Hope and Change

This is the message given Sunday, September 30 in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 40:27-31 and Romans 5:1-8.

            You know what one of the greatest things about God is?  Well, that’s kind of a silly question, isn’t it?  There are all kinds of great things about God.  We could spend the rest of this service making a list and not get it done.  But here’s what I think one of the greatest things about God is:  no matter what happens, God will never leave us without hope.  No matter how bad things might look, no matter how black and bleak things may appear, God never, ever leaves us without hope.

            We read from the fortieth chapter of the book of Isaiah.  Most of the thirty-nine chapters that come before it are Isaiah predicting doom and destruction on Israel.  They have not trusted God.  They have abandoned God.  They have trusted in their own strength, they have trusted in other nations and other gods, they’ve done everything except trust in the Lord.  And God is going to call them to account for that.  The day of reckoning is at hand.  In fact, at the end of chapter thirty-nine, Isaiah tells the king of Israel, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord.  And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

            But then, chapter forty starts off this way:  “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.”  And it goes on to tell how the glory of the Lord will be revealed, that all people will see it together.  It says God tends his flock like a shepherd, God gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.  And then it gives us the words we read this morning, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak...those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

            God wants the people of Israel to know.  Things are going to be bad for a while.  And then, after that, they’re going to get worse.  But don’t give up hope.  There will come a time when things will get better again.  God is not going to abandon you.  God is going to allow some bad things to happen, but not forever.  God is going to save you.  Not right away--you’re going to have to wait a while.  It’s going to seem like a long time.  But don’t give up hope.  God is still there.  And at the right time, God is going to bring you back and make you stronger than ever.

            That was a message the people of Israel desperately needed to hear.  And it’s a message we still need to hear today.  Because I suspect pretty much all of us have had a time where things went very wrong in our lives.  A time when things were bad and you did not see how things were going to get better.  If you never have, that’s great.  I’m happy for you.  But most of us have.  Maybe now, when we look back on it, we realize it was not as bad as we thought it was.  But at the time, when we were dealing with it, when we were in the middle of it and we did not know how things were going to come out or even if things were going to come out at all, it felt terrible.  It felt miserable.  And maybe we even felt abandoned by God.

            When that happens, we need to hear this message.  We need to know that God’s words to the people of Israel apply to us, too.  We need to know that God has not abandoned us.  Yes, things may be bad right now.  And they may get worse before they get better.  But they will get better.  If we don’t give up hope, God will come, and God will save us.  It may not happen as quickly as we wish it would, but it will happen.  In God’s way, and at God’s time, God will bring us out of the situation and make us stronger than ever.

            But that raises another question.  Why do we have to be in that bad situation in the first place?  Why does God allow things to get bad, and then to get worse?  Sometimes, of course, it’s because of our own actions.  Sometimes, we bring bad things on ourselves.  But not always.  Sometimes bad things happen that are not our fault.  Sometimes bad situations develop that we have no control over at all.  And yet, there were are, stuck in the middle of it.  Yes, it’s wonderful that God promises to bring us out of it, but why did God let us get into it at all?

            The Apostle Paul wondered about that, too.  He says, in Second Corinthians Twelve, that he was given what he called a “thorn in the flesh” to torment him.  We don’t know exactly what that was, but Paul says that he prayed repeatedly for God to take it away from him, and God would not do it.  He said God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  He goes on to say that because of that, he delights in his weaknesses and his difficulties, because it’s only when he’s weak that God power will work through him.  He says, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

            Paul talks about that some more in the passage from Romans that we read today.  He writes that he glories in his suffering.  He says that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character is what produces hope, hope in God.

            I said before that I think most of us have gone through a time when things went really wrong in our lives.  And maybe it was our own fault, or maybe it was not.  But I want you to think about that time.  What you went through, did it change you?  Did it make you different in any way? 

            It usually does.  Going through a hard time, going through a time when things went wrong, going through a bad situation, those things change us.  They can hardly help but change us.  Those hard times that most of us have gone through are what made us who we are today.  We would not be the people we are if we had not gone through those times.

            When I look back at my life, I can see times when I was not very happy.  Now don’t get me wrong here.  I’m not saying I’ve had a horrible, miserable life.  Compared to a lot of people, my life has been pretty good, really.  But I’ve had times when I was very lonely.  I’ve had times when I felt like I was overwhelmed by life.  I’ve had times when I felt like I was letting everyone down.  I’ve had times when I felt like I was the oddest oddball there ever was and always would be.  It’s not a good feeling at all.

            Sometimes, I’m tempted to look back at those times and wonder what would’ve happened if I’d done things differently.  But there’s no point in that.  When we ask, “What would’ve happened if I’d done things differently,” we’re really asking, “What would’ve happened if I hadn’t been who I was?”  Because the reason I did what I did is that I was who I was. 

