know.  Finding our way around airports, figuring out how to get around in a city, those are things we’re pretty ignorant about.  I often felt like I should have a big sign around my neck that said, “HICK”.  But every time we couldn’t figure out what we were supposed to do or where we were supposed to go, we’d find somebody who’d help us.  It was pretty cool.  You know, you watch the news sometimes and you get the impression that everyone in the world is either mean or selfish.  It’s not true.  As the country song says, most people are good.  It’s important to remember that.

3.       It’s okay to detach sometimes.  It’s a cliché to say that something “puts things in

perspective”, but there’s an extent to which this trip did.  While we were gone, I didn’t do a lot of the things I usually do.  I would look in on facebook once in a while, but I’m sure I missed a lot of stuff.  I caught a few news headlines, but I’m sure I missed a lot of stuff that was reported.  I checked the Twins’ scores, but I didn’t watch or listen to any ballgames.  And you know what?  It was okay.  It truly was.  I’m not suggesting detachment as a permanent way of life, but sometimes we need to remember that a) a lot of the things we get upset about we can’t change anyway, so it’s better to not get upset about them, and b) the world is big enough and old enough to take care of itself for a while.  I still want to be there for people and help people and serve God as best I can.  But I’m not an indispensable person, and neither are you.

            So that’s what I learned on my summer vacation.  If it helps you remember a few things you should know, too, that’s great.  One more thing:  it’s a little sad when a great vacation is over.  But it’s a lot easier to come home when you know you’re coming home to a great job in a great place and have great people to work with.  I’m glad we got away, but I’m also happy to be home.

A Poem About Loving Your Neighbor

The man asked “Who is my neighbor?”

And I wonder about that, too.

I’m looking for a loophole

To avoid what I should do.

I want to love my neighbor.

Well, at least sometimes I do.

But there are certain people

I’d like to take out of view

There’s the person who’s annoying

The one who did me wrong

There’s one who I trusted who hurt me

The one who just doesn’t belong

I know I need to work on this

I promise that I will

And there are times I really try

And yet I fall short still

It seems, no matter how I try

My love is not complete

And I am tempted to give up

And just concede defeat

But then I remember what Jesus said

That it’s what I need to do

It’s how to inherit eternal life

A life that’s never through

It just does not seem possible

And for me maybe it’s not

But with God all things are possible

That’s the God I’ve got

If I just do my best to love

Up to the extent I can

God’s love will come and do the rest

That’s all part of his plan

God’s love added to my love

Is all the love required

And when that thought comes to my mind

I’m once again inspired

Let’s all give all the love we can

Let’s always do our best

And know that we can trust in God

God’s love will do the rest.

All Honor and Glory

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of Onida and Agar on Sunday, August 5, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Luke 22:14-20.

            In a little while, we will share in Holy Communion.  And today, we close our sermon series looking at the Communion liturgy that we use every month.

            So, as we prepare to take communion, I want to start by reminding you of all the things we’ve talked about so far.  We started by talking about the importance of giving thanks to God, and how it is a joyful thing to do that.  We should feel joy when we give thanks to God, because God always loves us and God will always be with us.  Then we talked about the holiness of God, how God is perfect and so deserves our complete loyalty and dedication. 

After that, we talked about the new covenant that God has made with us through our sharing in Holy Communion.  We talked about how that covenant is a covenant of grace and forgiveness that was made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and how by sharing in Communion we accept that covenant that God makes with us.  We then talked about how this is such an incredible gift that God has given to us, that we receive God’s grace and forgiveness not because we deserve them, but because God loves us that much.

We also talked about how the Communion liturgy calls us to be a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ’s offering for us.  That calls us to give one hundred percent of our lives to God.  We talked about how the fact that Christ is risen is the ultimate proof that he is, in fact, the Savior, and how if we believe that, we should want to give one hundred percent of our lives to God.  And last week we talked about how we pray for God’s Holy Spirit to be poured onto us and into us, and what we could accomplish for the Lord if that actually happened.

There’s one last bit of the Communion liturgy we need to talk about.  It’s short.  Here it is:

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever.

“All honor and glory is yours, almighty Father.”  You know, the Gallup organization took a poll last year asking people who attend church regularly why they do that.  Here are the top seven answers--and you could obviously choose more than one answer:

1.      Sermons that teach about scripture--76%

2.      Sermons that help you connect religion to your life--75%

3.      Programs geared to children and teenagers--64%

4.      Community outreach and volunteer opportunities--59%

5.      Dynamic religious leaders who are interesting and inspiring--54%

6.      Social activities that help you get to know people in the community--49%

7.      A good choir, praise band, or other spiritual music--38%

            Now, none of those is necessarily a bad reason to come to church.  Maybe you nodded your head at someone.  Maybe some of them resonated with you, and that’s fine.  If one or more of those things is why you’re here today, that’s great.  But remember what we call this.  This is a worship service.  We are here to worship God.  We are here to give all honor and glory to God.

            Now again, none of those other reasons is wrong or bad.  If you get something out of the sermons, that’s great.  I hope you do.  If you like the music and it sticks with you after you leave, wonderful.  I’m glad of that.  If you enjoy the social aspect of church, that’s cool, too.  God wants us to love our neighbors.  But over and above those and all the other things mentioned in that poll is the fact that this is a worship service.  We are here today to worship God.  We are here today to give all honor and glory to God.

            Now, maybe that seems like a pretty obvious thing to say.  In a way, I kind of hope so.  It should be an obvious thing to say.  But think about that list of reasons why people come to church.  Nowhere among those top seven responses was “I come to church to worship God.”  Now, to be fair, I don’t know if the Gallup people included that response as one of the options.  Also, the article I read did not give the rest of the responses, so I don’t know worshipping God might have come in eighth or ninth or if it even registered at all.  But still, it appears that less than thirty-eight percent of the people who responded to that poll cited “worshipping God” as one of their major reasons for attending church.

