Tests, Doubts, and Belief

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, June 27, 2021.  The Bible verses used are James 1:2-8.

Have you ever had a crisis of faith?

            I suspect a lot of us have.  Now, maybe you did not think of it that way.  I mean, that phrase--a Crisis of Faith--sounds pretty melodramatic.  But have you ever had a time when it seems like things were going against you, or you were in a tough spot, and you had a hard time seeing a way out? 

Probably most of us have had that happen.  It’s part of life, really.  We’ll almost all have that happen to us at some point, if we live long enough.  Maybe the problem was one of your own making, or maybe it was not.  But either way, it was still a big problem.  And maybe you prayed about it, asking God to show you what to do, asking God to help you out of your situation.  And all you heard from God was--nothing.  Silence.  It felt like God did not hear your prayer, or if God did hear it God was ignoring it.

That’s a bad feeling.  I’ve described it before as feeling like your prayer does not go up to God, like it just hits the ceiling and comes back at you.  You can no longer feel God with you.  It’s like your whole connection to God has been cut.  Like that connection is just not there anymore.

I suspect most of us can think of a time like that in our lives.  Maybe more than one.  I can.  Maybe some of you are going through it right now.  Our faith gets tested in a time like that.  And it’s not much fun.

But James, in our reading for today, says we should be happy when our faith gets tested.  He says we should consider it pure joy when we face trials.

That’s an easy thing to say, of course.  I wonder if James really lived up to that.  I wonder if, when he faced trials, when his faith got tested, James really considered that pure joy.  Maybe he did, I don’t know.  I just know that, when I’ve faced something like that, I did not consider it pure joy.  I was not happy about it at all.

But I do think there’s a sense in which we can find joy in our tests of faith.  Because, as James says, the testing of our faith produces perseverance.  In other words, if we can meet those tests, if we can pass them, if we can keep our faith even in the midst of our bad times, if we can continue to trust God even when it feels like our connection to God has been cut, then we know that our faith truly is real.  And that is a pretty awesome feeling, to know that we’ve passed the test and that our faith is strong enough to persevere even in tough times.

Because the thing is that, until our faith is tested, we really don’t know how strong it is.  We’ve talked before about how it’s really hard to know how we would react in a situation when we’ve never actually been in that situation.  If we never had our faith tested, we would not know if our faith was strong enough to withstand a test.  That’s what James says that it’s only through the perseverance that those tests provide that our faith can become mature and complete.  It’s only through having times when felt disconnected from God that we can know that we will stay faithful to God anyway, and we will continue to trust in God until that connection is restored.

James goes on to say that if we lack wisdom, we should ask God for it.  And of course, that’s something we need to do all the time, because we all need more wisdom.  No matter how wise we may think we are in human terms, none of us is anywhere near as wise as God.  And James says that if we ask God for wisdom, God will give it to us, because God gives generously to all.

But then, James says this:  “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”

“When you ask, you must believe and not doubt,” because a person who doubts “should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”  That seems like a pretty tough standard, you know?  I mean, I agree that the goal is to not have doubts about God.  But--I think a lot of us do have doubts sometimes.  I’m not saying everyone does.  I’m sure there are people--maybe including people here--who are absolutely, one hundred percent certain that God exists, that Jesus is the Savior, that those who believe in him will be saved and have eternal life.  There are people who have absolutely not the slightest doubt that is true.  And that’s an awesome thing.

But a lot of people are not in that category.  A lot of people do have doubts sometimes.  It’s not that we don’t believe, exactly.  It’s that a lot of us are like the man in Mark Nine, Twenty-four, “Lord, I do believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief.” 

And that includes some of the people we consider among the greatest Christians ever.  Mother Teresa admitted that she had doubts sometimes.  Does that mean Mother Teresa should not have expected to receive anything from the Lord?  Again, it just seems like really extreme statement.  We cannot just ignore it, not if we claim to believe the Bible.  But are we to take it literally?  If not, how are we to take it?