            But, in going through those things, I did not stay who I was.  I changed.  God used those things to change me.  And when you’ve gone through things, you did not stay who you were.  God changed you.  If you look back, you can see that.  How God changes us is different for each of us, because the ways in which we need to change are different for each of us.  In Paul’s case, Paul says it was to teach him humility.  For you and me, it may have been something else.  But God uses those things we go through, those “thorns in the flesh”, to change us.  God uses them to teach us perseverance and to develop our character, just as Paul said.

            And that’s what gives us hope.  And it’s why we can rely on that hope, why it will not put us to shame.  Because we know, just as God told the people of Israel, our situation is not going to last forever.  God will bring us out of it.  And when God brings us out of it, we’ll be changed people.  We’ll be better people.  We’ll be people who know, beyond any doubt, that God is always there for us.  God has been there, God is there, and God always will be there.  That’s the hope we have as Christians.  And it’s a hope we can always rely on. 

            So if you’re going through a tough time right now, know this.  God has not abandoned you.  God sees what you’re going through.  And God will bring you through it.  Even if it does not feel like that right now, even if you cannot see the way out, hold on to that hope.  God will bring you through it.  And when you come through it, you won’t be the same person you were.  You’ll be better.  And you’ll know that you can always rely on God.

Fear of Flying

I told you a month or so ago about the trip Wanda and I took to Seattle.  There’s one thing I didn’t tell you about it.  We flew to Seattle on that trip.  You might have guessed that, of course, but here’s why I mention it:  I really don’t like to fly.  I’m a nervous flyer.  I don’t go into abject panic about it, but I don’t like it very much.  Let me put it this way:  if I never had to fly again it would, as the saying goes, be all right with me.

I do have to fly once in a while, though, and the chances are I’ll have to do it again sometime.  The thing about it is that, the last couple of times I have flown, I had no problems at all.  There was a bit of trouble with our baggage, but the actual flights couldn’t have been better.  Basically, my fears have been for nothing.

But that’s the thing about fear:  it doesn’t have to have logical reasons.  When someone is afraid of something, you can give them all kinds of logical reasons why their fears are groundless and it won’t change anything.  I can acknowledge all the statistics that exist that show how safe flying is, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about flying.  I’m still nervous about it.

We all have fears.  Maybe you’re not afraid of flying, but I know you’re afraid of something.  Everyone is.  Even people who won’t admit to fears have them.  So how do we handle it?  If logic can’t help us with our fears, what do we do?  Well, there are two things, and they really come down to what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments:  loving God and loving each other. 

What do I mean by that?  Well, one of the biggest things that helps me when I have to fly is having Wanda with me.  She is not afraid of flying at all.  So she talks to me, she comforts me, she distracts me, she does whatever she needs to do to keep me calm.  So that’s the second part of it--loving each other.  When we love each other, we can help each other through our fears.

And the other thing that helps me when I fly is prayer.  I pray before the flight and sometimes during the flight.  And it’s not really a panic-stricken prayer, although God hears those, too.  It’s just a prayer that God will take care of me and help me have a safe flight.  It’s a prayer that puts the problem into God’s hands and trusts God to take care of it.  So that’s the first part of it--trusting God.  When we put things into God’s hands, we can stop being scared of them, because God’s hands are the best hands there are.

It’s not a magic formula.  I’d still prefer it if I never had to fly again.  But if I do, I know I’ll be able to handle it, because I have both God and Wanda to help me.  I have the love of God and the love of another.  And that’s a pretty good combination.

A Skit About Perfection

Interviewer:  I’m here with a person you won’t meet every day.  This is someone who claims to be absolutely perfect.

Perfect:  Actually, that’s not correct.  I don’t claim to be absolutely perfect.  I am absolutely perfect.

Interviewer:  I see.  Would you tell us your name, please?

Perfect:  Yes.  My name is Pat Johnston.  Which is, of course, the perfect name.

Interviewer:  Okay.  Where do you live?

Perfect:  Austin, Texas.  Which is, of course, the perfect place to live.

Interviewer:  And what do you do for a living?

Perfect:  I’m a writer.  Which is, of course, the perfect job.

Interviewer:  Uh-huh.  So tell us some other things about you that are perfect.

Perfect:  Well, everything.  My looks, for example.  I’m the perfect height, have the perfect build, and my face is completely perfect.

Interviewer:  I’m not sure I can go along with that…

Perfect:  Well, that just shows that you’re not perfect.  If you were, you’d be able to see that everything I said is true, because I am perfect.

Interviewer:  And what else is perfect about you?

Perfect:  There’s my family.  I have the perfect spouse, and we have perfect children.  We also live in a perfect house in a perfect neighborhood.

Interviewer:  So tell me, have you always been perfect?  Is it something you’re born with?

Perfect:  Oh, no.  When I was a kid, I was not perfect at all.  My mother might tell you that I was, but I really wasn’t.

Interviewer:  Then how did you become perfect?

