Focus on the Good

As I write this, it’s cold.  I don’t like that.  I don’t know anyone who does.  All summer I hear from people who say they love cold weather, but when we actually get cold weather, they all disappear.  People may like cool weather, they may even like it when it gets down into the twenties or even the teens, but once it gets below zero nobody likes it.

Well, maybe not nobody.  There are some animals that like cold weather.  When I was a kid we had a big dog that just loved it when it got cold like this.  The colder the better, as far as he was concerned.  Dad would leave a shed open for him to sleep in at night, with some old blankets and such, but he wouldn’t go into it.  He wouldn’t even stay close to a building for a windbreak.  He’d sleep right out in the open, right on the snow.  When we’d come out to do chores, he’d be bouncing around, wanting us to play with him.  He couldn’t understand why we didn’t want to spend time with him enjoying that “beautiful weather”.

But most humans don’t like it much.  And as I said, I’m among those humans who don’t like it.  But, on the other hand, I choose to live here in north-central South Dakota.  I’ve lived in South Dakota my entire life, and every January that I can remember has been cold.  And climate change or not, I don’t think January is going to stop being cold in my lifetime.  So, if I don’t like it, there’s only one thing I can do.  Move.  But I don’t want to move.  So, I’m going to have to put up with the cold.

Actually, there is one other thing I can do.  I can complain.  And I used to do that a lot.  I’d complain about the cold weather.  I’d whine about it, probably to the point where people got tired of hearing it.  And you know what?  It didn’t change a thing.  It didn’t raise the temperature by as much as one degree.  All it did was make me feel bad, because I was focusing on what I did not like.

So, I’ve stopped complaining about the cold weather.  Oh, I might slip once in a while, but for the most part, I’ve stopped.  Now, it’s probably easier for me to do that than for some, because it’s not like I have to work out in it.  I have great sympathy for those who do.  But even so, complaining about it is not going to change it.  So there’s no point to doing it.  Instead of focusing on the weather, which only makes me unhappy, I try to focus on things that do make me happy.

And that’s true of a lot of things besides the weather.  Now, don’t take this the wrong way.  If there’s a bad situation, and there’s something we can do to make it better, we should.  And we need to focus on the bad situation to make it better.  But if there’s nothing we can do, then focusing on it is a waste of time and energy.  It doesn’t help.  It just makes us feel bad.  So, we might as well stop doing it.

What’s a situation in your life that you don’t like?  Can you do something to make it better?  If so, then do it.  If not, though, focus on something else.  The chances are it’ll make you happier.

Not the Savior We're Looking For

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 26, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 9:1-7.

            Have you ever had someone tell you they had a surprise for you?  And you wondered what it was, and they would not tell you, but they told you it was something you were going to really like.  And so all kinds of thoughts went through your head as to what it might be.  And you keep asking about it, and they give you a few hints, but nothing more.  And so you keep speculating as to what it might be.  And time goes on, and your speculations get bigger, and they get grander.  And you can hardly wait to get this wonderful surprise you’ve been promised.

            And then the day comes!  And you finally get your awesome surprise!  And—it’s not really what you expected.  In fact, it’s nothing like you expected.  In fact, you’re not really sure what to make of it.  I mean, it’s nice and all.  But it’s really not the kind of thing you were thinking it would be.

            Our Bible reading for today is an Old Testament prophecy about the coming of Jesus.  It’s one of several prophecies in the Old Testament that said a King, a Savior, a Messiah, was going to be born.  The people of Israel knew all those prophecies.  They’d believed in them for hundreds of years.  But if you look at it, those prophecies really only kind of gave hints about who this Savior was going to be. 

            They talked about how the Savior was going to be born of a virgin, how he would be born in Bethlehem, and how he would be a descendant of King David.  And, of course, we talked about how each one of those prophecies came true.  But none of that tells anything about the person himself.  Just who was this Savior going to be?  What’s this Savior going to do?  Well, save people, I suppose, that’s why he’s called a savior, but how?  How are we going to be saved?  What does it even mean to say we’re going to be saved?  Saved from what?

           Look at what our reading from Isaiah today tells us.  The Savior is going to lead people out of the darkness and into the light.  The Savior is going to take away our burdens, shatter them.  The Savior will govern over everyone and bring peace.  And there will be no end to his governing or to the peace he’s going to bring.  He will reign with justice and righteousness forever.

            And the people of Israel heard that, and no one had a clue what it really meant.  You cannot blame them, really.  After all, the only frame of reference they had for interpreting this was human rulers and human governments.  They heard about a person who was going to reign on David’s throne, a person who would govern and bring justice and peace, and they got excited.  And they started speculating about this, and as time went on their speculations got bigger and grander.  They assumed this Savior would be someone who was going to take over on earth.  They assumed this would be an earthly king who would take over, wipe out the bad guys, put Israel back in control of the Promised Land, and make everything the way it should be on earth.  And they could hardly wait to get that wonderful Savior they’d been promised.

            An earthly Savior was not just the kind of Savior they expected, it was the kind of Savior they wanted.  And again, it’s hard to blame them.  These Old Testament prophecies of a Savior came when the Nation of Israel was in trouble, about to be taken over by a foreign country or to be sent into exile or something.  When you’re in that kind of trouble, what do you want?  What do you look for?  You look for some kind of a leader who can save you, someone who can take care of you.  You look for someone who can defeat the enemy, put things right, and solve all your problems, someone who will usher in a new Golden Age of prosperity and peace and justice.  That’s what the people of Israel wanted the Savior to be.

            And sometimes, that’s still what we want the Savior to be.  We look at the world, and there’s a whole lot of stuff going on, stuff that does not seem right to us.  We look at the country, and we see all kinds of arguments, a lot of anger, sometimes turning violent.  We look at our area, and see all kinds of problems in agriculture, with some crops from last year still out in the field.  We even see a lot of trouble within the United Methodist church right now—not this particular church, but the church as a whole.

