Trust God With Your Fears

 This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church September 20, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Deuteronomy 20:1-4.

            What are you afraid of?

            I suspect that if we all got together and worked on it, we could put together a pretty long list of things we’re afraid of.  We could start just by watching the news.  There’s the coronavirus, of course.  There are the wildfires.  There are hurricanes.  There are riots and protests, people getting attacked all the time.  Recently, we’ve started to hear more about missing children and sex trafficking--not that that’s a new thing, we’ve just heard more about it lately.  It seems like there’s always the threat of a war someplace.  And we could go on and on.

            And even apart from that, we have plenty of things to be afraid of in our personal lives.  We might run out of money and not be able to pay our bills.  There could be a financial crisis, and everything we have could be wiped out.  Our house could be destroyed in a fire.  We could have a terrible health problem that threatens our lives.  We could have relationship problems.  We could lose our loved ones and end up alone--loneliness is something we all fear.  And again, we could go on and on.

            And there are just the simple day-to-day-things we fear.  I don’t like to fly.  There are car accidents.  Some people are afraid of crowds, or public speaking.  We can be afraid of failure, afraid of rejection, afraid of change, afraid of losing control, afraid of being in control.  Again, the list goes on and on and on.  It seems like we never run out of things to be afraid of.

            Sometimes it seems like we have an entire army of fears lined up against us.  And that army looks like an overwhelming force to us.  We feel like there’s no way we can fight all those fears.  In fact, sometimes we feel totally helpless.  We feel like there’s nothing we can do but surrender to our fears.

            Our Bible reading for tonight is in Deuteronomy.  Moses is speaking to the people of Israel.  This is part of a long speech by Moses.  It takes up several chapters of the Book of Deuteronomy.  Most of it is God’s laws, which the people are supposed to follow.  But then, Moses starts talking about war.

            Moses talks about seeing an enemy that looks really big and really strong.  He talks about seeing horses and chariots that are greater than yours.  He talks about seeing an army that is greater than yours.

            That’s something to be afraid of, right?  I’d be afraid of that.  To see an enemy that looked bigger and stronger and more powerful than you are.  To know that enemy wanted to fight you, and to feel like you had nothing to fight back with.  That’s a really scary thing.

            But what does Moses say about it?  Moses says no.  Don’t be afraid of them.  Don’t panic.  Don’t give it to feeling terror.  Moses says there’s nothing to be afraid of.  God will be with you.  God will fight for you.  God will defeat your enemies.  God will give you victory.

            Do you think the people of Israel believed that?  Would you believe it?  In fact, do you believe it now?  When you look at the things you’re afraid of, when you start to feel overwhelmed by fear, when you feel like panicking, can you fight off that fear?  Can you trust that God is with you?  Can you trust that God will fight for you?  Can you trust that God will defeat whatever it is that has you fearful and give you victory?

            It can be hard to do.  We want to.  It sounds good, right?  Just get rid of those fears and turn everything over to God.  Just let God fight our battles for us.  Just let God defeat whatever it is that has us scared.  That sounds like it would be really good.

            It does sound good, but.  But it’s hard to put that much trust in God.  The things we’re scared of are right in front of us.  They’re real, or at least they seem real to us.  God, on the other hand--well, we say that we believe God is with us.  And on some level, we probably believe that.  It’s just that--we don’t see God.  We cannot touch God.  We cannot hear the voice of God, the way Moses did.  And it’s hard to put complete trust in someone we cannot see, especially when the thing we’re afraid of is something we can see, something that’s right in front of our eyes.

            But Moses tells the people of Israel one more thing about this in our reading for tonight.  Moses does not just say “God will be with you.”  Moses says, “The Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.”

            There are at least two concepts we need to look at in that one sentence.  The first one is that Moses says, “The Lord your God.”  Not just “the Lord God”.  “The Lord your God.”

            When we’re talking about fear, and talking about God helping us fight our fears, that’s something we need to remember.  The Lord is our God.  I don’t mean that in an exclusionary sense.  What I mean is that we’re not talking about some vague, impersonal God.  We’re not talking about some God who is out there, someplace, but probably does not know or care much what’s going on in our lives.

            Instead, God is our God.  God knows everything about us.  God knows everything that’s going on in our lives.  Psalm One Hundred Twenty-one says God knows our going out and our coming in.  Psalm One Hundred Thirty-nine says God knows when we lie down and when we get up.  Jesus said that God knows the number of hairs on our head.  This is not some vague, disinterested, unattached God.  This is a God who wants to be an active participant in our lives.  This is a God who is willing, and in fact is eager, to help us, if we’ll just put our faith and trust in Him.  This God truly is our God.

            The second thing Moses does is remind people what God has done for them.  He says, “The Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

            Remember that story?  The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt.  They had been for years, longer than anyone could remember.  They still had a dream of freedom, they had a dream of independence, but that’s all it was, really--a dream.  Egypt was the most powerful country in the world.  Its leader, the Pharaoh, was the most powerful person in the world, and he commanded the most powerful army in the world.  There was no way the people of Israel could defeat Egypt.  They might dream of it, but it was like I might dream of being a professional baseball player--you know there’s no way it’s ever going to happen.

            Except that, for the people of Israel, it did.  And they did not have to do anything.  They did not have to take on that army.  They did not have to defeat the Pharaoh.  They did not even have to strike a blow or fire a shot.  God did it all for them.  All they had to do was watch God--their God--at work.

            Can you think of a time when you God has fought battles for you?  Can you think of a time when it seemed like everything was going against you?  When a situation looked hopeless?  When you felt like you had no idea what to do and like it would not do any good even if you did?  And then, all of a sudden, God helped you through the situation?  You may have had to do something, or maybe you did not, but you know that it’s not what you did that solved the problem.  It was what God did.  Can you think of a time like that?

