Not an Option

A couple of weeks ago, early Sunday morning, I stopped at Gas N Goodies to get a Diet Coke before heading to Onida to start my round of church services.  As I pulled in, there was a pickup pulling a boat that was pulling out.  That's not an unusual sight around here, of course.  As I watched them leave, I thought, "Well, I guess that guy's not going to church today."

But as I thought about it, I wondered.  Was that someone who ever went to church?  Don't get me wrong, I have no idea who it was.  That's not the point.  But I thought, "I wonder if that person even considered going to church today.  I wonder, when he was planning his weekend, whether going to church was even something he considered to be one of his options.”

I have no way of knowing--again, I have no idea who it was.  But for an awful lot of people, even around here, that’s the case.  There’s a large number of people like that, even in our little communities.  A large number of people who, when they’re planning their weekends, don’t even think about the possibility of going to church.  A large number of people who don’t even consider attending church as one of their options for the weekend.

That doesn’t necessarily make them bad people or anything.  It does not even make them unChristian.  But I suspect, for a substantial number of them, Christian faith is not something they think about very much.  Some may, but a lot probably don’t.  They would probably claim to be Christians, if asked, but they don’t allow their Christian faith to impact their lives to any significant degree.

That’s a problem for many people who do attend church, too.  But if we attend church regularly, we at least are making some attempt to allow our faith to impact our lives.  Even if it’s only for one hour a week, that’s still better than zero hours a week.  Our goal should be higher than that, obviously, but something, even a minimal something, is still better than nothing.

When we talk about reaching people for Christ, this is a problem.  For many people, just the idea of coming to church is a foreign concept.  They probably know someone who attends church, but there’s a good chance that it’s not someone they know well, not someone they consider a close friend.  Because of that, they don’t even think about coming to church on Sunday.  It’s not even on their radar screen.  They’re not against the idea of church, necessarily.  They just think of it as something for other people.  It’s not something for them.

How do we get people to come to church when coming to church is not even something that’s on their radar screen?  I don’t know.  I wish I had an answer.  I’ve heard a lot of “experts” talk about it, but there’s no simple, easy solution.  If there was, we’d all be using it and the problem wouldn’t exist.  

What I know, though, is that we have to keep trying.  Even if we don’t have an answer, we have to keep trying.  Even if we feel like we don’t know what we’re doing, even if we feel like we don’t have a clue how to do this, we have to keep trying.

If we don’t keep trying, if we give up and quit, we know what will happen.  Nothing.  If we do keep trying, even ineptly, well, maybe we’ll stumble into an answer.  And you know what?  God just may help us do that.  God wants us to reach these people, you know.  God wants us to bring them into the church.  So if we keep trying, and if we ask God for help, God just might bless our efforts, as feeble as they may be.  And something might happen.  Maybe something good.  Maybe even something better than we ever imagined.

Maybe not, too.  That’s up to God.  But the point is that we need to keep trying.  No matter what the situation is, we need to continue to be faithful to God and to do our best to serve God.  God can use our best, even when our best isn’t very good, in all kinds of awesome ways when God chooses to do that.

So keep trying.  Keep trying to reach people for God.  Let’s see what God does when we do.

Come Near

This is the message given on Sunday morning, July 26, 2020, in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are James 4:4-10.

            Can you believe this is the last Sunday of July?  Summer always goes too fast for me, but with the coronavirus concerns, it seems like time is just really messed up for me.

            I think at least part of it is that we have not had the events that mark the passage of time for us.  We did not have the basketball tournaments in March.  We did not have baseball opening day in April.  We had Easter--you really cannot stop Easter--but we did not celebrate it the way we usually do.  We did not have the spring concerts at the school.  Mothers’ Day and Father’s Day celebrations had to be scaled back.  The same with graduation.  Birthday celebrations, anniversary celebrations, even weddings and funerals have either been postponed or scaled way back.  

All these things that we usually count on to mark the passage of time have simply not been there.  We talk about things getting back to normal, but we don’t know when or even if that will happen.  If it does not happen, then what?  What is normal going to look like in the future?  No one knows.

No one except God, of course.  God knows exactly how this is all going to turn out.  And in an uncertain world, God is the one we can always count on.  God was there before the world began, and God will be there after the world ends.  The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  God never changes.

In a rapidly-changing world, it’s comforting to know that.  In fact, it’s one of the most important things for us to know.  When we feel like the ground is constantly shifting under our feet, when the things we’ve counted on to always be there are not there anymore, we need to stay close to God.  We need God to be our anchor, to be our refuge, to be the one we can always hold onto, no matter what.  That’s what James is telling us in our bible reading for today.  He says, “Come near to God, and He will come near to you.”

            Do you feel that you are near to God right now?  I hope some of you do.  But I suspect there are some who don’t.  Maybe you’ve never really thought about it much.  Or maybe you’ve tried to come near to God, but it just does not seem to have worked.  A lot of us have had times like that.  Maybe you’re having one now.

            How do we get close to God?  Well, I’m going to give the answer you probably expect:  we need to pray.  But there’s more to it than just that.  It’s important that we pray, but what we pray and how we pray and just as important as that we pray, especially if we’re talking about trying to get closer to God.

