Trust in the Lord

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on May 30, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 37:1-9.

            One of the awesome things about the psalms is that, in many ways, the psalms are timeless.  The words we read tonight were written over two thousand five hundred years ago.  And yet, they apply so well to the current state of living that they could’ve been written yesterday.

            Listen to how it starts out:  “Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong.”  That applies today, right?  We have a lot of concerns about evil in our world.  We may not always call it “evil”, but there are all kinds of things happening in the world that we don’t think is right.  And we worry about it.  We worry about the future.  We wonder what’s going to happen.  We see the world going down what seems to be the wrong path, and we wonder how far down that path things will go.  We wonder when things will change.  We wonder if things will change.  We worry about whether this downhill path the world seems to be on is permanent, if things will just get worse and worse and worse.

            The writer of the psalm says we don’t need to worry about stuff like that.  We don’t need to worry about those who are evil.  Why not?  Because they’re not going to survive.  “Like the green grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.”

            As I thought about that, I thought about the sunflowers.  For a short time, in late summer/early fall, the sunflowers are in full bloom.  And they look beautiful.  They’re big and full and they look like they’re going to be around forever.

            But they’re not.  They only look like that for a few short weeks.  It’s not very long at all before they start to go downhill.  They turn brown.  The heads start to droop.  And before long those “beautiful” sunflowers look ugly.  And pretty soon, they die.

            That’s what our psalm says about evil.  It may look good for a while.  It may even look like it’s really attractive.  But its time is short.  It’s not long before evil starts to go downhill.  It no longer looks attractive at all.  And eventually, it dies out.

            Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that.  It’s hard, sometimes, to see past what’s right in front of us.  It’s hard to believe that things can be different from the way they are, that they can and will be better than how they are.  What we see now is reality.  What will be, what could be--well, who knows?

            God knows.  And God is going to take care of it.  Listen to what our psalm says next.  “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.  Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:  He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”

            That’s what we need to do.  When we see evil winning, when it seems like everything’s going downhill, that’s our solution.  Trust in the Lord and do good.  It sounds simple, right?  And it is simple.  It’s just not always easy to do.  

            For some reason, trusting in the Lord seems to be one of the hardest things for human beings to do.  We can believe in the Lord.  We can praise the Lord.  We can worship the Lord.  We can even love the Lord.  But trust the Lord?  Well, that’s different.  That’s another matter entirely.

            Why?  I don’t know.  Part of it, I suppose, is just our natural human impatience.  When we want something to happen, we don’t want it to happen at some point in the future.  We want it to happen now.  

And when it does not happen now, what do we do?  Two things.  The first thing we do is try to force it to happen now.  We’ll do this, we’ll do that, we’ll do anything we can think of to try to make what we think needs to happen, happen right away.  We don’t want to wait for things to happen in God’s time.  We want them to happen in our time.  Today, if not sooner.

And of course, that very rarely works.  So then, we do the second thing, which is give up.  We decide God is not going to do anything.  We decide God has abandoned us.  And so, we give up on God.

And the thing about that is that, when we give up on God, we tend to give up on ourselves, too.  We think, well, what’s the point?  What’s the point of serving God?  What’s the point of staying faithful?  What’s the point of loving God and loving others?  What’s the point of trying to live a good life?  Evil is winning.  God’s not doing anything about it.  There’s no point of anything.  That’s a pretty hopeless feeling.

We need to ask God to help us fight our impatience.  We need to do what the psalm says a little later:  be still.  “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”

Again, that’s not our natural reaction.  When we see things not going right, the last thing we want to do is be still.  But when we do it, when we are just still, sometimes we see amazing things happen.  In fact, I think sometimes that God is saying to us, “I’d love to show you all the incredible things I can do if you would just be still and get out of My way.”

But being still is not the same as doing nothing.  This psalm does tell us to do a few things.  I’ve mentioned them, but I kind of skipped over them.  Let’s look at them.

“Trust in the Lord and do good.”  Do good.  Do things to help people.  Do things to show love to people.  Find ways to support people, to encourage people, to just be there for people.  You might be surprised what a difference those things can make in someone’s life.  You might be surprised at the difference they make in your life, too.  So, in trusting in the Lord, that’s the first things we should do.  Do good.

Next, “dwell in the Lord and enjoy safe pasture.”  In other words, relax.  Know that God gives us good things, and enjoy the good things God has given us.  Enjoy the love of God.  Enjoy the peace of God.  Yes, some things are bad right now, but we don’t have to change the world by ourselves.  In fact, we cannot change the world by ourselves.  Just do good, do what you can to improve things around you, and know that God will handle the rest of it.  We know God can--God is God.  So relax.  Let the love of God and the peace of God surround you, regardless of the circumstances.

And then, we’re supposed to do one more thing.  And when you think about it, it’s the most awesome thing of all.  It’s this:  “take delight in the Lord.”

When’s the last time you did that?  I mean, we may pray to the Lord.  We may ask the Lord for things.  We may thank the Lord for things.  We may even praise the Lord for things.  But do you ever take delight in the Lord?  Do you even know what it would mean, what it would feel like, to take delight in the Lord?