            And a lot of times, what we really want is a Savior to come along and take care of the trouble.  We want a Savior who will come along and defeat the enemy, whatever we think the enemy happens to be.  We want someone who can make everything right, someone who can solve all the problems and user in a new Golden Age of prosperity and peace and justice for our country.  Sometimes that’s who we want our Savior to be, too.

            But that’s not who the Savior is.  At least not now.  The Bible tells us that Jesus is going to come again, and at that point there will be a day of judgment.  There will, eventually, be the coming of the new earth and the New Jerusalem and everything will be as it should be.  The Savior will do that, someday.  But not now.  For right now, that’s not who the Savior is.

            When Jesus came, he was not who the people of Israel assumed he would be.  And he was not who the people of Israel wanted him to be.  And so, when he came, a lot of the people of Israel missed it.  They looked somewhere else for the Savior, not even noticing that the Savior they had been looking for all these centuries was right there with them.  That’s a really sad thing, when you think about it.

            But you know, even the people who were there with Jesus, and recognized him as the Savior, missed it in a way, too.  Because even though they believed in Jesus as the Savior, they still were trying to make Jesus into the Savior they wanted him to be, rather than the Savior he was.  They kept trying to make him fight, to make him take power.  James and John asked Jesus to seat them at his right and left when he took control.  When Jesus told his disciples that he was about to be arrested, the disciples looked around for swords to fight back with.  Some people think one of the reasons Judas betrayed Jesus was to try to force Jesus to use his power to defeat their enemies and take power on earth.  They kept trying to make Jesus into the Savior they wanted him to be, rather than the Savior he came to be, the Savior he was.

            And we still, too often, try to make Jesus into the Savior we want him to be, rather than the Savior he came to be.  We want Jesus to take power on earth, to make everything the way we think it’s supposed to be.  But that’s not who Jesus is.  That’s who Satan wanted him to be.  Remember, that was the biggest temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness, the temptation to take power on earth.  And Jesus refused.

Jesus could’ve taken power that way.  Jesus could’ve raised an army, taken power, and ruled on earth.  Or, really, Jesus would not have needed to raise an army.  He probably could’ve just commanded and everyone would’ve had no choice but to obey.  But if he had done that, Jesus would’ve taken power by brute force.  And that’s not the kind of Savior Jesus is.

            I think one of reasons why that’s not the kind of Savior Jesus is, is that the most important thing to Jesus is love.  Jesus came to earth and lived among us out of love.  Jesus said the most important commandments are to love God and love others.  Jesus died for the forgiveness out of sins.  Jesus is a Savior of love.

            And brute force cannot result in love.  It can result in fear.  It can result in obedience.  But it cannot result in love.  In fact, it results in the exact opposite.  It’s pretty hard to truly love someone we fear.  And when we’re forced to do things against our will and without choice, we usually will come to resent whoever it is that’s forcing us to do it.  And the first chance we get, we rebel.  Brute force can require obedience, but it cannot result in love.

           Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  That’s what Isaiah called him, and that’s what he was and what he is.  And brute force cannot result in peace.  Only love can. 

So that’s how Jesus takes power—through love.  Jesus takes power through loving us.  Jesus takes power by loving us so much that he died so our sins would be forgiven.  And Jesus takes power when we open our hearts to him.  Jesus takes power when the Holy Spirit fills our hearts.  Jesus takes power when we feel his love and return his love and share his love with others.

That’s the kind of power Jesus wants—power over our hearts.  And that’s how Jesus saves us—when we give him that power.  When we give Jesus power over our hearts, we’re saved from fear.  We’re saved from worry.  We’re saved from anxiety.  We’re saved from selfishness and greed.  That’s not to say bad things won’t happen to us sometimes—those things are still part of life.  But when we give Jesus power over our hearts, we’re saved.  We know that no matter what happens, God will be with us and God will see us through it.  We’re saved.  Saved for a life of love in this world, and saved for eternal life and eternal love in heaven.

The Savior who came was not the Savior the people of Israel wanted.  And sometimes he’s not the Savior we want, either.  He’s better.  He’s not a Savior through the power of force.  He’s a Savior through the power of love.  And there will never be anything stronger than the power of Jesus’ love.

The Come to Jesus Moment

This is the message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday night, January 19, 2020.  The Bible verses used are John 1:29-51.

            Jesus is ready to start his ministry on earth.  He’s been baptized.  He had the Holy Spirit descend upon him like a dove.  A voice from heaven said, this is my Son, with Him I am well pleased.  All the preliminaries are done.  It’s time for Jesus to get started on what he came to earth to do.

            We generally think of Jesus starting by calling the disciples.  And you know, this shows how sometimes we really need to take a closer look at some of these Bible passages that we think we know.  Because we all have said it that way:  “Jesus called the disciples.”  I’ve said it that way, too.  But if you look at John’s account here, which is the first five of Jesus’ disciples being called, Jesus actually only called one of them.  He accepted them all, of course.  He wanted them all.  But he was not the one who initiated things with four of the first five disciples.

            Look at how this works.  John the Baptist is standing there with two of his disciples.  Jesus walks by.  John the Baptist says who Jesus is.  And immediately the two disciples leave John the Baptist and start following Jesus.

            Those are the first two of Jesus’ disciples.  We’re told that one of them is Andrew.  The other one is not named.  We assume it’s the disciple John, the one who wrote this gospel, and that he simply did not want to use his own name.  There are other places in the gospel of John where he avoids using his own name, so we assume that’s what’s going on here.  But the point is that these first two disciples were not chosen by Jesus.  They chose to follow Jesus, not the other way around.