             A lot of times, when we pray, what we do is give God a list of things we’d like God to do.  Now that’s not necessarily a selfish thing or a bad thing.  It might be, but it might not.  Sometimes that list includes things like praying for God’s protection over a loved one.  Or it might include praying that God will bring healing to someone we care about who needs healing.  Or it might include praying that God will restore a relationships that’s been broken.  

And even if we pray for ourselves, that’s not necessarily a bad or selfish thing.  There’s nothing wrong with praying that God will help us with our health, or will help us in our work, or will give us safe travels, or will help us in a relationship, or a lot of other things we might pray about.  After all, it was just a couple of weeks ago we read from Paul’s letter to the Philippians where he says, “in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  It’s okay for us to ask God to do things.

It’s okay, but it’s not necessarily something that’s going to help us get closer to God.  It might, but it might not, too.  In fact, there’s a chance it will move us farther away from God.  After all, if we ask God to do something, and God does not do it, we may start to doubt God or to think God does not care about us.  

So if our goal is to get closer to God, we need to pray in a different way.  What way?  Well, let’s think about it.

You and I are God’s children, right?  I mean, we say that all the time.  So, what are the things that make children feel close to their parents?

It’s probably not the things the parents do for their children.  It could be, or at least that could be part of it.  But you know, we can think of parents who’ve given their children all kinds of things, and yet the parents don’t seem to be particularly close to the children.  

If you were ever a young child--and I think a lot of us were--think about some of your favorite times with your parents.  There may have been some events, some family vacations and so forth, that you remember fondly.  But I suspect, if you really think about it, some of your favorite times with your parents were when you were just kind of hanging out together.  You may not have even been doing something together--you might have been, but you might not.  But you were together.  You were there with your dad, or your mom, or both.

Do you remember how you felt?  You felt safe, right?  You felt protected.  You felt loved.  You felt like you did not have to worry about anything, because Dad and Mom were there.  You knew they’d take care of things, and everything would be all right.

That’s our guide for getting closer to God in prayer.  We need to just be with God.  We need to hang out with God.  We need to just feel that God is with us.  We need to be in God’s presence.  

And so, we pray differently.  We can still present our requests to God.  But after we do that, we need to keep praying.  And we need to pray that God will allow us to be with God.  We need to pray that God will allow us into God’s presence.  We need to pray that God’s Holy Spirit will be with us.  To lead us.  To guide us.  To encourage us.  To inspire us.  To give us courage, to give us strength, to give us enthusiasm, to give us whatever it is we may need.  But most of all, we need to just pray that we can feel God with us.  We need to pray that God will be close to us, and that we can be close to Him.  That’s how can get that feeling of safety and protection and love from God.  That’s how we can come near to God.

Now think of it from the other way.  Many of you have been parents of young children.  When your young children were with you, and you were just kind of hanging out together, how did that make you feel?  You felt pretty good, right?  You enjoyed that time.  In fact, you cherished that time.  You probably wish you could go back in time and have some of those times again, because they meant that much to you.

That’s how God feels when we come near to Him.  God feels good when we come near to Him.  God enjoys that time.  God cherishes that time.  God wants to be there with us.  God wants to help us feel safe and protected and loved.  That’s why it says that when we come near to God, God will come near to us.  There is nothing God wants more than for us to rely on Him.  There is nothing God wants more than for us to come near to Him.  You and I mean that much to God.

God understands how hard life can be for us.  It’s never been easy, at least not since Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden of Eden.  And if you remember God’s words to Adam and Eve in Genesis Chapter Three, it’s not supposed to be easy.  Life on earth is supposed to have its problems.  That’s just the way it is.

But God is always there to help us.  God never abandons us.  Even when we turn away from God, even when we turn our backs on God, God is still there for us.  We may go away from God, but God will never go away from us.  God still stands ready to help us.  And any time we’re ready to turn back to God again, God will be there.  Again, when we come near to God, God will come near to us.

It’s okay for us to ask God to do things for us.  But we also need to ask God to just help us be close to God and allow us to be close to God.  And when life is so uncertain, and so confusing, we need to be even closer to God.  We need to rely on God even more.  When you feel like there’s nothing to rely on anymore, when it feels there’s nothing to hold onto, hold onto God.  Come near to God.  God will come near to you.  When you do, God will take care of things.  And you’ll know that everything will turn out all right.  Because you’ll feel the love that comes from being close to God.

A Small Step

One of the things that tends to happen when you write sermons is that you preach to yourself as much as you do to anyone else.  That’s been the case recently for me.  I’ve been talking a lot about how, as Christians, we need to be more open about our faith.  We need to talk about it with people.  We need to not act like we’re ashamed of our faith or trying to hide it, but are proud of our faith and want to share it with everyone.

I think all that’s true, but I don’t think I’ve probably done a very good job of living it out in my own life.  Most people in town know I’m a pastor, so they probably assume that I have Christian faith.  But I don’t talk about it a whole lot.  I do in church, of course, and in church meetings.  But at other times?  Not so much.  That’s why I say I’m preaching to myself.  It’s a message I need to hear, and to put into practice, at least as much as anyone else.

But I have taken one small step toward being more open about my faith.  It’s not a huge step.  I clearly need to do more.  I certainly don’t mean this to sound like I’m patting myself on the back for doing it.  But if you’re a friend of mine on facebook, you may have noticed that I’m posting a lot more stuff about Christianity and about Christian faith.  Some of it is Bible quotes, some of it is statements from great Christian leaders, some of it is inspirational.  But I’m doing more of that sort of thing than I used to.

