Mercy and More

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 27, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Luke 18:9-14.

            Jesus was a storyteller.  In the church we usually refer to his stories as “parables”, but really, what they were was stories.  Stories with a point, but still, stories.  

            Jesus did that for a few of reasons.  For one thing, he knew it would keep people’s attention.  Everyone loves a good story, right?  He also knew it’s easier to remember and understand a good story than it is to remember and understand a speech.  That’s why we remember his stories so well.  You say, “Good Samaritan” or “Prodigal Son” and everyone knows the basics of the story you’re talking about.  There’s even a TV show this year called “Prodigal Son”.  I don’t know if the show’s any good, but it shows how that phrase is still very much a part of our culture two thousand years later.  On the other hand, you say, “Beatitudes”, and...well, people might have a vague idea about them, but unless you’ve just deliberately sat down and memorized them, you probably cannot say exactly what they are.

            So today, we have a story Jesus told about the danger of arrogance and the importance of humility.  We have a Pharisee, and we have a tax collector.  And a lot of times, what we do when we read this story is beat up on the Pharisee.  And it’s easy to see why.  This Pharisee is arrogant, ludicrously arrogant.  To stand there and talk about how great he is.  To thank God that he’s so much better than all these other people.  And to do that right in front of the other people.  To say, “God, thank you that I’m so much better than old Joe here” when Joe’s standing right there next to you. 

            Now, like any good storyteller, Jesus was probably exaggerating a little to make his point.  That’s part of what makes the story memorable.  But in reality, even if the Pharisees had a problem with arrogance, I doubt that any of them would’ve been this blatant about it.  To stand up in front of everybody and say, “God, thank you that I’m so much better than these other people around me here.”  That seems pretty unlikely.

            So while it’s legitimate to beat up on the Pharisee, we make a mistake if we stop there.  After all, the Pharisee is only one character in the story.  Today, I want to focus on the other character.  I want to focus on the tax collector.

We’ve talked about this before, but it’s important to understand who the tax collectors were.  They were basically independent contractors who worked for the Roman government.  They made a deal with the Roman government that said that periodically they had to send so much money to Rome.  I don’t know if it was monthly or every three months or six months or a year or what, but the tax collector had to get that money to Rome.  And the tax collector was authorized by Rome to get the money from the people in his jurisdiction.  Rome did not really care how the tax collector got the money, as long as the right amount got to Rome when it was supposed to.  And the way the tax collector got paid was by collecting more in taxes than he was obligated to send to Rome.

            And that meant that the tax collector had every incentive to try to collect as much as he possibly could from everyone in his jurisdiction.  Now, I’m sure some tax collectors were basically honest people who only kept enough for them to make an adequate living.  But there were some who would take and take and take until the people hardly had anything left.  The tax collector would get rich off of other people’s money.  And again, Rome did not care, as long as the government got the money it was supposed to get when it was supposed to get it.  And because a tax collector had that kind of power, tax collectors, as a group, were about the most hated people in society.  People had to respect them and treat them well, because of the power they had.  But hardly anybody really liked them.  They had a lot of money, but they basically had no friends.

            So that’s who this tax collector was.  He was someone who had overcharged people, who had cheated, who had taken from people who had very little so he could live in luxury.  And he comes to the temple to pray.

            And when you think about it, that’s pretty remarkable.  What’s this tax collector even doing there?  I mean, yes, he’s a sinner in need of forgiveness, but think about it.  It’s not like he’s been cheating and overcharging these people by accident.  He did it on purpose, as part of a deliberate policy.  Probably he’s been doing it for a long time.  He’s known what he was doing, and he continued to do it.  And yet now, he comes to the temple to pray.  Why?

            It’s possible, of course, that he was just going through the motions.  It was the time when people were supposed to come to the temple to pray, so he did.  Got to make it look good, after all.  Got to keep up appearances.  That’s possible, but I doubt it.  There’s nothing in the story to indicate that.  In fact, it seems to say just the opposite.  The tax collector stands off by himself.  He won’t even look up to heaven.  He begs God for mercy.

            Somehow, this tax collector has had a change of heart.  He knows that what he’s been doing is wrong.  And not just a little wrong--he knows what he’s been doing is really wrong.  Blatantly wrong.  Loud wrong.  And he knows he’s got to do something about it.  And he knows that the first thing he has to do is go to God and ask for mercy.  Not even forgiveness--the tax collector knows he does not deserve forgiveness.  But just mercy.

            What do you suppose happened to make him change?  We don’t know, obviously.  Did something happen in his life, some sort of traumatic experience, that made him realize that his earthly wealth was meaningless?  Did some person, a friend or a relative, talk to him and manage to show him the error of his ways?  Did God’s Holy Spirit come down and touch this man’s heart, convincing him to go to the temple?  Was it some combination of these things and maybe some other things, too?  We don’t know.

            What we know is that when this man went to God and asked for mercy, he got it.  Jesus said he went home justified before God.  He had humbled himself before God, and he would be exalted.

            We don’t know what the tax collector did when he went home.  Did he try to give money back to the people he’d taken it from?  Did he quit his job?  Did he continue to be a tax collector, but one who was honest and did not keep any more than what he needed?  We don’t know.  But it’s a pretty good bet the tax collector did not go back to doing things the way he had done them before.  Something about the way he did things changed.  The way he did things changed because he had changed.  And he was never going to go back to the way he had been before.

