He Would Do Anything For Love

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, November 24, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Mark 14:12-26.

            So you may have wondering, why did the pastor choose that Bible passage?  Why are we talking about the Last Supper today?  We read that during Holy Week, or maybe Communion Sunday.  But this is Thanksgiving Sunday.  Why are we talking about the Last Supper on Thanksgiving?

            Well, there is a reason.  You know, part of that Bible reading from Mark is somewhat similar to what we say every time we take communion.  In fact, some of you probably recognized it.  And there’s one line in there that’s said twice.  And we say it twice every time we take communion, too.

            So, since we say it twice, it must be pretty important.  And yet, a lot of times, we just kind of gloss over it.  I know I often do.  I’ve been reading that same communion stuff for years, and then one Communion Sunday, all of a sudden, that line just—bam--hit me right between the eyes.  Some of you may know what it is already, but here it is:  “when he had given thanks”.

            “When he had given thanks”.  That line appears twice.  First, we’re told, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”  A little later, we’re told, “he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to them.”

            Now, think about what’s going on here.  Jesus is eating the last meal he will ever eat on this earth.  After he eats this meal, he goes to Gethsemane.  He gets arrested.  He gets beaten.  He gets spat on.  He gets tortured.  And then, he gets killed.

            And Jesus knows all this is going to happen.  None of it catches Jesus by surprise.  In fact, he’s told his disciples what’s going to happen.  In fact, he’s told them one of them is going to betray him in order to make it all happen.  And yet, knowing all this, Jesus takes bread and gives thanks to God.  And then he takes a cup and gives thanks to God.

            I wonder what the actual words are that Jesus said.  I mean, what would he have had to be thankful for?  The meal?  Well, maybe—we think it was a traditional Passover meal—but I doubt it.  With all that was going on, I doubt that food was very much on Jesus’ mind.  The time with the disciples?  Maybe, but he knew that one of them was going to betray him.  And he knew they were all going to fall away and abandon him.  

Do you think Jesus was really feeling thankful at that moment?  It’s hard to imagine that he was.  And yet, he gave thanks to God.  And I don’t think Jesus just did that because it was what he was supposed to do.  I mean, Jesus did not do a lot of the things that the Pharisees and the other religious leaders thought he was supposed to do.  I think Jesus meant every word he said.  I think Jesus was sincere in his thanks to God.

            But what would he have said?  What would Jesus have found to be thankful for?  I know the Bible says we’re supposed to be thankful in all circumstances, but this is really taking that to the extreme.  In these circumstances, about to be betrayed and tortured and killed even though you’d done nothing wrong, would you be able to find anything to be thankful for?

            I doubt if I would.  In fact, I’d probably have been pretty upset with God.  I might have been pretty angry with God, if you want to know the truth.  Here Jesus was, having done nothing wrong, having done everything he was supposed to do, and this is the reward he gets for it—mocking, torture, and death.  It’d be pretty hard to be thankful right then.

            But Jesus knew what was going on.  Jesus knew things had to be done this way.  In fact, Jesus knew this was part of the reason he’d come to earth in the first place.  Jesus knew this was his mission in coming here.  He had come here to be punished, not for his own sins, but for our sins.  He came here to take the punishment that belonged to us, so that we would not have to take it ourselves.  And he knew the reason he was doing it.  He was doing it out of love.  Jesus took that punishment on himself and away from us because he loves us that much.

            This was an incredibly hard thing God the Father was asking Jesus to do.  He was tempted not to do it.  There’s the story about the devil tempting Jesus while he was fasting in the desert, but I have to think Jesus was tempted time after time after time to not go through with this.  There were all kinds of ways he could’ve avoided it.  

He could’ve used his power to wipe out the Pharisees and the Romans and everyone else and establish an earthly kingdom.  That’s what some people wanted him to do.  And it had to be really tempting, because think of all the good Jesus could’ve done for people if he’d been an earthly king.  He could’ve solved the problems of slavery and of poverty and of oppression.  He could’ve made things fair for everybody.  That had to be a tempting thing for him to do.

And in fact, he might not have had to use his power to do that.  The people might’ve done it for him.  He was already a celebrity and a star for all the miracles he’d done, all the healing, that sort of thing.  If he’d done a little more of it, and especially if he’d healed the right people, some of the movers and shakers, they might’ve established Jesus as an earthly king by themselves.  Jesus might not have had to take power, power might have been just given to him.  That had to be tempting, too.

Or, Jesus could’ve cut a deal with the Pharisees.  You know, just back off a little bit.  Acknowledge the authority of the Pharisees.  Stop healing on the Sabbath.  Stop speaking out quite so forcefully.  He could still go around and help people, but just don’t make such a big deal out of defying authority when you do it, you know?  Just kind of lay low and keep quiet for a while.

There were all kinds of things Jesus could’ve done.  All kinds of ways Jesus could’ve avoided going through with this.  He was constantly tempted to do that, to avoid what his destiny, to not do what he came to earth to do.  But on this night, this night of the Last Supper, Jesus knew he was going to go through with it.  He was going to resist temptation.  He was going to do what he had come here to do.  The love that Jesus has for us was so great that he was going to be able to do it, no matter how hard it was going to be for him.

And maybe that’s what Jesus was thankful to God for.  Jesus was thankful that God the Father had helped him resist temptation.  He was thankful that he was going to be who he was, who he had always been.  He was going to be Jesus, the Christ, the Savior, the Messiah.  He was going to truly be God the Son, no matter how hard it might be.  And he was going to show that God truly is a God of love.

