God's Amazing Grace

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 28, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Ephesians 2:3-10.

            One of the things we talk about in church all the time is grace.  The word “grace” is all over the Apostle Paul’s letters.  One of our favorite hymns is “Amazing Grace”, which we sang a little while ago.  When we say a prayer before a meal, we call it “saying grace”.  We say that we are saved by “God’s grace”.  Grace, grace, grace--we hear the word over and over again in church.

            But you know, for all that we talk about grace in church, we almost never define the term, do we?  We never say just what it is that we mean when we’re talking about grace.  Maybe we assume everyone knows.  Or, maybe we’re not sure ourselves. 

            That could be it, you know.  I looked in my theological dictionary to see what the actual, theological definition of grace is, and you know what I found?  I found twenty-five different theological definitions of grace.  There’s prevenient grace.  There’s justifying grace.  There’s sanctifying grace.  There’s saving grace.  There’s free grace.  There’s common grace.  On and on and on, all these different types of grace and different definitions of grace.  So it’s reasonable to ask, when we start telling someone about God’s grace, are they going to have any idea what we’re talking about?  In fact, are we going to have any idea what we’re talking about?

            Well, so that you can at least have some idea what I’m talking about, here’s the definition of grace I’m going to use.  It’s the first one in my theological dictionary, and it seems to me like it’s the most general one.  Grace is unmerited favor.  God’s grace, God’s unmerited favor, is extended to sinful humanity--that’s you and me--in providing salvation and forgiveness through Jesus Christ that is not deserved, and withholding the judgment that is deserved.

            That pretty well fits in with what Paul wrote in our reading from Ephesians for today, right?  Paul starts out by talking about how we, as Christians, start out like everyone else.  We “gratify the cravings of the flesh”.  We do what we want to do when we want to do it.  We focus on the things of this world.  And Paul says that because of that, we are by nature deserving of God’s wrath.  We are part of that “sinful humanity”. 

            And if that was the end of the story, we’d be in a lot of trouble.  I mean, if by nature we are deserving of God’s wrath, there’s nothing we can do about that.  We cannot overcome our basic human nature.  No one can.  We can fight it, and we can succeed for a while, but if something is part of our nature, we can never truly overcome it.

            But that’s not the end of the story.  It’s just the beginning.  We cannot overcome our sinful nature, but we don’t have to.  Listen to what Paul says next, “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.”

            That’s what grace is.  Even though we deserve God’s wrath, that’s not what we get.  We get new life.  We are made alive with Christ.

And that’s not all.  Listen to the next thing Paul says, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.”  God takes us sinful human beings, people who by our very nature deserve God’s wrath, and puts us right next to Jesus Christ himself in heaven.  We are not just made alive with Christ here on earth.  We’re made alive with Jesus Christ in heaven.

            We cannot overcome our sinful human nature.  But God can.  And Paul says it’s better that way.  Paul says, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.”

            If we could save ourselves, if we could overcome our nature by ourselves, what we do?  We’d brag about it, right?  We’d make sure everyone knew how great we were, that we’d been able to overcome our sinful nature on our own.  Those other people might not be able to do it, but we can, because we’re so much better than they are.  Basically, we’d be like the Pharisee in Jesus’ story in Luke Eighteen.  Remember that story?  Jesus tells about a Pharisee and a tax collector who go to the temple to pray.  And the Pharisee says, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”  That’s about how we’d sound if we could overcome our sinful human nature by ourselves.

            We are saved by grace.  It is a gift of God.  But that raises the question:  why?  Why does God give us this incredible gift of grace?  It’s not because we deserve it, obviously.  But what is the reason?  Well, Paul gives us the answer.  He says it’s “because of God’s great love for us.”

            But that raises a question we’ve talked about before:  why does God love us?  I mean, I’m glad that God does.  We’d all be in big trouble if God did not love us.  But think about it.  Why does God love us?  What logical reason could there be for God to love us?  One answer might be, “Because God created us”, but that just raises another question:  why did God create us?  Why did God first create us, and then love us?

            Well, think of someone you love.  Maybe it’s a spouse, maybe it’s your kids, maybe it’s your parents, maybe it’s brothers or sisters, a friend, whoever.  If someone asked you why you love them, what would you say?  What logical reason could you give for why you love them?

Well, maybe you could list their good qualities.  You could list things you like about them and that make you think favorably of them.  But lots of people have good qualities.  Lots of people have more good qualities than the people we love, if we’re honest about it.  I mean, there’s a huge number of people in this world who are better than I am in lots and lots of ways, and yet Wanda loves me.  Why?  What good, logical reason could there be for that?

Well, the answer is that that’s the wrong question.  When we look for logical reasons to love someone, we’re looking at the question in the wrong way.  Love is an emotion, and emotions don’t always follow logic.