            I suspect you can.  I sure can.  Most of us have those times.  In fact, too often, that’s the only time we really do put our full faith and trust in God--when the situation seems hopeless and we have no idea what to do.  We turn to God, and put our trust in God, because it seems like there’s nothing else we can do.

            But the good news is that, even in those situations, God comes through for us.  God helps us.  God may or may not solve the problem, but God gets us through it.  God is with us every step of the way, and somehow, in some way, we survive the situation and are able to get back on the right path again.

            So think of those fears we talked about at the start of this message.  Can we turn them over to the Lord, our God?  Can we trust God with them?  Do we have enough faith to let the Lord, your God, defeat the army of fears that we see?  Can we let God defeat those fears, just like God has done for us in the past?  Can we trust God that much?

            Each of us has to make that decision.  No one can make it for us.  Our God, the God who knows everything about us, is willing and eager to defeat those fears for us.  But we need to turn them over to Him and trust Him to do it.

            Whatever you’re afraid of, do not be afraid any more.  Because the Lord, your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you victory.

           

 

 

Seek First God's Kingdom

 This is the sermon given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 27, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:25-34.

            This is one of my all-time favorite passages of scripture.  It is for a lot of people, actually.  This passage routinely makes the lists of most popular scripture passages.

            It’s pretty easy to see why.  It’s about worry, and worry is the one thing that just about everyone has in common.  It does not matter where you live.  It does not matter what you do.  It does not matter how much money you have.  It does not matter what gender you are, what race you are, what age you are, anything.  The one thing pretty much everyone does is worry.

            Everybody’s worried about something.  My worries may not be the same as yours, but we all have them.  And if we ever run out of things to worry about, all we have to do is look at the news.  The news is pretty much a list of things to worry about every day.

For the most part, we wish we did not have these worries.  We wish that somehow, in some way, something or someone could come along and take all our worries away.  But it does not happen.  If we ever do get rid of one worry, here come three more to take its place.  One of the things that makes heaven so appealing is we assume that, in heaven, there are no worries.  After all, it would not be heaven if we had worries there, right?  In heaven, God will take all our worries away.

But the thing is, God will do that for us on earth, too, if we just let Him.  And Jesus tells us how God will do that.  And you know the funny thing?  The verse in which Jesus tells us that is the verse we tend to pay the least attention to.  I do, anyway.

Look at what Jesus says.  He says, don’t worry about food or drink.  After all, Jesus says, God feeds the birds and takes care of them, and you’re worth more than a bird.  He says, don’t worry about clothes.  After all, Jesus says, God makes the flowers look beautiful, and you’re a lot more valuable than a flower.  Jesus says, you don’t need to worry about any of that stuff.  God knows you need that stuff, and God will take care of it.  So don’t worry about tomorrow.  Tomorrow will take care of itself.  Each day has enough trouble, so just concern yourself with today.

And we really like all that.  The idea that we don’t need to worry about food, or drink, or clothes, or anything else--that’s really appealing.  The idea that we don’t need to worry about tomorrow, that all we need to do is concern ourselves with today--that’s really appealing, too.  We like all that stuff.

But did you notice that I skipped over one of the verses?  This is the one I said that we tend to not pay attention to, or at least I don’t.  And yet, it’s probably the most important verse in the whole passage.  It’s the verse that tells us how we can get rid of all those worries and turn them over to God.  Here it is:  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.”  It’s simple, right?  If we want to get rid of our worries, all we need to do is focus on God.  Seek God’s kingdom.  Seek God’s righteousness.  In other words, serve God.  Do God’s will.  Live our lives the way God wants us to live them.  

All it is, really, is a matter of priorities.  Our tendency, as human beings, is to prioritize our own needs and wants.  That’s why, in Jesus’ words, we “run after all these things”.  That’s why we worry about them.  We believe we need to take care of ourselves first.  Once we get that done then, if we have time, we’ll start doing things for the kingdom of God.  But first we need to provide for ourselves.  God surely understands that, right?

And don’t think I’m pointing a finger at anyone here.  This is every bit as much my tendency as anyone’s.  It’s probably more my tendency that it is for some of you.  But it seems to me that it’s a natural human thing.  It’s part of the survival instinct God put into each one of us.  We feel like we need to take care of ourselves, and of our families, first.

But Jesus tells us we need to go beyond natural human things.  Now, Jesus does not say that it’s wrong to want to take care of ourselves and our families.  But Jesus says, if we would prioritize what God wants, if we would put God first, we would not have to worry about all that stuff.  If we would serve God, do God’s will, seek God’s kingdom, God would take care of all those other things for us.  We would not need to run after them.  They’d be given to us.

So what’s the problem?  Well, the problem is that it’s just darn hard for us to trust God that much.  We know we should.  It sounds good in theory.  But to actually trust God that much, to actually make seeking God’s kingdom our number one priority, to actually believe that if we spend our time seeking the kingdom of God, God will take care of us and give us everything we need--well, that’s a pretty big leap of faith.  

It’s a leap of faith that a lot of us just simply are not willing to take.  We may know we should.  We may even want to.  After all, what Jesus offers us sounds really good.  Freedom from worry.  Who would not want that?  We’d love to have that.  But--man, can I really do that?  Can I really put that much trust in God?  Can I really just put the main focus of my life on seeking God’s kingdom, and just take it on faith that if I do, God will provide me with everything I need?  That’s a lot of faith.  Do I have that much faith?  Do you?

Now, I do want to point out one thing.  Jesus does not say that if we don’t do this, we’ll go to hell.  Our salvation is based on our faith in Jesus as the Savior.  Jesus understands how hard this is for us.  Jesus knows that we’re flawed, weak, imperfect human beings.  We should not use that as an excuse, of course.  But Jesus’ point is not “do this or else.”