Taking delight in the Lord means just being happy to be around God.  Not necessarily saying anything.  Not necessarily doing anything.  Not even necessarily thinking about anything.  Just being in God’s presence.  Just feeling that you are with God.  Just feeling that God is with you.  It’s like being with someone you love, or even just being with a good friend.  You don’t have to say anything.  You don’t have to do anything.  You just enjoy hanging out with each other.  That’s what taking delight in the Lord means, really.  Just hanging out with God.

Have you ever tried to do that?  To just hang out with God?  Try it.  Just go to God and say something like, “God, I just want to be with you right now.  I’m not going to say anything.  I’m not going to ask you for anything.  I just want to be with you, and I want to feel that you’re with me.  I just want to hang out with you for a while.”  If you do that, if you’re really serious about it, I don’t think it will be too long before you do feel God with you.  And you’ll feel better.  You will take delight in the Lord.

When it seems like evil is winning, when it’s hard to trust the Lord, try doing these things.  Be still.  Do good.  Relax.  Let the love of God and the peace of God surround you.  Feel God’s presence with you.  Just hang out with God.  And I suspect, when we do those things, we’ll find that we do start trusting God.

Evil will not win.  Evil cannot win.  Our reading for tonight says one more thing.  “Those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.”

Evil will be destroyed.  When?  I don’t know.  How?  I don’t know.  I just know that it will happen.  And I know it will be God who makes it happen.  God will take care of it in God’s way and at God’s time.  But God will take care of it.  Just trust in the Lord, do good, and leave the rest to God.

 

Stand Up for Jesus

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Acts 4:1-21.

            Tomorrow is Memorial Day.  It’s a day when we honor those people who have given their lives in service to this country.

            They were willing to do that because they believed in this country and what it stands for.  Not that they thought it was a perfect country--it’s not, it never has been, and it never will be.  Things created by humans can never be perfect--perfection is something only God has.  But they believed this is a great country, and a good country, and they were willing to sacrifice their lives to defend it.  

That’s a pretty powerful thing.  That’s saying you are willing to stand up for what you believe is right no matter what the consequences to you might be.  That’s a quality to be admired.  It’s to be admired among people who are willing to sacrifice for their country.  It’s also a quality to be admired among Christians.

As Christians, of course, our first allegiance is to Jesus Christ.  That does not mean we cannot also love our country and defend our country.  Much of the time, we can do both.  But if there ever is a conflict, as Christians we need to put our allegiance to Christ first.

We’ve talked about this before, but a lot of people seem to have the idea that following Christ should make our lives on earth easier.  That’s true in a way, but not in the way we often think of it.  Following Christ does not guarantee us wealth.  It does not guarantee us earthly success.  It does not guarantee us popularity.  In fact, quite often, it brings the opposite of those things.  Being a Christian may very well mean that we have to forego chances to make money.  It may mean that we have to sacrifice chances for earthly success.  Standing up for our faith in Jesus sometimes makes us very unpopular.  Following Christ does not necessarily make our lives easier in any of those ways.

The way following Christ makes our lives easier is that it gives us confidence and inner peace.  Following Christ makes our lives easier because we believe that God is with us and will see us through whatever may happen to us.  Following Christ makes our lives easier because we know that, when we do our best to be faithful to God, God will bless our efforts and make things go the way they’re supposed to go.  And if that’s not the way we want them to go, well, we know that God knows best, and so we can accept whatever happens to us.

In the chapter before our reading for today, Peter and John meet a man who was lame since birth.  Because there was no such thing as welfare or disability payments back then, the man had to beg to survive.  And we’re told:

Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles because strong.  He jumped to his feet and began to walk.  Then he went into he temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.  When people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Peter and John then start telling people about Christ, and that’s where our reading for today picks up the story.  The religious authorities of the day--a lot of the same ones who’d had Christ crucified--saw the crowd starting to believe Peter and John, and so those authorities had Peter and John arrested and thrown in jail.

Think about that.  Peter and John were thrown in jail precisely because they believed in Jesus Christ as the Savior and were not afraid to say so.  They were able to heal someone because they believed in Jesus Christ.  They were able to tell people about Christ because they believed in Jesus Christ.  They were able to convince others to believe in Jesus Christ, too.  And they also were able to really anger the religious authorities because they believed in Jesus Christ.  

The religious authorities probably thought they could intimidate Peter and John.  After all, these were, as our reading says, “unschooled, ordinary men”.  And they were going up against the well-educated, wealthy, powerful religious authorities.  These people had the power to keep them in jail for a long time, if they so chose.  And it’s not like they could demand legal rights the way we can in this country today.  Peter and John had no legal rights whatsoever.  Surely they would give in and do what the authorities wanted.

But they did not.  Peter and John could not be intimidated.  We’re told that the religious authorities were “astonished” at their courage.  They call Peter and John in again, and threaten them, and it does no good.  Peter and John are going to serve God, no matter what happens to them.

