Snow and Wisdom

It certainly appears that winter is here.  I wasn’t aware that October 22 was the first day of winter, but here we are.  We had several inches of snow Thursday and several more inches Saturday.  I started writing this on Saturday night, and as I was writing it I did not know if I’d get to Onida for church Sunday or not.  I had to wait and see in the morning.

Much as I love being the pastor here, this is one part I don’t like at all.  I don’t like having to worry about the weather.  I don’t like having to wonder whether we should have church or not.  I don’t like having to wonder whether I should try to drive down there or not.  If I could somehow live here, but never have to worry about the weather again, I would be a very happy man.

And there are a couple of factors that make it even harder.  One of them is that I’m a coward when it comes to driving bad roads.  I really don’t like to do it.  That’s not a sin or anything, but it also gives me a natural bias toward not going, even when the roads aren’t that bad.  But on the other hand, because I know I have that bias and need to fight it, sometimes I overcorrect and drive when I shouldn’t.  I second-guess my own judgment.

Another factor that makes it hard is that, where I live, it’s very hard to tell just how bad it is outside.  It often is a lot worse when I get a block or two away from the house than it looked while I was home.  And then, too, once you go up the hill on the west side of Gettysburg, it can be an entirely different situation than it looked like before you went up the hill.  

All of which makes it very hard for me to know what to do on weekends like this.  I wish I had someone to just come in and tell me what to do, but I don’t.  There are people I can ask for advice, and I sometimes do, but it still comes down to a decision I have to make.  I know the Bible tells us not to worry about tomorrow, and I try to follow that.  But right now, as I was writing this on Saturday night, I have to admit that I was somewhat worried about tomorrow.

Did I pray about it?  Of course.  But I was not expecting to hear the voice of God telling me what to do.  I could have, of course--God does talk to people directly sometimes, and God could talk to me directly if God chose to do so.  But I did not expect it.  I did ask God, if it was God’s will, to do that, but mainly, I asked God to give me the wisdom to make the proper decision when the morning came.

That’s Biblical too, after all.  In First Kings, Chapter Three, God allows Solomon to ask for any gift he wants.  Solomon asks for the gift of wisdom.  If it’s good enough for Solomon, then it’s certainly good enough for me.

Wisdom is not the most plentiful of commodities in the world.  It’s something we all need to pray for, all the time.  And of course, the wisest thing we can ever do is follow God’s will.  The best way to do that is to love God, serve God, and stay faithful to God.  All of which involves loving others and serving others as well.

I ultimately did not go to Onida Sunday.  I hope that was a wise decision.  I pray that God always helps me make wise decisions, no matter what the subject is.  I pray that God will help you make wise decisions, too.

 

Why Do We Doubt?

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, October 25, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 14:22-33.

            Tonight’s gospel reading is a familiar story.  Most people have heard the story, even if they cannot remember all the details.  Even a lot of people who are not Christians are at least aware that the Bible says Jesus once walked on water.

            To me, though, Jesus walking on water is not the most interesting or even necessarily the most important part of the story.  Now obviously, if I’d been there at the time, that’s what I’d remember.  I mean, as far as I know, no one ever walked on water before, and no one has since.  If I actually saw someone do it, and I was sure it was not just some sort of trick, I’d remember it the rest of my life.

            I was not there, though, and I read this now knowing who Jesus really is.  If we accept Jesus as the divine Son of God, as part of the Holy Trinity, as someone with the power to work miracles, it’s no surprise that he could walk on water if he so chose.  It’s a miracle, of course, but not any more impressive than a lot of other miracles Jesus performed while he was on the earth.

            To me, the most interesting part of this story is Jesus’ statement to Peter.  You remember how it went down:  Peter wants Jesus to let him walk on the water, too; Jesus tells him to come; Peter gets close to Jesus, gets scared, sinks, Jesus pulls him up.  Then Jesus says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

            That always seems to me like such an unfair thing for Jesus to say to Peter.  After all, Peter was the only one who had enough faith to get out on the water at all.  I mean, you don’t hear anything about Andrew or Philip or Thomas or any of the others jumping out of the boat to go join Peter on that walk, do you?  Peter’s the only one who even dared to try getting out on the water, and his reward for his courage is to have Jesus accuse him of having “little faith.”

            At least, that’s how I’ve usually heard this story explained.  It’s considered to be Jesus testing Peter’s faith, and Peter failing the test.  Now, granted, Jesus does not accuse Peter of having no faith at all.  Still, Jesus is not exactly complimenting Peter here, is he?  Saying he has “little faith”?  How would you feel if Jesus said that to you?

            But is that really what’s going on here?  Is Jesus’ statement really meant as an accusation, as a harsh criticism?  Let’s remember who Peter was.  He was not perfect, and the gospels don’t portray him as perfect or anything close to it, but he’s also the one to whom Jesus says, just a little while later, “You are the rock on whom I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”  That’s why Jesus changes his name from Simon to Peter; the word we translate as Peter means rock.  Would Jesus really build his church on someone whom he’d just accused of having “little faith”?

            I think that, when we focus on Jesus calling Peter, “you of little faith”, we focus on the wrong part of what Jesus said.  I think the important part of what Jesus said was not him saying Peter had little faith.  It’s the question Jesus asked him right after that.  Jesus asked him, “Why did you doubt?”

            Think of all the things Peter had already seen in his time with Jesus.  He’d seen Jesus heal people.  He’d seen Jesus stop a storm.  He’d seen Jesus cast out demons.  He’d seen Jesus bring someone back to life from the dead.  He’d seen Jesus feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish—we talked about that last week.  He’d probably seen a lot of other things, too—after all, the Bible tells us that there are a lot more things that Jesus did on earth than are contained in the gospels.