The Bible tells us that you and I were created in God’s image.  So, if God is a God of love, then you and I, God’s people, are supposed to be a people of love.  And once again, we come back to what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments, the ones all the law and all the statements of the prophets depend on:  that we love God, and that we love each other.

Jesus’ love for us made him do some very hard things.  And you and I, if we love others, are going to be asked to do some very hard things, too.  We’re going to be asked to do things for people when we’re tired and we don’t really feel like doing anything for anyone.  We’re going to be asked to give to people when we’re not sure if we have enough for ourselves.  We’re going to be asked to respond with love when people treat us badly.  We’re going to be asked to be there for people when it feels like we have all we can do to take care of ourselves.

We’re going to be tempted not to do those things.  And there will be any number of ways we can avoid them.  We’ll be able to come up with all kinds of excuses for why we should not have to do things for people, why we should not have to give to people, why we should not have to respond with love, why we should not have to be there for people.  We’ll be tempted all the time to not do what we were put on this earth to do.

Jesus resisted temptation because he loved us.  And if you and I truly love each other, and if we truly love the people who are out there beyond these walls, you and I will be able to resist temptation, too.  We are not Jesus, and we are not perfect, but we can still resist temptation.  We can do it the way Jesus did it--by keeping the love of other people front and center in our lives.

And when we do resist temptation, we can be thankful to God, the way Jesus was.  We can be thankful that God has helped us resist temptation.  We can be thankful that he was are who we were created to be, who God has always created us to be.  We can be thankful because we are truly going to be God’s people, no matter how hard it might be.  And we can be thankful that we are a people of love, serving a God of love.

Game Over

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, November 17, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 98.

            Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

            Whichever you are, it’s okay.  It’s not a sin to be an optimist, and it’s not a sin to be a pessimist.  God made us all different, and God did that for good reasons.  Our society needs both optimists and pessimists.  Besides, most of us are probably not completely one or the other, anyway.  I mean, I consider myself an optimist, for the most part.  But there are times when I get down, times when I get pessimistic.  I think it’s human nature.

            I will say, though, that I think it can be easier to be a pessimist.  Not “easier” in the sense of it making life easier.  “Easier” in the sense that it always seems to be easier to find reasons why things will go wrong than it is to find reasons things will go right.  It’s easier to think of reasons why something will fail than to think of reasons why it will succeed.  In any organization, if someone thinks of a new idea, there’ll be someone who can give about twenty-five reasons why it won’t work.  That’s just how it is.

            But it seems to me that, as Christians, we should always be optimistic about the future.  Not the near-term future, necessarily.  We’ve all seen the statistics about how faith in God and belief in Jesus as the Savior is in decline.  And not necessarily our personal future, either.  Faith in God is no guarantee of an easy life on Earth.  It never has been.  

            But what I mean is that, as Christians, we believe in an all-powerful God.  That means there is nothing that happens anywhere on Earth that God does not allow to happen.  I’m not saying God causes all things to happen.  Humans still have free will, and we have the ability to do things God does not want us to do.  But we only have that ability because God gives it to us.  Our human free will only exists by the grace of God.  And remember, God can work all things for the good of those who love him.  Even the worst things we can imagine, and even things that we cannot imagine, can be used by God for ultimate good.  Good for us personally, and good for the world.  Good for God’s plan of salvation, which we know is going to work out the way it’s supposed to.

            And so, when we think about the long-term future, we should always be optimistic.  Because we know that no matter how things look right now, God is going to win.  Jesus is going to come again.  God’s plan of salvation is going to happen.  There will be the new heavens and the new earth.  Our righteous, holy, perfect God will prevail against everything.  And as long as we stand firm in our faith and accept Jesus as the Savior, we are going to win, too.

            Our psalm this evening, psalm ninety-eight, is one of the most joyous, uplifting, optimistic psalms in the Bible.  When that psalm was written, everything was not going perfectly for the nation of Israel.  They had problems, just as we do.  In fact, at this time, the nation of Israel was often in trouble.  They had enemies all over who were trying to defeat them.  And yet, when you read that psalm, the person who wrote it makes it sound like everything has already been decided and that God has already won.  Not that God will win.  Not that God is winning.  That God has won.  There’s no doubt about it.  It’s game over.  It’s all over but the shouting.  All that’s left to clear up is the details.

            Listen to the first two lines:  “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.”

            The Lord “has done” marvelous things.  His right hand and holy arm “have worked” salvation.  Past tense.  Those marvelous things--they’re as good as done.  Salvation has already been worked.  All we need to do is claim it and accept it.  

            Now that’s optimism.  To look at all the problems of the world, to look at all the enemies of there are, to think of all the people and all the other countries that might come after Israel.  To look at all the problems the author of the psalm must have had in his personal life, too, because everybody has stuff like that.  To look at all that and say, “Hey, it’s all over.  It’s done.  We’ve already won.  Period.”

            There’s no reason you and I cannot look at things that way, too.  Because those marvelous things--the Lord “has done” them for us.  For you and for me.  God’s right hand and holy arm “have worked” salvation.  It’s done.  Game over.  God’s victory is assured.  Our salvation is assured.  All you and I need to do is accept it.  That’s really cool, don’t you think?

            The author of the psalm thought so.  He thought it was time to celebrate!  Listen to this:  “Shout for joy, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp; with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn--shout for joy before the Lord, the King.”

            In other words, it’s party time!  God has won!  Our salvation is assured!  Let’s praise the Lord for His great victory, a victory He has won for us!

