Up and At 'Em!

Are you eager to be up and at ‘em today?

I hope so.  Actually, I hope you’re eager to be up and at ‘em every day.  Very few of us are, though.  I’m not.  Don’t take that the wrong way.  I still very much love my job.  I still enjoy almost all the things I do.  But I still have days, sometimes, where I wake up and wonder if getting out of bed is really worth the trouble.  Days when I’d really like to stay in my nice, warm bed.  I think we all have days like that, no matter how much we may enjoy our lives.  It’s probably even more prevalent at this time of year, when the sun rises so late and when it’s so cold and forbidding outside.  We’d like to be like bears and just stay in our dens and hibernate until spring.

That’s not what we do, of course.  We get out of bed.  We get up and do what needs to be done.  We know that staying in bed all day is not a practical option for us.  And we know that it’s not what God wants us to do, either.  So, we get up and get going.

As I was thinking about this, I thought, “I wonder if Jesus ever had days like that.”  Days where he just really didn’t feel much like getting up and doing anything.  I don’t mean the days he spent in prayer and meditation.  I mean days where he woke up and thought, “I don’t feel like doing anything today.  I don’t feel like healing people.  I don’t feel like arguing with the Pharisees.  I don’t feel like working miracles.  I’d just like to stay in bed today.”

Now, Jesus was the divine Son of God, of course.  But Jesus was also fully human.  And it was a tough job he had, being Savior of the world.  Drawing a crowd everywhere he went.  Having people constantly make demands of him.  Having people always asking him questions, sometimes out of an honest desire to know, sometimes trying to trick him or trap him.  It would drain anybody after a while.

Then, I took my wondering even further.  I wonder if Jesus ever thought about it what it would be like to just be a human being, without all the pressure of being the Savior.  I wonder if Jesus ever came to a small town, and saw the local carpenter at work, and then watched him go home at night to his wife and family, and wondered what it would be like to have a life like that.  No pressure.  Nobody wanting to confront him.  Nobody looking at him with pleading eyes, begging him to heal their loved one.  Just get up in the morning, go to work, come home at night, spend some time with the family, go to bed.  The good, simple life of a good, honest man.

Well, we don’t know that Jesus ever had any of those thoughts.  The Bible really has very little to say about what Jesus might have thought or what he might have felt.  We sometimes can infer it from his words and his actions, but most of the time we can’t.  The Bible doesn’t say much about Jesus’ inner thoughts and feelings.  What it tells us about are Jesus’ words and his actions.

And that’s the bottom line, really.  All of us are going to have days when we just don’t feel like doing what we know we need to do.  All of us are going to have days when we wish our lives were different, no matter how much we may enjoy our lives now.  But those feelings and wishes are not what define us.  What defines us is what we do about them.

Whether Jesus had any of those thoughts and feelings or not really does not matter.  What matters is what he said and what he did.  What matters is that he got up each day and did what God the Father wanted him to do.  He continued to do what the Son of God was required to do.  He continued to say what the Son of God was required to say.  He did it regardless of whether he felt like it that day.  He did it because it was what God the Father wanted him to do.  And he did it because, in the end, it was what he wanted to do, too, because he wanted to serve and obey God the Father.

And that’s what matters for us.  It’s okay if, once in a while, we have a day when you don’t feel like getting out of bed.  But what matters is that we get out of bed anyway.  What matters is that we get up and do what God wants us to do.  Because, in the end, it’s what we want to do, too, because in the end, we want to serve and obey God, too.

So if you don’t feel like being up and at ‘em today, God understands.  But get up anyway.  Do what needs to be done.  It’s what God wants you to do.  And in the end, it’s what you want to do, too.

An Adel By Any Other Name

I make no secret of being a sports fan.  I’ve loved sports ever since I can remember.  And yet, I was never really very good at any of them.  I simply was never an athlete.  I never really did try football and I gave up on basketball after the eighth grade.  I stayed with baseball through my high school years, but I still wasn’t very good.  The things I was best at were things like bunting and drawing walks, which are skills, but which don’t really require athletic ability.  The same could be said of the one sport that I’m at least half-way decent at, bowling.  I’m not knocking bowling, but it’s really more of a skill than an athletic feat, at least on the amateur level.

It doesn’t seem fair, you know?  The Lord gave me a great love of sports, and yet gave me no ability to play them.  I’ve wondered why, and I think I finally figured it out.  It’s not God’s fault.  It’s the fault of my parents.  And it’s their fault because of the name they gave me--Jeff Adel.