Peter and John had no guarantee of what was going to happen when they did this.  They knew the religious authorities had all kinds of earthly power over them.  But that did not matter.  They knew what they believed in, and what they believed in was Jesus Christ.  And they were going to stand up for Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences were for them.  And they said so.  They said that the Lord had told them to do what they were doing.  And then they said, “Which is right in God’s eyes:  to listen to you, or to Him?”  

That had to really make the religious authorities mad.  After all, they thought they were the ones who knew all about what God wanted.  They thought listening to them was listening to God.  They had to be so tempted to just send Peter and John back to jail and throw away the key.  And yet, we’re told, they thought they could not do anything, “because all the people were praising God for what had happened.”

So think about this.  On the one side we have Peter and John.  Two unschooled, ordinary men with no power whatsoever.  On the other side we have the religious authorities, with all the powers of their office.  Peter and John are not intimidated by these powerful religious authorities, because they had the courage that comes from knowing you are following Christ.  Instead, these powerful religious authorities are intimidated by James and John, these two unschooled ordinary men.  Because the religious authorities did not have the courage that comes from knowing you are following Christ.

So, where does that leave you and me?  Most of us would consider ourselves ordinary people.  None of us is particularly powerful, in earthly terms.  Would we be willing to do what Peter and John did?  Do you and I have the courage that comes from knowing we are following Jesus Christ?  Are we willing to stand up for our faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of what the consequences may be for us?

I cannot answer for you, obviously.  As for me, I don’t know.  I’d like to think so, of course.  But I don’t really know.

I wonder if Peter and John knew.  Before this happened, before they were put to the test, had they thought about it?  Did they talk with each other about it?  Did they say, look, this stuff we’re doing could get us into trouble.  We’d better be prepared.  We’d better know what we’re going to do when the authorities come after us, because they almost certainly will.

I suspect they did.  Given what had happened to Jesus, given who the religious authorities were, Peter and John had to know this could happen.  And that gave them an advantage, because they could be ready for the trouble when it came.

You and I need to think about it, too.  And we need to talk about it.  It’s hard for us to think we could get into the same kind of trouble Peter and John did.  And maybe we never will, although if you pay attention to the news you know there are pastors, and churches, who have gotten into legal trouble for standing up for their faith.  It’s certainly not impossible that we could be put to that kind of test.

But even if we’re not, there are other ways we can get into trouble because of our Christian faith.  As I said earlier, it can cost us chances to make money.  It can cost us popularity.  It can even cost us friends.  Taking our Christian faith seriously does not guarantee us a smooth, easy ride through life.  Again, it sometimes guarantees just the opposite.

So the question is, can you and I stand up for our faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences may be?  We know what our answer should be.  But is that what our answer really is?  We need to think about it.  We need to be ready.  We need to make the decision now that we will follow Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences may be.

Those consequences are real.  But there are other consequences, positive consequences, that are real, too.  The confidence that comes from faith.  The knowledge that God will be with us, no matter what.  The inner peace that comes from knowing that God will be faithful to us, and that God will bless us and the things we do, as long as we stay faithful to Him.

The sacrifices of those who gave their lives for this country should never be forgotten.  They were willing to stand up for this country and defend it, no matter what the consequences to them might be.  But it’s even more important that we all stand up for Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences to us may be.  It’s not always easy to do that.  But it is always worth it.

 

Do You Love God?

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, May 23, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 138.

How do you feel about God?

            Seriously, how do you feel about God?  I mean, we know how we’re supposed to feel.  We know we’re supposed to love God.  We know we’re supposed to be grateful to God.  We know we’re supposed to honor God and worship God and praise God.

            But do we?  Do you?  Be honest about it.  When you think about God, what’s your first reaction?  Is it love?  Is it gratitude?  Is it praise and worship and honor?  Or is it something else?

            If it is something else, God understands.  God understands that there are times when we don’t feel particularly loving toward Him.  God understands, when things get hard for us, that we don’t always feel grateful to Him.  God understands that there are times we don’t feel like giving praise and worship and honor to God.

            God understands, and God will forgive, if we ask.  But that’s not something we should use as an excuse.  And it’s also not something we should take for granted.  God’s forgiveness is not a get out of jail free card, something we can pull out whenever we get into trouble.  God may forgive, but that does not mean God is pleased.  And asking for God’s forgiveness when we have no intention of changing our behavior is not a request God is going to look favorably on.  And while God may be hurt when we don’t love God and honor God and all that, the person we really hurt by failing to do those things is ourselves.

            We read Psalm One Hundred Thirty-eight.  The author of that psalm seems to have no problem feel love for God.  He has no problem feeling grateful to God, praising God, and worshiping and honoring God.  And he tells us why.  See if any of his reasons resonate with you.

            He says he is praising God for his “unfailing love and faithfulness”.  What do you think about that?  Do you think God has given you unfailing love and faithfulness?  Do you feel God’s love now?  Do you feel God is being faithful to you now?

            I hope so.  But maybe not.  We don’t, always.  I’ve had times when I did not feel God’s love.  In fact, I’ve had times when I did not feel God with me at all.  Maybe you have, too.

            Those are tough times, when that happens.  It’s hard to deal with.  We start to question.  We start to doubt.  And it can feel like our questions have no answers, so that our doubts increase.  