Well, I don’t claim to be able to read the mind of James, what with two thousand years separating us.  And I certainly don’t claim to be able to fully know the mind of God--I don’t think any human can do that.  But I’ll tell you what I think.

I think God understands when we struggle with our faith sometimes.  God understands why we may have doubts sometimes.  God created us with brains, with the ability to think for ourselves.  God intends for us to use those brains and to use that ability to think.  And when we do that, we’re going to consider lots of possibilities.  And that includes considering the possibility that God is not real, or that God is not who we commonly think God is. 

God could have created us without the ability to think for ourselves.  God could have created us without the ability to have doubts.  But God did not create us that way.  When God created us the way He did, God knew that occasional human doubts were part of the deal.  That’s a feature, not a bug.

I think it’s okay to have doubts sometimes.  But we cannot live in our doubts forever.  At some point, we need to make a decision.  We need to decide whether we believe in God or we don’t.  We need to decide whether we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior or we don’t.  We need to decide whether we will trust the Lord our God or we won’t.

And that gets us back to where we started.  We will have times when our faith gets tested.  Some of us already have.  Some of us may be having one now.  If you never have, the chances are that you will.  And those are the times we our decisions are made.  We can no longer sit on the fence, believing and yet not believing.  Those are the times when we either give in to our doubts, or we persevere in our faith. 

            So the question is, what will our decision be?  Will we decide for God?  Or will we give in to our doubts?

I said earlier that it’s hard to know what we’ll do in a situation when we’ve never been in that situation.  But there are things we can do to get ourselves prepared.  And the most important thing we can do is to get as close to God as we can before the situation comes.  Don’t take our faith for granted.  Don’t take God for granted.  Get and stay as close as we can to God before we have one of those times when our faith is tested.

How do we do that?  You probably know what I’m going to say.  Pray.  Read the Bible.  Think about the things we read in the Bible.  Attend church.  Make sure we have friends who are Christians, friends we can go to when we have questions or doubts about our faith.  Keep your eyes and ears open.  Try to see and hear how God may be speaking to you.  Keep your heart open, so God’s Holy Spirit can come in.

If we’re prepared, we stand a much better chance of staying with God when our faith is tested.  We have a much better chance of persevering.  Then, we can have that complete, mature faith James talked about.  Then, we can ask with confidence, believing that God does and will give generously.

We never look forward to our faith getting tested.  But we can find joy in it.  If we’re prepared for the test, we can pass it.  And then, we can let go of our doubts, and be confident in our faith in God.

The Majesty of God

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 8.

            We use a lot of different terms to describe God.  We describe God as our father.  We describe God as our friend.  We describe God as our guide.  We describe God as our shepherd.  And of course, we could go on and on with different words we use to describe God.

            The thing is, though, that a lot of those words are words that kind of bring God down to our human level.  Now that’s not entirely a bad thing.  God does come down to our level, in some ways.  That’s one of the great things about Jesus--God the Son--coming to earth.  God, through Jesus, took human form.  God took a form that we, as human beings, could understand.  And that’s one of the reasons we use words that bring God down to our level--our level is the only level we can really understand.  So if we’re going to have any sort of understanding of God, we pretty much have to bring down to a human level, at least in some ways.

            But at the same time, we need to be careful with that.  It’s true that God loves us like a father, or a friend, and it’s important that we know that.  But at the same time, we need to remember that God is more than that.  God is God.  God is all-knowing.  God is all-seeing.  God is all-wise.  God is all-powerful.  God is almighty.  God is...well, all-everything, really.  Everything great and good, anyway.

            It’s important that we know that, too.  Because while it’s okay to think of God loving us like a father or a friend, we don’t worship fathers.  Even on Father’s Day, when we recognize the importance of fathers, we don’t worship them.  We don’t worship friends, either.  We do worship God.  Or at least, as Christians, we’re supposed to.  So it’s important that we recognize who God is, and realize that God truly is worthy, and more than worthy, of our worship.