There has never been a major league baseball player with the last name of Adel.  There has never been an NFL player with the last name of Adel.  In just the last week, we had the first NBA player named Adel—Deng Adel.  He's basically the last man off the bench for the worst team in the league (Cleveland), but at least he’s there.  I’m putting a lot of hopes on him.

It gets a little better if you go to the name “Jeff”, but not much.  A few years ago, just for fun, I put together an “All-Jeff” baseball team.  It had some good players on it, but no Hall of Fame players or anything.  It’s the same way when you look at the NFL.  Things are a little better in basketball--you do get some pretty good players--but unless you include Michael Jeffrey Jordan you don’t really have any superstars.  It’s clear that by giving me the name “Jeff Adel”, my parents pretty much wiped out any chance I might have had to be a top athlete.

Does all that sound silly to you?  Well, if it does, there’s a reason for that.  It is.  It is silly.  Obviously, my name has nothing to do with why I was never a good athlete.  There are lots of reasons for it, including that I had no self-confidence and didn’t really want to do a lot of physical exercise when I was young, but I don’t really believe that my name is one of them.

But here’s the thing.  It can be very hard for us to admit our own shortcomings.  It can be very hard for us to admit that our problems and our failings and our weaknesses are actually our own fault.  Rather than do that, we’re tempted to look around for some other explanation, some way we can blame someone else.  And if we try hard enough to do that, we can always find a way.  We can always think of a reason to blame someone else.  The reason may not make sense to someone else, but most of us have a tremendous capacity to believe that the things we want to be true actually are.  In other words, we can make ourselves believe almost anything if we want to badly enough.

It can be hard to see ourselves clearly and admit to our own faults.  It can be even harder to admit to our sins.  But it’s a good thing to do.  Because if we can, then we can go to God, repent of our sins, and ask God for forgiveness.  And when we do that, God will forgive us every time.

I’m still going to root for Deng Adel to make it in the NBA.  I’m also rooting for Jo Adell, a minor league outfielder with the Angels, to make it to the majors.  But I know that God knows my name, and God is rooting for me to repent of my sins and ask for forgiveness.  With God’s help, I’ll do that.

Beyond Lukewarm

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 20, 2019.

            When I was in college, I knew a guy named Greg.  I didn’t know him well, but we were both in the band, and he played the French horn, like I did.  Well, actually, he played the French horn a lot better than I did, but the point is that we were in the same section in the band, so we got to know each other a little bit.

            Greg was a perfectly nice guy.  He was friendly enough.  He was intelligent enough.  And he absolutely drove me crazy.  He drove me crazy because you could never get him to give you an opinion on anything.  I not just talking about controversial stuff like politics or something.  I’m talking literally, anything.  His standard response was, “Oh, I don’t know.”  How’d you like that song, Greg?  “Oh, I don’t know.”  What’d you think of that meal in the cafeteria?  “Oh, I don’t know.”  What’s your favorite color?  “Oh, I don’t know.”  

            It just got really annoying after a while.  And it also seemed like kind of a sad way to live.  It was like there was nothing in life that he really liked, and nothing that he really disliked.  It was like nothing in life excited him or even interested him.  He was neither hot nor cold on anything.  Everything in his life was just kind of lukewarm.

I don’t know what happened to make Greg that way, but I suspect he was not like that when he was a little kid.  Because little kids are almost never lukewarm about anything.  You ask a kid whether he or she likes something, and they won’t say, “Oh, I don’t know.”  They’ll tell you.  And whatever it is, if they like it, they’ll be all in on it, because that’s how little kids are.  If they like something, it’s the greatest, most wonderful, most awesome thing ever.  And if they don’t like it, they’ll be completely out of it.  It’ll be something that’s dumb and boring and stupid.  Because that’s how little kids are, too.

            We’ve been talking about how Jesus said that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to become more like little children.  We’ve been talking about what qualities of little children we need to recapture as adults.  This is one of them.  We need to stop being lukewarm about things.  We need to be all in about our faith in God.  We need to be willing to say that Jesus Christ is the greatest, most wonderful, most awesome thing ever.  And we need to be completely out of the things that take us away from God.  We need to realize that those things truly are dumb and boring and stupid, because nothing is more important than faith in God and belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            In our Bible reading for today, the Lord is addressing a church in Laodicea.  And listen again to what the chief complaint about the people of that church is:  “You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

It is really tempting, in our society, to become lukewarm Christians.  And I know I’ve given in to that temptation on numerous occasions.  Maybe you have, too.  We’re not turning our backs on God.  We’re not cold.  But we’re not exactly hot, either.  We don’t talk about our faith very much in public.  We don’t talk about the things our church is doing.  We don’t talk about the difference God has made in our lives.  We don’t talk about how our faith in Jesus Christ helps us in our daily lives.  We keep it to ourselves.  And if the subject comes up, we’re tempted to say, like Greg used to, “Oh, I don’t know.”