            And the third disciple, Simon Peter, was not called by Jesus, either.  He’s Andrew’s brother.  We’re told that after Andrew decided to follow Jesus, the first thing he did was go find his brother Simon Peter and tell him they’d found the Messiah.  Then it says, “and he brought him to Jesus”.  Jesus did not go find Simon Peter.  Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus.

            The next disciple is the only one of the first five that Jesus calls.  It’s Philip.  We’re told that Jesus “found” Philip, and said to him “Follow me.”  But then, look at what happens.  Philip goes and finds Nathanael and tells him they’ve found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about.  Nathanael is skeptical, but Philip just says, “Come and see”, and he does.

            So four of the first five disciples were not called by Jesus at all.  Two of them came on their own, after hearing what John the Baptist said, and the other two came because someone they knew brought them to Jesus.  And maybe you’re thinking, “So what?”  What difference does it make how they got to Jesus as long as they got there?  And in one sense, you’re right.  As long as we get to Jesus it really does not matter how we get there.  But I think there are some lessons here for us.  Because I think the way these disciples found Jesus mirrors the way we find Jesus today.

            Some of us are like Philip.  Some of us are just kind of going about our business, living our lives, and suddenly Jesus comes along and speaks to us.  It could be through a direct contact, actually hearing the voice of Jesus or of an angel.  That may seem far-fetched to some of you, but I’ve talked to enough people and heard enough stories that I believe it does happen that way sometimes.  Or, it could be the Holy Spirit speaking directly to our hearts and souls somehow.  But that’s one way we find Jesus--through the Lord taking the initiative and speaking directly to us.

            But there was only one of the first five disciples who found Jesus that way.  It was not the way it happened for the majority.  And I think it’s not the way it happens for the majority of us, either.  It’s great when it does, don’t get me wrong.  But for most of us it happens in another way.

            One of the other ways it happens is the way it happened for Andrew and John.  They were already following John the Baptist.  They’d heard John the Baptist’s preaching about repentance and forgiveness.  They’d heard him tell them that he was preparing the way for when the Savior came.  What that means is that Andrew and John had a background in the faith.  They were open to the message of salvation.  And when they found Jesus, the one who could give them that salvation, they were ready to follow him right then.

            Some of us are like that.  Some of us have grown up in the church.  We’ve heard the word preached.  We’ve heard about repentance and forgiveness and God’s love.  We’re open to the message of salvation.  And when we find Jesus, the one who can give us that salvation, we’re ready to follow.

            But some of us are like Simon Peter and Nathanael.  Jesus did not send us a direct message.  We did not grow up in the church.  We were not looking for the message of salvation.  But then, someone came along and told us about it anyway.  And they brought us to Jesus.  Maybe some of us were like Simon Peter, who seems to have come right away when his brother went to get him.  But some of us are like Nathanael, openly skeptical of what we hear.  And someone says to us, “It’s okay if you’re skeptical.  But come and see.  Come and see for yourself.”

            What this shows, I think, is that God has all kinds of ways of calling people to him.  God gives some people a direct message.  And that’s awesome when it happens, but it’s not something in our control.  God either does that or God does not, based on whatever reasons God may have.

            God calls some people through their parents or others making sure they grow up in the church and have a background in the church.  And that’s a wonderful thing, too, when it happens.  But if you’re an adult now, you either grew up in the church or you did not.  We cannot go back and change the past, even if we’d like to.  However we grew up is how we grew up, for better or worse.

            But sometimes, God uses people to call other people.  God used Andrew to call Simon Peter.  God used Philip to call Nathanael.  And God can use you and me to call people to God, too.

            Now, notice, God did not have Andrew and Philip call complete strangers.  Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother.  Philip and Nathanael don’t appear to have been related, but from the way it’s written they clearly knew each other.  The people Andrew and Philip went to were people they already had a relationship with.  Simon Peter knew he could trust Andrew.  Nathanael knew he could trust Philip.  That relationship had already been established.

            And notice, too, that Andrew and Philip did not use any fancy words to persuade Simon Peter and Nathanael.  Andrew simply told Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah”.  Philip uses a few more words, but he basically says the same thing.  “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote.”  And when Nathanael is skeptical, Philip does not argue with him.  He does not go into a big spiel to try to persuade him.  He simply says, “Come and see.”  See for yourself.  We’ll show you what we’ve found, and you can decide whether I’m right or not.

            That’s all God asks us to do.  We don’t have to go onto a street corner and confront strangers with the gospel.  All God asks us to do is to go to people we know, people we already have some sort of relationship with, people who know they can trust us.  Go to those people, and tell them what we’ve found.  Tell them what our faith means to us.  Tell them how important our faith is to us.  Tell them how our faith helps us.  Tell them what this church means to us, how important this church is to us, how this church helps us.  And if they’re skeptical, we don’t need to argue with them or go into a big spiel to persuade them.  All we need to do is say, as Philip did, “Come and see”.  See for yourself.  We’ll show you what we have here, and you can decide for yourself whether we’re right or not.

            We won’t always succeed.  For all we know, Andrew and Philip might not have always succeeded.  Maybe they went to some other people and got turned down, we don’t know.  But we’ll succeed sometimes.  And when we do, we’ll have done what Jesus told us to do.  We’ll have made disciples of Jesus Christ.

            We come to God in all kinds of ways.  Sometimes God brings people to himself directly.  But sometimes, God uses us to bring people to him.  May we always be open to sharing our faith.  And when people are skeptical, may we always invite them to come and see.

Be An Andrew

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 19, 2020.  The Bible verses used are John 1:29-42.

            We all know there are twelve disciples, right?  How many of them can you name?

            Don’t worry, I’m not going to call on anybody.  But think about it.  How many of the names of the disciples do you know?

            Some of you probably know them all.  You maybe had to learn them in Sunday school class, or in confirmation, or something like that, and you still remember them.  I’m pretty sure my Mom could still rattle off all their names.  In all honesty, I cannot.  I never had to memorize them, and I’ve never bothered to.