I said earlier that we cannot overcome human nature, and that sin is part of our human nature.  But you know what?  Love is also part of our human nature.  We all have a desire to be loved by someone.  And we all have a desire to love someone.  It’s part of who we are.

And of course, as we’ve said many times, God is love.  So if God is love, and if we are made in the image of God, then it seems likely that, God, too, has a desire to love someone.  And so, maybe, God created us because God wanted to have someone to love.  There might not be a good, logical reason for God to love us.  There might not be a good, logical reason for God to have created us in the first place.  But there does not have to be.  Maybe God did not create us because of logic.  Maybe God created us out of love.

            And if that’s so, then it makes sense, really, that God gives us grace.  Remember what we said grace is:   Grace is unmerited favor.  God’s unmerited favor, extended to sinful humanity--that’s you and me--in providing salvation and forgiveness through Jesus Christ that is not deserved, and withholding the judgment that is deserved.  God loves us so much that God does not give us what we, as sinners, deserve.  Instead, God sent the divine Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to take the punishment that we deserve.  And God offers us this incredible gift of grace--unmerited, undeserved favor--providing us forgiveness and salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.  That’s how much God loves you.  And that’s how much God loves me.

            From our perspective, God’s grace truly is amazing.  We know we don’t deserve it.  We know we don’t come anywhere close to deserving it.  And yet God gives it to us anyway.  What an amazing thing that is.

            But from God’s perspective, I suspect it may not be so amazing after all.  God may look at us and say, “Why are you so amazed at My grace?  I’ve told you I love you.  I’ve told you that over and over again.  That’s why I give you My grace.  That’s why I do all kinds of things for you.  Because I love you.  There’s nothing amazing about My grace.  This is what love is.  This is what love does.”

            It is what love does.  It’s what God does.  Maybe to God, it’s not that amazing.  But it’s amazing to me.  And I think it should be amazing to all of us.  So may we truly be grateful to God for the grace and the love that God gives us.

Don't Panic

I love my job.  I’m sure I’ve told you that before, but I really do.  I enjoy almost everything about the work I do (conference reports excepted).  There’s nothing I’d rather do than be a pastor.  And there’s nowhere I’d rather do it than here, in the communities of Gettysburg, Onida, and Agar.  I have been extremely lucky, or blessed, or both, to have been allowed to be the pastor here for the last several years, and I hope the luck and/or blessing will continue for several more years.

While I enjoy almost everything about the work I do, however, there are times when there gets to be an awful lot of it.  I’m sure I’ve told you that before, too.  I hope this doesn’t come across as whining, because I don’t mean it to be.  It happens to everyone in every line of work.  For example, I’m sure our local farmers, who are struggling to get their field work done before winter, have more of their work than they’d like right now, too, even if they enjoy it.  Please don’t think I’m looking for sympathy here, because I don’t deserve any.

The point, rather, is that I’ve been working on my reaction to these times, when they occur.  My instinctive reaction is to start to panic.  I think about the things I have to do and the amount of time I have to do them in, and I have no idea how the first is going to fit into the second.  And I start to get kind of frantic, rushing around to try to get things done quickly.

What I’m working on is to not do that.  Instead, I want to relax.  I want to take a deep breath.  And I want to trust in God more.

See, it doesn’t matter how much I think I have to do.  There’s nothing that’s too much for God to handle.  God can handle everything.  I cannot handle everything, but I’m not supposed to handle everything.  Some things are not for me to handle.  All I’m supposed to do is handle the things God has given me to handle.  And if God has given them to me to handle, then God’s going to help me handle them.  All I need to do is keep plugging away, do the best I can, and trust God to do the rest.

So that’s what I’m trying to do.  I don’t always succeed.  I still have times when I start to panic and get frantic.  But those times seem to be coming a little less frequently, and they don’t seem to be lasting as long.  If I trust God, God will help me get everything done.

And God will do the same for you.  All of us have times when the things life throws at us seem like they’re too much for us.  It may be work, but it may be other things, too.  There are all kinds of ways in which life can seem to be overwhelming for us.  And those are also times for each of us when we tend to start to panic and get frantic.  Those are the times when we need to relax, take a deep breath, and trust in God.  If God has given you something to handle, God will help you handle it.  You just need to keep plugging away, do the best you can, and trust God to do the rest.

God is always worthy of our trust.  If we trust God, we’ll spend a lot less time panicking.  And we’ll be a lot happier.

Blessing the Lord

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 21, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 103.

            Is there anyone here who’d like to receive blessings from God?

            Well, yeah.  We all would, right?  Who would not want to receive a blessing from God?

            And of course, all of us already have.  We’ve all received many blessings from God.  A blessing, after all, is a special favor or benefit.  It’s not something we earn or deserve.  A blessing is something we’re given, as a gift.