            I wonder if, when people first heard this psalm, there were some skeptics.  I wonder if there were some pessimists.  I wonder if there were some people who said, “What in the world are you talking about?  God has not won anything.  Neither have we.  There are enemies all around us.  They want to kill us, take our land, take our cattle, take everything.  And there are people all around us worshiping all these foreign gods, and trying to stop us from worshiping the one true God.  How in the world can you say we’ve won?  And how can you say God has won?”

            The author of the psalm says it because he has faith.  He has the faith we can have.  He has a faith that says “I don’t care what you see around you.  I don’t care what’s going on around us right now.  I know I worship the almighty, all-powerful God.  I know there is no one and nothing that is more powerful than God.  I know there is nothing that God cannot do.  I worship the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.  I worship the God who created everything.  I worship the God that defeated the mighty Pharaoh, who defeated Goliath, who has defeated everyone.  I can say God has won because I know God cannot lose.”

            That’s faith.  That’s a strong faith.  That’s an incredible faith, really.  And that’s the faith you and I can have.

            And you know what’s really incredible about this?  It’s not just you and I who can have that faith.  All of creation has that faith.  All of creation celebrates God’s victory.  Listen to this:  “Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.  Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing for joy; let them sing before the Lord.”

            That’s how complete and total God’s victory is.  All of nature, all the natural forces of the world, rejoices at the triumph of God.  In fact, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”  That’s pretty incredible.

            So, does that change anything about life right now?  Well, yes and no.  Our problems still exist.  They’re still real.  They’re still just as serious.  Having faith in God does not magically take all our problems away.

            But that faith can give us confidence.  We can be optimistic.  Maybe not about our current situation.  But we can be optimistic about the future, and especially the long-term future.  We may have problems, but we can know that our problems will not defeat us.  God may or may not take them away while we’re in this world.  But God is going to triumph over them.  God is going to win.  And through our faith in Jesus as the Savior, you and I are going to win, too.  God will triumph over everything, not just for Himself, but for us, too, if we have faith.

            If you’re a natural pessimist, that’s okay.  As I said, God made us all different.  God created both pessimists and optimists, and both have their place and their purpose in God’s world.  But never be pessimistic about God’s chances of victory.  God is going to win.  In fact, God has already won.  The game’s over.  It’s all over but the shouting.  The only thing that remains is the details.

            And for that, we truly can shout for joy.

Here's Your Plan

I’m not, by nature, a terribly organized person.  Since I became a pastor, however, I’ve had to get myself organized to a certain extent.  There would be too many things that slip through the cracks otherwise.  And so, I wake up every day with a plan for my day.  I know, at least in general terms, the things I need to get done that day in order to make the week go smoothly.  And when I get to my office at the church in the morning, I start doing those things.

But sometimes God comes along and changes my whole plan.  I have my plan for the day, but God says, “No, here’s your plan for the day.”  And it’s something totally different from what I expected.

I don’t like that very much.  For one thing, when my plan for the day changes suddenly, it’s hardly ever good news.  But more than that, I don’t like having my routine disrupted.  I don’t like having my plans changed.  And it seems like that’s been happening fairly often lately.

Now, don’t take this the wrong way.  I want to be there for people when they need me.  And if that means having my plans disrupted, well, I’ll adapt.  But still, those things that I was planning to do--they still need to get done.  I may not be able to do them today, but I still need to do them.  And when I can’t do them on my schedule, it feels like I’m falling behind, and I need to somehow find the time to catch up.  And sometimes, finding that time is not particularly easy to do.

The answer, of course, is to trust God.  And I know that.  I’m sure you know it, too.  It’s just no always easy to do.  The basic problem is that I keep think of these things I have to do in exactly that way--as things I have to do.  What I have to remember is that if God truly wants me to do those things, God will provide me with the time to do them.  And if God does not provide me with that time, well, then it means that I don’t actually have to do them.  Maybe some of them don’t need to be done.  Maybe they need to be done, but they can wait a little while.  Maybe they need to be done, but somebody else can do them for a while.

What’s amazing, though, is the number of times when I’ve looked at all the things I’ve had to do, and I’ve seen no way that I could get them all done, and yet God somehow provided enough time for me to do them.  God rarely provides me with extra time--and sometimes I wish God would--but God always seems to provide me with just enough time.  It’s really pretty cool, the way God always does that.

So, here’s what I think the solution is, at least for me.  Maybe it’ll be the solution for you, too.  When you feel like you’re overwhelmed by things, just keep plugging away.  Do one thing at a time, get it done, and move on to the next thing.  And trust that God will provide you with the time to get the things done that need to be done.  And if God does not provide that time, then maybe the thing does not need to be done, at least not right now.

If God wants us to do something, then God will provide us with everything we need to do it.  That includes time.  So let’s trust God and just keep doing our best.

The Heavens and the Earth

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, November 17, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 65:17-25.

            “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  Those are the very first words of the Bible.  The Bible begins by telling us the story of God creating the heavens and the earth.

            And when you think about it, that’s kind of an odd phrase.  “The heavens and the earth.”  Not “heaven and earth”, but “the heavens and the earth”.  Is there more than one heaven?

            Some say that the word “heavens”, in that context, just means the skies and the clouds and that sort of thing.  And we do use the word “heavens” that way sometimes.  But there are other references in the Bible to there being more than one heaven.  For example, the Apostle Paul, in Second Corinthians Chapter Two, refers to a man who was caught up to the third heaven.  What’s the third heaven?  Is it better than the first heaven or the second heaven?  And is there a fourth or a fifth heaven?

            And then, to throw another wrench into all this, we come to our reading for today from Isaiah.  Isaiah quotes God as saying, “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.”