            If anyone should have not had any doubts about who Jesus was, it would’ve been Peter.  In fact, Peter did not think he had any doubts.  When Jesus invited him to come out onto the water, Peter went right out there.  He did pretty well, too, as long as he focused on Jesus and walked right toward him.  Then, though, he started looking around, noticing things.  He felt the strong wind.  He saw the waves getting higher and higher.  He got scared, and when he got scared, that’s when the doubts started to hit him.  He started thinking about all the things that might happen to him while he was out there on the water.  The doubts got the best of him, and he started to sink.

            I think that happens to us sometimes, too.  There are times when it seems like our faith is pretty strong.  There are times, in fact, when we’re willing to step right out there and take risks for our faith in Jesus.  At first, we’re fine, as long as we keep focused on Jesus.  The trouble is that then we start looking around and noticing things.  We start getting battered by the winds of life.  We get scared, and the doubts start hitting us.  We start thinking about all the things that can happen to us in life.  Then, we start to sink.

            When Jesus asked Peter, “why did you doubt”, I don’t think Jesus was mad at Peter.  I don’t think he meant it as an accusation.  I think Jesus said those words sadly, almost wistfully.  Jesus was trying to give Peter the power to do anything in Jesus’ name.  He wanted Peter to know that with Jesus, anything is possible.  He wanted Peter to have so much faith in Jesus that he’d believe he could do anything, even walk on water.  He was hoping Peter could put his doubts aside and put his complete faith and trust in Jesus.  At first, it looked like maybe he could.  I think Jesus was just kind of sad that Peter had not been able to set his doubts aside and accept what Jesus was trying to give him.

            I think Jesus asks that same question to us, and he asks it the same way.  Jesus looks at the way we live our lives, the number of times we try to do things our own way, the number of times we get scared, and asks us, “Why do you doubt?”  Jesus has so much power.  With Jesus, anything is possible, even walking on water.  Jesus wants so much for us to put our doubts aside and put our complete faith and trust in him.  I think Jesus is sad when we’re not able to do that, when we’re not able to just accept what Jesus is trying to give us.

            There is good news, though.  After all, when Peter got scared, when Peter gave in to the doubts, when Peter started to sink, Jesus did not just stand there and watch.  Jesus did not say, “Well, you doubted, so you deserve to sink to the bottom.”  Jesus reached out and caught Peter.  He lifted him back up, and they got into the boat together.

            That’s what Jesus will do for us, too.  When we give in to our doubts and start to sink, Jesus will reach out and catch us, too.  Jesus will reach out for us, and will lift us back up, just as he did for Peter.

            As long as we do one thing.  If you’ve been paying attention, you know what it is, too.  You know I skipped one really important part of this story.  When Peter started sinking, what did he do?  He cried out to Jesus.  It was not a long, complicated prayer or anything.  All he did was say three words:  “Lord, save me!”

            When Peter said those three words, we’re told that Jesus “immediately” reached out and pulled him up.  It sounds to me like maybe Jesus had been waiting for just that opening.  It sounds to me like Jesus was just waiting for Peter to acknowledge his fear and his doubt and to ask for Jesus to save him, because the second he did, Jesus saved Peter.

            You know, Bible stories like this give me a lot of confidence and a lot of hope.  I hope they do that for you, too.  They make me feel better about the fact that I give in to my doubts and fears sometimes.  For one thing, if even Peter, who was right there with Jesus and saw all those things happen and who was the rock on whom Jesus was going to build his church, if even Peter was subject to doubts sometimes, I think Jesus understands why you and I have that same problem.

            More importantly, though, a story like this shows us the way out of our problems.  When life gets to be too much for us, when we give in to our doubts, when fear overwhelms us, when it feels like we’re starting to sink, all we need to do is turn to Jesus.  We don’t have to do anything big or complicated to do that.  All we need to do is say, “Lord, save me!”  As soon as we do that, Jesus will lift us up and show us the way out.  The way out is not always easy, but it’s there, and Jesus will help us find it.

            Jesus wants us to believe.  Jesus wants us to trust.  He wants us to trust in his great power.  He wants us to trust in his great love.  He wants us to trust that he’s always there for us.

            We can do all things through Jesus Christ.  All we need to do is look to Jesus, put aside our doubts and fears, and accept the wonderful gifts Jesus wants to give us.

 

From Burdens to Joy

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 25, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 11:25-30.

            Let me start out by asking you a question:  do you think being a Christian is easy?

            I’m not going to make you stand up and respond, but I think it’s an interesting question.  It really kind of depends on how you look at it, right?  On the one hand, we think about all the responsibilities we have as Christians.  We think about how we need to constantly seek God’s will.  We need to constantly serve God and be faithful to God and show love to God.  We need to show love to others, too, because that’s the best way we can show our love to God.  We think about how we’re supposed to live good and holy lives.  We think about how Jesus told us to “be perfect”, just as our heavenly Father is perfect.

            That’s a lot of responsibility.  And we have not even talked about all the consequences that can come from following Christ.  We have not talked about how we can be mocked, criticized, even ostracized.  We have not talked about how, in some places, we can even be physically attacked for being Christians.  If we look at it that way, being a Christian is not easy at all.  It’s one of the hardest things.we could ever do.

            On the other hand, we can think of all the joy we get from being a Christian.  We think about how Jesus died for our sins, so that we can have salvation and eternal life.  We think about how we can feel God’s Holy Spirit with us in our lives on earth, too.  We think about how God is always there for us, in good times and in bad times and just in ordinary times.  We think about how good it feels to know that God is with us, helping us, leading us, guiding us through life.  We think about how awesome it is to know that, no matter what happens, God will always be with us and will never let us down.  God will be with us every step of the way, no matter where that way may lead.