So what do I hope to accomplish by this?  Do I think posting this stuff is going to bring large numbers of people to Christ?  Well, no, not really.  I mean, it’d be wonderful if it did.  God can do anything, of course, and if God chose to bring people to Christ in this way that’d be awesome.  But that’s not really why I’m doing this.

The main reason I’m doing this, really, is as a means of planting the flag, so to speak.  It’s a way of saying “Here I stand.”  It’s a way of leaving no doubt to anyone who sees it about what I believe.

I think it’s important that Christians do that.  Society tries very hard to make us keep our Christian faith to ourselves.  It used to be that the two things you weren’t supposed to talk about were politics and religion, but it seems like everyone’s talking about politics these days.  So that just leaves religion, especially Christianity.  We’re told, in a lot of different ways, that we should keep all that Jesus stuff to ourselves.

But that’s wrong.  It’s a way of trying to marginalize Christians.  If we don’t talk about our faith, we cannot bring others to it.  And then, we start doubting it ourselves.  We wonder if we’re the only ones who feel like we do.  After all, we don’t see anyone else talking about it.  Maybe nobody else believes it.  Maybe we’re the only ones.

So, if I post Christian stuff, maybe it’ll strengthen the faith of others.  Maybe it’ll help people realize they’re not the only ones who feel the way they do.  And maybe they’ll start posting some stuff, too.  And maybe other people’s faith will be strengthened.  And if enough of us do it, maybe there will be some people brought to Christ after all.

Maybe not, too.  That’s up to God.  But I know Jesus did not say, “Keep your faith in me to yourself.”  Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”  We cannot do that by keeping our faith quiet.  We need to be open about it if we’re going to spread it to others.

Again, what I’ve done so far is just a small step.  I need to do more.  But it is a step, and the old saying is that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  So what’s a step you can take?  What you can you do to be more open about your Christian faith?  It doesn’t have to be a huge step.  It can be a small step.  But it does need to be a step.

Think about what step you can take.  Then, ask God to help you take it.

The Joy of Faith

The message given on Sunday morning, July 12, 2020, in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Ephesians 6:10-18.

            I assume everyone here, as well as everyone who’ll watch our livestream, would say you’re a Christian.  Now, if anyone’s not, that’s okay.  You’re still welcome.  But my assumption is that everyone is.  So, let me ask you this:  why?  Why are you a Christian?

            For most of us, the answer would probably be “Because I believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior.”  And of course, that’s pretty much the definition of a Christian.  So let me ask it another way.  What does being a Christian do for you?  What do you really get out of being a Christian?

            Well, there might be a lot of answers to that questions.  Salvation.  Eternal life.  Peace.  Hope.  Love.  And those are all good answers.  But one other answer that should show up someplace is joy.  Our Christian faith should give us joy.

            We’ve been looking at Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  In that letter, which is only four chapters long, he uses the word “rejoice” eight times.  He uses the word “joy” five more times.  Paul is making it clear that one thing our faith in Jesus Christ should do for us is give us joy.

            Do you feel that?  Do you feel joy at your Christian faith?  I’m not talking about just kind of feeling good.  I’m not talking about being fairly satisfied.  I’m talking about real joy.  Feeling great pleasure.  Great happiness.  Synonyms of joy are delight.  Jubilation.  Triumph.  Exultation.  Exhilaration.  Ebullience.

            Does your Christian faith make you feel that?  Does it happen all the time?  Often?  Once in a while?  Rarely?  Does it happen--never?

I think most of us, if we’re really honest, would fall into one of those last categories.  Now, that does not mean that we’re not good Christians.  It does not mean that we’re not sincere about our faith.  It does not even mean that we’re not trying hard to serve God and be faithful and show love the way God told us to.  I don’t think we’re sinning if we don’t feel joy from our Christian faith.

            We’re not sinning, but we are missing out.  We’re missing out on the joy God wants us to feel from our Christian faith.  And that’s too bad.  Again, God does not hold it against us when we don’t feel joy from our faith.  God’s not mad at us about it or anything.  But I think God is sad.  God did not give us our Christian faith as a burden.  God did not give it to us to make us feel guilty or to give us more stuff to do.  God gave us our Christian faith as a gift.  And God wants us to enjoy that gift.  And so, God wants us to feel joy from our Christian faith.

            How can we do that?  Well, Paul tells us.  He says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

            Anxiety, fear, worry--whatever you want to call it, those things can keep us from feeling joy in our faith.  It’s not that we don’t believe in God--we do.  It’s not that we don’t believe in God’s power or God’s love--we believe in that, too.  It’s just that, well, we’ve known a lot of good, faithful Christians in our time.  And we’ve seen bad things happen to them.  You can think of people you’ve known, good faithful Christian people, who’ve have cancer.  Who’ve been in bad car accidents.  Who’ve been cheated.  Who, through no fault of their own, have had awful things happen to them.  

            And we look at that, and we think, well, if God let that happen to them, God may let it happen to me, too.  I certainly don’t have any guarantee that God won’t let it happen to me.  And so we get anxious.  We get scared.  We worry.  It’s a natural thing to do, really.

            Paul tells us that we can take all that stuff to God.  All are worries.  All our fears.  All our anxiety.  Anything that’s on our mind, anything that’s in our heart.  We can tell it all to God.  God will listen.  And God will understand.