            Psalm Eight encourages us to think about who God is.  It tells us that God’s name is majestic in all the earth.  There’s kind of an old-fashioned word--”majestic”.  I mean, we’ve probably all heard it, but how often do we use it?  Not very often.  It refers to someone who has sovereign power, authority, and dignity.

            In other words, God is King.  We say that all the time--God is King--but we don’t think often enough about what it means.  It means that God has all power.  And God because God is King, God has the authority to use that power in any way God chooses.  And you and I don’t have the right to say much of anything about it.

            And God has dignity.  Do you ever think of God that way?  I don’t know that it ever occurred to me to think of God as having dignity.  I mean, I think it’s true.  I just never really thought about it before.  What dignity means is that God is worthy of honor and respect from us.

            These are all things to remember the next time we question why God allows things to happen the way they do.  I mean, I don’t think God will get mad at us for doing it, but really we have no right to.  God is king.  And one of the things about being king is that you get to do whatever you choose.  Now, I don’t mean to imply that God acts arbitrarily--God acts with our best interests in mind, even if we don’t always see it that way.  But the point is that we need to recognize that God does not owe us anything, including giving us an explanation for why God does what God does.  God is God.  We need to accept what God does, and we need to trust that God is acting for our benefit, even if we don’t understand how at the time.

            But there’s one other thing that dignity means, too, and I think this is also important.  Dignity also means having a sense of self-respect.  Do you ever think of God that way, as having a sense of self-respect?  What that means is that God will never act in a way that is inconsistent with God’s character.  So because God loves us, because God cares about us, God will act in ways that show God’s love for us.  Again, we may not understand it at the time.  But we can accept it, and we can trust it.

            The author of the psalm goes on to consider all that God has done.  The heavens are the work of God’s fingers.  God set the moon and the stars in place.  In other words, everything that is, everything that ever has been, everything that ever will be, comes from God.  God is the creator of it all.  

            Think of the awesome power that would take.  And think of the awesome wisdom that would take.  To work everything out so that the universe could function the way it does.  To work everything out so that our solar system can function the way it does.  To work everything out so that our world can function the way it does.  To work everything out so that life could exist on this planet, that we could have food to eat and water to drink and air to breathe.  Can you and I even imagine what a massive project that would be?

            And yet, for God, it was really no big deal.  The creation story tells us God was able to create all this just by speaking a word.  God said let there be light and there was.  God said let the water be separated from the dry ground and it was.  God said let there be plants and trees bearing fruit and there was.  And on and on and on.  God said it and it happened.  That’s majestic power.  That’s power worthy of God the King.

            And then, the author of the psalm looks at himself, and all other human beings.  And he sees that, compared to God, we’re pretty much nothing.  He says, “What is mankind, that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”

            The author is saying, God, as great as you are, why do you care about us?  In fact, why do you pay any attention to us at all?  You certainly would not have to.  We can do nothing for you.  We are dependent on you for everything.  You are everything.  And we are nothing.  Why do you care about us?

            He cannot answer that question.  But he recognizes that God does not just care about us.  Amazingly enough, God grants us care over God’s creation.  Listen to this.  Referring to human beings, he says, “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.  You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:  all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.”

            Our author is amazed.  He cannot believe it.  And we should be amazed, too, when we think about this.  God has made us--you and me--we bumbling, stumbling human beings who have a hard time remembering where we put the TV remote or what we walked into the kitchen for--God has made us just a little lower than angels.  God has crowned us--you and me--with glory and honor.  God has made us rulers over God’s creation.  God has put all those things--the animals, the birds, the fish, everything--under our control.

            Think of the level of trust God puts in us.  God used God’s power and God’s wisdom to create all the world, and then God said, okay, you human beings take care of it for me.  That’s amazing.  I mean, I don’t trust most people to give me correct change at the convenience store.  And here’s God, trusting us to take care of all of God’s creation.