            The thing is, both of those ways of looking at Christianity have truth in them.  Being a Christian does carry a lot of responsibility.  But at the same time, God does not want us to feel like our faith is a burden on us.  God does not want us to go through life feeling like we’re being dragged down by our faith.  God wants our faith to be something that lifts us up, that keeps us going.  And one of the proofs of that is our Bible reading today.

            Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

            How are you feeling about your burdens today?  Again, I’m not going to make you stand up and respond, but I think that’s an interesting question, too.  I think a lot of us are starting to feel like our burdens are getting pretty heavy.  I don’t think we’re feeling like our yokes are easy at all.

            Now, most of us would not say so.  We’ve all got that cultural thing going on where if someone asks how we’re doing, we say, “I’m fine.  Not too bad.  Could be worse.”  Most of us are not going to come out and say anything about our burdens being heavy, even if they are.

            In fact, we sometimes feel like it’s almost unChristian to say anything like that.  We think, well, I should not be complaining.  Lots of people have it worse than me.  Besides, nobody likes a whiner.  And other people have their own problems.  They don’t need to hear me talking about mine.

            It’s like we feel guilty about life being hard sometimes.  It’s like we feel like it would somehow be admitting a weakness or something if we admit that sometimes life gives us more than we can handle.  I mean, you heard that phrase, “God never gives us more than we can handle”, right?  It’s not in the Bible or anything, but a lot of people seem to believe it.  And so, if we admit that we’re having trouble handling something, we feel like we’re letting God down, because, after all, God would not have given it to us if we could not handle it, right?

            It’s okay to admit that life gives you more than you can handle sometimes.  It’s okay to admit that your burdens are getting heavy, and that you’re not sure how much longer you can carry them.  It’s okay to admit that life is dragging you down right now.

            After all, look at all that life is throwing at us.  COVID.  Wildfires.  Hurricanes.  Cancer. Financial problems, some caused by the pandemic and some not.  Riots.  Violent protests.  Some of us are not allowed to hug our parents or grandparents, and some parents and grandparents are not allowed to hug their children or grandchildren.  Sometimes they’re not even allowed to see them.  And I’m sure that’s nowhere near a complete list.  I mean, you’d have to be superhuman to not feel the burden of all that, to not have that stuff drag you down sometimes.  And I don’t know anyone here who’s superhuman.

            But we all know the one who is.  And that’s the one we need to take these burdens to.  When our burdens get too heavy, when we’re not sure how much longer we can carry them, when we fell like life is dragging us down, we need to go to God.  We need to give our burdens to God.  We need to put our complete faith and trust in God.

            God is the one who can carry our burdens when we cannot.  God is the one who can lift us up when life is dragging us down.  God is the one we can always rely on to be there for us.  

            You see, one of the reasons our burdens get so heavy is that we try to carry them ourselves.  We think, I’ve got to solve these problems.  And if I cannot solve them, then I at least need to figure out a way to deal with them.  Now, that’s not to say that we don’t pray about them.  Sometimes we do.  But too often, we pray asking for a specific solution.  We don’t really turn the problem over to God.  Instead, we ask God to solve our problems in a certain way and at a certain time.  We say, God, here’s what needs to be done.  Now do it.  And do it now.  And when God does not do it, or does not do it now, we wonder what’s wrong with God.  And our burden gets even heavier.  We become even more convinced that we have to carry it ourselves, because apparently God is not going to.  And so we make things a lot harder on ourselves than they need to be.

            That’s a kind of arrogance, isn’t it?  To think we should tell God what to do, and wonder what’s wrong with God when He does not do it?  We don’t mean it to be, usually.  We’re well intentioned.  We really think what we’re asking God to do is the right thing.  But still, it amounts to arrogance.  And there’s one more thing Jesus said in this passage, and it’s something we tend to overlook.  Jesus said, “learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

            That’s what we need to do:  be gentle and humble in heart.  Know that God has heard our prayers.  Know that God knows the situation.  Know that God will act, in God’s way at God’s time.  Stop letting our arrogance make things harder on ourselves than they need to be.  Stop trusting ourselves, and instead, trust God.

            God does not want us to make things hard on ourselves.  God wants to make things easier.  But the only way we can do that is to really give the burdens of our lives to God.  Not tell God what to do.  Not tell God how to do it.  But just turn it over to God, and trust that God will handle things in the right way at the right time.

            Does that mean we’ll just sit back and do nothing, waiting for God to act?  Maybe--there are times we need to do that.  But a lot of times, giving our burdens to God does not mean that we do nothing.  What it means is that we do the best we can, and then we trust God to take it from there.  We do our best to serve God and stay faithful to God, and then we trust God with the results.  We do our best to show love to God and show love to others, and we trust that God will bless what we do in some way.  It may not be the way we wanted or expected.  It may even be some time before we see how God has blessed what we did.  But we trust that God will bless it, in God’s way and in God’s time.

            That’s what giving our burdens to God really means--doing our best and trusting God.  That’s what makes our burdens lighter.  That’s how we can take the responsibilities of being a Christian--responsibilities that can seem heavy sometimes--and turn them into the joy of being a Christian.  Simply doing our best and trusting God.

            Being a Christian is not always easy.  Jesus talked about the cost of following him, and that cost is real.  But even so, being a Christian should not be a heavy burden that drags us down.  And it does not need to be.  If we turn things over to God, God will make our burdens light.  Then, we can truly feel the joy of following Jesus Christ.

 

The Narrow Road

This is the Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on October 18, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:13-23.

            God is love.  And God is forgiving.  And God is merciful.

            Those are some of the greatest things about God, right?  At least from our standpoint.  If those things were not true, you and I would all be in deep trouble.  It’s because of God’s love, and God’s mercy, and God’s desire to forgive, that Jesus was sent to earth in the first place.  Jesus Christ dying so that our sins could be forgiven is the ultimate act of love.