Perfect:  It was a number of years ago, when I accepted Jesus Christ as the Savior.

Interviewer:  What?

Perfect:  That’s how it happened.  You see, on my own, I’m obviously not perfect at all.  I’ve got all kinds of things wrong with me.  But then I heard about Jesus.  He died for us.  If we believe in him, our sins are forgiven.  And not only are they forgiven, they’re wiped out.  It’s like they never existed.  When we accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, he does away with our imperfections and makes us perfect, even when we’re not.

Interviewer:  A fascinating story.  So thank you, Pat Johnston…

Perfect:  By the way, you could be perfect, too, you know.

Interviewer:  What?

Perfect:  Sure.  If you accept Jesus as the Savior, you can be perfect just like I am.  I’ll be happy to talk to you about it.

Interviewer:  Let’s do that.  This is your reporter, sending you back to your regularly scheduled worship service.

Love and Respect

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, September 23, 2018.  The Bible verses used are 1 John 4:7-19.

            Are you afraid of God?  Do you fear God?

Well, the Bible seems to tell us we should.  The phrase, “the fear of the Lord” appears in the Bible over and over again.  It appears eighty-six times in the New International Version.  Fifteen of them are in the Psalms.  Twelve of them are in Proverbs.  We’re told that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”  “The fear of the Lord adds length to life.”  “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.”  “Through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.” 

            All these quotes tell us that fear of the Lord is a good thing.  In fact, they make it sound like a necessary thing.  There’s no wisdom or knowledge without fear of the Lord.  Fear of the Lord leads to a longer and a better life.  We avoid evil by fear of the Lord.

            Does that make sense to you?  Does it make sense that we should actually fear God?  Does it make sense that the fear of the Lord would be a good thing?

            Well, let’s think about it a little.  We know that God has a lot of power, right?  In fact, God is all-powerful.  And God can use that power in any way God chooses.  I mean, that’s part of what makes God, God.  No one gets to tell God what to do.  Now, it’s great that God is all-powerful when we get the benefits of God’s power.  But if you or I was on the wrong end of God’s power, well, we’d have a pretty good reason to be afraid.  Our fear of the Lord would be completely real at that point.

            We also know that God is holy and righteous and perfect.  And we know that we are not.  We know how far short we fall, not only of who God is but of who we should be.  We know that we have a sinful nature, and we know that we give in to that sinful nature far too often.  That means that God would have every right to punish us for our sins if God chose to.  Knowing that, it’s easy to see where we might be afraid of God.  We might very well feel fear of the Lord.

            But we say, wait a minute.  God would never use God’s power against us.  God would not punish us for our sins.  God is our Father.  God is our friend.  God loves us.  God forgives us.  God is merciful toward us.  God protects us.  We don’t need to fear God.  Our loving, caring, merciful God would never do anything like that to us.

            Well, that’s what the people of Israel used to think, too.  They told themselves they were God’s chosen people.  They told themselves they did not need to fear God.  God had singled them out for special treatment.  And they believed that would be true no matter what they did and no matter what they said.  They said, well, we don’t have to fear God.  God’s going to take care of us no matter what we do.

            The people of Israel decided they did not need to have any fear of God.  They thought they could do whatever they wanted to do and there would be no consequences.  They thought God owed it to them to keep them prosperous and powerful no matter what they did.  But of course, they found out differently.  God does not owe anyone anything.  God does love us, but God is not willing to be taken advantage of.  God is not willing to be taken for granted.  God will not be treated as a Get out of Jail Free card, something we pull out of our pocket to keep us from having to face the consequences of what we’ve done.  And when we treat God that way, God will show us why we should not have.  And then we’ll find out why the people who wrote the Bible told us that having some fear of the Lord is a good thing.

            Now, we can carry fear of the Lord too far, too.  God is not sitting in heaven looking for reasons to punish us.  God is not keeping an eagle-eye on us, hoping to catch us doing something wrong so God can step in and squash us.  God does not want us to be so scared of God that we’re afraid to approach Him, afraid to pray to Him, afraid to do anything for fear that we might do something wrong and provoke God to anger.  I’ve said before that we don’t worship an angry God, and I still believe that.

            When we talk about fear of the Lord, we’re actually talking about a couple of things.  One of them is respect.  Showing some fear of the Lord shows that we respect God.  Not just that we respect God’s power, although that’s part of it.  But we also respect God’s greatness.  And we respect God’s goodness.  We realize that God deserves our respect, and we also realize that there may be consequences to us if we don’t give God that respect.  

When we say, well, I can do whatever I want and God will forgive me, we’re showing disrespect for God.  When we feel free to just ignore what God has told us to do because God owes it to us to forgive us, we’re showing disrespect for God.  And there are consequences for that.  As the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians Chapter Six, God cannot be mocked.  God deserves our respect.  And if we don’t give God that respect, God is going to do something about that. 