            New heavens?  Why would God need to create new heavens?  What’s wrong with the old heavens?  Will the new heavens be different from the old heavens?  If not, what’s the point of creating them?  But if so, did God make mistakes when He created the old heavens?  And in what way will the new heavens be different?

            Well, the only answer I can give you is:  heaven knows.  This is not the only time in the Bible that references a new heaven:  it’s mentioned in Second Peter and also in Revelation Chapter Twenty-one.  But none of those passages describe the new heaven, any more than Isaiah does.  And in a way, I guess that makes sense.  I mean, we don’t even know much about what the old heaven or heavens are like, so we certainly cannot expect to know much about the new one.

            The only thing we know about the new heavens is that they will be better.  In fact, they’ll be so much better that “the former things will not be remembered, nor with they come to mind.”  In other words, the new heavens will be so much better that no one will be able to remember what the old ones were like.  Nobody will even want to remember what the old ones were like.  They will simply “be glad and rejoice forever” and what God has created.  So, apparently, however awesome the current heavens are, the new heavens will be even awesomer.  But other than that?  We just don’t know.

            But we do know what the new earth will be like.  And it’s going to be pretty awesome, too.  For one thing, we’re going to live longer.  Listen to what Isaiah says, “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed...For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people.”

            Think about that.  My dad lived to be ninety-six, and my mom is ninety-four, and I feel very fortunate that I’ve had them in my life for as long as I have.  But in the new earth, a person who’s in their nineties is going to be just getting started.  A person who’s a hundred years old is still a kid.  That’s pretty incredible.

            Isaiah says that the people who live in the new earth will be “a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.”  But it’s not just the people.  All of creation will be blessed on this new earth.  “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food.  They will neither harm nor destroy.”

            I read all this, and I think, where do I go to sign up for that?  How can I get to this new earth?  But, of course, there’s no way we can.  God will create this new earth when God decides to create this new earth, and I doubt there’s anything we can do to hurry God along.  

            But that raises a question.  If there’s nothing we can do to make this new earth come about, then what’s the point of God telling us about it?  I mean, sure, it sounds great.  But if I cannot go there now, then what good does it do me to know about it?

            Well, here’s the thing.  We cannot go there now, but we will be able to go there someday.  Here’s what the Apostle John said in Revelation Chapter Twenty-one.  He describes the holy city, the New Jerusalem, descending from heaven.  It’s a place that shines with the glory of God.  It’s filled with gold and precious jewels.  There’s no need for the sun or the moon, because the glory of God and of the divine Son gives all the light that’s need.  There’s no night there. And he concludes, “Nothing impure will ever enter into it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

            You and I can have our names written in that book.  We can be in Jesus’ book of life.  All we need to do is have faith in Jesus Christ.

            And that’s true even if we have done things which are “impure”.  It’s true even if we do things that are “shameful or deceitful”.  Because Jesus died to save us.  Jesus took the punishment that should have gone to us for our sins.  And when we accept Jesus as the Savior, we have the assurance that our sins are forgiven.  But it’s more than that.  Not only are our sins forgiven, it’s like they never happened in the first place.  That’s what we mean when we say that the blood of Jesus Christ washes us clean.  The stains of all our sins are gone, because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And all we need to do to have that happen is accept Jesus as the Savior.

            But all that raises the question:  where exactly do we go when we die?  Do we go to one of the current heavens?  If so, will we someday go to the new earth, to the New Jerusalem?  Will we ever go to the new heavens?

            I don’t have an answer for you.  But I will tell you this:  I would not worry about it too much.  Because wherever we go, it’s going to be an awesome place.  We know it’s going to be an awesome place because we’re going to be in the presence of God.  God is in the current heaven right now.  And in Revelation, we’re told that God will live with his people in the New Jerusalem.  So wherever we go when we die, whether to the heavens or to the New Jerusalem, we’ll be in the presence of God.  And it does not get any better than that.

            But this is why it’s so important that we do what we can to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Not because we think we’re better than other people.  Not because we’re trying to force our beliefs on anyone.  Not because we’d like to see our church grow.  Not for any reason other than love--love of God and love of other people.

            You and I, as Christians, know something other people don’t know.  And it’s something incredible.  It’s the secret of salvation and eternal life.  And because we know that, we have an obligation to do what we can to share that secret with everyone we can, so that others can have salvation and eternal life, just like we do.  Jesus does not want that secret to stay a secret.  That’s why he came in the first place.  And that’s why he told us to go and make disciples of all nations.  Jesus wants everyone, everywhere, to have a chance to accept him as the Savior.  He wants everyone, everywhere, to have a chance for salvation and eternal life.  And the only way that’s going to happen--the only way people are going to have a chance to accept Jesus as the Savior--is if Christians like you and me love those people enough to do what we can to spread the word and give them that chance.

            This time, right now--the time before Jesus returns--this is truly the critical time.  This is the time we have to spread that word and give people that chance.  I don’t know how long it will be.  It might be ten million years.  Or it might be ten years, or ten weeks, or ten days.  We don’t know, and we have no way to know.  

It’s easy to put it off.  It’s easy to leave it to someone else.  It’s easy to make excuses for ourselves.  Believe me, I know.  I’ve put it off, and I’ve left it to someone else, and I’ve made excuses for myself.  I still do, many times.  I know how easy it is to do, and how tempting it is to do.  I know all the fears we have, all the hesitancy we have, all the reasons we can give to avoid doing this.