            But sometimes, we’re tempted to take God’s love and God’s mercy and God’s forgiveness for granted.  And we especially take it for granted when it comes time to talk about heaven and hell.  We say, well, if God loves us, and if God forgives us, and if God is merciful, than God surely does not allow people to go to hell.  Well, maybe a few people.  Maybe mass murderers and people like that.  But not most people.  Certainly not the kind of people we know.  God’s love conquers all and so God allows pretty much everyone into heaven in the end.

            We’d like to believe that.  And don’t get me wrong, I’d like to believe it, too.  I do not want to think of anyone going to hell.  If you take the concept of hell seriously, if you’ve read the Bible and know how hell is described, you would not want your worst enemy to go there.  I would like to believe that God will let just about anybody into heaven.

            I’d like to believe it--but that’s not what the Bible actually says.  It’s certainly not what Jesus said in our reading for today.  Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

            Man, I wish Jesus had not said that.  But he did.  Now, Jesus does not say this because he’s happy about it.  I’m sure Jesus wished that everyone would find the road that leads to life.  But Jesus knew that’s not the way it is.  And so Jesus says this, not with pleasure, but as a warning.  Jesus says this for our benefit, really.  If Jesus had not said this, and other things like it, we’d be tempted to keep believing that God lets just about anybody into heaven.  And if we lived our lives counting on that, we’d be in for a rude awakening when we found out the truth.  And by the time we did find out the truth, it would be too late for us to do anything about it.  Jesus knew it was important for us to know the truth now, even if the truth is not what you and I might wish it was.

            And Jesus continues that theme.  He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

            Think about that.  Jesus is saying that it’s not enough just to call on his name.  It’s not enough even to do all kinds of good things in his name.  Even driving out demons and performing miracles is not enough.  Jesus says that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to do the will of God the Father.

            See, the thing is, Jesus knew a lot about human nature.  Jesus knew that calling on his name is not necessarily the same as really following him.  Because what do we human beings tend to do?  We tend to call on Jesus when we get into trouble, right?  We turn to Jesus when things are going against us and we need help.  But when things are going well, we tend to just kind of go our own way, doing our own thing, not really making Jesus much of a part of our lives.

            There’s nothing new about that, by the way.  It happens all through the Old Testament.  The people get in trouble, they call on God, God bails them out, they promise to be faithful to God, things going well, the people forget God, they get in trouble again, they call on God again, and round and round and round we go.

            So just calling on Jesus’ name is not enough.  But what about prophesying in Jesus’ name?  What about driving out demons and performing miracles?  I mean, Jesus says we need to do the will of God the Father, but would those things not be doing God’s will?  What’s Jesus getting at here?

            I think what Jesus is getting at is that doing good things--even really good things--is not the same as doing God’s will.  Am I saying God does not want us to do good things?  No, of course not.  Obviously God wants us to do good things.  But Jesus did not say that the way to heaven is by being good people or by doing good things.  Remember, Jesus told us in Mark Ten that we should not even call him good, because no one is good except for God alone.  All of us human beings are sinners who fall far short of being “good”.  The way to heaven is by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  And faith in Jesus Christ means that we do God’s will to the best of our ability, just as Jesus spent his life on earth doing the will of God the Father.

            Let me give you an example.  Wanda and I lived in Wessington Springs for several years before I became a pastor.  And we did a lot of “good things” there.  Not everything--I mean, we’re far from perfect people.  But we were part of the community club and we helped raise money for the senior citizens bus and we did a lot of work supporting the troops--we had a local National Guard unit that was called up to serve in Iraq--and we did a lot of other stuff that most people would consider “good things”.

            But then God called us into ministry.  Had we said no, we would’ve stayed in Wessington Springs and we would’ve continued to do “good things”.  But we would not have been doing God’s will.  God’s will for us was not that we stay in Wessington Springs and keep doing “good things”.  God’s will for us was that we go into ministry, first in North Sioux City and now here.

            Now again, I don’t want to sound like I’m some sort of perfect person that everyone should look to as a role model.  There are plenty of times in my life when I have not followed God’s will, when I have gone my own way.  But the point is that doing “good things” does not make someone a Christian.  What makes someone a Christian is believing in Jesus Christ and do our best to follow God’s will.

            What that means is that there are probably people you know, people who we’d probably consider “good people” who do “good things”, who are not going to heaven.  I can think of people like that.  They are going on the broad road that leads to destruction, rather than the narrow road that leads to life.  And believe me, it gives me no pleasure to say that.  I wish it was not so.  But Jesus told us it is so, and any time we deny Jesus’ words, we become the false prophets Jesus told us to watch out for.  

            And so, there are at least two things we need to do.  The first one is to look at our lives.  Are we content to simply do “good things”?  Or are we truly trying to do God’s will?  It’s not always easy to know the difference.  We may need to spend some time in prayer.  We may need to spend some time reading the Bible.  We may need to spend some time talking to others whose opinions we trust.  We may need to spend some time truly listening for God’s voice, however God’s voice may make itself known to you.  

            But the second one is to do everything we can to bring others to Christ.  Including those “good people” who do “good things”.  We need to do what we can to help them truly accept Jesus Christ as the Savior and truly follow God’s will.

            Is that easy?  No, a lot of times it’s not.  It may lead to some very difficult conversations.  But remember, we don’t do it alone.  We do it with God’s help.  Any time we try to help someone accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, God will be with us.  God will give us the courage to act, and God will give us the words to say.  Will we always succeed?  No, probably not--even Jesus himself did not always succeed.  But one thing we know about God’s will is that God wants us to, in Jesus’ words, “go and make disciples of all nations”.  Any time we do that, we know we are doing God’s will.