            There are some we could all think of.  Peter.  James and John.  Judas, of course.  But after that, well, it gets a little tougher.  We might be able to come up with Philip.  Maybe Thomas--we remember Doubting Thomas.  And then, after some thought, maybe we could come up with one more.  Andrew.

            Andrew is kind of an unsung hero among the disciples.  He’s mentioned only twelve times in the Bible.  Four of them are just lists of the names of the disciples.  Two of them are when he’s called by Jesus to follow and become a disciple.  Twice he’s just mentioned in passing, and really has nothing to do with what’s going on.  

But the other times are all something really significant.  Andrew may not do much, but what he does always leads to something that turns out to be really important.

            One of them is in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  Andrew is the one who finds the boy who has five loaves and two fish, and he’s the one who brings that boy to Jesus.  And of course, Jesus then uses those five loaves and two fish to feed all those people.  If not for Andrew--well, I’m not saying Jesus could not have fed them anyway, but the story certainly would have been different.  Andrew’s part in that story is small, but it’s crucial to how the story plays out.

            Another time, there are some Greeks who want to talk to Jesus.  They tell Philip, but for some reason Philip does not want to tell Jesus about it.  He tells Andrew instead, and Andrew tells Jesus about these people who want to see him.  And this leads Jesus to tell Andrew, and all the rest of the disciples, that his death is going to come very soon.  Again, I’m not saying Jesus would not have found another occasion to tell them about this, but the fact is that’s Andrew going to Jesus that prompted him to do it.  Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s crucial to how things go.

            Yet another time, Jesus tells the disciples about a time when the temple will be destroyed.  Andrew is the one who asks Jesus when this is going to happen, and what the sign will be that it’s going to happen.  That’s what prompts Jesus to tell them about the end times, about families turn against each other, about false messiahs that will come, and that only the father knows when this will happen.  That’s a whole other sermon, or maybe even a sermon series, but the point here is that Andrew is the one who asked the question that prompted all this.  Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but crucial.

            And it’s the same in our reading for today.  This is just after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, which we talked about last week.  Andrew, at this point, is following John.  But then Jesus walks by, and John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”  And Andrew starts following Jesus instead.

            Now that’s pretty good in and of itself.  But then we’re told, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ).  And he brought him to Jesus.”  Jesus, of course, changes Simon’s name to Peter, which means rock.  And in Matthew, Jesus goes on to say that Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build his church.  And of course, Peter not only becomes the leader of the disciples, he becomes the leader of the church in the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Again, not to say Jesus could not have found Peter anyway, but the fact is that Andrew is the one who brought Peter to Jesus.  If not for Andrew, the entire story would have different.  Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s crucial.

            We know about Peter, James, and John because they’re among the Bible heroes.  They get a lot of publicity and acclaim, and rightly so.  They were Jesus’ closest friends while he was on earth.  In the years after Jesus left, they were instrumental in forming the early Christian church.  They did great, awesome, heroic things for God.

            But while we respect Peter, James, and John for that, and maybe even revere them for it, it also makes it harder for us to relate to them.  Because the fact is that most of us are not going to be heroes for God, at least not in the world’s eyes.  Most of us are not going to do great and awesome things.  We’re not going to preach to huge crowds.  We’re not going to spread the gospel to large groups of people who’ve never heard it before.  We’re not going to bring thousands of people to Christ.  And so, while we consider Peter, James, and John to be heroes, we also kind of think of them as being on a different level from us.  We admire them, but we don’t really think we could be like them.  And so, a lot of times, we don’t try.

            But Andrew is someone we can relate to.  Andrew did not do great, awesome, heroic things for God, or if he did the Bible does not tell us about them.  Andrew did small things.  But they were crucial things.  Andrew may not have brought thousands of people to Christ.  In fact, other than Peter, we don’t know if Andrew ever brought anyone to Christ.  But there are lots of people who would not have been brought to Christ if not for the things Andrew did.  Andrew may not have been the final step for anyone.  But he was part of the process.  He was a link in the chain.

            That is something that you and I can do.  We can be like Andrew.  We can do small things, but things that are crucial.  We may not be able to be great heroes.  But we can be part of the process.  We might never be the final step for anyone.  But we can be a link in the chain.

            And here’s the thing.  I suspect the chances are that when Andrew did the things he did, he did not do it with any grand plan in mind.  He probably never thought, “I’m going to be a part of the process of bringing lots of people to Christ!”  He simply did what he could do.  He did what needed to be done.  He said what needed to be said.  He asked the questions that need to be asked.  The questions he asked were sometimes obvious questions, and the things he did were sometimes obvious things, but nobody else would ask them or do them.  Andrew had the courage to ask and to do.  He took advantage of the chances that presented themselves in his time with Christ.

            When Jesus talks about the temple being destroyed, Andrew asks the obvious question, but one nobody else wanted to ask:  when’s this going to happen, and what will the signs be?  When some Greeks want to talk to Jesus, Philip is afraid to tell Jesus about it.  But Andrew knew someone needed to tell him, so Andrew did it.  When they’re looking for food for the five thousand, Andrew finds some food.  It’s not much, and he’s not sure what good it’ll do, but he still tells Jesus about it.  And when Andrew finds Jesus, and knows he’s the Messiah, he goes and finds his brother, so they can both follow Christ.  And whenever Andrew did these things, something happened.  Something changed.  Sometimes in a big way.  You can make the argument that the entire course of Christianity changed because of the things Andrew did and said.

            God may have called you to do something big and heroic--God does that sometimes.  But that’s not how it works for most of us.  Most of us will not be a Peter, or a John, or a James.  But we can all be an Andrew.  We can do what needs to be done.  We can say what needs to be said.  We can ask the questions that need to be asked.  When no one else has the courage to do things, or to say things, we can do them and say them.  And in doing that, we can follow Christ, just like Andrew did.