Another thing we’re talking about is repentance.  Because we know that, even if we’re trying to be good people and do what’s right, we’re going to fail sometimes.  All of us do.  Sometimes we’re going to say the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing.  Sometimes we’re going to get angry or frustrated, and that anger and frustration is going to get the best of us.  Sometimes we’re going to have selfish impulses, and we’re going to act on them.  That’s what we mean when we talk about having a sinful nature.  We do these things, even when we know better and even when we’re trying not to.

And God understands that.  But that’s why repentance is so important.  Because repentance is another sign of respect for God.  It’s a recognition that when we do these things that we know we should not do, we’ve failed God.  It’s an apology to God, but it’s more than that.  It’s telling God that we know we’re not just free to ignore God and do anything we want.  It’s telling God we know we’ve let God down, that God deserves better than that from us.  It’s telling God that we know God would have every right to punish us for our sins, but that if God will forgive us and give us another chance, we’ll try our best not to let God down the next time.  If we don’t repent of our sins, we’re showing disrespect for God.  And again, there are consequences for that.

When the people of Israel decided they did not need to fear God, what were they saying?  They were saying they did not repent of their sins.  They did not need to respect God.  And here’s the thing about that:  If you don’t respect someone, you really don’t love them, do you?  You cannot really feel love for someone you don’t respect.  You might like them.  You might want to use them.  You might even feel sorry for them.  But you cannot love someone if you don’t respect them.

And that’s what the Apostle John is talking about when he says that there is no fear in love, that perfect love drives out fear.  If we love God, we will respect God.  If we love God, we won’t take God for granted.  If we love God, we won’t think we can do anything we want and God will always bail us out.  We’ll still fail, sometimes, but if we love God, then when we fail we’ll go to God and repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness.  We’ll want to do that, because we’ll know God deserves better than that from us.  We’ll know that we’ve let God down, and we’ll want to make it right.  Not because we’re scared of what God will do to us if we don’t, but because we love God that much.

Listen to how John says this works:  “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”

We rely on the love God has for us.  Not “we take for granted the love God has for us.”  But we rely on God’s love.  We rely on God’s love because we respect God.  We respect God enough to trust that God will keep God’s promises.  We respect God enough to know that when we repent of our sins, God will forgive us and give us another chance.  Not because God owes that to us.  But because God loves us, and we can rely on God’s love.

If we take God for granted, if we feel like God owes us love, if we feel like God owes us anything, we’re disrespecting God and we’re failing to love God.  And then, we might well have reason to fear God.  But if we love God, we will respect God and trust God.  We’ll do our best to return that love to God, and we’ll repent and ask for forgiveness when we fail.  And then, we’ll have no reason to fear God.  Because we’ll feel the perfect love of God, and perfect love drives out fear.

Big Plays

I’m going to make another sports analogy.  Yes, I know I did that a couple of weeks ago, but what can I say?  I’m a sports fan and these things come to me.  I hope it’ll make some sense even if you’re not a sports fan, though.

When you’re watching a game, especially if it’s a close game, there’s often one play that the announcers will point to and say, “That was the key play of the game.”  In other words, that was where the tide turned.  In football, it might be a big touchdown run near the end of the game.  In baseball, it might be a home run.  In basketball, maybe it was someone making a big three-point shot.  Whatever, it’s the one play that, in the announcers’ view, was the one that decided who was going to win and who was going to lose.

But here’s the thing.  That one play may, indeed, have been a big play.  But the chances are that there were a whole lot of little plays before it that set up the big play.  And the chances are that there are a whole lot of little plays after it that kept it the big play.  In football, maybe somebody made an important tackle or picked up a key first down.  In baseball, maybe someone made a great defensive play or drew a walk at the right time.  In basketball, maybe someone got an important rebound or blocked a shot.  In other words, that one big play, no matter how important it is, was only that important because of all the little plays around it.

So what does that have to do with our faith?  Well, look at it this way.  A lot of times, people can point to one big moment that really is important to their faith.  And that’s fine.  In fact, it’s really cool when that happens.  But the chances are there were a lot of little moments around that big moment that made the big moment possible.  Maybe it was a parent or Sunday school teacher that planted a seed when you were young.  Maybe it was a friend who never preached at you or anything, but just inspired you by the way they lived their life.  Maybe you even had a pastor who was important to you.  But the chances are that the one big moment you had, even though it truly was very important, was only that important because of all the little moments around it.

Here’s another way to look at it.  The great football coach, Vince Lombardi, used to say that, while it might be true that one big play can decide a game, you rarely know in advance which play it’s going to be.  That means you have to be ready to do your best on every play.  That’s true of our faith, too.  We rarely know in advance when something might happen that changes our lives.  We also rarely know in advance when we might have the chance to change someone else’s life.  So we need to keep our eyes open and be ready to serve the Lord at all times.

Besides, to God, there are no big moments and no small moments.  All the moments of our lives are important.  There is something God wants us to do with every moment that we’re on the earth.  So again, we need to keep our eyes open and be ready to serve the Lord at all times.