            So what’s the point?  Well, there are a few of them.  One is that anyone turn to God.  Literally, anyone.  At any time.  No one matter who we are or what we’ve done.  No matter how old we are or how young we are.  No matter where we are or what’s going on.  We can always change and turn to God.  It’s never too late.  No one is too far gone to turn to God.

            Another is that we never know who or what will make someone want to change, or when that change will happen.  It could happen soon, or it could happen a long way in the future.  It could be a traumatic experience.  It could be the work of God’s Holy Spirit.  It could be a friend or a relative talking to someone, making sure they know about the love and grace and mercy Jesus Christ offers, and convincing them that they need to change.  Maybe you or I could be that friend or relative.

            But perhaps the most important point is that when the tax collector asked God for mercy, he went home justified before God.  You know what that word “justified” means?  It means more than just his sins were forgiven.  Saying the tax collector was “justified” means that he was made righteous in the sight of God.  Think of that.  This tax collector, this man who had done all these things, is now righteous in the sight of God.  He had not even dared to ask for that.  All the tax collector had asked for was mercy.  And when he did that, humbly, and sincerely, yes, he got mercy.  But he also got so much more.

            That’s what’s available to you and me.  Are we sinners in the same way the tax collector was?  Maybe not.  But that does not matter.  God does not see sins the way you and I do.  God does not look at my sins or your sins and compare them.  God does not see my sins as better or worse than yours, and God does not see your sins as better or worse than mine.  God looks at all of us and sees the same thing--a sinner.  A sinner in need of salvation.

            That’s why Jesus came to earth.  And if we believe in Jesus as the Savior, and if we recognize what we’ve done, and if we humbly ask God for mercy, God will answer our prayer.  God will give us mercy, but God will give us so much more.  We will be justified.  We will be made righteous in the sight of God.  No matter what we’ve done or who we’ve done it to.  It’s an amazing thing.

            It’s fun to orally beat up the Pharisee in this story, and it’s legitimate to do that.  But if we stop there, we miss the most important part of the story.  If we believe in Jesus, if we humbly ask God for mercy, we will be justified!  We will be exalted!  We will be made righteous in the sight of God!  It happened for the tax collector.  It can happen for you and me, too.

Then and Now

Fair warning:  I’m going to write about sports again.  Specifically, baseball.  I know some of you could not possibly care less about baseball.  That’s okay.  Wanda really could not care less about baseball, either.  I hope you’ll read this anyway, though, because I am going to make a point.

In recent years, there have been a lot of new strategies in baseball.  Some teams use a pitcher called an “opener”, someone who starts the game on the mound but is planned to only pitch one or two innings.  There are a lot of defensive shifts, where teams play three or even four infielders on one side of the diamond, leaving the other side completely open.  Batters are taught about “launch angles”, not just trying to hit the ball hard but trying to hit the ball with the proper arc so that, if they hit it well, it will go over the fence for a home run.

There are some fans, mostly people who’ve been fans for a long time, who don’t like these new strategies.  They think these new strategies are ruining baseball.  What’s interesting about that, though, is that a lot of these same fans are fans who still don’t like the designated hitter rule, because “it takes all the strategy out of the game.”

The point is that these people don’t either like or dislike strategy.  What they dislike is change.  They want baseball to stay the same as it’s always been, the way it was when they were young.  

I understand that.  I love the baseball that I grew up with, too.  But the two things are not mutually exclusive.  You can love the way baseball used to be and still love the way it is now.  Is it different?  Yes.  Does that mean it’s automatically better or worse?  No.  It’s just different.  We can appreciate the game the way it was and also appreciate the game the way it is.  Both can be good, and both can be baseball.

So here’s the point.  The way we do church changes over the years, just like baseball does.  We use some different songs in some different styles.  We use screens to project the words to the songs, the Bible passages, and other things.  In our Sunday night service in Gettysburg, people sit at round tables and there’s coffee and cookies available during the service.  None of those things existed when I was young.  None of those things was “church” when I was young.

But that’s okay.  I love the way church used to be, but I can also love the way church is now.  The two things are not mutually exclusive.  Is it different?  Yes.  Does that mean it’s automatically better or worse?  No.  It’s just different.  We can appreciate church the way it was and appreciate church the way it is.  Both can be good, and both can be church.

And you know what?  Things are going to continue to change, because that’s the way life works.  Ten, twenty, forty years from now, both baseball and church will be different from how they are now.  That’s okay, too.  Life has to keep moving forward.  They won’t be automatically better or worse.  They’ll just be different.  And they can still be good.

Just remember that God Himself does not change.  The way we understand God may change.  The way we tell others about God may change.  But God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  God’s power is forever.  God’s greatness is forever.  And God’s love is forever.

In a changing world, it’s good to know we have a God we can always count on.

Be Prepared

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 20, 2019.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy3:14--4:5.

            The Bible.  The inspired word of God.  God’s message to human beings.  The most important book in all of Christianity.

            How many of us read it?