            Now again, if you enjoy some of those other things about church, that’s fine.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  But if, at the end of the day, the church does not worship God, the church is not a church.  It’s just a social club.  And that’s not a knock on social clubs--they often do good things and help people and let people form relationships so they can be there for each other and all kinds of other things.  And obviously the church should do good things and help people and let people form relationships and be there for each other, too.  But even more importantly, the church needs to worship God.  We need to honor and glorify God.

            The church is about the worship of God.  The sharing of Holy Communion is about the worship of God.  We should approach Communion with an attitude of worship.  God deserves our worship.  And we need to give God our worship.

            Really, everything about the Communion liturgy leads us to this point.  That’s why we went through that review of it at the beginning of the message.  We give thanks to God, and feel joy in doing so, because our thankfulness gives honor and glory to God.  It shows our worship of God.  We give God our complete loyalty and dedication, or at least we have that as our goal, because that gives honor and glory to God.  It shows our worship of God.

            Accepting God’s new covenant of grace and forgiveness, a covenant that was made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, gives honor and glory to God.  It shows our worship of God.  Recognizing what an incredible gift that is that God has given us, a gift that we don’t deserve but simply receive because of God’s love for us, gives honor and glory to God.  It shows our worship of God.

            Giving one hundred percent of our lives to God, or at least trying to, gives honor and glory to God.  That shows our worship of God.  Believing in and accepting the fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead gives honor and glory to God.  That, too, shows our worship of God.  Praying for God’s Holy Spirit to be poured out onto us and into us gives honor and glory to God.  That also shows our worship of God.  And opening our hearts and our souls, so that we truly can feel God’s Holy Spirit poured onto us and into us, gives honor and glory to God.  That shows our worship of God.

            And of course, these are not just things we should think about on Sunday morning, and they’re not just things we should think about when we share in Holy Communion.  These are things that should be part of our entire lives.  Every aspect of our lives--again, one hundred percent--should give honor and glory to God.  Every aspect of our lives should show our worship of God in some way.

            In a little while, we’re going to share in Holy Communion.  And before we do, we’re going to read the Communion liturgy.  For some of us, it’s a liturgy that we’ve read many times before.  But I hope that this sermon series has helped us all, including me, see the Communion liturgy in a new light.  I hope it’s given the Communion liturgy more meaning for all of us.  And I hope that meaning will not just be something that we think about today, but that we’ll think about it every time we share Communion from now on.

            Our Communion liturgy is very well-crafted.  Every part of it has meaning.  Every part of it logically follows the part that comes before it.  And every part of it leads to the conclusion, the main reason we come together on Sunday morning:  to give all honor and glory to God.  To worship the almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise, and yet all-loving, all-caring, all-compassionate, all gracious, all-merciful God.

            “Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever.”  May we truly give God all honor and glory, not just now, but always.

Quick Change

This last Wednesday was the thirty-first anniversary of a special event in my life.  It’s the anniversary of the first time Wanda and I went on a date.  It was kind of an unplanned date, really.  We were talking together, I invited her to come have supper with me at the Dairy Queen, and then we went for a walk in Steamboat Park in Pierre.  Something must have gone right, because thirty-one years later, here we are, still together.

It shows how suddenly, when you’re not really expecting it, something can happen that changes your entire life.  When I got up that morning, I had no idea that Wanda and I were going to start dating that day.  I don’t think she did, either.  But God did.  God did a lot of things to bring Wanda and me together.  It started with me going to Pierre, where Wanda was, in the first place.  Had I not gotten a job offer with the state, I never would’ve gone there.  Then, the department I was working in moved to a different building, which just happened to be the building Wanda worked in.  Then, Wanda moved into a different apartment building, a building that just happened to be next door to mine.  When I look at all the things that happened, it seems to me that God was pretty determined to bring the two of us together, and I’m pretty grateful to God for that.

But that’s not the only time my life changed suddenly, when I was not expecting it.  I was in my office in Pierre, minding my own business, when I got a call from a lawyer I knew in Wessington Springs, asking if we’d be interested in moving down there and working for him.  When I was just starting seminary, I was sitting in my office in Springs, minding my own business, when a couple of people from the local United Church of Christ asked if I would be their pastor while I was going to seminary.  When I had a year of seminary to go, and was expecting not to get an appointment in the United Methodist church until after I was done, I got a call asking if we would accept an appointment to North Sioux City.  And after three years there, while I was taking a class to prepare for ordination, I got a call asking if we would accept the appointment here.

I don’t know if it happens to everybody this way, but I don’t think I’m the only one it happens to.  I suspect some of you, reading this, can think of things that have happened in your life.  Times when you were just sitting around, minding your own business, having a day just like any other day.  Then, suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, something happened that changed your entire life.  You might not realize it at the time, but you look back on it, and it seems kind of amazing how that happened.

I believe those are times when God is active in our lives.  I truly believe God brought Wanda and me together.  I think God moved us to Wessington Springs and gave me two years of experience as a pastor there.  I think God knew when it was time for us to move on, and God moved us to North Sioux City.  And I certainly think God was involved in us moving here.

I think that can happen at any stage of our lives.  The extent of the change and the type of change may be different as we get older.  But no matter what our age is and no matter what our station in life is, God can still do something to change our lives.  God has a reason for each of us to be here--we would not be here if that was not so.  Our job is to pray and stay close to God so that, when God wants to change our lives, we’re open to the changes God wants to make.

So pray.  Stay close to God.  Keep your eyes and ears open.  Keep your heart open, too.  You never know.  God may do something to change your life when you least expect it.