            And Paul tells us what will happen when we do.  He says “the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

            Now, notice, Paul does not say God will solve our problems.  Paul does not say that if we give our anxiety, our worries, our fears to God, God will take away whatever it is that we’re anxious about or worried about.  I mean, God might, but God might not, too.

            And we think, well, why not?  If God wants me to feel joy, why does God not take care of all these concerns I have?  Why does God not resolve whatever I’m worried about, so I don’t have to worry about it anymore?

            Because God wants us to feel joy and peace, and just solving whatever problem we may have at the moment will probably not accomplish that.  Think of it this way.  Have you ever had a time when you were really worried about something, and then it all worked out all right?  How did you feel?  Probably pretty good, for a little while.  But then, after a longer while, other things started happening.  You started thinking of other things to worry about.  Other things made you anxious.  You had other concerns.  And you were right back where you’d been before, weighed down with worries and fears and concerns.

            God does not want to take away our fears only to have us replace them with other fears.  God does not want to take away our concerns only to have us replace them with other concerns.  God wants us to feel joy and peace.  And so, while God may or may not solve our problems, God will do something better. God will “guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.”

            What’s that mean?  It means that, when we take these things to God, when we “by prayer and petition...present our requests to God”, we can let them go.  We can put them in God’s hands.  We can trust that God will not necessarily do what we want God to do, but God will do what is right.  We can trust that God will make things happen in God’s way and at God’s time.  

            And what happens then?  When we trust God in that way, we can be at peace.  That’s why Paul says it is “the peace of God” that will guard our hearts and our minds.

            When you think about it, that’s better than having God solve our problems.  Because again, problems come and problems go.  There has never been a time that human beings did not face problems, at least not since Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden.  If we’re looking for things to worry about, if we’re looking for things to be scared of or anxious about, we will always find them.  Always.  It’s just the way life is.

            But Paul gives us the formula for getting rid of that anxiety.  Paul gives us the formula for getting rid of our worries and fears.  Present your requests to God.  And note, we’re supposed to do that with thanksgiving.  We’re thankful, not that God will magically solve our problems, but we’re thankful because we know God will hear, God will listen, and God will act in God’s way and at God’s time.  And we know God’s ways and God’s timing are always best.

            And after we present our requests to God with thanksgiving, we can relax.  We can be at peace.  We don’t need to be scared or worried or anxious about anything.  We know everything is in God’s hands, and we know God’s hands are the best hands for things to be in.  And that can give us God’s peace.

            And when we have that peace, God’s peace, we will feel joy.  How could we not?  Having the peace of God guard our hearts and our minds has to give us joy.  Remember those synonyms for joy?  Delight.  Jubilation.  Triumph.  Exhilaration.  All those things are what we can feel when we take our worries and put them in God’s hands.  All those things are what we cannot help but feel when we let go of our problems and turn them over to God.

            God wants us to feel that joy.  God wants us to feel that peace.  Again, I’m not saying that we’re sinning when we don’t feel it.  I don’t think God holds it against us when we worry, when we’re scared, when we feel anxious.  God does not get mad at us for feeling those things.  But God wants to take those things away from us.  God did not give us life on earth for us to be scared of it or anxious about it.  God gave us life on earth as a gift.  And God gave us our Christian faith as another gift.  God gave us these gifts so we can live our lives without fear, trusting Him to do what needs to be done and trusting that, in the end, God’s ways are always the best.

            So when you’re worried, when you’re anxious, when you’re scared, go to God.  Present your problems to Him.  Then, leave your problems with Him.  Trust that God will handle them.  Then, just do your best, and feel the joy and peace that comes from trusting God.

The Helmet of Salvation

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on July 5, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Ephesians 6:10-18.

            Have you ever thought about how many occupations require helmets?

            Lots of sports do, of course--there are baseball helmets, football helmets, hockey helmets, cricket helmets, cycling helmets.  You even see rodeo helmets.  But there are lots of jobs that require helmets, too.  Construction workers where helmets--we sometimes call them “hard hats”, but they’re basically helmets.  There are military helmets.  Some policemen where helmets.  If you really thought about it, you could probably come up with quite a list of people who wear helmets.

            As we continue our look at the armor of God, we’ve come to the helmet of salvation.  Why would salvation be a helmet?  Let’s think about it.

            What does a helmet do?  Well, it protects your head, right?  And most of us consider our heads pretty important.  Our head is where our brain is.  It’s where our thoughts come from.  It’s where we make decisions.  Including our decision about whether to follow Jesus Christ.

            And that’s part of it.  But you see, this is where we need to remember that times have changed.  Because now, we tend to think of a helmet as something that protects the top of the head.  But back two thousand years ago or so, when the Apostle Paul was writing his letter to the Ephesians, a helmet was something that covered your entire head.  It did not just protect the brain, as important as that is.  It also protected the eyes, the ears, and the entire face.  There were openings for you to be able to see, obviously, but the eyes were still protected.  That’s the kind of helmet Paul was familiar with, so that’s the kind of helmet Paul was writing about.