            Now, don’t take that as an implied blanket criticism.  I know that there are many people here who do read the Bible.  Some read it faithfully every day.  Some have read it all the way through, front to back, and some have even done so more than once.  Others, I know, read the Bible every day as part of a daily devotional time.  All of that is wonderful, and I applaud you for it.  But there are others of us who don’t read the Bible regularly.  Some of us don’t read the Bible at all.  

            That’s too bad.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying God’s going to send you to hell for it or anything.  We’re saved by our faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s love and grace and mercy.  We are not commanded to be Bible scholars.  Nowhere in the gospels is Jesus quoted as saying, “Go and memorize the Bible.”  

            But Jesus did say to go and make disciples.  And if we’re going to do that effectively, we need to know what we’re talking about.  We need to know what Jesus said and what he did.  We need to know about God the Father.  And one of the best ways, maybe the best way, we can learn that is to read the Bible.

            The Apostle Paul, writing to his friend Timothy, told him to go and preach the word.  But the very next words he told Timothy, after telling him to preach the word, are these:  “be prepared”.

            You see, no matter how much you and I may want to serve God and go and make disciples, we’re not going to do a very good job of it if we’re not prepared to do it.  And one of the best ways to be prepared is to read the Bible.  

Again, I’m not saying you have to have the Bible memorized.  But Paul does emphasize that knowing the Bible is important.  Not only does he say that “all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.”  He also says that we need to know it “so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped.”  

It’s like anything else in life:  we’ve got to know what we’re doing and how to do it to do it well.  No matter how much we may want to do something, if we’re not prepared ahead of time, if we have not done the things we need to do to get ready to do it, we’re not going to do it very well.  That’s true of sports or music or teaching or farming or construction or anything else.  It’s true of preaching, too.  If we’re not prepared to do something, we’re just not going to do it very well no matter how much we wish we could.  And again, one of the best ways to be prepared to talk about God is to read the Bible.

But as important as the Bible is, it’s not the only way for us to be prepared to talk about God.  In telling Timothy to be prepared, Paul says this:  “Be prepared in season and out of season.”

In other words, we need to be prepared to talk about God all the time.  Not just in church.  Not just when we’re in a Bible study.  Not just when we’re in a religious setting.  All the time.  When we’re in the grocery store.  When we’re in the cafe.  When we’re at the convenience store.  When we’re at work.  When we’re at school.  When we’re in the doctor’s office.  We need to be prepared to talk about God all the time.

Now, I did not say “talk about God all the time.”  I said, “Be prepared to talk about God all the time.”  We don’t want to come across as self-righteous or arrogant or anything like that.  But in our ordinary conversations with people, chances will come up to talk about God.  We may not have to go into great detail.  It may be as simple as someone telling you they have a problem and saying, “I’ll pray for you.”  It may be as simple as telling someone “Have a blessed day.”  

Or, it may be that we will have a chance to go deeper, that we will have a chance to talk about what our faith does for us.  Maybe we’ll have the chance to talk about how our faith helps us through a tough situation, or calms us down when we’re scared, or helps us keep going when we’re discouraged.  It all depends on the situation.  But the point is that we’ll miss those chances to talk about God if we’re not ready to do it.  We need to always have in the back of our mind that a chance may come up to talk about God.  We need to look for that chance, and be ready to take it when it comes.

And I want to make clear that I’m not putting myself forward as your role model for this.  I need to work on this, too.  And I also understand that it may be a little easier for me, simply because I’m a pastor and so people kind of expect me to talk about God.  But this is not something for just pastors to do.  It’s something for all of us to do, and I suspect most of us--again including me--need to work on it.  We all need to do more to be prepared to talk about God, so we can see the chances God puts in front of us and take advantage of them when they come.

There’s another way we need to be prepared, too.  Paul tells Timothy to go ahead and “correct, rebuke, and encourage,” but he says one more thing about that.  He tells Timothy to do this “with great patience.”  

In other words, we need to be prepared for people to not accept what we say.  Some will, of course.  There are people who will be open to us talking about God.  In fact, there are people who will be happy to hear us talking about God.  And there will be others who will probably not be open to it or happy about it, but will tolerate us and won’t be upset.

But there are people who don’t want to hear about God.  In our area, there are probably not as many as there are in some places, but they’re still around.  And so, we need to be patient.  

What does that mean?  Well, for one thing, it means we need to not get upset with someone if they’re not interested in hearing what we have to say.  We need to keep treating them with respect and love, because after all, Paul tells us in First Corinthians Thirteen that love is patient.  What else does it mean?  Well, it may mean that we need to explain things better.  It may mean that we need to back off for a while, and come back to the subject of God at a better time.  It may mean that we need to do a better job of showing love to them, so they’ll be more open to hearing what we have to say.  But if we’re prepared for someone to not be interested, we won’t be discouraged if that’s the reaction we’ll get.  We’ll be able to be patient.

But Paul says something else, too.  He says that, no matter prepared we are, no matter how much we read the Bible, no matter how much we look for chances to talk about God, no matter how patient we are, there are people who simply will refuse to listen.  He says, “The time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires...they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

In other words, there are people we simply will not be able to reach.  It’s just the way it is.  I mean, even Jesus could not reach everyone.  When Jesus was on earth there were plenty of people who heard him, live and in person, and turned away.  They were not interested.  He was not saying what they wanted to hear, and they would not open their minds and hearts to listen.  If even Jesus himself could not reach everyone, you and I cannot expect to do it.  It’s just not possible. 