So this week, let’s keep our eyes open.  Maybe we’ll have a chance to make a big play for God.  Or, maybe we’ll just make a little play that will make a big play possible somewhere down the road.  Whatever it is, let’s be ready to do it.  Let’s be ready to serve the Lord at all times.

The Glory of God

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 16, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 24:12-18, Exodus 34:29-35, and Revelation 21:9-27.

            We’re doing a sermon series called “What’s the Good Word?”, looking at words we commonly use in church and talking about what they really mean.  As you looked at the hymns we’re singing today, you may have figured out what our word for today is.  Our word for today is “glory”.

            The word “glory” means things like “magnificence”, “splendor”, “grandeur”, “majesty”, and “greatness”.  And obviously those are all words that we can apply to God.  But just as we’ve said with some of our other words, they’re not the first words we think about when we think about God.  When we think of God, we think of words like “love” and “grace”.  We think of God as our father, as our friend.  One of our favorite hymns is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.

            And don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with thinking of God that way.  In fact, it’s a good thing.  We need to be able to relate to God.  We don’t want God to seem like some distant, unapproachable, unreachable, uncaring figure.  In fact, one of things Jesus--God the Son--showed us when he came to earth is that God is not that.  One of the names of Jesus is “Emmanuel”--God with us.  We can approach God.  In fact, that’s what we’re supposed to do.  We are welcomed into God’s presence.  God does care.  God does love us.  God does want to guide us and help us through life.  It’s important that we know all that.  It’s important that we feel all that.

            When the divine Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth, he came down to our level.  And he had to do that, because we could not get up to God’s level.  Again, the only way we can relate to God is by bringing God down to our level.  But while that is a good thing, we need to remember that, in fact, God is not on our level.  God is not anywhere close to our level.  God is so far beyond our level that we cannot really even begin to imagine the level that God is on.

            The writers of the Bible were clearly aware of our tendency to bring God down to our level, because they wrote a lot about the glory of God.  They wrote a lot about how great, how awesome, how incredible God is.  Really, it was hard to pick Bible verses for today because there are so many.  We’ll look at a few of them.

            The first passage we read, from Exodus, is when Moses went up to God to get the Ten Commandments.  The glory of the Lord was hidden by a cloud.  Moses entered the cloud.  And we’re told that, to the Israelites, “the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.”  

            While Moses was on the mountain, in a passage we did not read, Moses asked to see God in all of God’s glory.  And God said he could not.  God said Moses could get just a glimpse of it, could get to see a little bit, just to get an idea of God’s glory.  But God said that no one, not even Moses, could truly see all of God’s glory and live.  Now, that’s not because God would kill them or anything.  It’s just that, if a human being saw all of God’s glory, we could not handle it.  It would blow our minds.  That’s how far beyond us God truly is.  God’s glory is completely and totally beyond our ability to understand.

            And yet, even with just that little bit of God’s glory that Moses was able to see and get a sense of, just from that, it had a tremendous effect on Moses.  Not only did it have an emotional and psychological effect, but it had a physical effect.  In our last reading from Exodus, we’re told that, when Moses came down the mountain after his conversation with God, his face was radiant.  It was glowing.  I don’t think we can imagine what that must’ve looked like.  I mean, can you imagine if you saw someone you’d known for years, and suddenly their face had an unearthly glow to it?  It’d look like something out of a science fiction show, you know?

            That must be what it looked like to the people of Israel, because we’re told that when they saw that glow, they were scared of Moses.  They were afraid to come anywhere near him.  They made him cover up his face so they could not see it glowing like that.  That’s how incredible the glory of God is.

            And then, in our reading from Revelation, we’re told some more about the glory of God.  We’re given a description of the New Jerusalem, the Holy City which is going to come down from heaven.  We’re told that New Jerusalem “shone with the glory of God”.  Just like Moses’ face when he’d seen God.  The entire city shines with God’s glory.  There’s no sun there, and no moon there.  They’re not needed.  The glory of God gives all the light that is needed.  And there is no night there.  There’s never a time the glory of God is not shining, and there’s never a place the glory of God is not seen.  God’s glory is always and everywhere.

            And so...what?  So the glory of God is this awesome thing.  What difference does that really make?  Why is it important for us to think about it?  Why can we not just keep God on our level, the level where God is our friend?  Why do we need to think about the greatness and the glory of God?

            Well, again, there’s nothing wrong with thinking of God as our friend.  There are times we need to relate to God that way.  And there’s nothing wrong with thinking of God as our Father.  There are times we need to relate to God that way, too.  After all, Jesus was the one who told us to refer to God as “Father”, so it certainly cannot be wrong to do so.  It’s fine to think of God in those terms sometimes.

            But here’s the thing.  If that’s the only way we think of God, we’re making God too small.  We’re reducing God to the level of a human being.  And again, there are times we need to relate to God that way.  But there are other times when we need to relate to God as God.