            Think of how highly God must think of us, to do that.  Think of how valuable you and I have to be, for God to give us that kind of responsibility.  Think of the faith God puts in us, to trust that you and I will be responsible and take proper care of all the things God has created.

            Have you ever thought about that?  We talk all the time about how we need to have faith in God, and that’s absolutely true.  But God has faith in us!  God has faith in you.  And God has faith in me.  God has so much faith in us that God trust us with the care of God’s creation.

            Think about that.  It’s something that should be an incredible help to us.  Most of us struggle with our feelings of self-worth sometimes.  We wonder if we’re good enough.  We wonder if we’re worthy of friendship or love.  And yet, here’s God saying we’re so good and so special and so important that He can trust us with care of his creation.  What an incredible thing!

            It’s fine to think of God as a father and as a friend.  We need to think of God that way sometimes.  But God is also the king, with sovereign power, authority, and dignity.  God has the power to do anything God chooses to do, and you and I don’t have anything to say about it.  

But God always uses that power for our benefit.  In fact, God created everything for our benefit.  And God did that even though we are nothing compared to God.  And then--the amazing thing--God places so much faith in us that God puts God’s creation in our hands.

God’s name truly is and should be majestic in all the earth.  May we treat God with all the honor and respect God deserves.  And may we remember that God treats us that same way.  Even if we feel we don’t deserve it, God treats us with honor and respect, too, because we are that valuable to God.  

Lord, our Lord, how majestic your name truly is and should be in all the earth.

 

Children of the Day

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, June 20, 2021.  The Bible verses used are 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.

            If someone asked you what you want most out of life on earth, what would you say?

            Now, pretend they did not ask you that during a church service.  I say that because, when we get asked questions like that during a church service, we tend to give churchy answers.  That’s not a criticism of anyone--I do it, too.  We give the answers we think we should give, rather than the answer that, deep down, is the honest one.

            So pretend this question got asked over coffee or something.  What do you want most out of life?

            We could say a lot of things.  Some people might say love.  Some people might say good health, for themselves and their loved ones.  Some people might say protection.  Some people might say satisfying work.  And of course there are all kinds of other answers we might give, too.

            But when you think about it, most of those answers have two things in common:  peace, and safety.  Most of us want to be at peace in our lives.  We don’t want to live lives that are full of conflict and turmoil.  We want to be at peace with ourselves, too.  And we want to feel safe.  That’s one of the things that made COVID so scary--sometimes it felt like it was not safe for people even to venture out of their homes.

            But look at what the Apostle Paul says about peace and safety.  Paul says, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night”, and “While people are saying ‘peace and safety’, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

            Now, that’s not to say that peace and safety are inherently bad things.  But as Christians, our goal should not be to live lives of peace and safety.  Our goal should be to be faithful to God.  Our goal should be to show love to Jesus Christ.  And Jesus Christ did not live a life of peace and safety.  Jesus’ life was filled with controversy, and was anything but peaceful.  And of course, his earthly life ended with his death on a cross.

            Now, we don’t necessarily have to live lives filled with controversy and turmoil to be Christians.  God does not call all Christians to live that sort of life.  But we need to be willing to do that if, in fact, that is what God calls us to do.  We need to be willing to live lives that do not contain peace and safety if that’s what it takes to remain faithful to God and love Jesus.

            But what Paul says, in his letter to the Thessalonians is that we don’t need to worry about that.  Paul says we don’t have to worry about the day of the Lord coming like a thief in the night, because we are not people of the night.  As Christians, we are children of the light and children of the day.  So we don’t have to worry about the day of the Lord sneaking up on us suddenly, with the intent of doing something bad to us.  We will see the day of the Lord coming.  And the day of the Lord will not do anything bad to us.  As Christians, we can look forward to the day of the Lord.  As Christians, the day of the Lord is something to eagerly anticipate, because it will be something good.  In fact, it will be something awesome.