But Paul tells Timothy, and us, something else, too.  He tells us not to let the fact that we cannot reach everyone discourage us.  He says, “keep your head in all situations...do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”  In other words, keep trying.  No matter what happens, no matter what the reaction to you is, keep trying.  Don’t give up.  Yes, there will be people we cannot reach, but there will be people we can reach, too.  Keep working.  Keep trying.  Keep doing the work of God.  We won’t be able to succeed all the time, but we will succeed sometimes.  With God’s help, we will succeed.

And remember, God does not measure success the way we do, anyway.  God is not keeping score, giving us a rating for how many people we’ve brought to the Lord.  What God is interested in is this:  are we faithful?  Are we doing our best to serve God?  Are we doing our best to show love to God?  Are we doing our best to show love to others?  If we’re doing those things to the best of our ability--realizing that we are imperfect human beings and will make mistakes sometimes--but if we’re doing those things to the best of our ability, then we will have succeeded in God’s eyes, regardless of what our results may be on earth.

You and I are called to spread the gospel.  If we’re going to do that, we need to be prepared.  We need to know what the Bible says about Jesus and about God.  We need to be ready to take advantage of chances to talk about God, whenever and wherever they come up.  We need to be patient if people are not ready to listen to what we have to say.  And we need not get discouraged if we run into people who simply do not want to hear what we have to say.

God will be with us.  If we’re prepared, if we’re faithful, and if we do our best to serve God and love God, God will bless us.  And we will succeed in God’s eyes, no matter what the result is on earth.

The Difference It Makes

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in Gettysburg on October 13, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Luke 17:11-19.

Do you feel joy?  Would you like to?

I assume we’d all like to.  Joy is defined as a feeling of great happiness, and who would not want that?  I cannot imagine being in a situation where I’d say, “Nah, I don’t joy.  I don’t want happiness.  And especially not great happiness.  I’d rather just feel mediocre.”

We all want to feel joy.  But the thing is that joy is just that, a feeling.  Joy is an emotion.  It's a wonderful emotion.  It's one that we all need to feel sometimes.  But the problem with emotions is that they change.  Emotions are momentary.  They are never permanent.  No matter how intense a feeling of joy is, there's going to come a time when that emotion fades.  So while it's great to feel joy, what we really want is not just a momentary feeling of joy.  What we really want is a feeling that we are one with God.  What we really want is a feeling that God is with us and that we are with God, and that there's no separation, no distance between us and God.  Because that’s a feeling that will give us more than joy.  That will give us a feeling of peace and contentment and love.

So let’s look at our Bible reading for tonight.  Ten people are suffering from leprosy, and Jesus heals them.

Now, understand that leprosy is a very serious illness.  It’s an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage in the arms and legs.  It's not necessarily fatal, but what it would do is put you in a position where you could not do any physical work.  And because everything people did back then involved physical work of some kind, and since there were no welfare or disability payments at that time, if you could not work you either begged or died.  So, even though the disease itself was not fatal, it pretty much amounted to the same thing.  It was not a highly contagious disease, but people were scared to death of getting it because of what it would do them. Because of that, people would have nothing to do with people who had leprosy.

So these ten people with leprosy approach Jesus, but they keep their distance.  They did not know how Jesus would react to them.  They also did not know how those with Jesus would react to them, either.  Still, they call out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  Jesus responds, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

 We’re not told what the ten people expected Jesus to do, but I’d guess that this was not it.  I'd guess that they might have expected Jesus to lay hands on them, the way he did with other people.  And even if they thought Jesus would not touch them, because of the leprosy, they certainly hoped he would call on God or something.  But Jesus did not do any of that.  In fact, as far as they could tell, Jesus did not do anything.  He just said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

They must have really been disappointed.  After all, Jesus was probably their last hope.  No doctor had been able to cure them.  No priest had been able to help them.  They were probably thinking, “Show ourselves to the priests?  The priests are the ones who declared us unclean in the first place.  They won’t even let us into the temple, because they’re afraid we’ll ruin it for everyone.  Show ourselves to the priests?  The priests won’t even talk to us.”

Still, they went off to show themselves to the priests.  Maybe they had faith in Jesus and believed that something was going to happen.  Maybe they just figured they had nothing to lose.  Whatever they thought, they did it.  And on the way to show themselves to the priests, they were healed.  We don't know how that happened.  We don't know how far they'd gone when it happened.  But at some point, on their way to the priests, they were healed.

And one of them came back to Jesus.  We’re told nothing about the one who came back, other than that he was a foreigner, a Samaritan.  He praised God with a loud voice and threw himself at Jesus’ feet, thanking Jesus for healing him.  Jesus tells him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

We don’t know what happened to the other nine.  We’re told all ten were healed.  There's nothing in the Bible that says they paid any penalty for not coming back to thank Jesus.  Nothing says they got their leprosy back or anything.  Maybe the other nine went to the priests, were pronounced clean, and then went on to live their lives the way they wanted to.  We don't know.