Jesus point is that we would be so much happier if we did this.  We truly could live a life free from worry if we did this.  If we could just trust God.  If we could just trust in the greatness and the goodness of God.  If we could just trust in the love of God.  If we could have enough faith to believe that Jesus’ words are true:  that if we seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, all these other things will be given to us as well.  If we could just do that, we would never have to worry about anything ever again.

So, does that mean we should all quit our jobs and completely change our lives so we can seek God’s kingdom?  No, not necessarily.  But it does mean that we need to re-orient our lives.  It’s possible that seeking God’s kingdom first may mean we need to make some changes in our lives.  But it’s also possible that the biggest change seeking God’s kingdom first requires us to make is in our attitude.

Think about the things you do.  Could you use those things to serve God’s kingdom?  Think about the people you spend time with.  Is there something you could do while you’re with them to serve God’s kingdom?  Think about the things you say to people.  Are there things you could say to them that would serve God’s kingdom?  In fact, sometimes what we need to do is think about the thoughts we think.  Are our thoughts, whether they’re expressed or not, thoughts that lead us to serve God’s kingdom?

These are not questions we can answer in a minute or two.  If we all leave here after the service and don’t think about this, nothing is going to change.  And I include myself in that, too.  If I leave here and don’t think about this, if I start thinking ahead to the Sunday night service and next week’s service and just forget all about what I said here today, nothing is going to change.  I’ll stay in the same spot I am right now.  And I’ll have all the same worries and fears and concerns that I have now.  That’s how it will work for all of us.  If we don’t think about this, if we don’t take it to heart, we’ll all just go on with the same worries and fears and concerns that we have now.

And maybe you’re okay with that.  Maybe you think things are okay the way they are.  And maybe they are okay.  But wouldn’t you like them to be better?  Wouldn’t we all like them to be better?  Wouldn’t we all like to be able to live our lives without all those worries and fears and concerns?  

Jesus offers us the chance to do that.  All we need to do is seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.  If we do that, Jesus promises us that all we need will be given to us.  

We can take that leap of faith, make God’s kingdom our top priority, and be free from worry and fear.  Or, we can continue to live as we are, with all of our human worries and fears.

Which will it be?

 

It Happens Gradually

          I got to my eyes checked this week.  I really don’t know that I really needed to have them checked, but I do know that I need new glasses.  What I mean is that the lenses on my current glasses are cracking, so that it’s very annoying to use them.  And since I’m going to need new lenses anyway, I figured I might as well get my eyes tested to make sure the new lenses are exactly right for me.

           I really haven’t noticed any change in my vision.  What I suspect, though, is that when I get my new glasses, I’ll notice a pretty substantial change.  That’s usually how it works, anyway.  Things will look sharper.  Things will look clearer.  Things might even look brighter--I’ve had that happen in the past, anyway.  It’s kind of amazing.  When I use the same glasses for years, I don’t notice that my vision has changed.  But then, when I get the new glasses, It suddenly becomes obvious what a difference there is.

           How can that be?  Well, the answer is that it happens gradually.  My eyesight changes, so that I needed a new prescription, but it happens gradually, so gradually that I don’t even notice it.  The cracking is the same way.  It did not all happen at once.  It happened gradually, a bit at a time, so that it did not seem like that big of a deal at first.  Ultimately, my sight through those old glasses changed tremendously, but it changed so gradually that I did not notice how big the change was.

           It seems to me that something similar can happen when we drift away from God.  It happens gradually.  We don’t even notice it at first.  Eventually, we start to notice that something’s not quite right, not the way it should be, but we don’t think it makes that much of a difference.  We know we really should do something about it, just like I’ve known I really should get new glasses.  But we don’t think it’s that important.  So, we let it slide.  We put it off.  We tell ourselves that we’ll get back in touch with God later, when we have time.

            The thing is that when I don’t get new glasses, when I wait, the only person I’m hurting is myself.  I make things harder on myself than they need to be.  I might be getting by, but I’m missing out on a lot of stuff.  That’s true of our relationship with God, too.  When we drift away from God, and we don’t get back in touch with God, the only person we’re hurting is ourselves.  And we’re hurting ourselves by making things harder on ourselves than they need to be.  We may be getting by, but we’re missing out on a lot of stuff.  We’re missing out on feeling God’s love and God’s guidance in our lives.  And that’s too bad.

            Our eyesight is very important.  But our relationship with God is even more important.  Let’s not neglect either one.  Get your eyes examined, so your vision can be all that it should be.  But examine your relationship with God, too, so it can be all that it should be.  If we can see God clearly, everything else will fall into place.

 

The Way to Happiness

The message given in the United Methodist church of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 20, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:19-24.

            I like money.  I don’t anyone who does not like money.  I’m not saying it’s the most important thing in my life, and you probably would not, either.  But it is important.  

            We use money to buy stuff, and we all have stuff.  Now, some of that stuff is necessary.  We need to eat.  We need a place to live.  We need to have heat and running water.  We need clothes to wear.  We need to have a way to get around, especially out here where it can be a long way from one place to another.

            But most of us, if we’re honest, have more stuff than just those basic things.  We don’t just eat enough to survive--we want to eat good meals.  We don’t just have the bare minimum in a place to live--we want to have a nice house, or at least a nice apartment.  We don’t just have clothes that provide the basic function of covering us--we want to look nice.  We don’t want just to have an old clunker to get us from here to there--we want to have a decent car.

            And again, I want those things, too.  I’m not pointing a finger at anybody, or if I am I have to point it at myself.  And I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to want those things.  Yes, there are Christians who believe God has called them to take a vow of poverty, and who have the faith to follow through on that.  But I don’t see anything in the Bible that says we have to live at a bare subsistence level to be considered Christians.  And Jesus does not say that in our reading for today, either.