            What thinking about God’s glory shows us is how powerful God is.  And there are times when we need a powerful God.  We need a God who is powerful enough to protect us.  We need a God who is powerful enough to help us overcome the temptations of Satan, just like Jesus did in the desert.  We need a God who is powerful enough to help us overcome our own sinful nature.  We need a God who is powerful enough to heal us when we’re in need of healing.  We need a God who is powerful enough to work a miracle when a miracle is what we need.  We need a God who is powerful enough to be everywhere and at every time at once.  We need a God who is powerful enough to make all things, even the worst thing we can imagine, work out for good in the end.  And we need a God who is powerful enough to save us from the consequences of our sins and give us eternal life.

            And when you think about it, that’s the amazing thing about God.  God is small enough that the smallest child can relate to Him and understand Him.  And yet God is big enough to defeat Satan himself.  God is small enough to care about the tiniest details of our lives.  And yet God is big enough to create and rule the universe.  God is all of those things at once.  That’s who God is.

            In other words, God is whatever we need God to be.  Now don’t take that the wrong way.  We don’t make God into whatever we need God to be.  God is what God is.  God is whatever we need God to be because that’s how powerful God is.  And God is whatever we need God to be because that’s how much God loves us.  God becomes small enough for a small child to relate to Him and understand Him, because God loves us that much.  And God is big enough to defeat Satan because God loves us that much.  God becomes small enough to care about the tiniest details of our lives because God loves us that much.  And God is big enough to create and rule the universe because God loves us that much.  God is what we need God to be because God loves us that much.

            So whatever you may be struggling with today.  Whatever you may going through today.  Whatever may be on your mind today.  Whatever may be on your heart today.  Give it to God.  God can handle it.  God wants to handle it.  Trust in the glory of God.  There is nothing too big, and nothing too small, for God.

We Owe It to God

I almost started this by saying “Happy New Year!”  Why would I do that, you ask?  After all, it’s still September.  And that’s true.  But for churches, there’s a way in which the new year starts in September.  After all, that’s when we start church school again after a summer break.  It’s when we start youth groups.  It’s when we start confirmation class.  It’s when the choir starts again.  All kinds of things get re-started in September.  In many ways, for the church, September is the start of the new year.

One of the things people do when a new year starts, of course, is make New Year’s resolutions.  We look at our lives, we see things that need to be changed, and we resolve to change them.

That, of course, is a good thing to do.  It’s part of the definition of repentance, really.  What happens when we go to God to repent of our sins?  We acknowledge our sins to God.  We acknowledge the things about our lives that need to change, the sins we need to stop committing.  We ask for God’s help to no longer commit those sins, and we resolve to stop committing them.

But there’s one important part of repentance that’s left out of the process of New Year’s resolutions.  Maybe you’ve already figured out what it is.  It’s forgiveness.  In order to be able to stop committing our sins, we need to ask God for forgiveness for committing them in the first place.

Maybe you’re asking why.  I mean, if we’ve acknowledged that we’ve done wrong and we promise not to do it any more, shouldn’t that be enough?  Why do we need to ask for forgiveness?

Well, there are a lot of reasons.  I’m not going to hit them all here.  But here’s one we don’t think of sometimes.  We need to ask God for forgiveness because we owe that to God.  After all, when it comes to sin, that’s who we’ve really done wrong against.  We may have hurt other people, too, and we may need to ask for forgiveness from them as well.  But when we sin--when it’s not just a mistake, not just an accident, but is truly sin--we’ve wronged God.  And so we need to ask for forgiveness from God.

You see, asking for forgiveness from those whom we’ve wronged is an acknowledgement, not just that we messed up, but that we truly hurt someone.  And it’s a statement, not just that we’re not going to do it again, but that we’re going to do what we can to make it right.  We may not be totally able to do that, but we’re going to do what we can.  What it is, really, is a sign of respect for the one whom we’ve wronged.  And that, simply put, is the right thing to do.

We owe that to God.  We owe it to God, when we sin, to do what we can to make it right.  We owe God as much respect as we can give.  We actually owe God more respect than we can give, but all we can give is as much as we can.  God is worthy of that respect.  Simply put, it’s the right thing to do.

So, even though it’s not the new year, let’s take a look at our lives.  Let’s acknowledge our sins, and ask God for forgiveness.  Then let’s resolve to change and ask God for help to change.  It’s the right thing to do.

Mercy and Forgiveness

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish Sunday morning, September 9, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Luke 18:9-14 and Matthew 18:21-35.

            Our current sermon series is “What’s the Good Word?”  We’re looking at various words that we use in church and talking about what they really mean.  Our word for today is “mercy”.

            Unlike last week, when we talked about God’s wrath, “mercy” is one of our favorite words to talk about.  Because here’s what mercy means:  “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.”