            And each of us has received a lot of those.  The fact that we’re alive at all is a blessing from God.  God gave us life.  The fact that we live in the United States of American is a blessing from God.  The fact that we live in this beautiful part of the United States is a blessing from God.

            And we’ve received a lot of other blessings, too.  I don’t know everything about everyone here, but I’m guessing most of us get up every morning knowing that we’re going to have enough to eat today, that we’re not going to starve.  We all have some clothes to wear.  We all had shelter last night and will tonight.  All of those things are blessings from God, too.

            But those are just the material blessings.  And while those are important, they’re not as important as the spiritual blessings we’ve received from God.  The blessing of God’s love.  The blessing of God’s Holy Spirit to guide us and help us through life.  And of course, the blessing of salvation, offered to us as a free gift through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The blessing of eternal life with God in heaven, and all we have to do to get that blessing is accept Jesus as the Savior.

            Those are blessings that are common to all of us.  But if each of us looked at our own lives, we’d see a lot more blessings.  I was blessed to have been born into the family I was born into.  I’ve been blessed to have interesting work to do.  I’m especially blessed with the work I’m doing now.  I’ve been blessed with an incredible wife.  I’ve been blessed with great in-laws, too. I’ve been blessed to have been appointed to be the pastor of this parish for several years.  And I could go on and on and on, listing all the blessings I’ve received from God throughout my life.  You probably could, too.

            It’s important that we recognize that.  It’s important that we recognize the blessings we’ve been given from God.  And it’s important that we be grateful to God.  It’s important that we thank God for all the blessings, all the unearned gifts that God has given us.  And it’s important that we think about the goodness of God, and the love God has for each one of us, that God would give us all those gifts.

            But the thing is, you know all that.  How many times have you sat in church and heard the pastor tell you how good God is and how we need to be grateful and thankful for everything God has given us?  I mean, I know I’ve talked about it several times in my time here.  And I’m sure all the pastors who were here before me talked about it, too.  And if you’ve gone to other churches, you’ve probably heard the pastors there talk about it.

            Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still an important thing to remember.  We still need to be grateful to God for all the blessings God has given us.  But here’s the thing that’s interesting to me.  We know that God blesses us.  But the Bible tells us that we are supposed to bless God, too.

            Look at Psalm One Hundred Three, which we read a little bit ago.  The first two verses are “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name.  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits.”  And then at the end, it says again, “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word.  Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.  Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion.  Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

            You and I are supposed to bless the Lord.  And it’s not just us.  The angels are supposed to bless the Lord.  All the heavenly host is supposed to bless the Lord.  In fact, all of God’s works, in all places, are supposed to bless the Lord.

            But here’s the thing:  how can you and I do that?  How can you and I bless the Lord?  Remember what a blessing is:  a special favor or a benefit.  Something we do not earn or deserve.  Something that’s just given to us as a gift.

            How can we do a favor for God?  What can we possibly do for God that God could not do without us?  In fact, what can we possibly do for God that God could not do easier without us?  Most of the time, we probably get in the way.  Us trying to “help” God is like a three-year-old trying to “help” Mom or Dad.  Mom and Dad like having their kids around and they let them “help” because they’re trying to teach them, but the fact is that the parents could do whatever it is they’re doing faster and more efficiently if they just did it themselves.  That’s us “helping” God.  There are no real favors we can do for God.  God could do things faster and more efficiently if we were not even there.

            And also, a blessing is something we don’t earn or deserve.  What can we possibly give to God that God does not deserve?  God deserves far better than anything we could ever give.  God’s greatness and God’s goodness are so far beyond anything we can ever aspire to that there’s no comparison.  And in fact, it all really belongs to God anyway.  God created everything we see or hear or touch.  Even the stuff we think we’ve created is made from things God created and is made with the talent and intelligence and ingenuity that God gave us.  

            And a blessing is something that’s given as a gift.  How can we give a “gift” to God?  I mean, we sometimes talk about our monetary offerings as gifts, and in a way they are, but the fact is that God does not need our money.  The church needs the money, and it does good things with it.  The Annual Church Meeting book in the back of the church shows the church’s budget, if you want more of a breakdown of where the money goes.  Your money is used wisely and well, and that’s a good thing.  But God does not need money to do things.  And it’s the same thing when we give a “gift” or our time, our talent, or anything else.  Now again, don’t get me wrong.  I’m sure God appreciates our gifts and our attempts to serve and honor God.  But God is all-powerful.  God can do anything God wants to do.  God does not need our help or our gifts to do things.

            So we’re back to the question:  how can you and I bless the Lord?  If there’s nothing we can do for God that God could not do without us, what blessing can we give to God?

            Well, I thought about that this week.  And when I did, I thought of one thing we can give God that God cannot give himself.  Love.  You and I can give God love.