            But what Jesus does is warn us to make sure we have our priorities in order.  Jesus provides us with a choice.  We can store up treasures for ourselves on earth, or we can store up treasures for ourselves in heaven.

            Sometimes we think that if someone has money, then that means they must be “storing up treasures on earth.”  But that’s not necessarily true.  Storing up treasures on earth is not really about how much money we have.  It’s about our attitude.  It’s about how important that money is to us.

            If you look at what it really means to “store up” something, what it means is to save up something and keep it for yourself.  That’s what Jesus is warning against.  He’s warning us against storing up things--money, possessions, whatever--just for ourselves.  He’s warning us against being selfish with the blessings God gives us.

            And this is not just something that affects people we might consider to be wealthy.  We can have very little money and still be overly concerned with storing up treasures on earth.  And we can have a lot of money and not be much concerned at all about storing up treasures on earth.  Again, it’s not about the amount of money we have.  It’s about what we do with the money, and how important the money is to us.

            Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and money.”  Let’s look at that.  We know what it means to serve God, or at least we think we do.  But what does it mean to serve money?

            When we serve someone, we are their servant.  We do whatever they tell us to do.  What we think about it does not matter.  Whether we want to do it does not matter.  When you’re someone’s servant, your only desire is to please them, and the way you please them is to do whatever they want you to do.  

            So, when we serve money, we are doing whatever money wants us to do.  We do whatever we need to do to get money.  What we think about it does not matter.  Whether, deep down, we want to do it does not matter.  When we serve money, our only desire is to get money, and we do whatever we need to do get it.  Money is our master, and we are its servant.

            I’ve said before that the reason God gives us rules for living is not to have an excuse to send us to hell if we don’t follow them.  God gives us rules for living because God understands life better than we do.  God gives us rules for living because God knows we’ll be happier, we’ll be better, we’ll live better lives, if we follow God’s rules.

            That’s the case here.  One of the reasons Jesus warned us against storing up treasures on earth, and against serving money, is that doing that will not bring us happiness.  “Money can’t buy happiness” is a cliché, but there’s a lot of truth in it, too.  If our focus is on storing up treasures on earth, if our focus is on serving money and doing whatever we need to do to get money, we will never be happy.  When our focus is on getting money and keeping money, we never reach a time when we feel like we have enough.  No matter how much we have, we always want more.  John D. Rockefeller was once the richest man in the world.  Someone asked him, how much money is enough?  And he said, “Just a little bit more.”  We will never find happiness, we will never find peace, we will never find satisfaction in our lives if our goal is to store up treasures on earth.  We will always want “just a little bit more.”

            Again, that does not mean that having a lot of money is automatically a bad thing.  God blesses us in a variety of ways, and one of the ways God chooses to bless some people is with money.  But that blessing comes with responsibilities.  In Luke Twelve, Forty-eight, Jesus says this:  “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

            That applies in more contexts than just money and possessions, of course.  It applies to every aspect of our lives.  Because God blesses our lives in all kinds of ways.  The Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians Twelve about how we are all given different gifts.  He says that’s a good thing, because all those gifts are necessary.  People have the gift of teaching.  People have the gift of helping.  People have the gift of farming or cooking or woodworking or music or all kinds of things.  And every one of those gifts comes with responsibilities.  In every aspect of our lives, if we’ve been given much, much will be demanded.  If we’ve been entrusted with much, much will be asked.  Each of us has a responsibility to take what God has given us and use it to serve God.

            And again, it’s not that God is going to send us to hell if we don’t do that.  It’s that God knows that using what God has given us to serve God is the way to happiness.  That is the way to peace.  That is the way to find satisfaction in our lives.  

When we feel like we are doing what God put us here to do, when we feel like we are serving God about as well as we can--not perfectly, because we can never do anything perfectly, but about as well as we can--well, there’s just nothing like that feeling.  That, really, is one of the ways we feel God’s Holy Spirit with us.  We’re working with God’s Holy Spirit, rather than working against the Holy Spirit.  And when we work with God’s Holy Spirit, it feels like there’s nothing we cannot do.

And here’s the other thing about that.  When we’re working with God’s Holy Spirit, we stop worrying about results.  We stop worrying about anything, really.  We don’t have to worry.  We can leave the results up to God.  We know we’re serving God.  We know we’re pleasing God.  And we can trust God to use our service in the best way possible.

I want to go through this one more time, because to me, it’s just so amazing how this works.  When we take what God has given us and use it to serve God, we find happiness.  We find peace.  We find satisfaction.  We feel God’s Holy Spirit with us.  We stop worrying.  We know God has everything handled.  God will bless what we do, and God will bless us.  I just think that’s so cool, the way this all works out when our goal is to use what God has given to serve God.

We won’t get any of that by storing up treasures on earth.  We won’t get any of that by serving money.  We will only get it by serving God.  And by serving God, we will store up treasures in heaven.

Jesus gives us a choice.  We can store up treasures for ourselves on earth, or we can store up treasures for ourselves in heaven.  But only one of those choices leads to peace and happiness.  May we all make the right choice.

 

The Kingdom of God

This is the message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church Sunday night, September 13, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Mark 15:42--16:8.

            Tonight we’re ending our look at the Lord’s Prayer.  The last sentence of the Lord’s Prayer, as we commonly say it, says, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever”.

            Now, if you remember back when we read the versions of the Lord’s Prayer that appear in the Bible, you may remember that this line does not appear there.  It’s not in Matthew’s version, and it’s not in Luke’s version.  We think this line was added to the prayer later on, simply because the prayer the way Jesus said it felt unfinished.  It was common, in the early days of Christianity, to say a line like this at the end of a prayer.  And so, the line got added to the Lord’s Prayer and tradition has kept it there.