            You and I might bring people to Christ, or we might not.  But we can all be part of the process.  We can all be a link in the chain.  And when step up and have the courage to do our part, who knows what may happen?  Something may happen.  Something may change.  Maybe something will change in a big way.  Maybe we’ll change someone’s life for the better.  And maybe, just maybe, that person we change will change the world.

What Greatness Is

This is the message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday night, January 12, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Mark 9:30-37.

            Jesus was called a lot of things while he was on this earth.  He was called Rabbi, he was called Immanuel, God with us, he often called himself Son of Man.  But one of the things he was often called was “Teacher”.

            That is, of course, one of the reasons Jesus came to earth--to teach us.  It’s not the only reason, obviously.  Jesus came to save us from having to take the punishment for our sins.  But Jesus also came to teach us.  He taught us with words and He taught us by his example.  Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever walked on the earth.

            One of the things about being a teacher—and if you’ve ever tried to teach anyone anything you know this—one of the things about being a teacher is that a teacher has to have a ton of patience.  A teacher has to go over stuff, and then go over it again, and then go over it again.  A teacher has to present the same stuff in different ways, at different times, hoping desperately that one of these approaches will get through and the student will finally get it.  And then, just when the teacher thinks maybe the student really is starting to get it, the student does something or says something and the teacher’s heart just sinks, because the teacher knows the student still really does not have a clue.  It takes a ton of patience to be a teacher.

            I suspect that sort of thing happened to Jesus a lot.  He’d tell the disciples something, and then he’d tell them again, and then he’d show them, and then he’d go over it one more time just to make sure, and he’d think they were getting it, and then they’d do something or say something that showed that they were nowhere near getting it.  It had to be very frustrating for the divine Teacher to have to work with students as dull as the disciples.

            Our reading today described one of those times.  It starts with the disciples having an argument.  Now, that in and of itself is not so bad.  Even the best of friends will get into an argument once in a while.  But here, we’re told that the disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest.

            When Jesus found that out, he must have just shaken his head.  Of all the things for Jesus’ disciples to argue about.  He’d told them so many times about needing to be servants.  He’d told them so many times about how they needed to be humble and how they needed to put others ahead of themselves.  And there they are, arguing about which one of them is the greatest.

            But, Jesus was a teacher.  He had patience.  And so, Jesus tries to teach them again.  He tells them, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

            And then, the way this is written, you can just see Jesus thinking, “Telling these guys is not going to be enough.  I have to show them.  I have to give them an illustration, or an example, or something.”  So, he takes a little kid who’s there, he picks him up and he says to the disciples, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

            We’re not told how the disciples reacted to that.  Mark leaves the story there and moves on to talk about something else.  Did they get it, do you think?  Do you think this time they really understood what Jesus was telling them?  For that matter, do we?

            We understand that Jesus tells us to be humble.  But there’s more to it than that.  Let’s think about this for a minute.

What are little children?  Little children, by definition, are people who can do nothing for you.  I mean, that’s not their fault.  They cannot help being little kids.  They’ll grow, and they’ll learn, and they’ll be able to do stuff.  But a little kid, one or two or three years old, cannot do anything for you.  I mean, yes, we can get love and affection from them, and that can make us feel good.  But from a practical, real-world standpoint, a little kid cannot do anything for you.  There’s no advantage to be gained by being kind to a little kid.  They cannot help you financially, they cannot help you socially, they cannot help you accomplish anything.  And this was especially true in the society in which Jesus lived, where little kids were not considered of any value at all until they got old enough to work.

            So, when we welcome a child, when we’re kind to a child, when we help a child, we’re doing something for someone who cannot return the favor.  We’re acting with no selfish motives whatsoever.  We’re acting simply and purely out of selflessness and love.

            That’s what Jesus was trying to tell his disciples to do.  It’s what he tells us to do, too.  To act with no selfish motives.  To do things for people with no thought about whether they can do anything for us.  To act simply and purely out of selflessness and love.

            But Jesus does not just leave it there.  He goes on to say, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.”

            When we see a little child, we are seeing Jesus.  When we look into the face of a little child, we’re looking into Jesus’ face.

            Now some of you, if you have to deal with little kids every day, may be a little skeptical of this.  Because we all know that little kids do not always appear to us to be like Jesus.  Little kids don’t always do what they’re told.  Little kids misbehave sometimes.  In fact, sometimes little kids can get into big trouble.

            But you know, that might not be so unlike Jesus after all.  You know, Jesus was a little kid once, too.  We’re not told much about what Jesus was like when he was a little kid, but I would not be surprised if, when he was two or three years old, Jesus did not always do what Joseph and Mary told him to.  I would not be surprised if Jesus misbehaved sometimes.  I’m not saying Jesus sinned, because he was the divine Son of God, but a two- or three-year-old kid misbehaving is not sinning.  They’re just doing what two- or three-year-old kids do.  

            Jesus said that when we do something for a little kid, we’re doing it for him.  But that’s not all.  Jesus went on to say that we’re not just doing it for him.  When we do something for a little kid, we’re also doing it for God the Father.

            That’s pretty awesome, because you know, it usually seems like there’s really nothing we can do for God.  I mean, God is all-powerful.  God is all-mighty.  God sees everything and knows everything and can do anything.  What can we do for God?

            Well, this is what we can do for God.  Love people.  Especially love people who cannot do anything for us in return.  That’s how we do something for God.  

Yes, God can love them, too, and God does, but God asks us to love them as well.  And when you think about it in this context, this is an honor from God.  We are given the honor of being allowed to do something for God.  God could do it without us, but God chooses to do it with us.  That’s a privilege!  That’s an honor!  The all-powerful, all-mighty God who sees everything and knows everything and can do anything allows us to do this for God.  That’s an awesome thing, when you think about it.  God does not need our help, but God allows us to help.  What an incredible honor that is.  