That’s why it really is a matter of love.  Love of Jesus, and love of other people.  If we love Jesus enough, and if we love other people enough, that love can overcome our temptation to put it off.  That love can overcome our temptation to leave this to someone else.  That love can overcome all the excuses, all the fears, all the hesitancy.  It really all comes down to love.

If we accept Jesus as the Savior, we know we’re going to an awesome place when we die, because we’re going to the presence of God.  And if we love people, we want them to be there with us.  So let’s do all we can to help them get there.  Let’s do all we can to give everyone the chance for salvation and eternal life.  May our love overcome our fears.

Heaven

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on November 10, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Luke 20:27-38.

            Do you ever think about what heaven is like?

            I suspect most of us do, at least once in a while.  After all, we all know someone who’s there, or at least we hope they are.  And I assume we all hope to go there ourselves one day.  So it’s natural that we’d wonder just what heaven is actually like.

            But of course, wondering what heaven is like assumes that there actually is a heaven.  And of course as Christians, that is what we believe.  But everyone does not believe that.  You’ll hear all kinds of beliefs about reincarnation and higher planes of consciousness and so forth.  And there are some who say that nothing happens when we die.  We just die, and that’s it.

            That seems to be what the Sadducees thought.  And so they come to Jesus with a question.  They’re trying to trick Jesus, to trap him, to make him look stupid for saying that the dead are raised.

            And we’ll get to that in a minute, but it brings us something that seems odd to me.  Why was it so important to the Sadducees to prove that there is no resurrection of the dead?  What difference did it make to them?  Was it just the fact that they believed it was a wrong teaching, and they wanted people to know better?  Did they think it was an affront to God to believe something that was not true?  Did they think it would lead to other wrong beliefs, or to bad behavior?

            I don’t know the answer, I’m just curious about it.  I mean, if someone wanted to believe the dead were raised, so what?  They might think it was not true, but who was it hurting?  Why was this issue so important to them that they needed to confront Jesus with it?

            Well, for whatever reason, it was.  And so they come to Jesus with a question.  It’s kind of a complicated question, but it’s one that would’ve made sense to people at the time.  It fit in perfectly with Jewish law, and the Sadducees were very big on Jewish law.  What they said about the law was exactly right.

            At that time, it was considered a really bad thing to let someone’s line of succession die out.  And so the law said that if a man died and left a wife but no children, the man’s brother should marry the widow and have children for him.  That may seem a little strange to us now, but it would’ve made perfect sense to the people listening to this conversation between the Sadducees and Jesus.

            And so the Sadducees come up with this scenario.  It seems far-fetched, and it would’ve seemed far-fetched then, too, but it still would’ve seemed like a logical question.  What if a guy dies childless, and his brother marries his widow, and he dies childless, too, and then another brother marries his widow, and they still don’t have any children, and this happens seven times.  After they’re all dead, whose wife is this woman going to be in heaven?

            And this is where the written word kind of fails us, because I really wonder what the expression was on Jesus’ face when he heard that.  I mean, was he just shaking his head at them?  Was he thinking, “Good grief, don’t you people have anything better to do than to come up with questions like that?”  Was he upset with them?  Was he angry that they were trying to trap him with this question?  I mean, the religious authorities were trying to trick Jesus and trap him all the time.  I’d think after a while, he probably got really tired of having to deal with that.

            But what I really think is that Jesus probably just shook his head kind of sadly at how ignorant these people were and how little they understood the things they were talking about.  Because that’s his answer, really--you people just don’t understand.  You don’t understand the first thing about heaven and what it’s like.  The only reason you think this is a good question is because you’re thinking in human terms.

What the Sadducees were doing was taking the laws and rules that God made for humans on earth and assuming that those same laws and rules are going to apply in heaven.  And Jesus says, no.  That’s not how it works.  The laws and rules God made for humans on earth are not the same as the laws and rules that apply in heaven.  The reason why not is that humans are not going to be the same in heaven as they are on earth.  If you had any idea about heaven, or about what people are going to be like when they go there, you’d know how ridiculous this question really is.

            But you know, we really should not be too hard on the Sadducees.  Remember, I asked you at the start of this message if you ever think about what heaven is like.  If you do, I suspect you think of it in human terms.  And so do I.  

            It’s understandable.  It’s about the only thing we can do, really.  After all, you and I are human.  Human terms are the only terms we can understand.  The only way we can try to visualize heaven, the only way we can have it make any sense to us, is if we think of it in human terms.

            And so we think of a place where we can rest.  We think of it as a place where we’re at peace, with nothing to worry about, no concerns, nothing to bother us.  We think of it as a place where we’ll be with our loved ones again.  Some people think of it as a place where they’ll be reunited with their favorite pets, too.  Some people think of it as a place where we’ll be able to do all the things we enjoy.  Some people think of it as a place where we can eat all we want and not gain weight.  And on and on and on.

            And it’s not necessarily wrong to think of heaven that way.  Again, things like that are about the only way we can think of heaven and have it make any sense to us.  But when we think about heaven that way, we should keep one thing in the back of our minds.  The chances are that, when we get to heaven, we’ll find out that everything we ever thought about heaven while we were on earth is wrong.

Because, in thinking about heaven, we’re really not that different from the Sadducees.  I mean, we’re different in that they believed there is no resurrection of the dead and we believe that there certainly is.  But as far as really understanding heaven, you and I really have no clue whatsoever.

            There are a lot of theories about why God does not let us know what heaven is really like while we’re on earth.  Some people say that heaven is simply beyond our understanding, that even if God told us we’d never understand it.  Some people say that if we really understood heaven and how incredible it is, it would make our lives on earth unbearable to us.  We’d hate being here because we’d want so much to be there.  And there are lots of other theories, too.