            And so, when we consider salvation as a helmet, we can see that it protects us from a lot of things.  And again, just as we’ve seen with the other parts of God that we’ve talked about, this is purely a defensive thing.  And I don’t mean to beat that point into the ground, but I do think it’s interesting that all of this armor of God is designed as defensive, not offensive.  It’s not something we can attack other people with, it’s something that protects us from attacks.  We’ve had the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, our feet fitted with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and now the helmet of salvation.  All for our protection, not for us to go on the attack.

            Now, a helmet protects us from blows, of obviously.  It protects us from someone hitting us on the head or throwing things at our heads.  And that’s clearly important.  But there’s one other thing a helmet does.

            A helmet, at least a helmet like this, blocks out distractions.  You can still see, but you only see the things you focus on.  It’s like a horse wearing blinders--all the things off to the side, all the things that can distract us, all the things that can get us off track, all the things that, if we saw them, we’d be tempted to chase after them even though they’re not important--you don’t see those things.  You only see the thing you’re focusing on.  And it’s the same with hearing.  You don’t hear as well with a big helmet like this on.  You have to focus on what’s being said in order to hear it.

            And that’s why salvation is a helmet.  The helmet of salvation helps us focus on God and God’s word.  

            The world throws a lot of distractions at us.  And when I say “the world”, again, remember what the armor of God is designed to protect us from.  I don’t mean to beat this point into the ground, either, but it’s important to remember that Paul says the struggle we have is not against flesh and blood.  It’s against the powers of the dark world and the spiritual forces of evil.  

            The reason that’s important is that those powers and forces can be very subtle.  The distractions we have thrown at us are not, for the most part, the big, obvious sins--murder, assault, stealing, things like that.  Those things can be a problem, but when we choose to do those things, we know we’re doing something wrong.  We may try to justify it to ourselves, we may try to make excuses, but deep down, we know that if we do those things, we’re doing something wrong.

            But the thing is that those dark powers and evil forces know that.  They know that’s not the way they’re going to get to most of us.  It works for some, but most of us don’t actively make a decision to stop following God and turn to evil.  And so the dark powers and evil forces move against most of us a lot more subtly.  They don’t try to make us actively turn against God.  They just, again, try to distract us.  They try to take our focus away from God and put it elsewhere.

The things they use to distract us are quite often not things that are obviously and clearly bad.  That’s what makes it so tempting to become distracted, because we really don’t see anything wrong with the things we’re distracted by.  And in fact, there may be nothing wrong with those things.  Except for the fact that, if we spend too much time on them, they keep us from focusing on God.  They can keep us from seeing God and from hearing God’s word.

It can be all kinds of things.  I’ll just give a couple of examples.  Sports is one of them.  You all know that I’m a sports fan.  And that’s not wrong--I don’t think it’s sinful to like sports.  But it can be easy for us--easy for me--to make sports more important than they should be.  It’s easy, as a sports fan, to start spending too much time watching sports and thinking about sports, and that keeps us from focusing on God.  Right now, of course, there are not very many sports going on.  I don’t like that, but it’s a good chance for those of us who are sports fans to regain some perspective.  It’s time for us to put on that helmet of salvation and realize that sometimes we may have allowed our love of sports to distract us from focusing on God and God’s word.

            Politics is another one.  And these days, it seems like everything is political.  Again, it’s not sinful to pay attention to politics.  We should be informed about what’s going on in the world.  But it can be a trap.  It is easy--with the best of intentions--to start thinking that our salvation can come from the political arena.  We start thinking that if we just elect the right politicians, and if we just enact the right policies, we can solve all the problems of the world and create God’s kingdom on earth.  And in trying to do that, it’s very easy for us to start using God and God’s word to support whatever policies we like and whatever candidates we support.  But remember what Jesus said--his kingdom is not of this world.  Again, we need to put on that helmet of salvation and realize that we’re allowing the current political situation and our opinions in regard to it to distract us from focusing on God and God’s word.

            Another example is our work.  For most of us, our work is very important, and it should be.  But can it become too important?  Yes, of course it can.  And that’s especially true when our work is something we enjoy.  The book of Ecclesiastes says that to enjoy your work is a gift from God, and it certainly is.  But of course, it’s possible for us to misuse or even abuse God’s gifts.  If our work becomes too important to us, if it distracts us from focusing on God, then we need to do something about that.  Again, we need to put on that helmet of salvation and get our focus back on God and God’s word.

            There are lots of other things, of course.  Hobbies.  Entertainment.  Pursuit of money or material possessions.  Even family.  Family is very important, of course--I would never say that someone should not love their family or do things for their family.  But even family came be a distraction if it keeps us from focusing on God and God’s word.  

What is it in your life?  What is there that’s distracting you?  What is it that’s making you lose focus?  I need to ask those same questions of myself, of course.  Each of us needs to ask those questions.  And then, we need to answer them.  And then, when we have those answers, we need to do something about them.  We need to put that helmet of salvation back on, so that those distractions are no longer part of our lives.

The other parts of the armor of God can help us with this.  The belt of truth can help us see when we’ve allowed distractions to get the better of us.  The breastplate of righteousness can help us get our lives back on the right track.  Standing firm in the gospel of peace can lead us back to God’s word and get focused back on it.  The shield of faith gives us confidence that God will forgive us for allowing ourselves to get distracted, and will help us to clearly see God’s will for our lives again.

The dark powers and evil forces are not going to go away, at least not until Jesus comes again.  But if we put on the armor of God, we are protected from them.  And with the helmet of salvation, we can keep our focus on God and on God’s word.  And that, of course, will lead to our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Shield of Faith

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on June 28, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Ephesians 6:10-18.