            Love is the one thing we can give God that God cannot give himself.  Now, maybe God does love himself.  I don’t know.  It seems like a strange thing even to say, really, that God loves himself.  But even if God does love himself, loving yourself is not the same as getting love from someone else.  When we give God our love, we are doing for God the one thing God cannot do for Himself.  We are giving God the one blessing it is in our power to give God.

            Maybe that’s why the author of the psalm says, three times, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”  The blessing we give God, the love we give God, is supposed to come from our very soul.  Not from our head, although our head may be involved.  Not even from our heart, although our heart is involved to.  Our blessing to God, our love of God, needs to come from our very soul.  Our entire being needs to feel love for God.

            The author of the psalm gives us all kinds of reasons to give the blessing of love to God.  God forgives.  God heals.  God redeems our lives.  God gives us love.  God is just.  God is merciful and gracious.  God is compassionate.  The love of God is from everlasting to everlasting.  In other words, God’s love is forever.

            If we really believe all that, if we really feel it inside, we almost have to love God.  How could we not?  A God who gives us forgiveness and healing and justice and mercy and grace and compassion and love.  How can we not give God our blessing of love in return?  It should be the easiest thing in the world for us to do.

            Let’s make sure we always take some time to think about all the blessings God has given us.  Let’s also make sure we always take some time to think about how great and how good God is.  And when we do, let’s feel love and show love to God in return.  Let’s truly bless the Lord from our souls.

The Good-bye Makes the Journey Harder Still

I’ve told you before how much I love listening to ‘70s music.  It’s the music I grew up with, and I think for most of us the music we grew up with has a special place in our hearts.  Yesterday I was listening to the song “Oh, Very Young” by Cat Stevens.  I’ve heard it many times, of course, but for some reason yesterday the line at the end of the second verse jumped out at me.  It goes, “And though you want to last forever, you know you never will/And the goodbye makes the journey harder still.”

I suppose I think about death a little more than most people.  It’s kind of an occupational hazard, I guess.  When you go for seven years averaging a funeral about every three weeks, death kind of becomes a permanent part of your life.  I’m not complaining about that--it’s always an honor to be invited into the life of a family when they’re going through a particularly hard time.  I’m just stating a fact.

I don’t know that I fear death, exactly.  But I can’t honestly say I’m looking forward to it, either.  I’m in good health, and I enjoy my life on earth.  I think there’s still plenty that God has for me to do here.  But of course, I don’t know that, any more than anyone else does.  I could pass on tonight for all I know.  I think, though, that death is like a lot of things--we can’t really know how we’re going to react until we’re faced with the reality of it.  And right now, even though I obviously know that I will die eventually--I know I won’t last forever, as the song says--I’m not expecting it to happen any time soon.  So, I don’t know how I’m going to react to it when the time comes.

But the other line from the song struck me, too.  “The goodbye makes the journey harder still.”  I’ve talked to numerous people who knew they were dying, and many of them said something similar.  They said they were not afraid to die, but they just didn’t like the thought of having to leave their loved ones behind.

It’s understandable.  No matter how much faith we have, it’s understandable.  It’s one of the things that makes death hard on the survivors, too.  Death is a separation, and we never want to be separated from people we love.  And what makes this separation particularly hard is that it feels so complete.  We cannot call.  We cannot write.  We cannot send an email or a text.  We cannot do anything to reconnect with our loved one, at least until our time comes some day.

Death is hard.  It’s supposed to be hard.  We’re told in the Bible that Jesus himself cried when his good friend Lazarus died, and not only did Jesus understand death better than we ever can, he knew he was going to bring Lazarus back to life.  If Jesus cried at the death of a loved one, we certainly can, too.

For Christians, we know that because of our faith in Jesus Christ, and because of God’s incredible love and grace and mercy, we will go to heaven and be reunited with our loved ones.  I hope, if you’re grieving right now, that this is something that helps.  But it’s still okay to feel sad.  As I said, we’re supposed to.

The grieving process takes the time it takes.  I don’t know if you ever “get over it”, you just move on.  And no one can do it for you.  But we can be there for each other.  We can provide a listening ear and a loving heart.  So if you need one of those, please reach out to someone.  You can always reach out to me or to our church.  We want to be there for you.

Hell Is For Real

This is the sermon given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 14, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Luke 16:19-31 and John 3:15-21

            A poll was taken a few years ago about American’s beliefs in heaven and hell.  Now, polls are just polls, and you can take this for whatever you think it’s worth, but according to this poll, seventy-two percent of Americans believe in heaven, but only fifty-eight percent of Americans believe in hell.

            To me, that’s interesting.  I think it says something about us as human beings, or at least as Americans.  Apparently, there are a lot of people who believe in heaven, but who don’t believe in hell.

            It’s understandable, in a couple of ways.  For one thing, if we believe in hell, then we have believe that there are people who actually go there.  That means that we have to deal with the possibility that we, or people we know, might go there.