            But when I look back on those times, I can see what happened.  God had not abandoned me.  God still loved me and was faithful to me.  What happened was that I was not being faithful to God.  I was not trusting God.  I was wanting God to do things my way.  And when God said no, my way is better than your way, I did not want to hear it.  I thought God had abandoned me, but in fact, I was abandoning God.

            Does any of that apply to you?  When you’ve had trouble feeling God’s love and faithfulness, have you been wanting God to do things your way?  I don’t know--we’re all different.  But I would encourage you to think about it.  See if that applies.  It’s an easy trap to fall into.

            The author of the psalm goes on to say of God, “When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me.”  Has that been your experience?  When you call on God, does God answer?  Does God embolden you, giving you courage and confidence?

            I hope so.  Sometimes God does not answer right away, of course.  And sometimes it can be hard to hear God’s answer.  And sometimes, we don’t want to hear God’s answer, because it’s not the answer we wanted.  But my experience is that God always does answer.  God answers in God’s time, and in God’s way.  The answer might come directly from God, but it might not.  It might come from an inner feeling.  It might come through things that happen.  It might come through someone else.  But God will answer.  We just need to be open to hearing God’s answer.

            And God’s answer should give us courage and confidence, even if it’s not the answer we wanted to hear.  Because, again, when I think of times when God has given me an answer, God’s answers have always been right.  It may have taken me a while to see that, but they were.  Always.  I hope that’s been true for you, too.  If it is, that should give us confidence that God’s answers will be right again.  It should give us the courage to trust God and even praise God.

            The author of the psalm has more to say.  He says, “Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar.  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.”

            There’s a lot to unpack there.  The Lord is exalted, yet He “looks kindly on the lowly.”  That’s a statement of grateful praise right there.  Because God is exalted, God would not have to look kindly on us lowly human beings.  God would not have to take any notice of us at all.  But God does.  That’s pretty awesome, right there.

            Do you feel that God looks kindly on you?  I hope so.  But again, it can be hard sometimes.  It can be hard because life can be hard.  We have bad stuff happen.  Sometimes that bad stuff is our own fault, because of bad decisions we’ve made, but sometimes it’s not.  Sometimes bad stuff happens because of things out of our control.  And when it does, we can wonder where God is.  We wonder why God did not stop it.  We wonder if God really does look kindly on us.  We wonder if God even cares about us at all.

            But that’s why the author goes on to say, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.”  He knows he is going to have trouble.  He’s going to walk right smack dab in the middle of it.  He does not say God is going to keep him out of trouble.  He does not say God will make things easy for him.  All he says is that, when the trouble comes, God will preserve his life.

            God did not set up life to be easy for His followers.  When you look at the greatest heroes of the Bible, they very rarely had easy lives.  Moses had to run for his life to escape the Egyptian authorities.  Joseph, of “coat of many colors” fame, was sold into slavery.  Many of the great prophets had their lives threatened.  The Apostle Paul was imprisoned more than once.  The list goes on and on.

            But that did not mean God had abandoned them.  God did not keep them out of trouble.  In fact, it was obeying God that specifically got them into trouble on earth.  But God was with them through their trouble.  And God brought them through their trouble, as long as they stayed faithful to Him.

            So when you don’t feel God’s love, when you feel like God is not answering you, when you feel like God is not looking kindly on you, remember that.  Remember that God does not promise to keep us out of trouble.  Remember that, sometimes, the fact that we’re following God is what gets us into trouble, at least on earth.  

            When that happens to us, it may not seem right.  It may not seem fair.  And it may not be fair, in human terms.  But again, a lot of the great heroes of the Bible had a lot of things happen to them that do not seem fair to us.  And again, God was with them through those times and brought them through those times.  And not only that, God used those “unfair” things they went through to bring about God’s purposes.  God will do that for us, too, if we stay faithful to Him throughout our troubles.

            The author of the psalm says, “Your love, Lord, endures forever.”  God’s love never leaves us.  It never dies.  It never fades.  It never weakens.  There will never be a time when God does not love us.

            I know it can be hard to believe that.  But think how much easier our lives are when we do.  Think about how much pressure it takes off of us, when we simply put our faith and trust in God’s love.  We realize, sometimes to our great relief, that we don’t have to do everything by ourselves.  We’re not responsible for everything.  All we’re responsible for is doing the best we can.  Doing the best we can to love God.  Doing the best we can to serve God.  Doing the best we can to stay faithful to God.  And even if that gets us into trouble, trusting that God will be with us in that trouble and will bring us through it.

            When things go wrong, it can be hard to love God.  But know this:  God always loves you.  When things go wrong, it can be hard to be faithful to God.  But know this:  God is always faithful to you.  Remember all the times God has been there for you in the past.  Remember all the times when God’s answers were better than yours.  It may not be easy.  But trusting loving God and trusting God is always worth it.

Get Close to Jesus

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, May 23, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 15:29-39.

            Our Bible reading for today is the story of a miracle.  Jesus feeds four thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.  In fact, Jesus fed more than four thousand people--what the Bible says is that he fed four thousand men, besides women and children.  So Jesus might have fed eight thousand, ten thousand, twelve thousand people that day.  We don’t know.  But we know that however many thousands of people he fed, Jesus did it with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.  A miracle.