And sometimes, we give in to that temptation in our personal lives, too.  Again, it’s easy to do.  It’s not that we don’t believe.  It’s not that we don’t have faith.  It’s that, too often, we don’t let that faith change us in any significant way.  The fact that we have faith in God and believe in Jesus does not have any real impact on our lives.

Now, I realize that I’m painting with a broad brush here.  Maybe you’re thinking, “Hey, that’s not me.  I’m not lukewarm.  I do talk about my faith.  I do let my faith impact my life.”  And you may well be right.  If so, then, in all sincerity, I’m very glad to hear that.  Know that I’m not talking about you.  And in fact, I hope you’ll help some of the rest of us who are falling short.

Because I know I fall short a lot of times.  And I don’t think I’m the only one.  So, for the rest of us, those of us who do fall short, what can we do?  Because our reading says that if we stay lukewarm, the Lord is going to spit us out His mouth.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the Lord to spit me out.  I want to be one of those who enter the kingdom of heaven.  I think you do, too.  So how do we get out of this trap of being lukewarm?  How do we get back to being all in on our faith, the way little kids are all in on the things they like?

Well, here’s what I think.  At least part of the reason little kids are willing to be all in on things is that little kids are not afraid.  They’re not afraid to be enthusiastic about the things they love.  They’re not afraid to tell you and show you how much they love it.  In fact, they want to share it with you.  They want you to be enthusiastic about it, too. 

Somewhere along the line, we lose that.  We become afraid to be enthusiastic.  It’s not cool.  Other people may not like us.  They may even make fun of us.  The cool people, the people who are in the “in” group, might shut us out.  We still feel what we feel, but--we tone it down.  We hold back.  We hide our enthusiasm.  We hide our feelings.  And after a while, after we hide those things long enough, we don’t feel them anymore.  We lose our enthusiasm.  We don’t feel fired up.  We become lukewarm.  Instead of looking for chances to talk about our faith, we avoid the subject whenever we can.  And when it comes up, we say, “Oh, I don’t know.”

It’s sad, really.  It’s sad on a couple of levels.  It’s sad because we miss chances to share our faith and to bring people to Christ.  But it’s also sad because of what we do to ourselves when we do this.  We miss chances to feel God’s love.  We miss chances to let God lead us and guide us.  We miss chances to live the life God wants us to live.  We miss chances to really feel alive in Christ.  Instead, we just go through life, not losing anything because of our faith, but not really gaining anything, either.  We’re just going on, day after day after day, not really getting anyplace.

That’s a sad way to live your life.  I’ve had times when I lived my life that way, and it’s no fun.  It’s not really living, it’s just existing.  It’s trying to get through today so we can try to get through tomorrow.  That’s not the kind of life any of us dreams about when we’re kids.  It’s not the kind of life we want to have now.  And it’s not the kind of life God wants us to have, either.

Why are kids able to tell you about the things they’re enthusiastic about?  Because they have no fear.  Why do they have no fear?  Because they don’t think there’s anything to be afraid of.  After all, this thing they’re excited about is awesome.  Why should they not love it?  And why should you not love it, too?  Of course, you’ll love it, if they show it to you.  And if you don’t love it, well, so what?  If you cannot see how awesome this thing is, that’s your loss.  It does not affect them.  It does not affect how much they love it.  And it does not affect how enthusiastic they are about it, either.  They know this thing they love is awesome, whether you can see it or not.  And they’re going to keep thinking it’s awesome, and keep telling people it’s awesome, no matter what you think.

That’s how we should feel about our faith.  After all, God is awesome, right?  Why should we not love Him?  Jesus Christ is an awesome Savior.  Why should we not love him?  And why should other people not love him, too?  Of course other people will love him, if we show him to them.  If we share God’s word and show God’s love.  If we show and tell people about our belief in Jesus as the Savior.  Of course, they’ll love him.  And if they don’t love him, well, so what?  It other people cannot see how awesome Jesus Christ is, that their loss.  It does not affect how much we love him.  It should not affect our enthusiasm about him, either.  We know Jesus Christ is awesome, whether other people can see that or not.  And we should keep thinking Jesus is awesome, and keep telling people Jesus is awesome, no matter what anyone else thinks.  