So maybe you’re thinking, “Well, so what?  I mean, good for the one.  He did the right thing.  But what did it get him, really?  Did he get a gold star in heaven or something?  After all, the nine who did not thank God were healed just the same as he was.  Seems like they all got the same thing, the thing they wanted.  What difference did it really make that he thanked God?  It seems like this story says it does not matter whether we thank God or not.”

 Well, yes and no.  It’s true that all ten of them were healed from their leprosy.  In that sense, the same thing happened to each of them.  There was no physical difference at all.

There was no physical difference, and yet there was all the difference in the world.  Because when the Bible talks what happened to the other nine, the scripture first says they were “cleansed”, and then that they were “healed”.  Jesus says the other nine were “cleansed”, too.  At the end of the verses, though, Jesus says to the one who came back, “Your faith has ‘made you well.’”

Your faith has ‘made you well.’  See, it’s one thing to have a physical healing.  That’s important, of course.  Anyone who’s suffering from a serious illness, or who ever has, or who has a loved one who is or has, knows how important physical healing is.  Almost every Sunday there are people for whom we ask God to bring about physical healing, and it’s important that we ask God to do that.

Still, it’s one thing to be healed physically.  It’s another thing to truly be made well.  To be well means to be healed in body, in mind, in soul, in spirit, all of it.  It means that things are pleasing, that they’re good.  It means that everything is in a proper and satisfactory situation.  In short, to be made well means that things are as they should be in every way.

That’s what Jesus was saying to the one who came back to say thank you.  When that one person came back to say thank you to Jesus, he showed that he had faith in Jesus as his Savior.  Jesus told him that because of his faith, he was not only physically healed, he was well.  He was well in every way:  physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.  Everything about him was right.  He was who he was supposed to be, he was where he was supposed to be, and he was doing what he was supposed to do.

When the nine had their pain go away, when they were healed, I'm sure they felt joy.  It may have been the greatest joy they'd ever felt in their lives.  But eventually, that joy went away.  Eventually, the joy faded, and they had to figure out a new way to go on with their lives, to deal with whatever the rest of their life was going to hold for them.  And we have no idea what that was.  Would people have welcomed them back into society?  Would people still have held them at arm’s length, not trusting that they were really healed?  Would they have been able to find jobs?  Did they even know how to do anything, beyond just manual labor?  Once their joy faded, life might have been pretty tough for the nine.  Yeah, they were healed, and that was good, but life might still have been a really hard thing for them.

Now think about the one.  I'm sure the one who thanked Jesus felt joy, too.  But he felt more than joy.  And after the joy faded, he was still happy.  Because, when he felt thankfulness in his heart, he had been made well.  God was with him, and he was with God.  He was one with God.  His life might not have been all that great, either, but he did not have to worry about what the rest of life was going to hold for him.  He knew that, whatever it held, God would be with him.  He knew that, whatever life held for him, it would be all right.  He knew that because he had not just had his physical problem taken away.  He had been made well, in every possible way.

Have you ever felt that way?  Have you ever felt, even if just for a little while, that everything was right, that you were who God wanted you to be, that you were exactly where God wanted you to be, and that you were doing exactly what God wanted you to do?  It’s a pretty incredible feeling.  In fact, it’s pretty much the greatest feeling in the world.  To know, in that moment, that you are who God wants you to be, that you are exactly where God wants you to be, and to know you are doing exactly what God wants you to do.  There’s really nothing like it.

That’s what the one person who’d had leprosy felt when he came back and thanked Jesus.  And he did not just feel it for that moment, he felt it for the rest of his life.  He had been made well.  And we can be made well, too, if we truly live our lives giving thanks to God.

It's a great thing to have moments of joy in our lives.  I hope we all do, and I hope we have a lot of them.  But when we live our lives with the awareness of what God has done for us, and truly being thankful for it, we get something even better than joy.  We get a feeling of peace and contentment and love.  When we get that feeling, we know that we have been made well.  We know that, no matter what life holds for us, it will be all right.  Because we are one with the all-loving, all-caring God.

Too Good to Be True

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 13, 2019.  The Bible verses used are 2 Kings 5:1-16.

            How many of us just really love telemarketers? 

            Yeah, that’s what I thought.  Nobody likes telemarketers.  I mean, for all the strange or unusual holidays we’ve celebrated, we’ve never celebrated National Telemarketers Day.  I don’t think there is one.  If there is, it must be something organized by the telemarketing companies.  I don’t know anyone who wants to get a call from a telemarketer.

            And yet, we do.  Even with the do not call list, we do.  Wanda and I could’ve been on so many cruises if we’d just said yes when the telemarketers called.  We could have lower interest on our credit cards, have an extended warranty on our car, have our student loans paid off, everything.  If we’d just say yes to the telemarketers.

            Now, I’m not telling you that it’s okay to be rude to telemarketers.  After all, they’re God’s children, too, just like you and I are.  And for the most part, they’re just ordinary people trying to make a living.  In fact, a lot of them are working at that job because they’re not able to find a better job.  After all, would you want a job where you cold-call people and they yell at you, chew you out, and hang up on you?  No one would want that.  As soon as the people doing that can find a better job, they take it.