            And when we read this story, that’s the part we usually jump to--the miraculous feeding.  In fact, in my Bible, the story is headlined “Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand”.  But when we really look at the story, there’s a lot more to it than just one of Jesus’ miracles.  In fact, if we focus just on that, we miss a lot of the meaning of this passage.

            First, we’re told that Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down.  Did Jesus know people would follow him there?  Did Jesus even want people to follow him there?  After all, the Bible tells us many times of Jesus going off by himself, often into the mountains.  Jesus would do that to pray, to renew himself, to keep in touch with God the Father.  Maybe that’s what Jesus was doing here.

            But if he was, it did not work.  We’re told that “great crowds came to him”.  And they brought “the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others”.

            I’ve talked before about how often the Bible says extraordinary things in a really matter-of-fact way.  This is one of those times.  Think about this.  Jesus is on a mountainside.  We don’t know how high up the mountain he was, but it had to be a significant distance, or Matthew would not have mentioned it.  And yet, all these people, “great crowds”, followed Jesus.  They followed him up the mountainside.  That would not have been easy, in and of itself--climbing up a mountainside.  But that’s not all.  They did this bringing all sorts of disabled people with them.  Again, they’re described as “the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others.”

            Think of the faith that took.  Think of how determined these people were to be close to Jesus.  They were not only willing to climb up a mountain to be close to Jesus, they brought others with them, people who could not get to Jesus on their own.  They helped those people get to Jesus, too.

            They did that not knowing what would happen when they got there.  They hoped Jesus would heal their friends, of course.  They knew Jesus had that power.  They’d heard the stories of Jesus’ miraculous healing.  But they had no way to know whether Jesus actually would heal them.  After all, it’s not like Jesus had invited them to follow him up this mountain.  Again, for all we know, Jesus might have gone up on the mountain specifically to get away from people.  Jesus might tell them to go away.  Jesus might tell them to leave him alone.  Jesus might not even see them or talk to them--he might just send the disciples out to chase them off.  They had no way to know.

            And yet they came.  That’s how much they knew they needed Jesus.  That’s how desperate they were to get to Jesus.  They were willing to undergo hardship, they were willing to risk rejection, just to get close to Jesus.  They knew they needed him that much.

            Jesus did not send them away, of course.  Jesus healed them.  Jesus healed all the people who were brought to him.  But here’s another amazing thing.  After the people were healed, they did not go away.  They did not go home.  Their friends did not go home, either.  They stayed there, praising God.  They stayed there for three days.  They had nothing to eat.  They probably did not have a change of clothes.  We don’t know whether they had any water.  And I don’t even want to think about the lack of sanitary facilities.  And yet, they stayed.  They stayed, despite everything, because they wanted to be close to Jesus.  Even after they were healed, they knew they needed to be close to Jesus.  Again, they knew they needed him that much.

            Jesus feeds them, of course.  Again, that’s the part everyone remembers.  Jesus took the little bit of food they had and made it enough to feed all those people and have some left over.  The crowd ate, and was satisfied.  And eventually, Jesus sent them on their way.

            Jesus performed a miracle, feeding all those people.  Jesus performed a whole lot of miracles, healing all those people.  And that’s important, for a couple of reasons.  One of them, of course, is simply these miracles show the divine power that Jesus had.  They show that he was, in fact, not just a human being.  He was who he said he was, the divine Son of God.

            These miracles also show how much Jesus cared about people.  Jesus may not wanted to perform miracles when he went up on the mountainside.  He may not have wanted to be around people at all.  But when Jesus saw these people in need, he did not hesitate.  He healed them.  He healed everyone who was brought to him.  For three days, he healed people.  And when they needed food, we’re told Jesus specifically said, “I have compassion for these people...I do not want to send them away hungry.”  The love for people Jesus shows in this story is incredible.

            But none of it would have happened if not for the faith of the people involved.  None of it would have happened if these people had not been determined to get and stay close to Jesus.  They were willing to do whatever it took to get close to Jesus.  They would undertake a long and difficult journey.  They would bring people with them, people who could not undertake that journey on their own.  They would do so with no food, no water, no supplies of any kind.  All so they could get close to Jesus.

            What are you willing to do to get close to Jesus?  What am I willing to do to get close to Jesus?  What would we be willing to risk?  What would we be willing to undertake?  What would we be willing to give up, to get close to Jesus?

            You and I are in a lot better position that the people who followed Jesus up that mountain.  We don’t have to undertake a difficult journey to get close to Jesus.  We really don’t have to do anything that’s all that difficult.  All we really need to do is simple things.  Pray.  Read the Bible.  Open our hearts to God’s Holy Spirit.  Take some time, every day, to think about where the Lord might be leading us to go or what the Lord might be leading us to do this day.  Feel Jesus’ presence with you as you go through your day.

            So, do we do those things?  Maybe you do.  I hope you do.  My point is not to judge anyone--I don’t know how close you might be to Jesus.  But I think we’d all like to be closer than we are.  I think we’d all like to feel God’s Holy Spirit with us as we go through our day.  I think we’d all like to feel that we’re going where God wants us to go and doing what God wants us to do.