            But that does not mean that, as Christians, we should think we’re on Easy Street.  We need to make sure that, as Paul says, we stay awake, and we stay sober.  Paul tells us to “[put] on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

            In other words, we should not take our salvation for granted.  Yes, we are children of the light and children of the day.  But it’s not that hard for us to fall back asleep.  And there are forces of darkness that are trying to put us back to sleep.  If, as Christians, we want to remain children of the day, we cannot become passive about that.  We need to keep our faith alert, alive, and active.

            We are to put on faith and love as a breastplate.  A breastplate is something that protects us.  That’s what faith and love do--they protect us from the forces of darkness.  They keep our faith active, so that we do not fall asleep.

            Think about it--you cannot passively love someone, can you?  It’s not possible.  If we love someone--if we truly love them--that love has to become active.  We need to do something about it.  We need to do something that shows our love, that makes our love known.  That’s true no matter what kind of love we’re talking about.

            That’s what the Apostle James meant when he wrote that “faith without deeds is dead.”  Neither faith nor love mean anything if we don’t put them into action.  If we tell someone we love them, but never do anything to show we love them, our love is meaningless.  It’s asleep.  It’s worthless.

            But you know, it’s easy for us to let that happen.  We don’t intend to, usually.  But we get lazy.  Or we get wrapped up in our own stuff.  Or we put things off.  We know we should do things for others, things that put our faith and love into action.  And we intend to.  But--not right now.  We have other things to do.  We don’t have time.  We still feel that faith and love--honest, we do--but we just cannot get out and show it right now.  We’ll do it later.

            When we put them out in the open like that, they sound like really flimsy excuses.  And usually, they are really flimsy excuses.  But you know, human beings are great rationalizers.  We can justify almost anything to ourselves if we want to badly enough.  At least I can.  I’ve done it many times.  Sometimes I still do it.  It’s a really easy trap to fall into.  We tell ourselves we’re going to be awake really soon.  But for now, we stay asleep.

            And so, that’s why Paul tells us to put on something else.  We are to put on “the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

            What does a helmet do?  It protects the head, right?  And the head is where our thoughts come from, right?  So, one of the things that the hope of salvation does is protect us from our own thoughts.  The hope of salvation protects us from our laziness, our self-centeredness, our tendency to put things off.  The hope of salvation keeps us from rationalizing our desire to stay asleep.  The hope of salvation keeps us active--active in showing faith and love.

            The way the hope of salvation does that is by reminding who our faith is in, and who it is that we truly love.  Yes, we can have faith in humans, and we can love humans.  But as Christians, our true faith is in God.  And our true love is of Christ.

            We know our salvation can only come through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.  And that faith cannot be a sleepy faith.  It cannot be a passive faith.  If we truly have faith in Jesus Christ, then that faith will require us to do what Jesus told us to do.  Not perfectly--as we said last week, human beings can never do anything perfectly.  But as well as we can.

            And there is nothing about the things Jesus said that allows us to be sleepy and passive.  Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Jesus told us to love even our enemies.  Jesus told us to pray for those who persecute us.  Jesus told us to that, to achieve greatness, we must become servants of others.  There are none of those things that we can do with a sleepy, passive faith.  Those are things we can only do if our faith is awake and active.  Those are only things we can do if we are children of the light and children of the day.

            And Jesus also told us to love the Lord our God.  He told us to love God with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, and with all of our minds.  That’s what it means to do all those other things Jesus told us to do.  We cannot love God and not love our neighbors.  We cannot love God and not love our enemies.  We cannot love God and fail to do any of the things Jesus told us to do.  Again, not perfectly, but the best that we can.  

            And there’s one more thing--we cannot do these things by ourselves.  Yes, we need God’s help, but we also need to help each other in this.  That’s why our passage closes with this:  “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

            It is very hard to have an awake, active faith by ourselves.  Even if we have good intentions, the chances are we’ll start to falter.  We’ll start to get tired.  We’ll start to get distracted.  And so, the chances are, we’ll start to become passive.  We’ll start to fall asleep.