            I obviously don’t know the answer.  But  what I think is that at least part of the reason God does not let us fully understand heaven is because that’s not where God wants our focus to be.  Not right now, anyway.  It’s okay to want to go to heaven when the time comes, but for right now, I think God wants our focus to be on our lives here on earth.  God wants us to do the things Jesus told us to do.  Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  Love our neighbors as ourselves.  Love our enemies.  Pray for those who persecute us.  Go and make disciples of all nations.  Serve God and be faithful to God.

            Those are the things God wants us to focus on while we’re on earth.  God wants us to do those things as well as we possibly can.  We won’t do them perfectly, because while we’re on earth perfection is not something we’re capable of.  But we should not use that as an excuse, either.  We need to do all of those things as well as we possibly can.  And when we do mess up, we need to go to God, ask for forgiveness, and try again to do all of those things as well as we possibly can.

            We really don’t understand heaven any better than the Sadducees did.  But we do know one thing they did not know, and it’s a pretty big one.  We know that the resurrection is real.  We know that heaven exists.  We know that, by our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, and by God’s incredible love and grace and mercy, we will go there when our time comes.

            It’s okay to wonder what heaven is like.  But for now, let’s focus on being faithful to God while we’re on earth.  If we do that, we’ll get to find out what heaven is like when the time is right.

           

A Poem About Heaven

Do you ever wonder about heaven

And what it’s like to be there?

Are there really streets that are paved with gold?

Do we really fly through the air?

Do we get to see all our loved ones?

Will our dogs and our cats be there, too?

Will we get to do all the things we enjoy?

Will we truly rest all the day through?

There are so many things that I’d like to know

So many things I cannot fathom

Will every good God-fearing person be there

Going all the way clear back to Adam?

Seems like it could get kind of crowded

An eternal population explosion

And I would assume that it’s gonna get bigger

As more and more people are chosen

So many questions and so few answers

We wish God would tell us some more

But some clues from the Bible are all that we have

Till our time comes to walk through that door.

So let’s focus, then, on the things that we know

The things we know that the Lord told us

We know that we get there by faith in the Christ

And the mercy and grace that God shows us

We know it’s the place where God truly is

Where we’ll see him with no shield or filter

We know it’s where everything is perfect

With nothing out of place or off-kilter

And if God is there, then we know there is love

And peace and joy that’s forever

With no worries, no fears, no frightening storms

We won’t even have to worry about weather

We may not get wings or float on the clouds

But we know that our faith is the test

And if we pass we’ll be with God forever

And forever’s how long we’ll be blessed.

Stand Firm

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish Sunday morning, November 10, 2019.  The Bible verses used are 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.

            If you pay attention to the news, it’s easy to believe that Christianity is in a state of decline.  It seems like every month, if not more often, there’s a poll someplace that has negative news about Christianity.  There are fewer people who believe in God, fewer people who call themselves Christians, fewer people who attend church regularly.  If you believe all those polls, you’d have to think that Christianity is on a downhill slide and that there’s not much we can do to stop it.

            And if you look at society, you might conclude that’s right.  We don’t notice it so much here, in small town South Dakota, but there are places where being a Christian results in being looked down upon.  And that’s especially true if you’re open about your faith and try to share it with others.  A lot of people say they’ll tolerate your faith, as long as you keep it to yourself.  But they don’t want you to be too public with it.

            And then, too, you’ll see all kinds of pseudo-religions out there.  People whose faith can be found in Mother Earth, or karma, or in some sort of vague “spirituality”.  They believe in something, but a lot of times they, themselves, are not really sure what it is.  But whatever it is, it is not the divine Son, Jesus Christ.

            When we see that kind of thing, it’s easy to get depressed about the future of our faith.  But you know, there’s nothing really new about it.  The people of the church of Thessalonica were apparently concerned about these same things.  And Paul writes to them to tell them how to deal with it.

            Paul says they should not “become easily unsettled or alarmed” at the fact that there was false teaching out there.  They should not even be unsettled or alarmed if the people spreading that teaching claimed to be representing Paul and his associates.  He warns them not to be fooled by it, but he also tells them to not get overly upset about it, either.

            And Paul tells them why they should not get too upset about this stuff.  He says, look, we knew this was coming.  In fact, he says, I told you this was coming.  Paul says, “Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?”  He tells them, this is not unexpected.  We knew this would happen.  

            But there’s another reason the Thessalonians were not supposed to get too upset about all this.  Paul tells them that, ultimately, these false teachings and false teachers will not prevail.  It might look like they’re going to, for a while, but they will not.  Eventually, they will be defeated.  He refers to those who spread false teachers as representing someone he calls “the lawless one”.  And Paul says, “The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”

But Paul does warn them that it’s going to be tempting to follow those false teachings.  He also says this, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.  He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie.”

            Does any of this sound familiar?  Because there are a lot of false teachings out there, and there are false teachers, too.  And a lot of those false teachings are things that sound really good.  They can be really tempting.  And if we’re not careful, we can find ourselves falling for them.

            You’ve probably heard some of them.  “Well, you know, a loving God would never allow people to go to hell.”  “Well, it really does not matter what you believe, as long as you’re sincere in your beliefs.”  “Well, all that really matters is that you be nice to people.”  “Well, you can do whatever you want, as long as it does not hurt anybody else.”   “Well, the only religion you really need is kindness.” “Well, it does not matter what you do in your personal life, as long as your public opinions are right.  Give to the right causes, support the right laws, vote the right way, and what you do or what you believe privately does not matter.”