            “Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  That’s not the way I wish it was.  But Jesus says that’s the way it is.  Let’s keep our faith in Jesus Christ strong.  Let’s do everything we can to truly follow God’s will, and be one of those few who are on that narrow road that leads to life.  And let’s do everything we can to bring others to faith in Jesus Christ, and help them follow God’s will, so that more and more people can find that narrow road.  Let’s do everything we can to make that narrow road crowded with believers, all doing their best to follow the will of God.

Body and Soul

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, October 11, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 10:16-33.

            One of the things people wonder about is why God allows bad things to happen.  And we especially wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people.  I suspect you’ve wondered about that at times.  Most of us have.

            And we especially wonder why God allows bad things to happen to Christians.  After all, if we’re Christians, God’s supposed to be on our side, right?  God’s supposed to take care of us.  God’s supposed to make things go smoothly for us.  And the stronger our faith is, the more we try to serve God and show love to God, the more God should do things for us.  I mean, if we’re doing these things for God, then God should be doing things for us.  It’s only fair, right?

            Well, I’m sure most of you know that’s not how it actually works.  Everyone here has gone through some tough things in your life.  Even you young people have had to deal with some things.  And it’s not because your faith was not strong enough.  It’s not because you did not serve God well enough.  As we look around, there does not seem to be any correlation at all between our faith and how many good things happen to us.

            But the thing is, Jesus does not tell us that there is or that there should be.  In our Bible reading for tonight, Jesus is about to send the disciples out by themselves.  Jesus is giving them a mission.  They are to proclaim this message:  The kingdom of heaven has come near. They are also supposed to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons.  This is all in Matthew Ten, verses seven and eight, right before the part we read tonight.

            That’s one heck of a mission, right?  Heal the sick.  Cleanse those who have leprosy.  Drive out demons.  Raise the dead.  And while they’re doing all this, they’re supposed to tell everyone that the kingdom of heaven has come near.  That’s quite a job Jesus is giving the disciples.  And they’re not going to have Jesus with them as they do this--they’re going to be out there by themselves.

            I would think the disciples must have been pretty nervous about this.  I know I would be.  I was nervous enough about going into ministry in small towns in South Dakota.  And nobody was expecting me to drive out demons or raise the dead.  The disciples must have been really worried about whether they could actually do this.

            So you’d think that, before Jesus sent them out, Jesus would give them some reassurance, right?  He’d tell them that God would be with them, that God would protect them, that it was all going to be all right.  After all, Jesus is sending these people out to do God’s work.  It’s only fair that God would take care of them, don’t you think?

            But that’s not what Jesus says at all.  Jesus tells them they will be arrested by the local town councils.  They will be flogged--beaten--in the synagogues.  They will be hated by everyone.  Just because they are telling people the kingdom of heaven has come near.  Just because they are healing people.  Just because they are followers of Jesus Christ and are doing what Jesus has told them to do.

            That does not seem fair at all.  And yet, there it is.  That’s probably why Jesus only gave this mission to his closest followers, to the twelve disciples.  He knew that none of the others would have a faith strong enough to go through with it.  And I wonder if even the twelve had a few second thoughts, had a little lump in their throats, when they heard this.  Could you do it?  Could I?

            We think of Jesus as bringing a message of joy and peace and love, and of course Jesus did bring that message.  But that was not all of Jesus’ message.  Jesus was nothing if not honest.  Jesus told the truth, and he did not sugarcoat things to make them more acceptable to people.  Jesus told it like it is.

            That’s what Jesus was doing here with his disciples.  Jesus was telling them, hey, don’t think following me is going to be easy.  Don’t think this job I’m giving you is going to be easy, either.  Don’t think this is going to be fun.  Don’t think it’s going to make you popular.  This is going to be hard.  It’s going to bring you a lot of pain.  People are going to hate you.  All because of what you’re doing in my name.

            Jesus did that because Jesus knew the disciples needed to know this.  They needed to be prepared.  If they had gone into this thinking people were going to like them, they’d have quit the first time they got into trouble.  Jesus wanted them to know what they were getting into.  And maybe, Jesus was giving them one more chance to walk away, to leave him if they did not think they could do this.

            But after telling the disciples all these things that were going to happen to them, Jesus also told them some other things.  He told them, when you get arrested, don’t worry about what to say or how to say it.  The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say.  And then, he tells them this:  “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.”

            Most of us are very concerned about our lives on earth.  We’re concerned about our bodies.  We try to eat right.  We try to exercise.  We try to take reasonable precautions to avoid getting sick.  That’s especially true now, in this time of COVID.  When we do get sick, or when we do get injured, we go to the doctor to try to get better.  We want to be as healthy as we can and we want to keep our lives on earth going as long as we can.  And we also do things to protect ourselves and our families from people who may want to do us harm.

            And none of that is wrong or bad.  God put a survival instinct into each of us.  And God wants us to take care of ourselves, because there are things God wants us to do while we’re here.  There’s nothing wrong with any of that.

            But we also need to live with the realization that our lives on earth are only temporary.  I’m not saying we should be obsessed with death or anything like that.  But we do need to have an awareness of how short our lives on earth really are.  No matter how hard we try to take care of ourselves, our lives are still short.  Think about the thousands of years of recorded human history, and think about how short our lives are in comparison to it.  Think of the millions of years the universe has existed, and think about how short our lives are in comparison to that.  And then think about eternity, an eternity that we’re either going to spend in heaven or in hell.  And think about how short our lives on earth are in comparison to that.

            So, as important as our lives on earth--our bodily lives--are, our eternal lives are much more important.  And so, the most important thing we need to do is follow Jesus Christ.  We need to go where the Lord sends us and do what the Lord sends us to do.  Even if it makes us less safe.  Even if it means taking risks.  Even if it means risking bodily harm.