            When I say “persecution”, what do you think of?

            You probably think of people who are being arrest, or even killed, for their Christian faith.  And make no mistake, there are plenty of places where that does happen.  In North Korea, in Afghanistan, in India, in China, in lots of places in the world, people can be thrown in jail or even killed because of their Christian beliefs.

            Really, if you think about it, Christianity and persecution have gone together since Christianity started.  The first Christian to be persecuted was Christ himself.  Crucified, killed in a terrible and painful way, for stating the truth that he is the divine Son of God.  And many of the early Christians were persecuted as well.

            The Apostle Paul understood Christian persecution as well as anyone.  After all, he experienced it from both sides.  Early in his career, he was doing the persecuting.  As a young, energetic Pharisee, he was rounding up as many Christians as he could find.  That’s why he was headed for Damascus on that fateful day when life changed--he was going to Damascus to find Christians and arrest them.  But then, of course, on the road, he met Jesus.  He became a Christian, and then he experienced persecution from the other side.  He was eventually arrested and killed because of his Christian faith.

            Except that’s not really completely accurate, is it?  Paul was not killed because of his Christian faith.  No one would have cared that Paul was a Christian--if only he had kept it to himself.  If Paul had just not said anything about it, he could’ve believed anything he wanted about Jesus Christ.  No one would’ve minded.  The reason Paul was persecuted is that he would not keep it to himself.  He told everyone he could find that Jesus was the divine Son of God.  He made great missionary journeys all over the world, or at least the part of the world he knew about, to tell people that Jesus was the divine Son of God.  That’s what got him into trouble.  Paul would not keep quiet about his Christian faith.  He kept trying to convince others to be Christians, too.

            And that’s what will get us into trouble, too.  The world does not mind if we’re Christians.  The world does not care if we’re Christians--as long as we keep quiet about it.  As long as we keep it to ourselves.  But if we speak up about it, if we tell people we’re Christians, if we try to convince others to become Christians, too--well, the world is going to have something to say about that.

            Now, I don’t want to be overly dramatic.  I don’t think anyone in the Wheatland Parish is going to have their life threatened because of our Christian faith.  I don’t think any of us needs to worry about being killed, or even being thrown in jail, because we’re Christians.  

            Having said that, we also need to acknowledge that there have been times, even in the United States, where people have lost their jobs because of their Christian faith.  There are times when people have lost their businesses because of their Christian faith.  It’s not the norm, but it can happen.  Even in the United States of America.

            But still, I am not trying to compare the kind of persecution that happens in North Korea or Afghanistan to what could happen to us.  That’s not the point.  But the point is that if we speak up about our Christian faith, there can be consequences.  There can be people who don’t like it, and who don’t like us, because of it.  We may be shunned by people.  People may talk behind our backs.  People may post stuff on social media.  There are all kinds of things that can happen to us when we go public with our Christian faith, rather than keeping it to ourselves.

            That’s why Paul wrote about the armor of God.  We need protection from those things that may happen.  We have the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness to protect us.  We have the gospel of peace to help us stand our ground.  And now, we come to the shield of faith.

            When you think about it, faith is what makes all those other things effective.  Truth is good, but without faith we can be tempted to abandon the truth.  Righteousness is good, but our righteousness can seem pointless, without any reward, without faith.  It will also be hard for us to hold on to the gospel of peace, in the face of the world’s attacks, without faith.

            But notice what the shield of faith does.  Paul says the shield of faith will “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”  And that’s entirely consistent with what Paul said earlier, that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

            So what that means is that the shield of faith will not necessarily protect us from things that happen in this world.  It’s designed to protect us from the arrows of the evil one, the powers of the dark world, the spiritual forces of evil.  And that’s consistent, not only with what Paul says, but with what Jesus himself says.  In Matthew Ten, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

            Paul believed that.  In fact, he lived it.  He’s the one who said in the letter to the Philippians “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  The way Paul looked at it, one of two things would ultimately happen.  The authorities would eventually give up and let him go, in which case he would continue to do everything he could for Christ.  Or, they would kill him, in which case he would go to actually be with Christ.  Either way, he would win!  He could live that because he knew he was protected by that shield of faith.

            But you know, when you think about it, that shield of faith protected Paul in this world, too.  It protected him from giving in to what the evil one wanted him to do.  It protected him from giving in to what society wanted him to do.  Without that shield of faith, Paul might very well have been tempted to be quiet, because he’s earthly life would have been much more important to him.  But because of Paul’s faith, because he had confidence of his salvation through faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, he was able to keep speaking out.  He was able to keep sharing his faith, because he knew that no matter what might happen in his earthly life, he would have salvation and eternal life.  It was his faith, along with God’s love and grace and mercy, that would make that possible.

            And that’s what we can do, too, when we put on that shield of faith.  Because we’re often tempted to be quiet, too.  That’s what those flaming arrows of the evil one are designed to do.  They’re designed to intimidate us.  They’re designed to scare us.  They’re designed to make us hesitant, reluctant to share our faith, because of what might happen if we do.  Again, society has no problem with you and I being Christians, as long as we don’t make a big deal out of it.  The evil one has no problem with you and I being Christians, as long as we keep it to ourselves.  That’s the goal of those flaming arrows--to keep us quiet, to keep us from making a big deal out of our Christian faith.