            We don’t like to think about that.  I don’t like to think about it.  Now, as we’ve said before, and as we’re going to talk about again in a little bit, we are saved by our faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s love and grace and mercy.  So if you believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, you don’t have to worry about hell.  You won’t be there.

            But do you know people who will?  Or at least, do you know people who might be?  Do you know people who have not accepted Jesus as the Savior?  Or at least, do you know people who you’re not sure have accepted Jesus as the Savior?  I think you probably do.  I do.  And some of them are nice people, or at least they seem like it to me.  Some of them are people who don’t break the law and don’t cause trouble and even are willing to help others.  And I don’t like to think that they may be going to hell.  And you probably don’t like to think that, either.

            And that brings us to another reason people tend not to believe in hell.  They say that, after all, God is love.  We’re told that over and over again in the Bible, that God is love.  And a loving God would never send people to hell.  So, either hell must not exist or there must not be anybody who actually goes there.

            That’s not how Jesus treated it.  Jesus treated hell as a reality.  He treated hell as a real place where real people went.  Now, just as with heaven, we don’t know if we’re supposed to take the descriptions of hell literally.  Just as there may not literally be streets paved with gold in heaven, there may not literally be a lake of fire in hell.  Or there may be.  But just as we know heaven will be an awesome place because it’s the place God is, we know hell will be a terrible place because it’s the place where God is not.

            Think about how Jesus described hell in our reading from Luke today.  Jesus described hell as a place of constant torment.  He describes it as a place of agony.  He describes the man who’s there as being so miserable that he would love for someone to just give him the slightest bit of relief, even just for a couple of seconds.

            And not only that, this is something that lasts for eternity.  The way Jesus describes it in our reading from Luke, there’s no escape from hell.  Abraham, in Jesus’ story, says there is great chasm between heaven and hell, that no one from hell can get to heaven and that no one in heaven can go and help the people in hell even if they want to.  It just cannot be done.

            This is not the only time Jesus talked about hell as a real place.  In Matthew, Jesus repeatedly references hell.  He references it in another place in Luke, too.  Jesus describes hell over and over again as a place of darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  

So whatever hell is, Jesus described it as a terrible place.  It’s a place of constant torment.  It’s a place where people are in agony.  It’s a place of constant darkness and tears.  Jesus most definitely treated hell as a real place where real people go if they do not believe.  

But that still leaves the question:  why would a loving God send people to hell?  And the answer, I believe, is that God doesn’t.  God does not send people to hell.  God allows people to make choices, and those choices have consequences.  We make a choice to accept Jesus as the Savior.  Or, we make a choice not to.  And there are consequences for both of those choices.

In Jesus’ story from Luke, when the rich man realized that there was no salvation for him, he begs Abraham to send Lazarus from heaven to earth to warn his brothers.  Abraham refuses.  He says that the man’s brothers already have the words of Moses and the prophets, and if his brothers won’t listen to those words, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead.

And of course, those words Jesus attributes to Abraham turn out to be true.  God the Father raised Jesus from the dead.  And many still did not believe.  And many continue not to believe today.

In our reading from John, Jesus explained how this works.  Now, we love to read John Three, Sixteen:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  And sometimes we’ll go on and read John Three, Seventeen:  “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  But too often, that’s where we stop.  And if we stop there, we don’t get the complete picture of how this works.

John Three, Eighteen is what gives a more complete picture.  It says, “Whoever believes in the Son is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

The reason God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world is because the world was already condemned.  All of us.  We were all condemned because, as the Apostle Paul writes in Romans Three, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Every one of us.

So, God sent the divine Son into this condemned world.  And God did, indeed send the Son into the world to save the world.  Whoever does believe in Jesus Christ shall not perish.  They shall have everlasting life.  That is something God did out of love.  Out of God’s incredible love, Jesus Christ was sacrificed to give us the chance for salvation.  And all we need to do is make the choice believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior and accept the salvation he offers.

All we need to do is make that choice.  But of course, there’s another choice available--it would not be a choice if that was not the case.  We can also make the choice to not believe.  We can not believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  We can refuse the salvation he offers.

That’s not the choice God wants us to make, of course.  But God allows us to make it.  God allows us to reject salvation, to in effect choose hell over heaven, if that’s what we want to do.  I’m sure God is sad when we make that choice, but God allows us to make it.

But here’s the good news:  God has not given up on people.  It literally is true where there’s life, there’s hope.  As long as we’re alive, there’s the chance that we’ll change, that we’ll make a different choice.  As long as we’re still on earth, we can still make the choice to believe.  We can still make the choice to accept salvation.  We can still make the choice to choose heaven over hell.