            Paul knew we need to encourage each other.  Jesus knew it, too--that’s why he established the church.  Jesus did not design things so that, after he left the earth, his followers would all just go off on their own.  Jesus knew our faith will be much more active, much more awake, if we do things together.  That’s the best way we can encourage each other and build each other up--by working together.

            Peace and safety may sound like wonderful things.  But as Christians, what we need to desire is faith and love.  Faith in Jesus, and love of God and of others.  With God’s help, and with the encouragement of others, we can have that faith and that love.  Then, we will not fall asleep.  We will not live in darkness.  We will be children of the light, children of the day.  And when the day of the Lord comes, we will not need to worry or be scared.  It will be something we will be ready for.  And we can experience it in all its awesome glory.

 

Deny Yourself to Become Yourself

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, June 13, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 16:21-27.

Our reading from Matthew for tonight is one of the less comfortable scriptures we have.  First, Jesus tells the disciples that he’s going to be killed.  Then, Jesus tells the disciples they need to be willing to follow him completely, wherever following him leads, even if it leads to death.

            It was an uncomfortable thing for the disciples to hear, too.  When Jesus told them that he was going to be arrested and killed, Peter’s response was “God forbid it, Lord!  This must never happen to you.”  He did not want to hear it.  This was not the way he thought things were supposed to go.  We’re not told about the response of the other disciples, but I think we can pretty safely assume that they agreed with Peter.  They wanted Jesus to establish God’s kingdom on earth.  That Jesus was going to be killed would’ve been the last thing they wanted to hear.

            Jesus gets pretty upset with Peter.  He says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.”  That must have made Peter feel pretty small, don’t you think?  To have Jesus call him “Satan”?  I mean, Peter thought he was Jesus closest friend.  And really, in his mind, Peter was trying to help Jesus by saying what he said.  To have Jesus chew him out like this, in front of everybody, had to make Peter feel pretty bad.

            That’s the part of this story we tend to remember, when Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan”.  But that’s not necessarily the most important part of this.   Equally important, at least, is the next sentence, when he explains why Peter has things messed up.  He says to Peter, “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

           The Bible leaves that scene there, and then goes on to Jesus talking to all the disciples again.  He tells them, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

            We’re not told what the Peter’s reaction to this was, nor are we told the reaction of any of the other disciples.  I’ll bet they did not like hearing this either, though.  They knew, of course, what “take up their cross” meant.  It meant they had to be willing to be crucified.  I suspect that, when Jesus called them and they became disciples, none of them realized they were signing up for that.  

They may have known they were in for some tough times, of course.  They may have even known they would have to fight and risk death.  But they were confident that they were going to win.  After all, they were following the Messiah, and their whole idea of a Messiah was that the Messiah was going to be the conquering king.  This idea that Jesus was going to give up his life on earth, and that if they wanted to follow Jesus they each had to be willing to give up their lives on earth, too, was not how the game plan was supposed to go.  It was not what they’d signed up for at all.

            And you know, when we hear these words, we don’t really like them very much, either.  After all, Jesus did not just mean these words to apply to the disciples; he meant them to apply to us, too.  He said, “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

            We do want to be Jesus’ disciples, or at least we say we do. I wonder, though, when we decide to follow Jesus, if we really realize what we’re signing up for.  How many of us, when we decided to become Christians, thought about having to give up our lives to follow Jesus?

            What we sometimes do, when we get to this point in the discussion, is to talk about giving up our lives to follow Jesus as something that only exists for us in theory.  We talk about the Christian persecutions of the past.  We may even talk about places in the world where, right now, Christians can be killed for their faith.  We don’t think about having to give our lives to follow Jesus as something that could actually happen to us.

            And the fact is, that’s probably true.  We talked last week about how, even here, we could get into trouble for our faith.  But as long as we live our lives here in rural South Dakota, the chances are that won’t have to give up our physical lives because of our faith in Christ.  