Let’s not be lukewarm Christians.  Let’s not let the Lord spit us out.  When we have a chance to talk about what we believe, let’s not say, “Oh, I don’t know.”  Let’s have the enthusiasm that little kids have.  We have an awesome Savior.  I know we all believe that.  So let’s act like it!

Complaining to the Wrong Person

One night last week, I was asked to be the official scorer at the basketball game in Gettysburg.  The regular scorer, Keith Scott, couldn’t be there.  I’ve done it before, and I was happy to fill in.

When you’re the official scorer, you wear a striped shirt, like a referee, so that everyone knows who the official scorer is.  So, I was wearing a striped shirt.  I did not look like a referee in any other way--I had a grey sweater under the striped shirt, and I was wearing tan pants, not the black that a referee wears.  Plus, I have thick glasses and no one would ever confuse me for someone who’s athletic.

I say this because it plays into an incident that happened at halftime.  Just a few seconds before the half, one of the referees called a technical foul on a player from the visiting team.  I don’t know what prompted the technical--I didn’t see anything obvious, but I know that most referees don’t like giving technical fouls.  My assumption is that the player must have said something he shouldn’t have said, but I don’t actually know.  Anyway, the fans of the visiting team were upset at the call, and I don’t really blame them.  Had it been my team, I probably would’ve been upset, too.

So, we got to half time, and I went out to the lobby to use the rest room.  And one of the fans of the visiting team started complaining to me about the technical foul call.  I shrugged my shoulders, smiled, and said, “Hey, I just keep the scorebook.”  But he continued to complain.  Again, I said, “It’s nothing to do with me.  I just keep the scorebook.”   He started walking away, but he continued to tell me what a bad call that technical had been.  I said again, “Buddy, I just keep the scorebook.”

Now, I don’t want to be too hard on this guy.  I’ve been known to get a little wound up at a sports event myself.  Plus, he was not abusive, he did not use any bad language, and he did not get in my face about it.  Mainly, I just thought it was kind of funny that he was upset at me for the technical foul call, when in fact I had no responsibility for it whatsoever.

After a while, though, I started thinking.  How many times have I gotten upset about something, and taken it out on someone who had no responsibility for it whatsoever?  A store clerk who can’t help it that they’ve run out of something.  A receptionist on the other end of the phone who has no ability to help me with my complaint.  I’m sure I’ve done that more times than I care to remember.

And then I thought, how often have I done that to God?  How often have I been upset at God for something that God really had nothing to do with?  Something that was the fault of my own mistakes, or my own stupidity.  Something that was the result of the actions of others, because all of our actions affect other people.  I’m sure I’ve done that more than I care to remember.

Realizing how silly that man looked for complaining to me about a technical foul makes me realize how silly I look when I complain to someone who has nothing to do with my complaint.  Obviously, I need to stop doing that.  But it also makes me feel better, in a way.  Because if I can forgive this person in this situation, then how much more can God forgive me when I do the same thing?  God is much greater than I am at everything, including forgiveness.  So if I can forgive this man, I’m confident that God has forgiven me.

That’s not an excuse to continue bad behavior.  I still need to work on this.  But it’s wonderful to know we have a God with a huge capacity to forgive us when we ask for forgiveness.

The Wonder of It All

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 13, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 40:25-31.

            When we built the addition to the Gettysburg church, as some of you know, we built a handicapped ramp.  It’s a fairly long ramp, and it had to be, because of the height of the sanctuary compared to ground level.  It works really well, so well that sometimes we wonder how we got along without for so long.

            

            But the thing is, what we did not realize when we built that ramp is that we were also building a children’s play area.  Little kids just love that ramp.  They love to run up and down that ramp.  Every time we have any kind of gathering in the fellowship hall, there’ll be the kids, running up and down the ramp.  They don’t seem to ever get tired of it.

            Because that’s the thing when you’re a little kid--you get enjoyment, and even a sense of wonder, out of the simplest things, things that as adults we take for granted.  Ever seen a little kid, maybe one and a half or two, start running?  They get such a kick out of it, just running.  They think it’s so cool that you can move your legs in a certain way and actually get someplace, you know?  They think that’s amazing.

            The next time we get a fair amount of snow, watch little kids playing in it.  They think snow is awesome.  When you’re a little kid, you don’t complain about the snow.  You revel in it.  You love it.  You think God created snow just for you to play in. 

            We’ve been talking about how Jesus said that if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to become like little children.  We’ve been looking at what qualities of little children we need to recapture as adults.  I think this is one of them.  We need to recapture our sense of wonder, our sense of amazement, our complete enjoyment of the world God created.