            I’m sure most of us have heard at least some of these, are some variation of them.  And of course, this is not a comprehensive list by any means.  There are all kinds of false teachings out there.  And some of them are spread by famous people who seem like really nice, really good people.  But they’re all designed to do the same thing.  They’re designed to lead people away from God and toward something else.  Some watered down, mild, milquetoast version of niceness.  A method of living that allows us to do the things we want to do and call them okay, regardless of what God might have had to say about them.

            But again, we should not be too upset about this.  We should be aware of it, of course.  But all of this is to be expected.  Paul told us it would happen two thousand years ago.  Jesus said it would happen, too.  In fact, Jesus predicted they would come in exactly the way we’ve talked about.  In fact, if you’ve ever heard that phrase, “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, this is where it comes from.  In Matthew Chapter Seven, Verse Fifteen, he says, “Beware of false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”  

In other words, it’s just like we were saying.  These false prophets, these people who spread all these false teachings, will do it in a way that sounds really good.  They’ll sound like they’re really nice people who just want everyone to get along.  And what makes it really deceptive is that there is truth in it.  Of course God wants us to show love.  Of course God is in favor of kindness.  But Jesus did not tell us that we should all just get along.  There’s a lot more to Jesus’ message than that.

Jesus is the one who told us to go the extra mile.  Jesus is the one who told us to show love even to our enemies.  Jesus is the only who told us to pray for those who persecute us.  Jesus is the one who told us that if someone wants our coat, we should also give him our shirt.  And of course, Jesus gave us the ultimate example of doing all those things and more when he went to the cross, dying for things he had not done, dying to save us from suffering the consequences of our sins.

            So what should we do?  We should do exactly what Paul told the church at Thessalonica.  “Stand firm and hold fast to the teachings” that have been passed on to us.  In other words, stay faithful to the word of God and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            When we hear these false teachings, and when they sound really good to us, we need to go back to the Bible.  We need to ask, “Is that what the Bible says?”  “Is that what Jesus taught?”  Because, again, a lot of these false teachings do sound really good.  They sound really persuasive.  But if they don’t agree with God’s Word, if they don’t agree with the gospel of Jesus Christ, then they’re not true, no matter how good they might sound.

            You and I have access to the truth.  We need to make use of that access.  We need to make sure we are not fooled by the false teachings of the false teachers of the world.

            And of course, we need to do more than that.  We should not keep that truth to ourselves.  We need to share it with others.  We need to do what we can to keep others from being fooled by those false teachings.  After all, if they sound good to us, how much better will they sound to someone who does not have a background in Christianity?  How much better will they sound to someone who does not know what the Bible says and does not know the gospel of Jesus Christ?  

            Now, I’m not saying we need to go out and point a finger in someone’s face and try to force the gospel on them.  Jesus never did that.  What did Jesus do?  Jesus said, here’s how it is.  Here’s the truth.  You can choose to believe it and have eternal life.  Or, you can choose not to believe it and suffer the consequences.  If you have sincere questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.  But if you don’t want to believe the truth, well, that’s your choice.

            I think that’s the attitude you and I need to have.  We know the truth.  We need to share it with people.  But if they choose not to believe it, that’s their choice.  There’s not much more we can do.

            Except for one thing.  And really, it’s probably the most important thing of all.  We can pray.  We can pray that God will bless our efforts.  We can pray that God will touch people’s hearts.  We can pray that God’s Holy Spirit will break down someone’s resistance.  We can pray that God will show up for them in a way that they simply cannot deny.  We can pray that God will do what we cannot do.

            Because God can.  God can do that.  God can do anything.  In fact, that’s the only way anything is going to happen--with God.  You and I cannot bring anyone to faith by ourselves.  We can only do it if God chooses to work through us.

            There’s a lot of false teaching out there.  But don’t let that alarm you.  It’s to be expected.  Besides, we know that in the end, God is going to win.  What you and I need to do is simply stand firm and hold fast to the teachings of God and of the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  And then, we need to do what we can to share those teachings with others.  If we do that, God will take care of the rest.

When God Shows Up

This is the message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday night, November 3, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Luke 19:1-10.

            Does anyone here know the official mission statement of the United Methodist church?

            It’s okay if you don’t.  We don’t talk about it a lot.  But here it is.  “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

            Now that sounds good and everything, and I really don’t mean to criticize it.  But I was reading an article recently where the guy said, you know, we really did not say that very well.  Because when you hear that, that it’s the mission of the United Methodist church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, it makes it sound like making disciples is something we do.  Like transforming the world is something we do.  

And it’s not true.  If disciples of Jesus Christ are made, it’s God who makes them, not us.  If the world is transformed, it’s God who transforms it, not us.  God may choose to work through us, and that’s cool when it happens, but it’s still God doing it, not you and me.  We have no power to transform the world without God.  And if we did transform the world without God, it would probably not be transformed in a very good way.

I bring this up because in our reading for tonight, we have an example of someone who did become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  And maybe he did not transform the world, but his own life was transformed.  I’m talking, of course, about the tax collector, Zacchaeus.

This story of Zacchaeus is one we learn in Sunday school.  Maybe some of us still remember the song:  “Zacchaeus was a wee, little man; a wee, little man was he.”  But because some of us have heard this story so many times, it’s easy to miss what an amazing, incredible thing this was.