            And we all know that we need that.  No matter how hard we may try to cover it up, no matter how hard we may try not to think about it, no matter how hard we may try to convince others or even ourselves otherwise, we all know how much we need mercy.  We know, as the Apostle Paul writes in Romans Chapter three, that we have all sin and fallen short of the glory of God.

            We know that we are weak, fallen, sinful people.  And we know, even though we don’t like to think about it too much, that God has the power to punish us for that.  And we know that God would have every right to do it.  And so we need God to exercise compassion or forgiveness toward us.  We need God to exercise mercy.

            We know that, and yet--a lot of times we don’t think about it much.  And when we do think about it, there are a lot of times we don’t really seem to appreciate it.  Too many times, we take God’s mercy for granted.

            I think there are a couple of reasons why we do that.  For one thing, even though we know how much we need mercy, we don’t really think about it very much.  We like to tell ourselves that we’re pretty good.  Not perfect, we know that, but pretty good.  We do a lot of good things.  We’re nice people, most of the time.  We’re certainly better than some people we can think of.  We tell ourselves that we’re doing as well as anybody could reasonably expect. In fact, we’re doing as well as God could reasonably expect.  Yeah, we’ve could do better, but you know, really, the bottom line is that most of us think we’re pretty much okay the way we are.

And I feel that way, too, a lot of times.  That’s why I can describe the feeling--because I feel it sometimes, too.  But it’s not a good thing.  That’s the attitude the Pharisee had in our reading from Luke, right?  He stood up and prayed about how he was doing so well, how he was doing all these wonderful things, how he was so much better than other people.  It’s not a very good attitude to have.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we should sit around beating ourselves up and thinking that we’re terrible, horrible, awful people.  That’s not helpful or healthy, either.  But at the same time, we need to recognize who we are.  We need to not just gloss over our failings and faults.  We need to not just accept them because, hey, that’s who I am.  We should not obsess over our flaws, but we should not just accept them, either.  We need to acknowledge and confess our sins to God.

That’s what the tax collector did.  He acknowledged who he was.  He confessed his sins to God.  And he pleaded and begged for mercy.

            And that leads to the other reason we take God’s mercy for granted.  You know, we say things like “God is love” and “God is forgiveness” and “God is mercy” all the time.  And of course, those things are true.  But we’ve said them so much, and we’ve heard them so much, that too often we take them for granted.  We think, well, I don’t really need to worry about getting mercy from God.  After all, God is mercy.  It’s God’s job to have mercy on me.  Sure, God would have the power to punish me, but God would never use that power.  I don’t really need to worry about God forgiving me.  God always forgives.  God always shows mercy.  That’s just what God does.

            The tax collector did not take God’s mercy for granted.  He did not say, I don’t need to worry about getting mercy from God because that’s just what God does.  He was desperate.  He begged God for mercy.  He pleaded with God for mercy.  He would not even look to heaven.  He did not think God was obligated to forgive him.  He did not think God would just automatically give him mercy because that’s what God does.  The tax collector approached God humbly.  He knew he did not deserve mercy from God.  But he asked for it anyway, not because he thought he deserved it, but because he knew how desperately he needed it.

            That’s the attitude we need to have.  When we approach God to ask for mercy, we need to do it humbly.  We need to recognize who we are and what we’ve done.  We need to ask God for mercy, not because we deserve it, but because we know how desperately we need it.

            But there’s one other aspect of God’s mercy that we need to talk about.  It’s one that we tend to gloss over, even though Jesus talked about it several times.  It’s even included in the Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus said that the amount of mercy we get from God is related to the amount of mercy we give to others.  The amount of forgiveness we get from God is related to the amount of forgiveness we give others.  After all, what do we say every week in the Lord’s Prayer?  “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.

            Jesus makes that point in our reading from Matthew today, too.  He tells a story about a servant who owes the king a huge amount of money--ten thousand bags of gold.  The king is going to have the servant sold into slavery, along with his family, to pay the debt.  The servant begs for forgiveness and mercy, and the king gives it to him.  He not only does not have the man sold into slavery, he forgives the debt and lets him go.  But then that same servant finds another man who owes him a much smaller money.  The other man begs for forgiveness and mercy, too, but the servant refuses to give it to him.  He has the man thrown into prison.  The king finds out, gets angry, and has the servant thrown into jail and tortured.  And Jesus says, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

            It seems to me that’s a pretty plain message.  There’s not a lot of equivocation there.  There’s not any “maybe” or “could be”.  There’s no room for a loophole, either.  Jesus says this is how it is.  Period.

            And that’s a message that makes a lot of us uncomfortable.  Because I know there are some of us here who are struggling to forgive someone.  And it’s not because we’re terrible people or anything.  It’s because we’ve been hurt.  Some of us have been hurt really badly.  It may be recent or it may have been a long time ago.  But no matter when it was, the wound is still fresh.  And it’s deep.  And we cannot bring ourselves to forgive the person who we think caused it.  We know we should forgive.  Maybe we even want to forgive.  But we just cannot do it.  Not yet, anyway.  It just hurts too much.  And besides, we think, the person who hurt us does not deserve forgiveness anyway.