            How do we lose it in the first place?  We get more responsible, I suppose.  We have more to do.  It feels like all we spend most of our time running around, and so it’s not so amazing as it used to be.  We realize someone could get hurt running up and down a ramp, so we stop doing it and we tell others to stop doing it.  We have to shovel the snow, or we have to drive someplace in it, and all of a sudden it’s not so much fun anymore.

           But it’s not just that we stop being amazed at the world.  It’s also that we start actively complaining about it.  And I do it, too, don’t get me wrong.  It’s too cold.  It’s too hot.  It’s too wet.  It’s too dry.  We complain about our jobs.  We have to work too hard.  We don’t get enough time off.  We don’t get paid enough.  Everything costs too much.  We complain about the government, no matter who happens to be in charge of it at any particular time.  And, of course, we complain about each other.  This person was not nice to me.  That person did not do what they were supposed to do.  That other person does not know what they’re doing.  And we complain about ourselves sometimes, too.  I’m too fat.  I’m too old.  I’m not smart enough.  I’m not good enough.  You know, there’s really nothing in the world that we cannot complain about when we really put our minds to it.

            And it was the same in Jesus’ time.  Jesus had to put up with complaints all the time.  The Pharisees complained because he performed miracles on the Sabbath.  The disciples complained because they were not getting the power and prestige they thought they should get.  Martha complained to him that he was letting her sister Mary get away without doing any work.  Think about how Jesus must have felt.  I mean, here he was, the divine Son of God, and he’s having to put up with all these petty complaints from anybody and everybody.

            So the question is, how do we stop this?  How do we get out of this mode of complaining about stuff and get back to the sense of wonder and amazement at the world that we had when we were little kids?

            I think the first thing is just to realize we’re doing it.  You know, this mode of complaining can become so instinctive to us that we start doing it automatically.  Complaining becomes our default response to almost every situation.  We don’t even realize we’re doing it.  And believe me, pastors are as guilty of this as anyone.  Have you heard the old joke, what do you call a group of pastors in the basement?  A whine cellar.  So that’s the first thing we have to do--just be aware of how strong our instinct to complain really is.

            But it’s not enough to just stop complaining.  We have to replace our complaints with something.  And what we can replace them with is gratitude.  Gratitude to God for all that God has done for us.

            Now, that’s a really churchy thing for me to say, right?  I mean, how many times have you heard that we should be grateful to God?  It’s still true, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also kind of a cliché.  And the fact is that a lot of times we don’t feel particularly grateful to God.  We may know we should, but we don’t.  Pretty much everyone here has gone through some pretty tough stuff in our lives.  Some of us are going through it right now.  And if that’s you, you’re probably not too interested in hearing about how you should be grateful.

But if you have a current hurt, try to put it aside, just for the moment.  I’m not saying ignore it or pretend it did not happen.  It’s real, and it needs to be dealt with.  You have a right to feel what you feel, and I’m not trying to take that away.  All I’m asking is that, just for a minute, you try to put it aside and think about if you have anything in your life to be grateful for.  If there’s anything that’s ever happened to you that was good that you did not do anything to deserve.  If there’s anything that you ever received as a gift.  Love from a family member or a friend.  A kind word when you needed one.  A helping hand.  Someone who came into your life just when you needed them to.  There can be all kinds of examples.  “Count your blessings” is another cliché, but the fact is that if we can look at our lives clearly and truly count them, most of us have received a lot of blessings.  Most of us really do have a lot of things to be thankful for, even if our current situation is not so good.

            But while gratitude is good, even that does not get us where we want to go.  It’s a start, but that’s all.  Because we’re not just trying to stop complaining.  That’s part of it, but what we’re really aiming for is to recapture that sense of wonder that we had as little kids.  So how do we do that?

            The Bible tells us how.  The way to recapture that sense of wonder is to focus on God and on God’s creation.

            Look at the first two verses of our psalm today, psalm nineteen.  “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” 

            The sky itself gives us something to marvel at.  You know, I don’t know if we all realize how lucky we are to live in this part of the world.  I went for years not being able to really enjoy the sunset.  I lived in Wessington Springs, which is a wonderful town, but it has these hills just west of town so you really don’t see the sunset.  The sun just drops behind the hills.  And then I lived in the Sioux City area, and the lights of town kept you from really enjoying the sunset.  But here.  We have some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world.  I hope you don’t take them for granted, because those sunsets are shouting the glory of God.  That alone should spark a sense of wonder in us.