            But that’s not going to happen by itself.  It’s only going to happen if you and I do the things necessary to make it happen.  God will do God’s part--we can count on that.  But first, you and I need to do our part.

            Remember how things went in our reading for today.  Jesus did not seek people out.  Jesus did not go around to people’s homes and say, “Is there anyone here who’d like to be healed?  Anyone here who needs something to eat?”  Jesus went off by himself.  It was up to the people to come to him.  The people had to do their part.  When they did, Jesus did his part.  And everyone was healed, and fed.  And everyone was as close to Jesus as they could possibly get.

            We’re getting close to summer.  Summer tends to be a busy time in this area.  There’s all the farm work to be done, of course.  There’s yard work and gardening to be done.  And because we get so little nice weather around here, people like to find ways to be outside.  They go fishing, they go camping, they go swimming, they go boating.  They go to ball games.  They go golfing.  People do all kinds of things outside.

            And none of that’s wrong.  But it’s important, when we do those things, to still make Jesus part of them.  It’s important that we don’t leave Jesus out of our summer activities.  Whether work or play, if we want to be close to Jesus, we need to make Jesus part of everything we do.  If we don’t make the effort to stay close to Jesus, it won’t happen.  Again, Jesus will do Jesus’ part.  But you and I need to do our part.

            The people who Jesus fed, the people who Jesus healed, were willing to do whatever it took to get close to Jesus.  They knew they needed Jesus that much.  You and I need Jesus that much, too.  So let’s do whatever it takes to get close to Jesus.  When we do, we’ll find that Jesus wants to be close to us.

 

The Greatest

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 18:1-6, 10.

            There’s an old saying that nothing is constant except change.  And it is a very old saying--there are references to that saying going back five hundred years before the birth of Christ.  And we all know it’s true.  Whether we’re talking about the world, about the church, or about our personal lives, it’s still true.  The one thing you can always count on is that no matter what’s happening now, things will change.

            When we read the Bible, that’s something we need to keep in mind.  The Lord does not change, of course.  The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  And for the most part, human nature has not changed a whole lot, either.  But the society in which we live has changed.  Living in north-central South Dakota in the twenty-first century A. D. is quite a bit different from living in Jerusalem back when Jesus was on earth.

            That’s something we need to think about as we look at Jesus’ statement that, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to become like little children.  I don’t really think little kids have changed much in two thousand years--kids are kids pretty much the world over.  But the way we look at kids in our society is a lot different from the way kids we looked at in Jesus’ time.

            Today, we talk a lot about how important kids are.  You’ll hear people talk all the time about how “children are our most important resource”.  “Children are our future.”  “We are raising up the next generation of leaders.”  And so on.  It’s become a cliché that when politicians want to get approval for their pet project, they’ll say they’re doing it “for the children”.  Now, I’ll grant that a lot of times our society is a lot better at paying lip service to the importance of children than it is about actually doing things for the children.  But the point remains.  In theory, at least, our current society places a high value on children.

            That’s not how it was in Jesus’ time.  Children were not particularly valued when Jesus was on earth.  Having children was considered important.  In fact, if a married woman did not have children she was considered to have been cursed by God somehow.  But the children themselves were not considered very valuable.  And certainly, no one cared what they thought  or how they felt.  Children were to be seen and not heard, and it was okay if they were not seen all that often.  When they got big enough and old enough to do some work, then they might have some value.  But when they were little, children had very little value or status.  They were just another mouth to feed.

            So in our reading for today, when Jesus talked about how important children are, he was not making a bland, politically correct statement.  He was making a radical statement.  And when Jesus said that to enter the kingdom of heaven we have to become like little children, he specifically had the low status of children in mind.  That’s why he said, in verse four, “Whoever takes a humble place, becoming like this child--is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  One of the ways in which we need to become like little children is to be humble.  One of the ways in which we need to become like little children is to be willing to accept a low status in society.

            The people he was talking to did not want to hear that.  Even the disciples did not want to hear that.  Remember how this conversation starts.  The disciples come to Jesus and ask him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  They’re thinking about how they can become great. 

That was a common theme among the disciples.  They wanted to become great.  In Mark Nine we read about the disciples having an argument among themselves about who is the greatest.  In Matthew Twenty, James and John ask Jesus if they can sit at his right and his left when he comes into his kingdom.  The disciples definitely had ambition.  They wanted to be considered great.

And Jesus keeps responding the same way--if you want to be great, you’ve got to be humble.  You’ve got to accept a low status.  Here’s his response to James and John:  “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.”

Jesus lived that, of course.  But the disciples, not so much.  We’re not told what the disciples’ response was when Jesus said this.  But I can’t think they liked hearing it very much.  I mean, think of it from their point of view.  Here I am, following the great Messiah, the Savior of the world.  And I’m not just following him, I’m one of his closest friends.  I’m one of the people he relies on.  I’m pretty hot stuff here.  And I’m supposed to be a servant?  Worse yet, a slave?  I don’t think so.