That’s why God created the church.  Not just this church--all Christian churches.  God created the church to continue the work of Jesus.  God created the church to spread the gospel, the good news, to every person on earth.  God created the church to help people make a different choice, to make the choice to believe, to accept salvation through Jesus Christ.  God created the church to help people choose heaven over hell.

So, think about those people you know who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, or whom you’re not sure have accepted Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Is there something you could do about it?  We’re all supposed to, you know, or at least to try.  Jesus says to all of his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  

What could you do?  What could I do?  Could you talk to them about faith?  Could you invite them to a worship service?  Could you reach out through social media, or through an email, or even by making a phone call?  Could you share God’s word and show God’s love to someone?  What could we do?

It’s important that we keep trying.  We won’t reach everyone.  Jesus himself did not reach everyone.  There were times when Jesus was talking to someone and they did not want to hear it.  They were not interested.  But Jesus kept trying.  And we need to keep trying, too.  Again, I’m not asking you to go half-way around the world and be a missionary.  If God’s calling you to do that, great.  We’ll do what we can to help you.  But sometimes your mission field is the guy next door.  Sometimes your mission field is the woman across the street.  Sometimes your mission field is someone in your own family.

Again, we need to keep trying.  We won’t always succeed.  But if we believe in Jesus, we need to believe in the things Jesus said.  Jesus clearly believed in hell, and Jesus believed it was a terrible place.  It’s a place I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go to, much less my friends.

If you and I believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, we don’t have to worry about going to hell.  But if you know people who don’t believe or if you’re not sure, please do what you can to bring them home.  It’s what Jesus told us to do.  It’s the loving thing to do.  In fact, their eternal lives depend on it.

The Two (or Three) Options

The weather has changed.  It has gotten significantly colder, with some snow.  And I have to admit, I don’t like that very much.  I’m one of those people who gets cold very easily.  Warm weather doesn’t bother me at all--you may have seen me out riding my bicycle last summer when the temperature was in the 90s.  But cold weather does bother me.  It bothers me a lot.  I get cold very easily, and once I do, it takes me forever to get warm again.

But here’s the thing:  when we’re faced with a situation that we don’t like, we basically have two choices.  We can do something about the situation, or we can accept the situation.  That’s pretty much it.  So, what could I do about the situation?  Well, I don’t have any control over the weather, that’s for sure.  So, if I wanted to do something about the situation, I basically have one option:  move.  Move to someplace where the weather is warmer.

Well, I don’t want to move.  I love it here.  So does Wanda.  I’ve lived in South Dakota for my whole life, and I have no desire to go anywhere else.  We’ve lived in the Wheatland Parish for over seven years now, and we have no desire to go anywhere else.  So if I can’t change the weather where I am, and I’m not going to go someplace where the weather is different, what does that leave me?

Right.  It leaves me with accepting the situation.  And, for the most part, I do.  I say “for the most part” because I do have trouble accepting snowstorms and ice storms sometimes, especially when I have plans to go somewhere.  It was not easy to accept the snow-and-ice storm that forced us to cancel Christmas Eve services in Onida and Agar a couple of years ago.  But in the end, even when I have trouble accepting the situation, I pretty much have to, because there’s not another option.

Well, actually, there is sort of another option.  When I can’t or won’t do something about a situation, and I can’t or won’t accept the situation, what else can I do?  You’ve probably guessed it.  The other option is to complain about the situation.

And I admit, sometimes I do that.  But you know, it really doesn’t accomplish much.  For one thing, it’s boring--very few people are interested in hearing my complaints.  Do you like to listen to someone who complains all the time?  Probably not.  It’s not very satisfying, either, because the person I’m complaining to isn’t responsible for it and can’t do anything about it.  In fact, all it really accomplishes is to make me feel worse, because I’m dwelling on the situation I don’t like rather than trying to find a way to be happy anyway.

So, what’s the situation in your life that this applies to?  What’s a situation that you either can’t or won’t change, but don’t want to accept, and so you end up complaining about it?  

If you have one, review your options.  Is there something you could do, if you chose, to change it?  If not, or if there is but you don’t want to do it, what can you do to accept the situation?  Because just sitting around and complaining won’t help you or anyone else.  Change it or accept it really are the only two options we have.

Whatever the situation is, I’d encourage you to pray about it.  Pray for God to either show you how to change the situation or to help you accept the situation.  And if you’ve been complaining about the situation, pray for God to help you stop doing that, for your own good as much as anyone else’s.

It’s like the serenity prayer, really.  Change what you can’t accept, and accept what you can’t change.  And don’t complain.  In the end, you’ll be a lot happier.

The Kingdom of Heaven

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 7, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 13:24-33, 33-42.

            So, who’d like to go to heaven?

            Silly question, right?  We’d all like to go to heaven.  Maybe not today--a lot of us feel like the old Kenny Chesney song that says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now.”  And I think, for all of us, that God has some more things God wants us to do here before we go.  But still, I assume all of us hope that, whenever our time does come, we’ll go to heaven.