            And the stars.  Do you ever go out on a clear night and just look at the stars?  I don’t do it nearly as often as I should, but there are so many stars in the sky here.  I mean, there are everywhere, but if you get away from the town lights they are so bright and so clear.  As our reading from Isaiah says, God “brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name.  Because of his great power and mighty strength not one of them is missing.”  Again, those stars are shouting the glory of God.  Those stars should spark that sense of wonder in us.

            There are all kinds of things that can do that, if we just take the time to look at them.  There is beauty in the snow.  There’s beauty in the rain.  There’s beauty in the sunshine.  There’s beauty in all the animals and birds and fish and everything else we have around here.  And there’s beauty in the people around us, too, if we’ll only stop and look for it.  Really, everything that God created is a miracle.  And every person God created is a miracle, too.  If we look for that, if we really look for it, we can see it.  We can see it in every person we meet.  And we can see it in ourselves, too.

            Little kids see wonder everywhere.  So should we.  And you know, when you think about it, it is kind of amazing that we can move our legs a certain way and get someplace.  Don’t you think?

            If we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to see the world the way little kids do.  So let’s stop complaining.  Let’s be grateful.  And let’s look at all the beauty of nature, and be amazed at it.  Let’s look for the beauty in other people, and be amazed at that, too.  And let’s also look for the beauty in ourselves, and be amazed at that.  And then, let’s be in awe and wonder at the thought of the incredible, awesome God who created it all.

Encourage Each Other

As you know, I’m a sports fan.  I love to go to the local games.  And when I go, I like to cheer.  I like to holler.  I try to keep it positive.  I do slip once in a while--I’m human, and I get emotional about the games sometimes.  That’s not an excuse, it’s just the truth.  But I do try to keep it positive and just yell encouragement for my team.

I didn’t always do that.  I used to sit fairly quietly, and just enjoy the game for what it is.  There’s a story behind why I changed, and I thought I’d share it with you because I think there might be something to learn from it.

For four years during my time in Wessington Springs, I kept stats for the boys basketball team.  Our first year, we had a terrible team.  Things got better, but that first year, the only way to put it is that we were bad.  We lost our first two games by about forty points each, to teams that really weren’t even all that good.  Then came the third game, our first home game.  About midway through the second quarter, we were behind 33-11.  The coach was frustrated, slammed his clipboard on the floor (something that was quite out of character for him) and called timeout.  The boys were walking slowly toward the coach, heads down, totally dispirited.  It wasn’t that they didn’t want to win.  They simply thought they had no chance to win.  They had accepted it as their lot in life that they would lose every game by forty points.  That was just the way it was.

I thought to myself, “Someone has to get these boys fired up.”  I looked at the coach, and he was clearly too upset to do it.  I looked around at the crowd, such as it was, and everyone was just leaning back, watching what they assumed would be another blowout loss.  

So, I said to myself, “Well, then, I guess it’s up to you.”  And as they came out of the timeout, I started hollering encouragement to the team.  It was nothing technical, because I don’t understand the technical aspects of basketball very well.  It was just generic stuff:  “Everybody hustle!  Get after it!  Tough defense!  Good passes!  Take care of the ball!  Get a good shot!  You can do it!”  And on and on.

And wouldn’t you know, the team started to play a little better.  A friend of mine was sitting next to me, and he picked up on what I was doing and started hollering encouragement, too.  The boys played a little better.  A few more fans picked up on it.  Eventually, quite a few more.  The boys on the bench even started cheering their teammates on.  And after a while, we had players running all over the court, diving after every loose ball, and believing that they could actually get something accomplished on the basketball court.

Now, it would be a better story if I could report that we came back to win the game.  Honesty, however, compels me to say that we lost by fifteen points.  But fifteen is a lot fewer than forty, and more importantly, the players started to believe in themselves.  All because somebody decided to give them some encouragement and cheer them on.

The point here is not to pat myself on the back.  The point is that we all have times when it seems like everything is going against us.  It’s not that we don’t want things to be better.  We just get discouraged and dispirited.  We don’t think things can get any better.  We start to think it’s our lot in life that things are going to go against us.  That’s just the way it is.

When that happens, we need to have someone on our side.  We need to have someone to encourage us.  We need to have someone say, “Keep working.  Keep trying.  Get after it!  You can do it!”

How much better would the world be if we all did that for each other?  If we looked for people who were going through a tough time, and gave them some encouragement?  If every time we saw someone struggling, we went up to them and said, “Don’t give up.  Keep trying.  You can do this!”  We’d all feel better.  And more than that, we’d all do better.  We’d do better because we’d believe in ourselves.  And we’d believe in each other.  Think what God could do with a group of people like that.  A group of people who encouraged each other and believed in each other.  I think God could do all kinds of things with a group of people like that.