            There’s certainly nothing wrong with it.  We do believe, as Christians, that the kingdom belongs to God.  We do believe that all power and all glory belong to God.  So, it’s perfectly all right to end the Lord’s Prayer this way, talking about God’s kingdom.

            You know, while Jesus walked on the earth, he talked a lot about the kingdom of God.  He compared it to all sorts of things.  He said the kingdom of God was like a man sowing seed on the ground--some of it would take root and produce and some of it would not.  Jesus said the kingdom of God was like a mustard seed--something really small that would grow into something really big.  Jesus said the kingdom of God is like yeast--just a little of it can work through a whole lot of people.

            But Jesus said other things about the kingdom of God.  Here’s one of them.  Jesus said, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

            The kingdom of God is in your midst.  Think about that.  Jesus was telling them that the kingdom of God was right there.  It was right in front of them.  It was not something that they had to go running around and look for.  It was not something that they had to wait for.  It was right there, right now, in the form of Jesus.

            They could not see it.  Why not?  Well, they looked around and saw things that were not the way they thought they should be.  In particular, they saw that the nation of Israel had been taken over by the Roman Empire.  Remember, they were supposed to be God’s chosen people.  God had promised to give them this land forever.  And now, they’d been taken over by someone else.  That was not right.  How could the kingdom of God be in their midst when things were not the way they were supposed to be and there was no sign that anything was changing?

            And probably, if someone was to come to us now and say that the kingdom of God is in our midst, we’d react pretty much the same way.  We’d look at all the things that we think are not the way they should be.  We’d look at this pandemic, that’s lasted for over six months now and we still have no idea when it’s going to end.  We’d look at rioting and violent protests.  And we’d look at other things.  We’d look at poverty.  We’d look at crime.  We’d look at illness.  We’d look at broken relationships.  We’d look at the number of children who don’t have God in their lives.  And we’d think, “How can the kingdom of God be in our midst when things are not the way they’re supposed to be and there’s no sign that anything’s changing?”

            That’s why Jesus told us all those things about what the kingdom of God is.  The kingdom of God is not something that happens BOOM, all at once.  It something that takes time.  

When you go out to plant, you don’t expect the crop to come up the next day.  It takes time.  A mustard seed grows into a large plant--but not all at once.  It takes time.  Yeast will work its way through a whole batch of dough--but not instantly.  It takes time.

The kingdom of God is here.  We don’t have to go running around looking for it.  We don’t have to wait for it.  The kingdom of God is right here, right now.  It came in the form of Jesus.  But it’s not fully developed yet.  It takes time.

How much time?  I don’t know.  More time than I’d like, quite frankly.  Jesus came two thousand years ago.  To me, that seems like an awfully long time to wait.  That’s a lot of people who’ve died, who’ve lived in poverty, who’ve suffered from loneliness or broken relationships or all kinds of things.  I would not have chosen to make it take this long.  I don’t like it that it’s taking this long.  I’d like all those things to be over with.  I’d like the kingdom of God to be fully developed now, this evening.

But that’s not the way it is.  So, we have to trust that God has plans that are better than ours.  And, when the kingdom of God is not developed in the time we’d like it to be, we have to trust that there’s are good reasons why not, even if it we don’t understand what those reasons could, and even if we cannot understand how there could possibly good reasons for it.

Or, we don’t.  We don’t have to trust God.  We don’t have to trust God’s timing.  We can choose to think this is all nonsense.  We can choose to think there’s no “kingdom of God” at all, or that if there is it’s still a long way off.  We don’t have to believe or trust any of it.

That’s why we read the story of Jesus’ resurrection from the gospel of Mark.  What we read today is the end of the gospel of Mark.  The gospel of Mark ends with the women at the tomb being told that Jesus has risen, and with those women running away from the tomb, scared and confused, not knowing what to make of it, having more questions than answers.  

Now, if you look in your Bible, you may see some more verses after that.  Those verses were added years later, because people were uncomfortable with this ending to the gospel of Mark.  But personally, I love it. 

I love it because that’s how life is.  Life is not something that’s all nice and neat.  Life is not something that always makes sense to us.  Life is not something that always leads to a completely logical and satisfactory conclusion, like our favorite stories do when we’re kids.  Life is something that leaves us with a lot of loose ends and a lot of unfinished stories.  Life is something that sometimes confuses us and sometimes confounds us and sometimes even scares us.

I also love it because if we really think about the kingdom of God, our reaction is likely to be exactly like the reaction of those women.  We don’t know what to make of it.  We have more questions than answers.

Jesus told us that the kingdom of God had come.  It started coming when Jesus came to the earth.  It came some more when Jesus rose on that first Easter morning and appeared to the women.  It came some more when he appeared to the disciples, and they believed.  It came some more when those disciples shared the story of Jesus with others.  And it has kept coming in the two thousand years since. Every time someone makes a decision for Jesus, the kingdom of God comes a little more.

But, again, it’s hard to see it.  It seems like it should not be taking this long.  And so, it’s hard for us to believe it’s still coming.  It’s easy for us to start to wonder.  It’s easy for us to doubt.  It’s easy for us to think the kingdom of God is not truly here, because we cannot see it coming.

But here’s the thing.  The fact that we cannot see things happening does not mean that nothing is happening.  It just means we cannot see them yet.  God works in all kinds of ways, large and small.  God works in all kinds of people, too.  God is touching hearts, and touching lives, every single day, in all kinds of ways.  The fact that we don’t see God at work does not mean God is not working.  It just means we cannot see it right now.