            So, when you get a call from a telemarketer, remember that there’s a human being on the other end of the line and treat them like one.  If, in fact, there is a human being on the other end of the line.  It seems like most of the telemarketing calls we get now are automated calls.  We don’t speak to a human at all.  You can go ahead and be rude to a computer because a computer does not have feelings.  At least, not yet.

            But I bring this up because, while not every telemarketing call is a scam, there are a lot of scams out there.  And what they have in common is they play on our greed.  Part of the American Dream is, as the saying goes, to be able to turn a minimum amount of effort into a maximum amount of money.  And a lot of these telemarketing schemes play on that.  The people who fight these scams have a phrase to warn people.  You’ve probably heard it a hundred times.  The phrase is “If it sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true.”

            When we’re talking about human things, that’s almost always a true statement.  But when we’re talking about Godly things, it’s not.  God does all kinds of things that sound too good to be true, but that are true.  And that brings us to our Bible reading for today.

There’s this guy named Naaman.  He commands the army of the country of Aram, and it’s a really good army.  Naaman is widely respected and praised.  But Naaman has leprosy.  Now, back then the term “leprosy” was used to cover a wide variety of skin diseases, so we don’t know that he had leprosy as we’d define the term today.  But still, he had some kind of skin disease, and he finds out that there’s this prophet in Israel who might be able to cure him.  So, Naaman asks the king for permission to go to Israel.  The king says yes, and Naaman eventually is led to see the prophet Elisha.

            Except he does not.  He never gets to actually see Elisha.  All Elisha does is send his servant out to tell Naaman to go wash seven times in the Jordan River.

            And Naaman is outraged.  He’s outraged that Elisha never came out to see him—after all, does Elisha not know who Naaman is?  Does Elisha not understand that this is a Very Important Person who has come to see him?  But most of all, he’s outraged at the advice Elisha gave him.  He says, what?  Go wash in the Jordan River?  That’s all I have to do?  That’s not going to work. I’ve already tried that.  I’ve tried washing myself before.  There’s got to be more to it than that.  There has to be something major involved here.  Either Elisha needs to come out here and do something big thing, or he’s got to send me somewhere and tell me to do some big thing, or something.  Washing myself in the Jordan River cannot be all there is to it.  That’s too simple.  It’s too good to be true.

            Naaman would not believe it.  He was ready to pack up and go home.  It was only after his servants argued with him that Naaman agreed to go wash in the Jordan.  And sure enough, it worked.  Naaman’s skin disease was gone.  He did not have to do some big, great thing.  All he had to do was this little thing.  It sounded too good to be true.  But it was, in fact, true.

            And you know, as I thought about it this week, it seems to me that our Christian faith is based on a lot of things that sound too good to be true.  Maybe that’s why we struggle with our faith sometimes.  After all, our society has a lot cynicism and a lot of skepticism.  And there are reasons why.  We’ve all experienced broken promises.  We’ve all known people who’ll say one thing and do another.  We’ve all had times when people were just out to take advantage of us, or were out to get us somehow.  And so we hear all these things that sound good, and we think, “That’s just too good to be true.”  And so we have a hard time believing it.

            What are a couple of the basic foundations of our faith?  Well, one of them is that God loves us.  That, in and of itself, is too good to be true.  Why should God love us?  God is perfect.  God is holy.  God is all-powerful.  God does not need us for anything.  Why should God love us?  What do we do for God?  What could we do for God, even if we wanted to?  God could get a lot more accomplished if we were not around.  In fact, when you look at the world, you wonder sometimes if God regrets creating human beings and now considers it a bad move.  Why would the holy, righteous, perfect God love me?  Why would He love you?  It sounds too good to be true.

            That’s also true about Jesus.  Why would the divine son of God come to earth?  Why would he die for us?  Why would he want to save us from our sins?  I mean, think of it.  Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, comes out of heaven and is born as a human being.  He lives his life on earth, fully human as well as fully divine.  He teaches people.  He feeds people.  He heals people.  And we kill him.  I mean, not you and me personally, but I have no reason to think I’d have been any different from the people who were around at that time.  And knowing that we’re going to kill him, Jesus willingly allows himself to be killed.  He allows himself to be killed so that all of our sins can be forgiven, and so that we can have eternal life in heaven if we simply believe in him as our Savior.

            Why would Jesus do that?  What did Jesus get out of it?  It sounds too good to be true.

            And then there’s the Holy Spirit.  When we open our hearts to God, the Holy Spirit comes and leads us and guides us.  The Holy Spirit inspires us.  The Holy Spirit helps us follow God.  The Holy Spirit helps us get through the hard times of life.  The Holy Spirit let us know that we’re never alone, that we can always rely on God.  Why?  Why would the Holy Spirit do all that for us?  Why would the holy, righteous, perfect God bother to send the Holy Spirit to come into my heart?  Why would the Holy Spirit want to help me when times get hard?  Again, it just sounds too good to be true.

            I think, sometimes, we feel a lot like Naaman.  We come to God with all of our hurts, all of our sinfulness, all of the damage that’s been done to us in our lives, sometimes damage we’ve done to ourselves.  And we ask God to heal us.  And God says, “Okay.  Just believe in Jesus as your Savior, and you’ll be healed.”