            Now, you might think, well, nobody’s going to physically attack me for following Jesus Christ.  And maybe, in our little town, they won’t.  But two things.  One, there are people in the world--there are people in our country--who are physically attacked for following Jesus Christ.  And our little town is not walled off from the world.  Much as we might like to think we’re living in Mayberry and the worst thing that ever happens is that old Otis has a little too much to drink on Saturday night, that’s not the way it is.  We are a part of the world, and the things that happen in the rest of the world are going to come here.

            But the other thing is, especially for you young people, you’re probably not going to live all your lives here.  Maybe you will--some people do--but some of you will not.  You’re going to go out into that world.  And you will very well might meet people who will want to attack you for being a follower of Jesus Christ.

            But even if not, there are other ways that following Jesus Christ involves risk.  If we take our faith seriously, if we live it out, there will be people who don’t like us because of that.  There will be people who won’t want to have anything to do with us.  We may lose friends.  We may lose business.  We may even have family members who don’t want to have anything to do with us.  There are all kinds of consequences for truly belong a follower of Jesus Christ.

            Jesus knew that we needed to know that.  He did not tell the disciples that, and he does not tell us that, to discourage us.  He tells us that so we’ll be prepared.  He tells us that so we’ll be ready to handle this.  Jesus tells us this so we’ll know what we’re getting into.  And maybe, he tells us this to give us the chance to walk away if we don’t think we can handle this.

            The disciples did not walk away.  It’s my hope and prayer that you and I won’t walk away, either.  Jesus does not sugarcoat things.  He knows that following him will not always be easy.  But he tells us that the Holy Spirit will be with us.  The Holy Spirit will tell us what to say and how to say it.  And he tells us that no matter what someone may do to us, they cannot kill our souls.  If we stay faithful to Jesus Christ, we will receive our reward--eternal life in heaven.

            The Lord does not promise us an easy life on earth.  But the Lord does promise to be with us as we go through our lives on earth, and to help us through those lives.  And through our faith and by God’s grace, our faithfulness will be rewarded.  Our souls will have eternal life with God.

 

Finding the Middle Ground

             Some of you know that, to keep my weight down, I try to eat a low-carb diet.  Every once in a while, though, I give myself a treat.  I did that this past week.  I stopped at Dairy Queen and had an Oreo blizzard.

            Now I know that some people around here champion Zesto ahead of Dairy Queen.  I can’t say I’ve ever been disappointed in the ice cream treats at either place.  However, we were driving through Miller, so Zesto was not an option.

            Because I don’t do this very often, and because the ice cream was so good, I wanted to eat it slowly and really savor it.  But there’s a problem with doing that, which is, simply, that it’s ice cream.  If you eat it too slowly, it will melt, and you will be left with ice cream soup.  Now, that’s still the best kind of soup there is, but when you go Dairy Queen, you don’t want ice cream soup.  You want ice cream.  

            So, the dilemma.  Eat the blizzard too quickly, and your mouth freezes and the ice cream is gone before you know it and you can’t really savor it.  Eat it too slowly, and you miss out on the very thing you wanted.  You have to try to find a middle ground, and that can be tricky sometimes.

            It struck me that life can be like that sometimes.  We know, deep down, that our lives are short, even if we don’t like to think about that very much.  And the older we get, the more we live with that knowledge that life is short.  And so, sometimes, we want to slow down and savor our lives.  But there’s a problem with doing that.  If we slow down too much, we miss out on a lot of things we’d really like to be able to do.  But on the other hand, if we live our lives too fast and try do too much, the happy moments in our lives are gone before we know it and we never really get the chance to savor them.  

            The thing to do, as with eating the Oreo blizzard, is to try to find a middle ground.  And that can be tricky.  And so what I’m going to tell you to do, again, is pray about it.  Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to show you how to live your life.  Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to help you find that middle ground, where you don’t miss out on things, but you can still savor the things you do.  

            God wants us to enjoy our lives.  God wants us to enjoy them in God’s way, following God’s rules, but God still wants us to enjoy them.  That can be harder as we get older, when we can no longer do some of the things we used to do and we’re more likely to have things that hurt than we used to be.  But God still wants us to enjoy them.  In fact, God still wants us to savor them.  So ask God to show you how to do that.  And be willing to listen for God’s answer.

 

Trust God Anyway

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 11, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:7-12.

            Do you believe God always do what we’d like God to do?

            I suspect for all of us, the answer is no.  That’s true for a few reasons, but the biggest one is probably our own experience.  We’ve all had times when we wanted God to do things, and God did not do them.  Now, sometimes, after time goes by and we can look back on a situation, we feel very fortunate that God did not do what we wanted.  We can see now that God’s plan was better than ours.  And we thank God that God did not give us what we thought we wanted.

            But there are other times when we don’t understand why God did not do what we wanted.  My guess is that we’ve all had that experience.  We’ve prayed for the healing of a loved one, for example, and they were not healed, at least not in this life.  We’ve prayed for God to help us get out of a difficult situation, and God left us in the situation.  How many of us have prayed for an end to the coronavirus, and so far, at least, there is no end in sight?

            We don’t know why.  All we can do is hold onto our faith and continue to trust.  We trust that God must have some reason for not doing what we wanted.  We trust that God knows better than we do.  We trust that God has plans and purposes we know nothing about.  We trust that God can see farther into the future than we can.  We trust that, as it says in Isaiah chapter fifty-five, God’s ways are higher than our ways and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  And we trust that God loves us, and so God must have a better plan in mind for us than the plans we have for ourselves, even if we have no clue what that plan is.

            But the thing is, what, then, do we do with our Bible reading for today?  Because Jesus seems to say that God will do what we want God to do.  Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  And then, Jesus says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

            We know that God does not always do what we want God to do.  But as Christians, we also know that Jesus’ words cannot be wrong.  So, what does Jesus mean?  What’s Jesus talking about?