Jesus is walking through the town of Jericho.  Now, by this time, Jesus was pretty well-known.  He was kind of a celebrity, really.  I don’t know just how comfortable Jesus would be with that description, but there’s truth in it.  He was a star.  People wanted to be close to him, wanted to see him.  Today, he’d be someone people would want to take selfies with.  When Jesus came to town, it was an Event.

So Jesus comes to Jericho.  And everyone knows he’s there.  Including this tax collector named Zacchaeus.

And Zacchaeus decides he wants to see Jesus.  We’re not told why.  But you know, tax collectors were not known as particularly good people.  They routinely overcharged people on their taxes and kept the extra money for themselves.  That’s how they paid for being tax collectors.  And since Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, and because he was wealthy, we assume he must have done this a lot.  In fact, not only did he overcharge people on their taxes, he probably took a share from all the minor tax collectors who worked under him.  

So why does he want to see Jesus?  Was he just curious about him?  Was it just because Jesus was a celebrity?  What might he have heard about Jesus?  That he healed people, maybe.  That he fed people.  He might have heard that he was kind of a rebel, that he sometimes broke the Jewish religious laws.  He might have heard about some of Jesus’ speeches.  Maybe he’d heard some of the parables that Jesus told.

You know, it’s interesting that shortly before this in Luke’s gospel, in the previous chapter, in fact, Jesus tells a story about an arrogant tax collector and says that God will humble that arrogant man.  Could Zacchaeus have heard that story?  Could it have stirred something in him?  Maybe Zacchaeus was starting to feel guilty about his lifestyle.  Maybe he was starting to realize that what he’d been doing was wrong.

But anyway, Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus but he can’t, because there’s a big crowd and he’s short.  So, he runs on ahead, to where he expects Jesus to be coming by, and climbs up a tree, where he’ll be able to see Jesus over the crowd.

And Jesus comes by, and he sees Zacchaeus.  And this is interesting, too, because if you were walking along, and there was a big crowd on either side of you, you probably would not look up into the trees.  But Jesus did.  

Did someone tell him Zacchaeus was there?  If they did, did they tell him who Zacchaeus was?  Or, was Zacchaeus well-known enough--he was a chief tax collector, after all--that Jesus knew who he was?  Was this Jesus using his divine power?  Did the Holy Spirit have a hand in this?  Or was it just a coincidence?  Did Jesus just happen to look up at the right time and see this short guy up in a tree?

The way it reads, or the way I read it, Jesus knew he was there.  And he clearly knew, somehow, who this was, because Jesus calls him by name.  He says, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately.  I must stay at your house today.”

Zacchaeus comes down, and right away the people around start muttering, gossiping.  Why is Jesus going to go to this guy’s house?  This guy’s a sinner.

Zacchaeus heard them.  And the thing is, Zacchaeus knew they were right.  He was a sinner.  And he knew he had to do something about it.  So he says, “Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  And Jesus responds, “Today, salvation has come to this house.”

Think of that amazing transformation.  From a man who routinely cheated and overcharged people to a man who was willing to give away half his possessions.  And on top of that, to go to all the people he’d cheated and not just pay them back, but pay them four times more than what he’d taken from them.  That’s pretty incredible.

And it happened because of the power of God.  Were there other people involved?  Maybe.  We don’t know.  Zacchaeus could’ve had friends or relatives who told him he was headed down the wrong path and needed to change.  There could’ve been people in his life who were telling him to stop doing what he was doing, telling him that he needed to turn his life around.  Maybe that was part of the reason Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus.  But nothing actually happened to change Zacchaeus’ life until Jesus showed up.  And when Jesus showed up, everything about Zacchaeus’ life changed.

So does that mean we should not try to do anything to change people’s lives?  No, of course not.  We need to do all we can to help people.  After all, Jesus said loving others is the same as loving God Himself.  And loving others means not just helping them with their physical needs, although that’s part of it.  But when you think about it, what’s more important?  Helping someone with their physical needs on earth?  Or helping someone receive salvation and eternal life?  Of course we should do whatever we can to help people change their lives and come to faith in Jesus Christ.

But that’s the thing.  We do what we can.  And then, we pray.  We pray that they will hear things about Jesus, at least enough to get them curious.  We pray that God’s Holy Spirit will stir something in them.  And we pray for God to show up for them.  We pray that God will come by and call them by name.  And we pray that, when God does that, they will hear and they will respond.

By ourselves, we cannot do anything.  But God can do everything.  You and I cannot save someone.  But God can.  You and I cannot change someone’s life.  But God can.  You and I cannot give someone eternal life.  But God can.

Do you know a Zacchaeus?  Not necessarily someone who’s cheated and stolen from people, but do you know someone who does not have God in their life?  Someone who just seems to be headed down the wrong path?  The chances are you do.  It might be someone in your family.  It might be someone who’s a friend.  It might be someone you used to know, but from whom you’ve drifted apart.  But the chances are, if you really think about it, you can think of someone you know who has pretty much forgotten about God and is living their life with no concern for God.

What should we do?  Well, we can be there for them.  We can let them know we love them.  We can let them know God loves them.  Maybe we can do more for them.  Maybe we can have a conversation about faith.  Maybe we can tell them the ways God has helped us and what’s happened to convince us of God’s love.

But no matter what else we do, we can pray for them.  We can pray that God’s Holy Spirit will stir something in them.  We can pray that they will be open to hearing about God and thinking about God.  And we can pray that God will show up in their lives.  We can pray that God will make that transformation, and that God will make a new disciple of Jesus Christ where there was not one before.

God can transform anyone’s life.  Even the life of a chief tax collector like Zacchaeus.  Even a life like mine.  And even a life like yours, too.