The disciples wanted to become great.  And Jesus said yes, you can become great.  Here’s how.  You can become great by taking advantage of the opportunity God gives you to serve God by loving the people God created.  And you can especially become great by loving the people God created who cannot do anything for you in return.  Those are the people God especially wants you to love and to help and to welcome among you.  Jesus said, whenever you do that, you’re doing it for me.  And when you do it for me, you’re doing it for God the Father, too.

We don’t know how the disciples reacted.  Maybe, this time, they finally got it.  More likely, they again did not understand.  Or, if they did understand, it was just for a little while, and then they went back to being who they were before.  Because that’s what usually happened with the disciples.  No matter how many times the Teacher tried to explain things to them, they never really seemed to understand.

And so often, we don’t understand, either.  But the Teacher keeps working with us, just like he worked with the disciples.  We’re allowed to read and re-read the Bible, so that eventually we can get the message.  And the Holy Spirit works on our hearts, too, so that we truly can understand and be changed people, God’s people, people who accept the honor of doing things for God the Son and for God the Father.

When we look into the face of someone who cannot do anything for us, we’re looking into the face of God.  When we do something for someone who cannot do anything for us, we’re doing something for God.  When we love someone who cannot do anything for us, we’re loving God.  And when we do that, then we truly become great in the eyes of God.

A Poem About Greatness

When I was a kid I used to dream

About becoming a famous person

An actor, a comic, a dancer, a singer,

An athlete (although that was less certain)

I’d dream of being on the Tonight Show

Being interviewed by Johnny Carson

Telling him about my latest show

I was sure I would be a star soon

As I got older my dreams made some changes

Just as they usually do

But I still had hopes of being great at something

Though what wasn’t always in view

And I got older still and I understood

That greatness would not be my fate

I might get good, or at least half-way decent

But I would certainly never be great

But then I looked at what Jesus said

And my thoughts about greatness changed

They no longer were about fortune or fame

My ideas became rearranged

Jesus said greatness is found in service

Of putting others before yourself

The way to be first is to put yourself last

That’s where we find the true wealth

I’m not saying I’ve done that yet

I still have a long way to go

But I’ve made a start, and I sometimes succeed

And maybe I can make that start grow

I’ll keep working on it, and I might get better

I don’t know if I’ll ever be best

But I’ll ask for God’s help and I’ll do what I can

And trust God to take care of the rest

Spirit Happens

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 12, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 3:13-17.

One of the best things I get to do as a pastor--maybe the best thing I get to do--is to do baptisms.  I really love to do baptisms.  I’ve done them for people everywhere from a month old to eighty-four years old.  I’ve done baptisms in filled churches and I’ve done baptisms where there were just a few people there.  And no matter how many people are there, and no matter what the circumstances are, a baptism is always a special and wonderful thing.  In fact, I can honestly say that every time I’ve done a baptism, I’ve felt the presence of God.  

Now don’t take that the wrong way.  I don’t mean that to be arrogant statement at all.  God does not show up because of anything I do.  In fact, the first time I did a baptism, I really felt like kind of a fraud.  I mean, there I was pouring out some water and reading some words and then putting a little of that water on someone’s head, and I thought something was going to happen because of that?  Who did I think I was?  

And yet, somehow, despite all my flaws, and in also despite the fact that in that first baptism I really was not too sure what I was doing or if I was going to do it right, I still felt the presence of God.  God was there, not because of me, but in spite of me.  God was there because showing up for a Christian baptism is what God does.

            In our Bible reading for today, we learn about Jesus’ baptism.  And that was a special and wonderful thing, too.  And obviously, God was present there, and everyone there felt God’s presence.  So let’s take a look at it.

            John the Baptist was out by the Jordan River.  He was baptizing people.  In fact, he had baptized lots of people before Jesus came to the river.  I mean, obviously:  that’s why he was called John the Baptist.  John had attracted quite a following with his baptisms.  He was pretty well-known in the area at the time.  People from all over were coming to see him.

            And you know, he was kind of a sight to see.  If you remember the description of John the Baptist, he’s a guy who’s living out in the wilderness, wearing clothes made of camel’s hair, eating locusts.  Saying things like, “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”  Telling people they needed to repent and be baptized so their sins could be forgiven.

            He was a sight to see, but people clearly did not just come to see the show.  Somehow, this strange dude with the funny clothes and weird diet was really effective.  In the gospel of Mark, we’re told that “the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem” went out to him, confessed their sins, and were baptized by John.  Even allowing for the possibility that this is a generalization, that’s still a whole lot of people baptized by John.

            And then Jesus comes out to be baptized by John.  And the immediate question that comes to mind is:  why?  Why would Jesus feel that he needed to go out to the Jordan River to be baptized by John?

            Remember, the point of John’s baptism was repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  What sins did Jesus have to repent of?  What sins did Jesus need to be forgiven for?  Jesus was the divine Son of God.  Why would Jesus need to be baptized?

            It cannot have been that he was being baptized for the forgiveness of our sins.  That was the point of Jesus’ death on the cross.  If being baptized could’ve gotten forgiveness or our sins, Jesus would not have had to be crucified.  There may have been times Jesus wished it could’ve worked that way, but apparently it could not.  It appears that Jesus had to die so that our sins could be forgiven.  He could not be baptized so that our sins could be forgiven.  There had to be something else going on here.

            It was not simply to follow Jewish ritual and tradition, either.  Baptism was not a particularly important or necessary ritual in Jewish culture.  You can find some roots of it there, in the cleansing rituals that Jewish people had, but there was no thought that people had to be baptized so their sins could be forgiven and they could get right with God.  So that’s no answer, either.