            Well, first, Jesus says that if we want God to do something, we have to take some action, right?  Jesus says that if we want something to be given to us, we need to ask.  If we want to find something, we need to seek it.  If we want the door to be opened to us, we need to knock.  

            In other words, God does not just drop things into our laps.  God is willing to help us.  God wants to help us.  But God waits to be asked.  God waits for us to actively seek God’s goodness.  God does not open doors for us until we ask that they be opened.            

            So that’s one thing, and it’s an important thing.  Because sometimes our “requests” are really demands, right?  We do not ask humbly.  We do not ask recognizing how much higher and greater God’s ways are than our own.  Instead, we act as if we believe God owes it to us to do things for us.  We act as if God would not know what to do if we did not tell Him, and if God does not do what we tell Him, then there must be something wrong with God.

            Now, when you put it that way, it sounds kind of silly.  But if we’re honest with ourselves, I suspect some of us have done that.  I know I have.  And I doubt I’m the only one.

            Not only that, but Jesus’ statement implies that, if we want God to help us, we need to do our part.  Whatever we want God to give us, we need to actually seek it.  Whatever door we want God to open for us, we need to actively knock on it.  If we just sit back and do nothing, waiting for God to do it all, we are likely to be disappointed.  God will do God’s part.  But first, you and I need to do our part.

            But, we say, we’ve done all that.  We’ve asked humbly.  We’ve sought what we want god to do.  We knocked on the door.  We’ve done our part.  And--God did not do God’s part.  In fact, it looks to us like God has not done anything.

            Well, let’s look a little farther.  Jesus uses a couple of examples of how human parents act.  He says, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?”  Then he says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

 Jesus says God will give good gifts to those who ask him.  But here’s the thing:  Is everything we ask God to give us really a good gift?

We may believe it is.  We may believe we’re acting completely selflessly.  We may believe that what we ask would be best for everyone concerned.  We may believe there is downside to it whatsoever for anyone.  But that does not mean that what we believe is true.

Let’s look a little more closely at those good gifts that human parents give.  Those of you who’ve had children, let me ask you:  do you, or did you, give your kids everything they wanted, just because they asked for it?  And if you don’t have children, think of your own childhood.  Did your parents give you everything you wanted, just because you asked for it?

I’m pretty sure the answer for everyone here is no.  Human parents don’t give their children everything they ask for just because they ask for it.  And the reason human parents don’t give their children everything they ask for is because they love their children.  And human parents know that sometimes, the things their children ask for are not, in fact, good things.

The children may believe that they are.  The children may not think of themselves as being selfish at all.  In fact, sometimes they could probably give you a whole list of reasons why they should get what they’re asking for.  They may not be able to see any downside to it at all.

But you can.  Because human parents know better than their children.  Human parents know that it’s more important to give their children what they need than it is to give them what they want.  To use Jesus’ words, human parents will give their children bread even if they’ve asked for a stone.  They’ll give their children a fish even if they’ve asked for a snake.  The children might not see anything wrong with what they’ve asked for, but their parents do.  And so, parents will give their children good gifts, even if their children don’t see them as good gifts at the time.

That’s what God does for us.  God gives us the good gifts we need, which may not be the gifts we’ve asked for.  We may believe we’ve asked for something good, but God knows that it’s a snake.  And God won’t give it to us, because God knows it’s not a good gift, no matter how strongly we believe it is.

It’s still hard to understand, though.  We may understand the logic of it, but still.  When you’re loved one is in the hospital and you pray for healing and the healing does not come, it’s hard to understand why that healing would not be a good gift.  When we’re in a really tough situation and we don’t see any way out and God does not help us get out, it’s hard to understand how God helping us out of the situation would not be a good gift.  And it’s certainly hard to understand why God getting rid of the coronavirus would not be a good gift.  None of that makes much sense to us.

And so we end where we began.  Because again, it really comes down to a matter of trust.  Can you and I trust God enough to believe that what we are asking God to give us would not, in fact, be a good gift, even if every bit of our minds and hearts tells us that it would be?  Can you and I trust God enough to believe that, when God does not give us what we ask, it means that God has something better in mind for us, even if we cannot possibly understand what could be better than what we’re asking for?  In short, can we trust God enough to believe that God knows what He’s doing, even when what God is doing--or not doing--makes absolutely no sense to us?

This is where, as they used to say, the rubber meets the road.  This is where we find out whether we really have faith in God, or if we just say we do.  When we cannot understand why God is not doing what we’ve humbly and sincerely asked God to do, when we’ve knocked on the door and it seems like God has slammed it shut, can we continue to have faith anyway?  Can we continue to believe in God’s goodness anyway?  Can we continue to trust in God’s love anyway?

We really cannot know until we’ve been there.  And I know some of us have been there.  And those of us who have not been there yet will be at some point.  It’s just the way life works.

When we are there, may we trust in God’s greatness.  May we trust in God’s goodness.  May we trust in God’s love.  And may we trust that God will give us good gifts, even if we cannot see them as good at the time.  May we continue to trust God.

 

God Is Stronger

This is the message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday night, October 4, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 40:1-11.

            There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world.  You don’t need me to tell you about it.  We are living through things that nobody living has experienced.  

I mean, yes, there have been bad times before, and I don’t know how you compare things across eras.  But I never, in my wildest dreams, thought we’d see a time when churches were closed, the way they were earlier this year and the way some still are.  I never thought I’d see a time when sports was cancelled.  I never thought I’d see a time when people were wearing masks to go out of their houses.  I’m not saying that’s wrong, don’t misunderstand.  I’m just saying that seven months ago, I never would’ve thought that was possible.  It never even would’ve occurred to me that something like that would happen.