That’s one more thing about those examples Jesus gave us.  Think about planting seeds again.  When we plant seeds, at first we don’t see anything, do we?  We hope something is happening, we think something is happening, but we cannot see it.  It’s only when the plant breaks through the surface of the ground that we know for sure that something was happening.  Until then, we have to trust.  We have to have faith.  We have to believe.  Or, again, we don’t.  It’s up to us.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.”  It’s right here, right now.  God has planted seeds.  And God continues to plant seeds.  And those seeds are growing.  We cannot see them yet.  But they’re growing.  They’re growing right here in the Wheatland Parish.  And someday, those seeds are going to grow into large plants.  It may take a long time.  Or, it may not.  But it is going to happen.  It will happen at a time of God’s choosing and in a way of God’s choosing.  But it is going to happen.

Jesus brought the kingdom of God to us.  And because Jesus rose from the dead, we know the kingdom of God will never leave.  It will continue to grow until it is fully developed and Jesus comes again.  And then, the kingdom and the power and the glory truly will be his, now and forever.

 

Keep Moving Forward

I’ve been writing a blog for several years now.  I started in about 2009, back when I lived in North Sioux City.  And of course, I’ve been writing sermons regularly since 2006, when I became a pastor.  That means I’ve done a lot of writing over the years.  Writing what I believe about God, writing what I believe about what’s going on in the world, writing about what’s going on in my life.   

I look back at my old writings once in a while, often when I’m looking for things to use for a program at the Manor.  Some of them have held up pretty well.  There are some things that I wrote that I’m actually kind of impressed with.  There are things I’ve written about which I wouldn’t change a word, and that I really think I put rather well.

But there are other things.  I read some of the things I wrote and I think, “What in the world was I thinking when I wrote that?”  There are things I wrote that almost seem like they must have been written by someone else.  I can’t believe I was thinking that way, or feeling that way.  That does not necessarily mean that I think the writings are wrong.  Some of them are, some of them are not.  But it does mean that they’re things I would not write now, today.

The reason is that I’m not the same person I was in 2006, or in 2009.  I’ve changed.  We all change over the years.  That’s good.  If we never changed, it would mean we never learned anything.  And that would not be good.  None of us knows everything--I certainly don’t.  If I was exactly the same person, with exactly the same beliefs and thoughts, that I was in 2006, it would mean that I had not made any progress in fourteen years.  

That’s not how life is supposed to work.  We’re always supposed to keep moving forward.  Sometimes we move forward quickly, and sometimes we move forward slowly.  But we always need to keep moving forward.  We always need to keep learning, and keep growing, and keep changing.

When we’re young, we sometimes don’t realize that.  We think we’ll eventually reach a point at which we have things all figured out.  I no longer think that’s true.  Or, if it is, I haven’t reached it yet.  And I don’t think I ever will.

I hope I keep learning, and keep growing, and keep moving forward, all my life.  I hope you do, too.  Because we never get to where we know it all.  There’s always more to learn. 

May we all keep changing all our lives.  Because it’s only through change that we can keep moving forward.

 

What's My Motivation

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, September 13, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:1-8, 18-20.

            Most of us would agree that humility is a virtue.  But in today’s society, it’s not a virtue we value a whole lot.  We’d say we do.  We pay lip service to humility.  But when we look around, we don’t see a lot of it these days.

            After all, we live in the age of the selfie.  We live in a time of self-promotion.  We’re told that we need to toot our own horn, because if we don’t, who will?  How are we going to get ahead if people don’t know what we’re doing?  We need to make sure everyone know all the good stuff we’re doing, so we get credit for it.

            And churches and pastors are not immune to that.  I like it when the conference knows the good stuff we do around here.  I like it when the community knows it, too.  That’s not necessarily wrong, to want the good stuff that’s happening in the church to be recognized, but it sure can be.  That’s especially true if we want it recognized so that people will give us credit, will pat us on the back, tell us what a good job we’re doing, rather than giving honor and glory to God.

            And you know, it’s really easy for us to justify this sort of thing to ourselves.  Not just in the church, but in every aspect of life.  We tell ourselves that we want people to know what we’re doing so we can set a good example.  We tell ourselves we want people to see our Christian faith in action, so it can bring them to Christ.  What could be a better motive than that?  And if people give us some credit, too, well, we cannot stop them.  That’s just the way it goes.

            There’s nothing new about any of this, of course.  People did it in Jesus’ time, too.  That’s what Jesus is talking about in our Bible reading for today.

            He starts out by talking about giving to the needy.  That’s a good thing to do, right?  To give to the needy?  And of course, it is.  Jesus wants us to give to the needy.  But, he says, don’t make a show of it.  Don’t put it on facebook.  Don’t put a picture of what you’re doing on instragram.  Just do it.  Don’t be proud or self-righteous.  Be humble.

            Jesus then goes on to talk about praying in public.  Now that’s one that hits me personally.  I pray in public every week in church.  It’s part of my job.  Should we change the order of worship, so that I don’t do that?  Well, I don’t know that we need to do that.  But I, and anyone else who prays in public, needs to be careful.  We need to remember that we’re talking to God.  We’re not talking to the assembled group.  We should not be trying to send a message to the congregation in our prayers.  

            And I confess, there are probably times when I’ve done that.  Not in a bad or accusatory way, I don’t think.  But it’s tempting, especially in a prayer after the sermon, to try to sort of recap the sermon in the prayer.  And that’s not what I should be doing.  When I pray, even in church, I’m not talking to you.  I’m talking to God.  And I need to remember that.  Everyone who prays in public, under any circumstances, needs to remember that.

            Then Jesus talks about fasting.  And we tend to skip over that one, because how many of us have ever fasted?  Now, I don’t want that to come across as dismissive.  There may well be people here who have fasted.  It’s a time-honored spiritual discipline.  I’m not trying to diminish it at all.  But there are not a lot of people who do it, so we tend to not spend a lot of time talking about it.