So let’s all try to do that.  Let’s look for someone who’s struggling, who’s going through a tough time.  Let’s find a way to be there for them.  Let’s find a way to show them we believe in them.  Let’s find a way to show them that they don’t need to give up, that things can get better.  Let’s be that group of people who encourage each other and believe in each other.

Who knows?  Some amazing things just might happen.

The Declaration of Dependence

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 6, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 18:1-5 and John 15:1-8.

            Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

            Let’s think about that.  Jesus says the only way we can enter the kingdom of heaven is to become like little children.  What’s that mean?  In what ways are you and I supposed to become like little children?

            It’s an important thing, after all.  I think all of hope to enter the kingdom of heaven.  And here, Jesus tells us how to do it.  And yet, what he says seems really backward, when you really think about it.  I mean, one of the worst insults you can give an adult is to say that they’re being childish.  And even when we’re kids, that’s not always what we want to be.  It seems like there are so many things we cannot do when we’re young.  We want to be older, so we can do more things.  And yet, Jesus says the only way we can enter the kingdom of heaven is to become like little children.

            Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about in our next sermon series.  What did Jesus mean when he said we should become like little children.  What qualities of little children are we supposed to re-capture as adults so that we can enter the kingdom of heaven, as we all want to do?

            Jesus does tell us one thing.  After the statement we quoted, he says this:  “whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

            “The lowly position of this child.”  That’s not how we think of children, is it?  We tend to say that children are really important.  But at the same time, little children are in a lowly position in a lot of ways.  There are a lot of things little kids cannot do for themselves.  Little children are almost totally dependent on their parents for the things they need.

            I think that’s one of the ways Jesus wants us to be like little children.  Jesus wants us to be totally dependent on God.

            We know that.  And when we’re here, in church, we’ll say it.  We’ll talk about how we’re dependent on God.  We’ll talk about how all good things come from God.  We’ll talk about how much we need God’s guidance and God’s love and God’s blessings.

            And then, too many times, we walk out of here and start figuring out what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.  We start making our own decisions about everything, and leave God completely out of the picture.

            It’s human nature.  At least, it is in our society.  We all want to be independent.  One of the founding documents of this country is The Declaration of Independence.  We all want to be able to take care of ourselves.  We all want to figure things out for ourselves.  One of the hardest things in the world for some of us to do is to admit that we need help.  We want to do it ourselves.

And that’s not always wrong.  There are times when that’s good.  We certainly don’t want to just sit around, doing nothing, while other people take care of us and do everything for us.  We all need to make a contribution, and sometimes that means doing things for ourselves and being independent.

          But sometimes we get too hung up on this idea of independence.  We try too hard to be independent.  We start feeling like we don’t need anyone.  Not only do we not need other people, we start feeling like we don’t need God.

            And maybe--speaking only in terms of earthly success--maybe you don’t.  I mean, we’ve all known people who don’t seem to have God in their lives at all who seem to be extremely successful.  You google “famous atheists” and you’ll find lots of really famous and successful people who claim to not have God in their lives at all.  They claim to be totally independent from God.

            But that’s not what Jesus was talking about.  Jesus did not say that we need to believe in him to have earthly success.  There were lots of people in Jesus’ own time who did not believe in him and had earthly success.  The people who had Jesus killed were all people who were successful on earth.

            As Christians, our goal is not to have earthly success.  Don’t get me wrong--I’m not saying earthly success is automatically a bad thing.  I’d like to have success on earth.  But earthly success does not mean anything unless we’re successful in a way that reflects God’s will.  The only way we can truly be a success in God’s eyes is if we allow God to act through us.  That’s why we pray so often for God’s Holy Spirit to be poured out onto us and into us--so that what we do will reflect God’s will, and so we will allow God to act through us.  Praying for God’s Holy Spirit to be poured out onto us and into us is a way of declaring our dependence on God.

            That’s what Jesus was talking about in our second reading, the reading from the gospel of John.  Listen to how he says it:

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

If we follow Jesus Christ, and if we feel the Lord with us, leading us and guiding us--if, in short, we’re dependent on God--we’ll be able to do all kinds of things for God.  But we cannot do anything for God on our own.  If we want to accomplish things for God, we need to stop trying to do things on our own.  We need to allow God to work in us and through us.  We need to declare our dependence on God.

            And the thing is, God is just waiting for us to do that.  God is waiting for us to invite God, to ask God for help, to allow God to act through us.  God is waiting for us to declare our dependence on God.