            And we say, what?  Believe in Jesus as my Savior?  That’s all I have to do?  That’s not going to work.  I’ve already tried that.  I’ve tried going to church before.  There’s got to be more to it than that.  There has to be something major here.  God has to perform some miracle, or I have to do some major thing, or something.  Just believing in Jesus Christ as my Savior cannot be all there is to it.  It’s just too good to be true.

            But it is true.  God does not have to do a miracle.  The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the miracle.  We don’t have to do some big, great thing.  We could never do anything big enough to earn salvation anyway, and God knows that.  So God does not ask us to do a big, great thing.  God just asks us to do this little thing.  Accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.  That’s it.  It sounds too good to be true.  But it is true.

            All we need to do is believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior.  All we need to do is have faith.  And we don’t even have to do that perfectly.  When we waver, when we fall away, all we need to do is ask God for forgiveness and another chance.  And when we do, God will give it to us.  Every time.

            When humans make us an offer that sounds too good to be true, the chances are it is too good to be true.  But when God makes us an offer that sounds too good to be true, it is true.  God really does love us.  God really does offer us forgiveness and salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  God offers to guide us and help us and inspire us through our lives through the Holy Spirit.  All we need to do in exchange is believe in Jesus Christ.  It sounds too good to be true.  But it is true.

Down Days

Good morning!  Hope you’re having an awesome day!

But of course, we don’t always have awesome days, do we?  Sometimes we don’t even have good days.  Sometimes we have average days.  And sometimes we have days that are just plain lousy.  That can be for lots of reasons.  Maybe we’re tired or don’t feel well.  Maybe we had something bad happen to us or to a loved one.  There can be lots of reasons why we don’t have a very good day.

Or, there can be no reason.  That’s the toughest one, really.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s no fun to get sick or to have bad things happen.  But at least then we know why we feel the way we feel.  Maybe we can even do something about it.  But when we’re down for no reason--well, that’s a tough one to deal with.  If we don’t know why we feel the way we feel, it’s pretty hard to do anything about it.

In fact, sometimes, the more we try to do something about it, the worse it gets.  I don’t know of a way to force yourself to feel something you don’t feel.  Usually, when we try, all we do is make ourselves feel guilty about being down.  Adding guilt to our already down feelings is just going to drive us further down.

So what should we do?  Well, first of all, acknowledge that we’re feeling down.  Don’t try to pretend, don’t try to force our way out of it.  Admit it.

Then, tell ourselves that it’s okay.  It’s okay to feel down sometimes.  Even Jesus felt down sometimes.  It’s normal.  It’s natural.  No one feels up all the time.  So we’re down.  It’s all right.  Let yourself feel it.  Sometimes, the only way to get out of a down feeling is to just let yourself feel it for a while.  Don’t pretend you don’t feel it.  Don’t feel guilty about it, either.  As the saying goes, sometimes you just have to feel that way until you don’t feel that way any more.  If it persists too long, of course, you may need to get some help.  But if it’s only for a while, it’s okay.  Feel what you feel.

And don’t be afraid to talk to God about it.  God already knows how we feel, after all.  God knows everything.  And God won’t be mad at you for being down sometimes.  God made us to have emotions, after all.  God created sadness as well as happiness.  God knows that both of those emotions are part of the condition of being human.  So tell God about it.  Give it all to God.  God will understand.  God may even help you get out of it, eventually.

So, I hope you’re having an awesome day.  But if you’re not, it’s okay.  If you’re having a bad day, it’s okay.  If you’re down and you don’t know why, it’s okay.  Feel what you feel.  But tell God about it.  God wants to be there for you.

God's Got This

The message from the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Habakkuk 1:1-4 and 2:1-4.

We don’t very often read from the book of Habakkuk.  In fact, we don’t even really know how to pronounce it.  I’ve heard Habak’kuk and I’ve heard Ha’bakkuk.  When I was in seminary, I asked one of my professors what the correct pronunciation was, and he said we really don’t know.  So there you are.

            But it’s too bad that we don’t read from Habakkuk more.  I think what Habakkuk says is something we can all relate to.  Listen to what he says:  “How long, Lord, must I call for help, and you do not listen?  Or cry out to you...but you do not save?  Why do you make me look at injustice?  Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?”

            Have you ever felt like that?  Have you ever felt like you’ve been praying to God, asking God for help, over and over again, and God does not seem to be listening?  Like you’ve been crying out to God, and God does not seem to be doing anything?

            If you have, you know it’s a pretty bad feeling.  It’s a lonely feeling.  It’s a feeling of abandonment.  Because a lot of the time, when we’re crying out to God like that, it’s because God’s our last hope.  We’ve turned to God because we have nowhere else to turn and no one else to turn to.  We’re in a situation we cannot handle.  We’re being overwhelmed by everything.  Things are going bad, and then things start going worse.  We know our only chance is to ask God for help.

            And so we do.  And...nothing happens.  And so we ask again.  And...nothing still happens.  We keep asking, over and over again, and nothing keeps happening.  