            But there’s a common thread running through all of these things, and you probably know what it is.  Don’t do things, even good things, for show.  Don’t do them for applause.  Don’t do them so people will think highly of you.  In fact, if possible, don’t let anyone know about them.  Still do them.  But do them as quietly as possible.  Be humble.

            What’s really interesting about this is why Jesus tells us to do things this way.  It’s not that God’s going to punish us for letting people know the good things we’ve done.  God won’t send us to hell for doing that.  But God’s not going to give us any credit for it, either.

            Let’s take giving to the needy as an example.  Giving to the needy under any circumstances is a good thing to do.  Regardless of why we do it, what we give will still go to help people who need it.  Even if we did it so we can brag about what generous people we are, the money is still needed and still does good things.

            But while what we’ve given helps people regardless of why we’ve given it, why we’ve given it determines what our reward will be.  If we’ve given so people will give us credit for it, if we’ve given so everyone will know what wonderful, kind, generous people we are, well, then once we get that credit, we’ve gotten all the reward we’re going to get.  If we’ve given quietly, for the honor and glory of God, and don’t care whether anyone knows about what we’ve done, then God will give us a reward.  God will bless what we’ve done, and God will bless us.  Because God knows everything we do, the good and the bad.  Nothing we do ever escapes the notice of God.

            And so, when we’re moved to do something good, we really need to pay attention to our motivation.  Are we doing this to get applause from the human crowd?  Or are we doing it to bring honor and glory to God?

            Now that’s not an accusation.  I know there are people here who have given a lot to the church and to the community over the years, and have never wanted to get any credit or applause for it.  You’ve given money, you’ve given time, you’ve given work.  You’ve given prayers, too, and that’s also important.  Some of you have done that stuff and even I don’t know about it.  But I know there are a lot of people here who are very dedicated to this church and to the community.  I don’t want you to think I’m accusing anyone of anything.

            But it is a warning.  Because it’s an easy trap to fall into.  We’re all human.  We like to get recognized for what we’ve done.  We want to know that what we’ve done is appreciated.  Sometimes, all we want is to know that someone noticed what we did, even if they don’t know it was us who did it.

            And none of that’s necessarily wrong.  But it is wrong if we start doing things just to get that recognition and appreciation.  It is so easy, and so tempting, to start playing to the human crowd, rather than doing things to the honor and glory to God.

            Humility is a virtue.  But you know, it’s more than just humility.  It’s knowing who God is, and it’s knowing who we are.  And it’s knowing who we are in relation to God.

            What we forget, sometimes, is what an honor and privilege it is to be allowed to serve God.  We forget how deserving God is of receiving our honor and glory.  God deserves far more honor and glory than we mere human beings are capable of giving Him.

            Think about who God is.  Think about how awesome, how incredible God is.  Think about how powerful God is.  Think about how God created the universe and everything in it just by speaking a word.  When we think about that, we should realize that any good thing we do is so incredibly small compared to the goodness of God.  

            God does not need us for anything.  There is nothing we can do for God that God could not do without us.  In fact, God could probably do things a lot better without us.  A lot of times, you and I probably just get in God’s way.  And yet, God chooses to work through us.  God chooses to allow us to serve Him.  That’s an honor.  That’s a privilege God gives us.  It’s something a lot of us don’t think of often enough.  And it’s something we should never take for granted.

            When we think about it that way, humility should come pretty naturally to us.  We should praise God every day for the honor of serving Him.  And when we do happen to do something right, when we do happen to do something good, we should not take or even want any credit for ourselves.  Instead, we should be grateful to God for the privilege of being allowed to do something for Him.

            It’s a natural human thing to want recognition.  It’s a natural human thing to want to be appreciated.  But Jesus wants us to go beyond natural human things.  Jesus wants us to see the honor and privilege we have in being allowed to serve God.  Knowing that God, as great and awesome as God is, sees and appreciates what we do should be all the motivation we will ever need.

 

Resisting Temptation

The message from the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 4:1-11.

We pray the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday.  I’m sure most of us can recite it from memory.  But you know, there are parts of it that mean more to us than others.  There are parts that we like, and that we think about, and there are other parts that we tend to kind of gloss over.  And I think the verses we’re talking about tonight are some of those verses.   “Lead us not into temptation”, and “but deliver us from evil.”

            We really should not gloss over those words, because they’re pretty important.  “Lead us not into temptation.”  Why is that so important?  Because temptation is really hard to resist, right?  If it was not, it would not be temptation.  We cannot be tempted to do something that we don’t want to do, at least on some level.  I cannot be tempted to eat spinach, because I don’t want to eat spinach.  I don’t like spinach.  I can be tempted to eat ice cream, because I really want to eat ice cream.  

           And in this context, temptation is something that we really want to do but we know we should not do.  That’s the other reason we cannot be tempted to eat spinach--eating spinach is a good thing to do.  We can be tempted to eat ice cream, because eating ice cream is not a good thing to do.  Don’t get me wrong--I’m not saying eating ice cream is sinful or anything.  But I think we all recognize that it’s not the healthiest thing in the world to eat.

            But it sure tastes good.  And that’s the other thing about temptation. The thing we’re tempted to do will be really enjoyable--in the short term.  I would really enjoy that ice cream.  I would enjoy getting it in the spoon.  I would enjoy putting it in my mouth.  I would enjoy it as I swallowed it.  I would enjoy it as it went into my stomach. In the short term, I would love that ice cream.  It’s only in the long term, when I saw my weight going up, when my clothes did not fit right anymore, that I would realize the price I was paying for giving in to that temptation.

           In thinking about temptation, and resisting it, one of the things we can do is look at the ways Jesus was tempted.  That was our Bible reading for tonight.  He had fasted for forty days and forty nights.  And the devil tells him, hey, you know, you don’t have to be hungry.  You’re Jesus.  You’re the divine Son of God.  Why not just turn those stones into bread?