            But what does that mean, exactly?  What do we think heaven will be like?  There’s no real way to know, is there?  I don’t think it’s going to be sitting around on clouds strumming harps, the way some popular images suggest.  I don’t think we’re going to do a lot of sitting around at all--the Bible indicates in Revelation that we’re going to serve God in heaven.  But I also don’t think our service is going to seem like a burden or anything.  I think we’ll enjoy serving God and want to serve God.

            But that’s about as far as I’m willing to go.  I mean, heaven has to be a pretty awesome place, because it’s the place where God is.  Just that alone would make it pretty awesome.  But exactly what it’s like, what we’re like when we get there, we don’t know.  The Bible does not tell us.

            But heaven does not have to be a complete mystery to us, either.  Jesus talked about heaven quite a bit.  And in our reading for today, Jesus used some parables to tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like.   There are several of them, and we’re not going to look at them all in detail right now, simply because we don’t have the time.  That would actually be a good sermon series someday, looking at everything Jesus said about the kingdom of heaven.  But for today, we’re just going to do a quick overview of what Jesus told us in these verses in Matthew.

            He starts out by saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who planted good wheat seeds, but whose enemy snuck in and planted weeds in among the wheat.  Both of them came up.  The man knew an enemy had done this to him, but he told his servants not to pull out the weeds, because they might take out some of the wheat, too.  He says that they should wait until harvest.  Then, they can take the weeds out and burn them, and put the wheat in the barn.

            So what do you think about that?  Well, it kind of depends on which one we think we are, I suppose.  If we think we’re the wheat, then we’re in good shape.  We’re going to go and be with the master.  If we think we’re the weeds, then we know we’re not in good shape at all.  We’re going to be burned.

            Well, we’ll come back to that.  Next, Jesus tells two parables that are somewhat similar.  He says the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that’s been planted.  It’s very small, but it grows into a huge tree.  And then he says the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman mixed into a big batch of flour until it worked all through the dough.

            In both those cases, the kingdom of heaven is something that seems small, almost insignificant.  But it grows and develops.  It becomes incredibly important.  In the case of the mustard seed, it becomes so big it provides shade for the garden and shelter for the birds.  In the case of the yeast, it changes everything about the dough.  It’s what makes the dough worthwhile.

            Jesus goes on to say that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field and it’s like a pearl of great value.  In both cases, the person in the parable is willing to do whatever it takes to possess it.  It’s worth anything and everything they have to sell or trade to get it.  Jesus tells us that there is absolutely nothing in the world that is more important the kingdom of heaven.

            And then, finally, Jesus says that kingdom of heaven is like a net that catches all kinds of fish.  Eventually, the boat is brought to shore and the fishermen go through, separating the good fish from the bad.  The good fish are kept in baskets, but the bad fish are thrown away.  And Jesus says, “This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            The gospel of Matthew presents all these parables, all these examples of what the kingdom of heaven is like, one after another after another.  All of them are in the same chapter.  I would think the disciples’ heads must have been spinning.  In fact, you know what’s happening in those verses we skipped?  The disciples ask Jesus about the parable of the weeds in the field.  I mean, Jesus has gone on to tell two more parables, and they’re still back on the first one.  They’re going, “Um, Jesus could we--could you--could we just slow down a little bit?  Could we go back to that one about the weeds in the field?  We didn’t get that one.”

            And maybe our heads are spinning a little bit, too.  So let’s see what we can learn about the kingdom of heaven from all these parables.

            Well, for one thing, the kingdom of heaven, and being allowed into it, is a Really Big Deal.  Being allowed into the kingdom of heaven is worth more than anything else in our lives. For another thing, the kingdom of heaven will completely transform our lives, just like yeast in dough.  And we can also learn that if we don’t treat the kingdom of heaven that way, if we don’t make it worth more than anything else, there are some pretty severe consequences for that.     

It’s important that we recognize that.  Maybe you’ve noticed this, but a lot of Christian churches are de-emphasizing heaven these days.  They still believe in it and all, but they say that we focus on heaven too much.  We should be more concerned with life on earth.  We should do what we can to help others, or to make the world a better place, or to transform society, or to get more enjoyment out of our own lives.  They say those are the things we should focus on, not getting into heaven.

            Well, I don’t think Jesus would agree.  Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is more important than anything else.  We should be willing to sacrifice anything and everything to get there.  And if we’re actually willing to do that, our lives will be transformed in the process.

             So--you probably already know what the questions are.  Are we willing to make the kingdom of heaven more important than anything else in our lives?  Are we willing to sacrifice anything and everything to get there?  And are we willing to allow our lives to be transformed in the process?

            In asking those questions, I don’t presume to know what the answer for each of you is.  These questions are not asked as an accusation.  You have to answer them for yourselves.  The only person I can answer them for is me.  And my answer is---I don’t know.