            We don’t understand it.  We cannot figure it out.  It’s not so much that we lose faith in God--we know God is still there.  We would not keep asking God for help if we did not know that.  But we can no longer feel God’s presence.  It does not feel like God is listening to our prayers.  It feels like there’s a barrier between us and God, a barrier that we cannot get through.  We know God is there, but it just feels like God is not paying any attention to us any more.

            Do you know what causes that feeling?  Well, it’s not because God is not there.  It’s not because God does not love us.  It’s not because God is not paying attention to us.  Here’s what I think it is.   Or at least, here’s what it’s been when this feeling has happened to me.

            I’m in a situation.  And I know I need God to help me out of it.  And I ask God to help me out of it.  But here’s what causes this feeling that God is not there:  when I ask God for help, I don’t just say, “God, please help me.”  Instead, I try to tell God how to help me and when to help me.  I say, “God, here’s what I need you to do to get me out of this, and here’s when I want you to do it.”

            What does that mean?  It means I’m really not trusting in God’s power and God’s wisdom and God’s timing.  It also means I’m not concerned about doing God’s will.  I’m not saying, “Thy will be done,” I’m saying, “My will be done.”  I’m telling God what to do, rather than simply asking God for help and then trusting that God will give me what I need when I need it.

            My experience has been that God does not respond well to that.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t think God is mad at me when I do that.  But I think God is probably disappointed in me.  God is disappointed for a couple of reasons.  One, think of the arrogance involved in that.  Think of how arrogant that is of me, to think that I need to tell God what to do.  To think that I can tell God what to do.  To think that I should tell God what to do.  To think that I, a mere human being, a flawed sinful human being, is trying to tell the almighty, all-powerful, perfect and righteous and holy God what to do.  I don’t think a person could get any more arrogant than that.

            And the other reason is that this shows such a lack of trust in God.  That’s related to arrogance, but it’s not the same thing.  It shows that I don’t think I can trust God to help me.  It shows that I don’t think I can trust God to do what’s best for me.  It shows that I don’t think I can trust that God will know what to do and how to do it when to do it.  I have to tell that to God, because I cannot trust God to love me enough to do what’s best for me.

            I think Habakkuk had some of those same feelings that you and I have.  In the part of Chapter One of Habakkuk that we did not read, Habakkuk goes on and on about all the terrible things that are going on, and he keeps asking God, why don’t you do something?  Why don’t you take care of this?  How long are you going to let this go on?

            But then, Habakkuk says this:  “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what God will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”

            Note the change of attitude in that sentence.  Habakkuk has been going on and on about how he does not understand why God is not answering him, why God is ignoring him.  But then, he says, I’m going to keep watch.  I’m going to listen for what God might have to say to me.

            See, a lot of times, when we think God is ignoring us, God is not.  God is answering us.  We just don’t hear God voice, because God is not saying what we want to hear.  We don’t hear God’s answer because it’s not the answer we want God to give us.  God is not ignoring us.  In fact, what’s happened is that we’ve been ignoring God, because God is not doing things our way.

            And so, we need to reach the point Habakkuk reached.  We need to pull back.  We need to stop trying to tell God what to say and what to do.  Instead, we need to just keep watch.  We need to be quiet.  Instead of expecting God to listen to what we’re saying, we need to keep silent and listen to what God may be saying to us.

            And when Habakkuk finally does that, God gives him an answer.  Listen to what God says:

Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets...The revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.  Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

            God is basically telling Habakkuk “Don’t worry.  I got this.”  You can write this down.  I have it handled.  Things are going to happen.  I am going to take care of things.  You can count on me.

            So, did that satisfy Habakkuk?  Yes, it did.  But notice that there’s a lot here that God did not tell Habakkuk, stuff that he probably would’ve liked to know.  God does not tell Habakkuk how God’s going to handle this.  God does not say what things are going to happen.  God does not say when they’re going to happen.  God does not say how they’re going to happen.  God just tells Habakkuk, trust me.  I got this.  I am going to take care of things.  I will do it in My way and in My time.  Just be patient.  Don’t worry.  Just trust me, and you’ll see.  And it looks like that’s all Habakkuk needed to hear.

            And maybe, sometimes, that’s all you and I need to hear, too.  Sometimes, we just need that reassurance.  We need to hear God tell us “Don’t worry.  I got this.”  We don’t necessarily need to know all the details.  We don’t necessarily need to know what’s going to happen or when or how.  We just need to know that God has heard us and that God has responded.

            But we’re not going to know that as long as we keep insisting that God do things our way.  We’re only going to know it if we do what Habakkuk did.  Be still.  Be quiet.  Watch.  Listen.  Hear what God has to say to us.  Look for evidence that God is active.  Be patient.  And trust that God’s got this.  That God will take care of things, and God will do that in God’s way and in God’s time.

            We all have times when the doubts come in.  We all have times when it gets hard to trust God.  God understands that.  But God is sad about it.  Because God wants us to trust Him.  God wants us to know that, no matter what happens, He will always be there for us.  We never have to be alone, and we never have to face things alone.  God will be there for us.  And God will always take care of things for us.  God’s got this.

            God has promised to hear our prayers.  God has promised to never leave us or forsake us.  It’s fine to take our worries and fears and problems to God.  But after we do, let’s be quiet.  Let’s be still.  And let’s listen for what God might be saying to us.  Because God’s got this.