Think about what being a servant, or a slave, means.  That was about the lowest status a person could have at that time.  If you were a slave, nobody cared about you.  You were property.  You were like an ox, except the ox was stronger.  Your first duty--your only duty--was to obey the master.  You did whatever he wanted.  What you thought about it, how you felt about it, was all irrelevant.  Nobody cared.  Everyone else came ahead of you.  The master obviously came ahead of you.  So did his family.  So did his friends.  So did pretty much everyone else.  As a slave, you were at the bottom of the organizational chart.  Everyone else came first.  You came last.

That’s what Jesus said you and I need to do if we want to be great in the kingdom of heaven.  We need to put everyone else first.  We need to let everyone else come ahead of us.  We need to put aside our thoughts and feelings.  We need to not think about whether anyone appreciates what we do.  We need to not think about getting any credit for what we do.  We need to just do it.  We need to serve other people, all the time, and not think about ourselves at all.

That’s a pretty tough standard, you know?  I know I don’t meet that standard.  The disciples did not meet that standard.  I don’t know very many people who do.  To completely put others ahead of ourselves in everything?  To not care at all whether anyone appreciates or even notices what we did?  To completely put our own thoughts and feelings and desires?  How do we do that?  In Jesus’ time, little kids did do that, mainly because they did not have a choice. But how do you and I, as twenty-first century American adults, do it?  

Well, I guess if I had the answer I’d be doing it.  I don’t know if anyone ever does it perfectly and completely.  But at the same time, we need to be careful not to use that as an excuse.  Because even if we cannot be perfect, we still need to do the best we can. 

How?  Well, this may sound like a cliché, but I think we do it with God’s help, and the way we get God’s help is through prayer.  Because--I don’t know about you--but I cannot do this on my own.  I would never be able to.  I might be able to do it for a while, I might be able to put others ahead of myself on occasion, but I would never be able to do it all the time.  My own ego, my own selfishness, my own laziness, all that stuff and more would eventually get in the way.  And what’s more, I’d probably eventually start to resent doing all those things and not getting any thanks for it.

The only way I can consistently and willingly put others ahead of myself, without getting in my own way, is with God’s help.  And even then, it’s not easy, because I’m constantly fighting God.  God tries to help me, and I say no, I’ll do it on my own.  God says don’t think about yourself, and I say well, somebody’s got to.  God says you focus on others and I’ll take care of you and I say no, God, I’ll take care of myself.  You focus on others.  God says you’ll get your reward in heaven and I say, yeah, well, I can’t eat heaven.  I need a reward now.

I cannot do it on my own.  I need God’s help.  And thank God, God never gives up on me.  No matter how hard I fight God, no matter how hard I try to do things my way, God never gives up on me.  God keeps nudging me, encouraging me, showing me how much happier I’d be if I did things God’s way.  And sometimes--not nearly often enough, but sometimes--I’m smart enough to listen.

If we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to accept being people of low status.  Little kids in Jesus’ time had no choice but to accept that.  You and I do have a choice.  We can do what most of society would do--blow our own horn, pat ourselves on the back, and make sure everyone knows how great and important we are.  Or, we can willingly accept a low status, put others ahead of ourselves, and be among the great who enter the kingdom of heaven.

It’s not easy.  But with God’s help, we can do it.  Maybe not perfectly, because only God is perfect.  But as well as we can.  And we know that as long as we keep trying, God will appreciate it.  And God will never give up on us.

 

Pleasing God with Faith

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, May 16, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Hebrews 11:1-12, 17-30.

            We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  That’s one of the basic Christian beliefs.  You’ve heard me say it over and over.  You’ve heard lots of other people say it, too.  We’ve heard it so often that we almost take it for granted.  We are saved, not by our good works, but by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            But Christians did not always take it for granted.  You remember that, before Jesus came, the Jewish people thought their salvation came from following the law.  And in the first decades following Jesus’ death, that idea was still prominent--that faith in Jesus alone was not enough, that instead you had to earn your salvation through acts of righteousness.  And in fact, you still hear that idea today.  People will sometimes talk about needing to be a “good person” to go to heaven, rather than going to heaven through faith in Jesus Christ.

            That idea is one of the things the author of the letter to the Hebrews was working against.  And so, he goes through a list of some of the most important people in the Old Testament, from Abel to Joshua.  

            Now, these were people who lived good lives.  They were people who did great things.  But the author of the letter to the Hebrews says that what’s important about them is not the things they did.  What’s important about them is the faith they had.  It was their faith that made them do the things they did.  It was their faith that led them to live good lives.  And it was their faith that pleased God.

            In fact, the author says more than that.  He says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.  Think about that.  If that’s true, then no matter what we do, no matter how good it is, it is not pleasing to God unless we have faith.  We could do something that saved the lives of millions of people, we could come up with a cure for COVID or bring peace to the world or end poverty forever or do any other great thing you can think of.  And yet, it would not be pleasing to God unless we have faith--faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            So, what do you think about that?  Do you believe it?  Do you think that doing something great, something incredible, something that would benefit mankind, would not be pleasing to God if we don’t have faith?  Because that’s what the letter to the Hebrews says:  without faith, it is impossible to please God.