            The kingdom of heaven is obviously important to me.  I’m sure it’s important to you, too.  But there are other things in my life that are important, too.  Wanda is important to me.  My parents are important to me.  And there other things, like music and sports, that are important to me.  Would I be willing to sacrifice all of that?  Would I be willing to give up all those people and all those things for the kingdom of heaven?

            I don’t know.  To be honest, it’s hard for me to imagine a situation where God would ask me to give up Wanda, or my parents, or any of those other things.  I mean, I may have to give up my parents through death, but it’s not like that would be my choice.  To have the Lord ask me to voluntarily give them up, or give Wanda up, for the kingdom of heaven--in all honesty, I don’t see how that would work.

            And the other thing to remember is that God knows we’re not perfect.  God does not expect us to be perfect.  God understands why other things sometimes become important to us, and God is not going to automatically condemn us when that happens.

            But we should not use that as an excuse, either.  The point remains that God needs to be number one in our lives.  God needs to be more important than the things we enjoy doing.  God needs to be more important than our parents.  God needs to be more important even than our spouses or our children.  God needs to be number one.  The kingdom of heaven literally is that important.

            So, let’s look at our lives.  Let’s look at what we consider to be important.  And let’s look at how those things relate to the kingdom of heaven.  And if they’re getting in our way, we need to do something about that.

            But here’s the good news.  God will help us.  God wants us to make the kingdom of heaven the most important thing in our lives.  And God wants to help us get rid of the stuff that’s getting in our way.  So if we go to God and ask God to help us, God will give us the help we need.

            It’s not easy.  But the kingdom of heaven is worth it.  Let’s get rid of all the things that are getting in our way.  Let’s claim our place in the kingdom of heaven.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like...

When Jesus was on earth, he would sometimes try to explain what the kingdom of God is like.  He did that using things that were familiar to his audience.  He would say things like, “the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed” or “the kingdom of God is like yeast in dough.”

Those were perfectly good analogies at that time.  The thing is, society has changed.  We don’t have mustard seeds around here--most of us have never even seen one.  And very few people bake bread any more, so the whole “yeast in dough” thing does not work very well for us.  So, I started thinking about what Jesus might use if he was around today.  It could be a lot of things, probably, but here’s one I thought of.

You know those little drink packets you can get to flavor water?  Crystal Light makes them, so do several other companies.  I really like them.  You get the benefits of water, but you also get something that tastes good.  The packets are small, but they’ll give flavor to a full twenty-ounce bottle of water.

So, here’s what I thought of.  The kingdom of God is like a drink packet.  It’s a small thing.  It looks like it could hardly do anything.  But you put it in a bottle of water, and it changes everything about the water.  There’s nothing in the bottle that’s left untouched.  And not only does it change it, it makes it better in every way.

That’s how it is when God’s Holy Spirit enters us.  It may seem small at first.  It may seem like it can hardly do anything.  But when God’s Holy Spirit enters into us, it changes everything about us.  There’s nothing about us that’s left untouched.  And not only does God’s Holy Spirit change us, it makes us better in every way.

So, the nest time you see a bottle of water, or the next time you see a drink packet, think of God’s Holy Spirit.  Think of the Holy Spirit going through your life, just like the powder in that drink packet goes through the water.  And allow the Holy Spirit to change every aspect of your life, just like the powder in the drink packet changes every aspect of the water.

A Poem About Creation

God made this and God made that

And God made something else

It’s really quite amazing that

God did it all Himself

That is, if God even is a “he”

But that’s another subject

The idea that God has gender at all

Is really pretty suspect

But the point is God created it all

And created it all out of nothing

It sounds like for God it was really easy

There was no working or fussing

First there was light, then there was water

Then land and all the rest

It was all so incredibly simple for God

That it wasn’t even much of a test

Finally God created us humans

God created us in God’s image

In a sense, you could say that you and I

Are part of God’s direct lineage

God told us to multiply and rule the earth

God gave us everything in it

It was all just given to us as a gift

We didn’t have to win it

But here’s the most amazing thing of all

God looked at all that he made

And God gave an opinion and didn’t hold back

God called a spade a spade

God looked at creation and said it was good

And in fact, God didn’t stop there

God went on to say that it was all very good

The water, the sky, and the air

The fish and the birds, the animals, too

It all was as good as could be

And all of the humans were very good, too

And that both you and me

So when you’re depressed, discouraged, or down

You think it might be time to quit

If you think you’re not worth much, your value is low

And you think that you’re just a misfit

Remember the Lord God doesn’t agree

And God is the one who knows

Because God created you just as you are

From your head right down to your toes

You’re doing your best, and you will do better

God knows that, it’s all understood

God’s opinion is the one that counts the most

And God says that you’re very good.