            Some have suggested that Jesus was baptized by John to demonstrate that he and John were allies, that Jesus’ ministry was aligned with and was in fact the fulfillment of John’s ministry.  And of course, it does demonstrate that.  The thing is, though, that’s only something that really becomes clear when we look at it from a future perspective.

As we read the story now, we can see it showing that Jesus’ ministry was the fulfillment of John’s statement that “after me comes the one more powerful than I” and “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”.  We can see that now, but there’s no reason to think people saw it then.  Remember, at this time, Jesus had not yet started his ministry.  He was nobody special.  There was no big deal made of it when Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.  Nobody said, “Wow, Jesus is here!”  He was just one of the crowd, another guy standing in line, one of the many people coming to John to be baptized.

I looked at several explanations for Jesus’ baptism as I was preparing this message, and quite honestly I did not find any of them convincing.  I’m not saying they were a bunch of baloney or anything.  Many of the explanations people suggest may have been a factor in it.  But none of them seem to really answer the question.

The fact is that we really don’t know why Jesus decided to be baptized by John.  I think it’s possible that even Jesus did not fully understand it.  Did Jesus know what was going to happen when he went to the Jordan River to be baptized?  Did he know that, as Matthew tells us, heaven would be opened and the Spirit of God would descend like a dove and alight on him?  Did Jesus know that a voice was going to come from heaven saying “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased”?

He may have known all that, of course.  After all, he was Jesus, the divine Son of God.  He may have known exactly how all this was going to play out.

But I think it’s at least possible that he did not know.  I think it’s possible that Jesus, himself, did not really know why he needed to go to John and be baptized.  It’s possible that he did not know what was going to happen when he was baptized.  He just knew, somehow, that it was something he needed to do.  It’s possible that he just knew he needed to do this and he knew that something was going to happen when he did it.  It’s possible that he knew that somehow, in some way, he knew he was going to feel the presence of God the Father through this baptism ritual, even if he did not know how that was going to happen.

And when you think about it, a lot of times that’s how we approach baptism today, too.  We bring children to be baptized.  Sometimes we wait until they’re teenagers for them to be baptized.  Sometimes we wait until we’re adults to be baptized.  Sometimes we baptized by sprinkling, sometimes by pouring, sometimes by immersion.  We baptize at all kinds of ages and in all kinds of ways.

And yet, we cannot explain exactly what happens and how it happens when we do that.  I’m the one standing up here doing it, and I cannot explain it.  People take some vows, I pour some water into a basin, I say some words, I put some of the water on someone’s head.  Think about this:  suppose you had no knowledge of what baptism was, and you walked in here and saw me doing that stuff I just described.  You’d probably wonder what kind of weird people were in this place, right?  You’d think this was a really strange ritual of some sort.

But still, we do it.  We do it, and we expect something to happen as a result of it.  And something does happen as a result.  We cannot explain how, exactly, but it does.

As United Methodists, we believe, as do many other denominations, that baptism is one of God’s “means of grace”.  What does that mean?  It means baptism is one of the ways God gives us grace, and it’s one of the ways we receive grace from God.

In other words, when we are baptized, God shows up.  God’s holy presence is there.  God’s Holy Spirit descends on us, just like it descended on Jesus at his baptism.  Now, I’ve never seen a dove come down from heaven when I’ve baptized someone.  I’ve never heard a voice from heaven, either.  But each of us is a child of God.  Each of us is loved by God.  And each of us has God’s Spirit in our hearts and in our souls.  And one of the ways that happens for us is through baptism.

We may not fully understand that.  But that’s okay.  Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us that we have to understand everything.  The Bible tells us to trust.  The Bible tells us to have faith.  The Bible tells us to love.  The Bible tells us to follow.  It does not tell us we always have to understand.

We may not understand everything, but we understand enough.  We understand, as Jesus did, that we need to be baptized.  We may not fully understand why.  We may not fully understand what happens when we’re baptized.  But we understand that we need to be.  And we understand that when we are, somehow, in some way, God is going to be present.  God’s Holy Spirit is going to descend on us.  And then, even if we don’t see a dove, and even if we don’t hear a voice, we will know.  Somewhere inside us, we will know.  We’ll know that we are children of God.  We’ll know that we are loved by God.  We’ll know that God’s Spirit is in our hearts and in our souls.  And as long as we do our best to listen to God’s Spirit and to follow God’s Spirit, God will be well-pleased with us.

Life Turned Upside Down

This is the message given in the Sunday night service of the Gettysburg United Methodist church on January 5, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 2:13-23.

            So Christmas has come and gone.  I mean, we’re still kind of in the Christmas season.  We still have the decorations up.  The kids are still on vacation from school.  

But really, we’re kind of moving on from it.  The presents have all been opened.  The kids have broken half the toys and are getting bored with the other half.  At least, that’s how it was when I was a kid.  People are planning their New Year’s Eve celebrations.  Wanda and I might get crazy and stay up clear past ten o’clock.  And then it’ll be time for everyone’s life to get back to normal. 

After that first Christmas, Joseph and Mary probably wanted their lives to get back to normal, too.  But that’s not how it worked out.  In fact, it was going to be a long time before their lives got back to normal again.  

We don’t know how long Joseph and Mary stayed in Bethlehem after Jesus was born.  Long enough for the wise men to find them there, anyway.  We always put the wise men in our nativity scenes, but most people think it was quite some time before they actually got to Bethlehem.  

But now, as we pick up the story tonight, the wise men have gone home.  And Joseph and Mary are ready to go home, too.  But it does not work out that way.  An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him to go to Egypt instead.  And the reason is that Herod is looking for Jesus and wants to kill him.

Imagine that you’re Joseph or Mary, and you hear this.  What’s your reaction going to be?