            Some people see God’s judgment in this.  I don’t know.  I’m not saying it cannot be.  I’m just saying I don’t know.  I know God is all powerful, which means that nothing ever happens that God does not allow to happen.  And God is all-knowing and all-wise, so God must have good reasons for allowing these things to happen, even if I don’t know what they are.  And God is all-loving, so whatever God’s reasons are, they have to be reasons that, in the long run, are going to be for the benefit of humanity, even if that’s hard for us to understand.

            But you know, this is not the first time people have had a hard time, nor is it the first time people have had trouble understanding why God was allowing bad things to happen.  That was the situation of the people of Israel in the time of Isaiah.

            Israel was a small country.  It did not have a big army.  And it had enemies on all sides, enemies that were a lot more powerful than it was.  The big dog, the one they were most worried about, was Assyria.  In fact, they were so scared of Assyria that they were trying to make a deal with Egypt to protect them from Assyria.  But Egypt was not going to do that just because the Egyptians were such nice people.  They were going to want something in return.  If Egypt saved Israel from Assyria, then Egypt was going to take over Israel.  Either way, Israel was in trouble.

            And the prophet Isaiah does not give Israel a lot of good news.  If you’ve ever read the book of Isaiah, you know that most of the book is Isaiah telling people that this is God’s judgment on them.  They have abandoned the Lord God, and so the Lord God has abandoned them.  God is going to allow them to be taken over.  

            But Isaiah does not tell them that the situation is hopeless.  Isaiah tells them there is, in fact, hope.  That’s the subject of our passage for tonight.

            God, speaking through Isaiah, gives the people a message of hope.  Yes, things have been hard for Israel.  And they’re going to be hard a while longer.  But, God tells Isaiah, there will come a time when the hard times will be over.  There will come a time when God decides Israel has paid for its sins.  And even though they’re going through hard times, they need to be ready for when the better times come.  Listen to what God, speaking through Isaiah, says:

In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord;  make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

God tells Isaiah that things are going to get better.  In fact, things are going to get really good.  And not only that, everyone’s going to know that it’s God who did it.  That’s what God means when He says, “The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.”  When things get better--and God makes it clear that they will--everyone is going to know that the people were saved by God, and they are going to give honor and glory and praise to God.

And the thing is, even Isaiah has a hard time believing that.  It says, “A voice says, ‘Cry out.’  And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’”  Isaiah says, in effect, you’re telling me to tell people things are going to get better, but how can I do that?  Things are falling apart.  People’s faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.  It’s here today and gone tomorrow.  And the same can be said of the people themselves.  How am I supposed to tell them that things are going to be okay?

Do you ever feel like that now?  It’s easy to.  We’ve got a lot of things that are not going well right now.  It’s not just the corona virus.  There are wildfires and hurricanes.  There are--well, you don’t need me to go through the list.  You know it as well as I do.  We keep looking for signs that things are going to get better, but--it’s really hard to see them.  We keep wanting things to get back to normal, but we’re starting to wonder if that’s possible.  In fact, sometimes we wonder what normal even is anymore.  How in the world can we accept a message that says things are going to be okay?

Well, God gave Isaiah an answer.  And the answer is this:  “The Word of the Lord endures forever.”

God told Isaiah, you can tell people things are going to be okay because I am the Lord, your God.  If people need a reason to believe things are going to be okay, remind them of who I am.  Tell them that I am the all-powerful, almighty. eternal God.  Tell them I am the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise God.  Tell them I am the all-loving, all-caring, all-compassionate, all-gracious, and all-forgiving God. 

Listen to how God puts it:  “Lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah:  ‘Here is your God!’  See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.”  And also:  “He tends his flock like a shepherd:  He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

God tells Isaiah:  This is all you need to do--tell them who I am.  And tell them that because that’s who I am, they can be confident that I am stronger than any of their enemies.  I am stronger than Egypt.  I am stronger than Assyria.  I am stronger than anything you are facing or ever will face.  I will win.  And I love you, so if you will stay with Me, you’ll win, too. 

And that’s what God is saying to us now.  God says, I understand that you’re concerned.  Maybe you’re even scared.  I understand that.  But you don’t have to be.  I am the Lord, your God.  Remember who I am.  You don’t have to be afraid.  I am coming.  I will come at the right time.  And I will come with power and might.  I am stronger than anything you face.  I am stronger than the corona virus.  I am stronger than natural disasters.  I am stronger than anything humans can create, too.  And whatever you may be facing in your personal life, I am stronger than that, too.  I am stronger than anything you are facing or ever will face.  I am the Lord, your God.

But God also reminds us that God will use His strength for us.  God wants us to be part of his flock.  God wants to gather us in and carry us close to His heart.  God wants to gently lead us and guide us through all the things we’re going through.  

Isaiah had a hard time believing all that at first.  Maybe you have a hard time believing it, too.  It’s okay.  Again, God understands.  God understands why we have trouble, why we get scared.  But God does not want us to be scared.  God does not want us to live our lives in fear.  God wants us to trust Him.  Trust in His strength.  Trust in His power.  And trust in His love.  Trust that God will use God’s strength and God’s power for our benefit.  Trust that God will use God’s power to see us through everything, and to bring us out the other side, because God loves us.

And trust one more thing.  Trust that God has a reason for allowing things to be the way they are right now.  It’s the same reason God gave Isaiah:  “the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.”

I don’t know when things will get better.  I don’t know how things will get better.  But I know they will.  And I also know this:  when they do, it will be God who makes it happen.  And everyone will know it is God who made it happen.  When things get better, the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.

            God is in control.  God has always been in control.  God will always be in control.  And God will use His power for us, because God loves us.  No matter what you may see happening, either in the world or in your own life, we can trust God to see us through it.  Things will get better.  The glory of the Lord will be revealed.  All people will see it together.  And it will be awesome.