            But that shield of faith will protect us from those arrows, just as they protected Paul.  If you and I truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior, if you and I truly believe that our faith in Jesus Christ gives us salvation and eternal life, then we’re shielded.  We’re protected.  Yes, there may be some consequences for us on earth.  Again, there were consequences for Paul, there were consequences for Jesus, there have been consequences for Christians for two thousand years.  But those consequences are nothing compared to the reward of salvation and eternal life that comes to us when we stay faithful to God.  When we have the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness, when we stand firm in the gospel of peace, and when we have the shield of faith, there is nothing that anyone in this world can do to us.  You and I can say, as Paul did, that to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  Because we will know that, when we die, we will go to be with the Lord.

            Going public with our Christian faith is not always easy.  There are often consequences, and those consequences can be hard to deal with.  But our Christian faith is too important to keep to ourselves.  Salvation and eternal life are too important to keep to ourselves.  The world needs the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It’s up to us, to you and me, to share it with them.  It can be scary sometimes.  But we have the Lord’s shield of faith to protect us.  It will protect us from the temptation to give in while we’re on earth.  And it will protect us for eternal life with the Lord in heaven.

God Bless America

I’m writing this the day after Independence Day!  There were lots of fireworks shows, there were also parades, and there were other things that happened to show pride in being an American.  And one phrase you probably heard was this:  “God Bless America.”

I think sometimes that people misunderstand that phrase.  They think that somehow we’re bragging when we say “God Bless America.”  They think we’re claiming that God owes it to us to bless America, that we have earned blessings from God because of how great we and because of how good we are.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  A “blessing”, especially a blessing from God, is not something we earn.  We don’t receive God’s blessings because of how great we are.  If we did, we’d have to be able to compare ourselves to God.  And we all know, if we’re honest, how far short we fall in that comparison.  God does not owe it to us, as Americans, to bless us.  God does not owe it to us to do anything.  A blessing is a gift, so a blessing from God is a gift from God.  God gives us God’s blessings not because we deserve them, but because God loves us and cares about us so much.

When we say “God Bless America”, then, that’s a request.  It’s a plea.  It’s a prayer.  We go to God humbly, asking God, in His mercy, to bless America.  

“God Bless America” is a recognition that we can accomplish nothing without God’s blessing.  Whatever America has accomplished has been accomplished through the greatness and goodness of God.  And whatever America accomplishes in the future will have been accomplished through the greatness and goodness of God.  America can only be great by relying on God’s goodness and God’s greatness.  In other words, America can only be great because it has received God’s blessings.

So the next time you hear that phrase, “God Bless America”, insert the word please.  God, please bless America.  Please allow America to remain a great nation.  Please turn our hearts toward You, so that we can know your goodness and your greatness.  God, please bless America, so that it can be the great nation it can be.  God, please bless America, so that everyone will turn toward You and love You.  God, please bless America.  But then, at the end of your prayer, pray this:  “Thy will be done.”

We ask God to bless America.  But we know, no matter what may happen, that God is in control, and that God will win in the end.  And we know that if keep our faith in Jesus as our Savior strong, you and I will win, too.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus

The message given on Sunday morning, July 5, 2020 in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Philippians 3:1-14.

            What is the most important thing in your life?

            Now, the temptation is going to be to say “God” or “Jesus” or something similar simply because we’re in church and we know that’s the thing we’re supposed to say.  And for some of us I’m sure that is the answer--my purpose in asking this question is not to criticize anyone’s faith.  And I’m not asking you to give the answer out loud or anything.  But I’d like you to really think about it.  What is the most important thing in your life?  And here’s the second question:  does the way you live your life show that what you said is the most important thing in your life actually is?

            There’s an old saying that you can tell what a person truly values by going through their check register.  These days it might be their credit card or debit card statement.  But the point is that the things we spend money on are one reflection of the things we value.

            There are certain things we all have to spend a certain amount of money on, of course.  Food is one--we have to eat.  Shelter is another--we have to have a place to live.  We also have to keep the lights on and the water running.  And around here, at least, we need to have some form of transportation.  

            But the fact is that most of us--myself included--spend more on those things than the bare minimum that we would have to spend to get by.  And don’t get me wrong--I’m not saying it’s sinful to spend more than the bare minimum.  But again, what we spend money on is one measure of what we value.

            It’s not the only measure, of course.  Time is another measure.  You could say that what we spend our time on is a reflection of what we value.  But of course, that’s not perfect, either.  If we want to have money to spend on food, and shelter, and utilities, and transportation, we need to work.  Our work may or may not be important to us, but even if it’s not we still have to spend a substantial amount of time on it.  That’s just the way life is.  But on the other hand, if we say something is the most important thing in our lives, we should at least spend some time on it, even if it’s not as much as we’d like.  It would be pretty hard to claim something was the most important thing in your life if you never spend any time on it at all.

            The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, says that the most important thing is knowing Jesus Christ as Lord.  In fact, he says more than that.  He says that everything that this world has to offer is garbage compared to the joy of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord.  