I think mine would’ve been confusion.  I mean, here you are, the earthly parents of the Messiah, the Savior.  Just that, in and of itself, would be a pretty heavy responsibility.  And then, it turned out that this Messiah, this Savior, was born in a barn a hundred miles from home.  Okay, that’s kind of strange.  You wonder why God would let things happen that way.  But okay, we got through that.  We’ve been in Bethlehem for a while.  The census is over.  We can go home and get started raising this holy child the right way, or at least as best as we can.

Except no.  We cannot go home.  We’ve got to go...to Egypt?  To a foreign country?  A place where we don’t know anyone?  They may not have even spoken the language there.  And we’ve got to go with nothing more than what we can carry?  

All that would’ve been enough right there.  But oh, by the way, the reason you’ve got to go there is because King Herod wants to kill your son the Messiah.  And if he has to kill you to get to him, well, that’s no big deal to him.  You’re not just going to a foreign country with the Savior, you’re doing it on the run for your lives.

Your head would be spinning, right?  You mean God, the almighty God, is going to have you raise the Savior, the Messiah, the one your people, the Jews, have been waiting for forever, in a foreign country?  How’s that gonna work?  What are you supposed to do for housing there?  What are you supposed to use for money?  How are you even going to get anything to eat?  

I mean, this is crazy, right?  This makes no sense.  But your only alternative is to try to hide from Herod where you are, and you know that’s not gonna work.  Herod might be a ruthless dictator, but he’s very thorough.  He’s going to have his people going everywhere, house to house, village to village, and all through the countryside as well.  If you don’t leave, Herod is going to find you.  And he’s going to kill Jesus, and probably you, too.

So, you go.  But you have to wondering, don’t you, what in the world God can be up to?  After all, this is the all-powerful God we’re talking about here.  This is the one who arranged this whole virgin birth thing in the first place.  That God cannot protect the Messiah from Herod’s soldiers?  You have to take him to Egypt instead?  

Well, as little sense as it makes to you, that seems to be the plan.  So you go.  You go to Egypt.  And you’re glad you did, because Herod sure enough would’ve killed Jesus if you’d stayed.  He killed all the boys who were two years old or less.  What a horror.  Again, why did God not stop that?  Why did God allow all those innocent children to be slaughtered?  You don’t know.  None of it makes any sense at all.

But you’re in Egypt, and you make the best of it.  You make your way, somehow, through all the hazards and problems and pitfalls that come from living in a foreign country.  And you start to get used to it.  You go about raising the Savior as best you can.  Life starts to have a certain kind of normalcy to it after all.  If this is how it’s going to go, well, it could be worse.

Except it’s not going to go that way at all.  That normalcy you thought you were starting to have?  Forget it.  The angel shows up, and you can just imagine Joseph thinking “Not you again.”  But it is the angel again, and this time the message is that it’s time to go back home.  And so, Joseph and Mary take Jesus on another long, arduous trip.  But they finally do get home.  And since the Bible leaves the story there, we assume that they finally were able to have a more or less normal life.  That is, if it’s possible to have a normal life when the child you’re raising is the Savior, the Messiah, the divine Son of God.

The thing is, we do a disservice to Joseph and Mary if we just stop the Christmas story with the baby in the manger with shepherds and wise men around.  That’s a nice, peaceful, happy ending, but the years after that were anything but peaceful for Joseph and Mary.

Think of the number of times God deliberately turned their lives upside down.  The first time, of course, was just the circumstances of Mary’s pregnancy.  We don’t know how many people Joseph and Mary might have told about those circumstances, but it’s a pretty safe bet that anyone they did tell was pretty skeptical at best.  And then, having to travel to Bethlehem with Mary almost ready to give birth.  You can say that was not God’s fault, that was because of the census, but still, God was the one who timed the birth to come during the census.  And then, when they thought they could go home, they had to go to Egypt instead.  And then, just as they’re getting settled in Egypt, they have to hit the road again, heading back to Egypt.

And notice, God did not give Joseph and Mary any knowledge of what the overall plan was.  When the angel first appeared to Mary and then to Joseph, that angel never said anything about a birth in a stable, or about a trip to Egypt, or anything else.  And when the angel told them to go to Egypt, the angel said nothing about how long they might be there.  It might have been the rest of their lives for all Joseph and Mary knew.  Joseph and Mary were asked to do all these hard, almost impossible things, without any clue about what the ultimate plan might be.  They just knew they were supposed to do something, and so they did it.

Have you had times when it felt like your life was being turned upside down?  I suspect you have.  Most of us have, usually more than once.  Just like Joseph and Mary, we’re going along with our lives, thinking everything is fine, thinking we know how life is going to go.  Then, suddenly, something happens, and all of a sudden we don’t have a clue how life’s going to go.  Then, just about the time it seems like we’ve gotten through the tough time and things are getting back to normal, boom, our lives are turned upside down again.  And then we’re about through that, and bam, it happens again.

Now, I’m not saying that every time our lives get turned upside down it’s because God caused it.  Sometimes it’s the result of choices we make.  Sometimes it’s just the way circumstances work out, and we don’t know why.  But it happens to all of us at some point.  Maybe you’re going through it now.  If you’re not, the chances are you will at some point.

So if it feels like your life is upside down right now, or the next time it does feel that way, think about where God might be in it.  Because, you know, God can be in it even if God did not cause it.  Romans Eight, Twenty-eight tells us that God can work all things for the good of those who love him.  So the chances are that, when our lives are being turned upside down, God is in it somewhere.

Think about where God might be.  Think about why God might be allowing it to happen.  Is there something you’re supposed to do as a result of this?  Is there somewhere you’re supposed to go?  Is there something you’re supposed to learn?  Is there someone you’re supposed to go to?  Where might God be?

Joseph and Mary’s lives were turned upside down, over and over again.  But God was always with them.  They did not always understand, but they trusted God.  And God saw them through it all.

Our lives will get turned upside down, too.  Maybe over and over again.  But God will be with us.  We may not always understand.  But if you and I trust God, God will see us through it all, too.