            Those of you who have kids, have you ever watched your kid, when they were little, struggle and struggle trying to figure something out?  You don’t just jump in and help them right away, do you?  You wait.  Maybe you’d like to jump in and help them, show them how to do it right, but you don’t.  You wait.  You wait until they actually ask for your help.  Then you give it to them.  But not before.

            That’s what God does with us.  God watches us struggle with things.  Sometimes God sees that we’re even trying to serve God.  But we’re struggling with it, trying to figure out the best way to do it.  God might like to jump in right away and help us, show us what to do.  But God does not do that.  God waits.  God waits for us to actually ask for God’s help.  Then God will give it to us.  But not before.

            You and I can do so much--if we allow God to act in us and through us.  If we depend on God.  This church can do so much--if, as a church, we allow God to act in us and through us.  If, as a church, we depend on God.

            And we can enter the kingdom of heaven if we depend on God.  We may have earthly success, too.  Or we may not.  But again, as Christians, our goal is not to have earthly success.  Our goal is to follow God.  Our goal is to serve God.  We will never accomplish those goals perfectly, because we’re flawed, imperfect people.  But we will bear fruit, just as Jesus aid we would.  In fact, we’ll bear more fruit than you and I could ever imagine, and we’ll bear it in ways that we could never imagine.

            This is our first worship service of 2019.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if 2019 is the year that everyone connected to this church declares our dependence on God?  Wouldn’t it be amazing if 2019 is the year when we truly do open our hearts and souls to God’s Holy Spirit?  Wouldn’t it be amazing if 2019 is the year when we all truly allow God to act in us and through us?  

            And don’t get me wrong, I need to do this, too.  I’m not up here pointing fingers at you.  This is something I need to do at least as much as anyone else.

            But what do you think will happen if we do?  Can you even imagine it?  I don’t think I can.  Because I think if we do this, God is going to do things that we’re not even thinking about right now.  I think, if we truly allow God to lead us and guide us, and if we then go where God is leading us and guiding us to go, God is going to take us in directions that are not even on our radar screen right now.  But I also think they’ll be awesome directions, because we’ll be following an awesome God.

            Little children are dependent on their parents.  As God’s children, we need to be dependent on our heavenly father.  If we are, we’ll enter the kingdom of heaven.  And with God acting through us, we’ll accomplish some pretty incredible things on earth, too.

            May 2019 be the year we declare our dependence on God.

Living in the Present

I hope your year is off to a great start!  I’m writing this a couple of days before the end of the year, but it will be a new year by the time you receive it.  2019.  That hardly sounds possible, but it’s true.  It is 2019, or at least it will be by the time you read this.

It’s amazing how the time goes, you know?  A few days before Christmas, I turned sixty.  Maybe that sounds old to you.  Maybe it doesn’t.  It depends on how you are now, probably.  If you’re older than sixty, maybe it does not seem like much to you now.  I suspect it did, though when you actually turned sixty.

Sixty is kind of a milestone.  You start thinking about things.  You start thinking about how long you can keep doing what you’re doing.  Don’t get me wrong, I have no present plans to retire.  I continue to love what I do, and so far I have not noticed any significant decrease in my energy level or in my enthusiasm.  I also have no significant health problems, which is a blessing. 

But still, you do start to think about things.  Because you know, when you reach a certain age, that certain physical things are not going to get better.  The best you can do is hope to stay where you are for a while, and then do what you can to make the decline slow and not swift.  And of course, there are things that could happen that you have no control over--accidents, illnesses, etc.  And you have no way to know if or when something like that will happen.

You think about it, and then you pray about it.  And then, you know what you do?  Well, if you’re me, you decide to stop thinking about it, or at least to try to.  You decide to let it go.  Because while I wonder about those things, I have no way to get any answers to them.  I had no idea, fifteen years ago, what my life would be like now.  I have no idea now what my life will be like fifteen years from now.  Besides, I’ve never been any good at making long-term plans anyway. 

So it seems to me that the best thing for me to do is to keep doing what I’ve always done.  That is to live in the present.  It’s to do my best in the place I am and with the things God has given me to do.  When God has something else for me to do, God will let me know about it.  God let me know when it was time to leave state government and go into private law practice.  God let me know when it was time to leave private law practice and go into the ministry.  When the time comes for me to leave ministry, either to retire or simply to do something else, I’m pretty sure God will let me know that, too.

So let’s just all keep living in the present.  And let’s make that present the best we can make it.  There’s plenty of life in the old boy yet!