            Here’s what I think.  It’s not that God would not be pleased to have someone cure COVID, or bring world peace, or do anything else that benefits humanity.  If someone who does not have faith did that, I think God would be pleased with what they did.  

            But that does not mean that the person who did that would live a life that was pleasing to God.  For one thing, it’s possible to be incredible smart, incredibly talented, even to be a genius, and still be a jerk.  You could be a great scientist, a great economist, a great anything, and still mistreat your spouse, ignore your children, and demean and belittle the people around you.  The fact that someone achieves something that humans consider great does not mean they’re a great person, or even a good person.  

            But beyond that, the fact is that we cannot please God by being good people.  Why?  Because of what Jesus said.  He’s quoted saying this twice in the Bible, at Mark Chapter Ten, Verse Eighteen and Luke Chapter Eighteen, Verse Nineteen.  Someone referred to Jesus as “good”, and Jesus responded, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good--except God alone.”

            The reason we cannot please God by being good people is that none of us is a good person.  We might do good things, sometimes, and God’s probably pleased about that.  More pleased than when we don’t do good things, anyway.  But none of us is a good person.  No one is good except God.

            God is perfect.  Perfectly good, perfectly loving, perfectly everything.  You and I are not perfect.  Not perfectly good, not perfectly loving, not perfectly anything.  As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans Chapter Three, Verse Twenty-three, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

            You see, when we think of being “good” we think of it in comparison to other human beings.  We think this person is good because they’re better than someone else.  Sometimes we think we’re good because we’re better than someone else, too.

            But that’s not how God thinks of it.  Not at all.  God thinks of being good in comparison to Himself.  And of course, we all fall short in that comparison.  We don’t even get in the same ballpark. When it comes to being good, you and I are not in the same area code with God.  We’re not even in the same universe with God.

            And so, we can never be “good” enough to please God.  Now, we should always try to be good, of course.  We should be the best people we can be.  But we will never impress God by how good we are.  We will never win God’s favor by how good we are.  And we will never receive salvation because of how good we are.

            That’s the point the author of Hebrews is making with his examples.  Abel did not please God by how good his gift was.  He pleased God by the faith his gift showed.  Noah did not please God by building an ark.  Noah pleased God by having the faith to do what God told him to do, even if it meant building a boat in the middle of the desert.  Abraham did not please God by the good things he did.  He pleased God because of the faith he showed by going where God told him to go and doing what God wanted him to do, even when God told him to kill his own son.  

And on and on and on.  None of the great heroes of the Bible pleased God by how good they were.  They pleased God because they had the faith to do what God told them to do.  They pleased God because they had the faith to trust God even when what God told them to do might not have made a lot of sense to them.  They pleased God because they said, “If this is what God wants me to do, then I’m going to do it, even if I don’t really understand it.”

            That’s the faith you and I are called to have.  A faith that says we will trust God enough to do what God wants us to do, to go where God wants us to go, to say what God wants us to say, even when we don’t understand.  Because there will be times when we don’t.  I suspect many of us have had those times, where we felt God calling us to do something or go somewhere or say something, even if we did not know why.  

That’s why the author of Hebrews says faith is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  When we don’t understand, but we trust God enough to be faithful to Him anyway--that’s the kind of faith that pleases God.  When we don’t understand, but we have enough faith to say, “If God wants me to do this, then it must be right.”--that’s the kind of faith that pleases God.  When we decide to stay faithful to God, regardless of the consequences--that’s the kind of faith that pleases God.

And when we have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, that kind of faith pleases God the most.  Because the reason God sent Jesus, the divine Son, into the world, to live and die for us, is so our sins could be forgiven, by our faith in Jesus and by God’s love and grace and mercy.  And the thing is, Jesus did not just die for “humanity”, in general terms.  Jesus died for each human being as an individual.  Jesus died for you.  Jesus died for me.  

But the forgiveness we can receive through the death of Jesus Christ is only effective if we have faith.  If you and I don’t have faith, then in our case, Jesus died for nothing.  Jesus went through all that agony on the cross for nothing.  Jesus was arrested and mocked and ridiculed and beaten and shamed and ultimately killed for nothing.

            How do you think that makes God feel?  How do you think God feels, to know that in some people’s cases, He sent His only son to die for nothing?  God has to be very sad about that. Because again, no matter what wonderful things that person may have done in human terms, they are still a sinner in need of forgiveness and salvation.  And they could have that forgiveness and salvation if they would only believe in Jesus as the Savior.  And they refuse to do it.  God has to be so disappointed when that happens.

            But on the other hand, that’s why our faith does please God.  Because when we do have faith, it makes everything Jesus went through worth it.  It makes Jesus’ suffering and shame worth it.  It makes all the pain, and ultimately the death, that Jesus endured worth it.  Because you and I have accepted what Jesus did for us, and we do receive forgiveness and salvation.

            You and I can never be good enough to please God.  But we can have a faith that pleases God.  Let’s have that faith.  Let’s trust God with everything about our lives.  We may not be considered great in human terms.  But when we please God through our faith, we are always great in God’s eyes.