            That’s a man who knows what the most important thing in his life is.  In fact, Paul would say faith in Jesus is not just the most important thing in his life, it’s the only thing in his life.  Yes, of course, Paul had to eat and drink and do all the other stuff that human beings had to do.  But I think Paul would’ve said that everything he did, he did so he could continue to spread the good news about Jesus Christ.  “I’m eating and drinking so I can maintain my strength so I can spread the gospel.  I found shelter for the night so I could sleep and refresh myself so that the next day I could get up and share the gospel.  I found some transportation so I could go other places and spread the word about Jesus.”  

Everything in Paul’s life other than faith in Jesus was secondary.  In fact, everything in his life is meant to serve the goal of spreading the gospel in some way.  If there was something in his life that did not serve the goal of spreading the gospel, he got rid of it.  Even if it was not a bad thing, even if it was a neutral or even something that most people would’ve said was a good thing, if it did not serve the goal of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul got it out of his life.  It was garbage to him.  It was completely worthless, because the only thing in his life was knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and spreading that knowledge to others.

Can you imagine being that devoted to the Lord?  Being so devoted to the Lord that everything you did had to be connected to spreading the gospel in some way, or you were going to throw it out of your life?

Can you imagine what our world would be like if Christians all did that?  Can you imagine what the world would be like, if everyone who considers himself or herself a Christian was so devoted to the Lord that everything we said or did was connected to spreading the good news about Jesus Christ in some way?  It’d be pretty awesome, don’t you think?

Maybe that’s kind of what heaven is like.  I mean, there’ll be no need to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in heaven, but maybe in heaven everything we say or do is connected in some way to serving the Lord.  Nothing else, no matter what it might be, has any place in heaven, nothing but serving the Lord.  Can you imagine that?

Now, here’s the thing.  Can you imagine what your own life would be like if you did that?  Can I imagine what my life would be like if I did that?  What would your life be like if everything you did or said had to be connected to spreading the gospel in some way, or you were going to throw it out of your life?  What would my life be like if everything I did or said had to be connected to spreading the gospel in some way, or I would throw it out of my life?  Can you and I imagine that?

Now, two things.  One, I’m not saying that we won’t go to heaven if we don’t do this.  Heaven would have a pretty small population if that was the case.  We don’t receive salvation and eternal life by the things we do or by how single-minded we are.  We receive salvation and eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  

Two, Paul said that he had not completely done this himself.  He said he was still working toward that goal.  So we don’t have to be too hard on ourselves if we struggle with it, too.  But the question is:  What was holding him back?  What holds us back?

Well, Paul never said, really.  But at least part of what holds us back is, quite simply, the world we live in.  It seems to me that, in order to make spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ the only thing in our lives, to the extent that everything we do or say is connected to doing that in some way, we need to keep our eyes focused on Christ.  And that means we need to take our eyes off of the things of the world.

That’s a really hard thing to do.  I certainly have not done it.  And again, in saying this, I’m not saying that the things of the world are all bad things.  Some of them are, but some of them are not.  Some of them are neutral.  Some of them are things that many of us would consider good.  But they’re not connected to spreading the gospel.  And yet, we too often keep our eyes focused on those things, instead of keeping our eyes focused on Christ.

Again, it’s hard not to.  The world is all around us.  And right now, especially, the things of the world are forcing themselves on us, whether we want them to or not.  The coronavirus.  Protests.  Riots.  Every day it seems like something new comes along that we’re supposed to be outraged about or scared of.  And of course, the problems of our personal lives and the lives of our families have not gone away, either.  Health concerns, both physical health and mental health.  Financial problems.  Relationship problems.  All of these things and many other things of the world force themselves on us, whether we want them to or not.  What can we do?  Are we supposed to just ignore all these things?  Would it even be possible to ignore them, no matter how much we might want to?

Well, a lot of those same issues, and others besides, were present in Paul’s day, too.  And no, we’re not supposed to ignore them.  Again, we really cannot.  But we should not get bogged down in them, either.  We should not put our focus on these earthly issues, no matter how important they may seem to be at the moment.  What we need to do is what Paul tried to do.  We need to connect them, somehow, to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.  No matter what’s going on in the world, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus.

So the question is, how can we do that?  It’s not easy.  It’s a challenge.  I cannot stand here this morning and tell you “Here’s how to do it.”  There’s not one easy, standard, all-purpose formula for this.  It takes a lot of thought.  It takes a lot of prayer.

But you know what else it takes?  It takes a lot of desire.  We need to really want to keep our eyes on Jesus, no matter what.  That’s what Paul is talking about when he says, “I press on toward the goal.”  He says that twice, “I press on toward the goal.”  If you and I don’t have the desire to do this, if we are not willing to press on toward the goal, it’s not going to happen.  No matter how hard we pray, it won’t happen if we don’t have that desire.  God will help us, but God will not force us.  God will push us, but God will not just override our will.  We need to have the desire to do and say only things that are connected to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in some way if we’re ever going to accomplish it.  We need to have that desire to keep our eyes on Jesus at all times, no matter what else is going on.

But God will help us with that desire, too, if we ask Him to.  If we sincerely ask for God’s Holy Spirit to come into our hearts and give us the desire to get everything out of our lives except things that are connected to spreading the good news about Jesus, God will do that.

One more thing.  At the start of our reading for today, Paul says, “My brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord!”  If you and I do this, we can rejoice.  And God will rejoice in us, too.  Because when we keep our eyes on Jesus, when everything we say or do is somehow connected to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we are the people God wants us to be.  And that is always reason to rejoice!