            If that’s you, know this:  God understands.  God knows how badly you’ve been hurt.  God knows why it’s hard for you to forgive.  Remember, God, through Jesus, was hurt about as badly as anyone can be hurt.  Betrayed by one of his closest friends, turned over to his enemies to be beaten and killed.  It’s hard to be hurt more than that.  God understands why it’s hard for us to forgive sometimes.  And God understands why sometimes, we’re just not ready to do it yet.

But we need to try, anyway.  And God wants to help us.  After all, God, through Jesus, gave us the ultimate example of forgiveness.  Jesus was hanging on a cross, dying, and yet he asked God to forgive the people who were responsible for their death.  Whether they deserved forgiveness was irrelevant.  Jesus asked God to forgive them anyway.  I cannot think of a better example of forgiveness than that.

            Now of course, you and I are not Jesus.  And God does not expect us to be.  But we should not use that as an excuse, either.  Because again, God wants to help us forgive.

            So, when there’s someone we know we should forgive, but we just cannot do it, take it to God.  Pray for God’s help.  Let’s pray for God to forgive, and for God to help us forgive.  Let’s pray for God to show mercy, and for God to help us show mercy.  

And let’s ask God to help us not think about whether they deserve it.  The tax collector in the story from Luke did not deserve mercy.  The servant in the story from Matthew did not deserve mercy.  And the truth is, you and I don’t deserve mercy, either.  But that’s okay.  Mercy is not something we deserve.  It’s something God gives out of love.  And it’s something we need to give out of love, too.

God is not obligated to forgive us or to be merciful to us.  But God will forgive, and God will be merciful, if we go to God humbly, confess our sins, and ask for forgiveness and mercy.  God will do that even though we don’t deserve it.  And God will help us find a way to show forgiveness and mercy to others, even when they don’t deserve it.  It may not be easy for us.  It may take us some time.  But we can do it, with God’s help.  And when we do, we’ll be much closer to being the people God wants us to be.

Fumble Drill

It will come as a surprise to no one reading this that I am a football fan.  Baseball is actually my favorite sport, but football comes in a solid second.  Leave aside any issues about NFL players protesting and so forth.  I’m not under any illusions that professional athletes are saints in athletic uniforms.  I’m just talking about enjoyment of the actual game as it’s played on the field.  I really enjoy watching it, whether it’s high school, college, or professional football.

Because I like sports, I sometimes make sports analogies.  One of the things I was thinking about recently was the fumble.  Fumbling the ball is one of the worst things you can do in a football game.  It doesn’t matter where on the field it happens, it’s always bad.  If you’re near to scoring, you give up a chance to score.  If you’re near the other team’s goal line, you give them a chance to score.  And either way, you lose the ball.  There’s just nothing good that happens as a result of a fumble.

Except.  Except that sometimes, you recover your own fumble.  Sometimes you even advance the ball forward.  Once in a while, you’ll even see someone fumble, recover the ball, and run it in for a touchdown.  If you can recover your own fumble, there’s a chance that something really good can happen.  And even if it’s not really good, at least it’s not as bad as it could’ve been.  Recovering your own fumble is almost always a good thing to do, and it is always preferable to not recovering your fumble.

So how does that relate to our lives?  Well, think about this:  how many times do you mess up?  How many times do you make mistakes?  How many times do you say the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing?  Sometimes it’s an accident, sometimes it’s on purpose, but we all do it all the time, don’t we?  Well, those are fumbles.  Messing up, making mistakes, saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing, those are all fumbles.  And they’re always bad.  There’s nothing good that happens as a result of these things.

Except.  Except that there’s a way we can recover these fumbles.  That way is to ask for forgiveness.  We can go to the people affected by our mess-ups and our mistakes.  We can go to the people we’ve hurt by saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing.  We can ask them for forgiveness.  If we do that, it’s like recovering our fumble.  There’s a chance that something good can happen, like being forgiven.  There’s a chance that something really good can happen, like the people we’ve hurt respecting us more because we were willing to admit to what we’d done and ask to be forgiven for it.  And even if that doesn’t happen, the situation will still not be as bad as it was before.  Asking for forgiveness is almost always a good thing to do.  It’s much preferable to not asking for forgiveness.

We should ask God for forgiveness, too, of course.  And we know that if we’re sincere, God will forgive us.  Even if we can’t recover our fumbles with humans, we can always recover our fumbles with God.  And while it’s important to ask for forgiveness from those we’ve hurt, it’s even more important to ask for God’s forgiveness.

So what fumbles have you committed this week?  Whatever they are, recover your fumbles.  Ask for forgiveness.  It will make a bad situation turn out much better.