            Was that something Jesus wanted to do, at least on some level?  Probably--he was hungry.  Was it something he knew he should not do?  Yes--he knew the time had not yet come for him to do things like that, and he also knew that he was not supposed to use his divine power just to serve himself.  But would it have been enjoyable, in the short term?  You bet.  After forty days with nothing to eat, bread probably sounded like the best thing in the world to Jesus.

            He did not give in, of course, and we’ll come back to that.  But then the devil took Jesus to the highest spot on the temple.  He says, hey, throw yourself down from here.  You’re Jesus.  You’re the divine Son of God.  The angels will catch you.  Go for it!

            Did Jesus want to do that, at least on some level?  Probably.  It sure would’ve been a good way to get everyone to believe.  People seeing him survive jumping off the temple, and in fact not just survive but bounce right up without a scratch on him.  Only the Messiah could do that, right?  Word would’ve spread all over.  Was it something he knew he should not do?  Yes--as Jesus says, we are not supposed to test God.  But would it have been enjoyable, in the short term?  Sure it would.  Think of how that would feel, to be able to do something like that!

            Jesus did not do it, of course.  So the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain.  He shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  And he says to Jesus, “I’ll give you all this if you’ll worship me.”

            Now, I’m not suggesting that Jesus wanted to bow down and worship Satan.  But the offer of the kingdoms of the world--well, did Jesus want to rule all those kingdoms, at least on some level?  Maybe.  After all, think of all the good he could’ve done.  He could’ve ended poverty, oppression, injustice, all kinds of things.  He could’ve made the world as it should be.  But was it something he knew he should not do?  Yes.  The day will come when Jesus comes again and establishes the kingdom, but the time for it was not then.  But would it have been enjoyable, at least in the short term?  Yes.  To be able to do all that would’ve been awesome.

            But again, Jesus resisted.  And that brings us to the other words of the Lord’s Prayer that we’re looking at:  “but deliver us from evil”.

            We recognize that the things Jesus was tempted to do were evil because they came from the devil.  Anything the devil tempts us to do is pretty much evil by definition.  But, is evil really involved in everything we’re tempted to do?  You might say no--but think about it.  We’ve already said that the things we’re tempted to do are things we should not do.  That means they’re not good things.  Well, if something is not good, what is it?  It’s evil, right?  What other choice is there?

            Maybe you say, well, but some things are not really good or evil.  They’re just neutral.  Well, maybe.  But if we’re doing things that we would call neutral, by definition that takes our time, our effort, our focus away from doing things that are good.  And that’s one of the ways that evil attacks us.  Evil does not always attack us by trying to get us to do things that are clearly wrong, like murder or stealing or things like that.  If it did, it would be a lot easier to resist--most of us are not killers or thieves and don’t have any desire to be.  Evil attacks us by telling us, “Oh, go ahead.  It won’t hurt anyone.  Nobody’ll know the difference anyway.  Besides, it’s not really wrong.  Just do it.”  We pray for God to deliver us from evil because evil can be really persuasive.  

            But here’s the thing:  God may not lead us to temptation, but quite often we lead ourselves there, because the thing we’re tempted to do will be so enjoyable in the short term.  And God may want to deliver us from evil, but quite often we refuse to be delivered, because we really want to do the thing we know we should not do.  So what do we do?

            Well, what did Jesus do?  Each time Jesus was tempted by the devil, Jesus quoted scripture.  Jesus said to the devil, you’re not going to get me to do something I know I should not do, because I know the will of God the Father.  I know what God wants me to do, and it’s not what you’re trying to get me to do.  So I’m not going to do it.

            Now, does that mean we should all go home and memorize scripture so we can resist temptation?  Well, it would not hurt anything.  There are certainly worse ways you could spend the evening.  But no, I don’t think it means that.  Here’s what I do think it means, though.

            It means, for one thing, that we need to be prepared.  We need to be prepared to fight temptation and be delivered from evil.  Jesus was able to resist the temptations of the devil because he was ready for them.  Jesus was not taken by surprise by anything the devil did or said.  You and I need to be ready, too.  We need to know what we’re going to say or do when we’re tempted, so we don’t stumble simply because we’re caught by surprise.

            And it also means we need to stay close to God.  Jesus was not just pulling random scripture quotes out of the air.  Jesus was quoting the right scriptures at the right time.  He was able to do that because he knew God’s will.  And he did not just know God’s will in a general sense.  He knew God’s will for him, personally.  He knew why he was here and what he was supposed to do.  He knew that because he was close to God.

            Do you know God’s will?  Do you know God’s will for you, personally?  Do you know why you’re here and what you’re supposed to do?

            If not, again, don’t take that as a criticism.  It’s not always an easy thing to know.  Some people go their whole lives not knowing it.  But we should try.  And the only way I know to do that is through prayer.

            Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer.  You and I probably need to spend more time in prayer, too.  I say “probably” because I don’t know how much time you spend in prayer.  I don’t doubt there are people hearing my voice tonight who spend more time in prayer than I do.  But I’d encourage us all to try to spend more.  And when we do, ask God about this.  Ask God what God’s will is for you, personally.  Ask God why you’re here and what you’re supposed to do.

            And then try to hear God’s response.  It may or may not come in words.  But if we pray this, and if we pray it sincerely and consistently, and if we keep our eyes and our ears and our hearts open, I’m pretty sure God will give us a response.  And once we have that response, we’ll be much better able to resist temptation and to stay away from evil.

            “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”.  That’s not just words we say.  It’s a lifestyle we need to acquire.  And if we spend time with God, we’ll be able to acquire it.  We will stay away from temptation and have more time to do good.  We’ll be following the example of Jesus Christ.  And there’s no better example we can follow than that.