The thing is, though, that Jesus was talking about more than that.  He said that, to really be his followers, we need to be willing to deny ourselves and follow him.  When we became Christians, is that what we thought we were signing up for?  Did we realize that we would have to deny ourselves to follow Jesus?

            Now, in asking that question, let me recognize that I know that there are a lot of people who have done and are doing a lot for this church.  People who’ve taken time and effort to do things that you did not have to do.  There have been times when it would have been much easier for you to go somewhere else, to do other things, or to just stay home and relax, and instead you gave your time and your effort to the church.  I know that, and I appreciate it.  I don’t want this to be taken as me saying that nobody here does anything, because I know that’s not true.  There are a lot of people here who do a lot.

           Even so, though, we all have the tendency to do what Jesus said Peter was doing.  We all have the tendency to set our mind on human concerns instead of on the concerns of God.

            And I do, too.  You know why?  Because I really enjoy the human concerns I set my mind on.  I like them.  They give me pleasure.  I don’t want to give them up.

            The thing is that those human concerns are not necessarily bad things.  They can be, but not necessarily.  It’s not a bad thing to enjoy sports, for example.  It’s not a bad thing to like music.  It’s not a bad thing to enjoy visiting with people.  None of those are bad things.  In fact, some of them would be considered good things.  They can be bad, though, if we set our minds on them too much.  They can be bad if we value them so much that they get in the way of following Jesus.

            There’s nothing wrong with enjoying our lives, but we can put too much emphasis on it.  If our lives on earth become too important to us, we run the risk of doing what Jesus warned the disciples about:  wanting so much to save our earthly lives that we risk losing our eternal lives.

            Now, I am not saying that we cannot ever do anything we enjoy while we’re on earth.  God gave us a beautiful world, and God wants us to enjoy it.  It would be a pretty cruel God who gave us life and created all this beauty and then said, “Now don’t you go enjoying any of this.  Don’t you ever have any fun while you’re on earth”  I don’t think that’s how it works at all.

            There is an inherent danger in saying that, though.  What Jesus is warning about is enjoying things for their own sake, and enjoying life for its own sake.  God wants us to enjoy our lives on earth--but God wants us to enjoy them in ways that show love to God.  God wants us to enjoy them in ways that serve God.  Our minds may at first be on human things, but we can still find ways to move them toward divine things.

            See, here’s the thing:  we cannot be someone we’re not.  I cannot stop being a sports fan; it’s part of who I am.  I cannot stop liking music; it’s part of who I am.  God created each of us with likes and dislikes, with various talents and abilities.  When Jesus told us to deny ourselves, he did not mean that we should deny who we are, because that would be to not be the people God created us to be.

God created us each of us with those likes and dislikes, with those talents and abilities, for a reason.  We’re expected to use them in God’s service.  If we keep the things we enjoy to ourselves, if we use our talents and abilities selfishly, then we’re setting our minds on human things and failing to deny ourselves.  On the other hand, if we find a way to use the things we enjoy to serve God and others, if we use our talents and abilities to serve God and others, then we’re setting our minds on divine things.

           It’s kind of ironic, when you think about it.  Jesus told us to deny ourselves and follow him.  Yet, it’s only by denying ourselves that we can become the people God created us to be.  In other words, it’s only by denying ourselves that we can truly become ourselves; not the selfish selves that we’re sometimes tempted to be, but the Christian selves that we want to be and that we can be.

            When we hear Jesus tell us to deny ourselves and follow him, we don’t want to hear it.  It scares us.  It does not sound like what we signed up for when we became Christians.

           The truth is that for most of us it’s probably not what we thought we signed up for.  The good news, though, is this:  it’s something better.  There is no greater feeling than the feeling we have when, even if just for a moment, we feel that we are where God wants us to be and are doing what God wants us to do.  When we deny ourselves, and follow Jesus, we truly become what God intends us to be.  Then, we can have that great feeling, not just for a moment, but for always.

 

Zero Shades of Grey

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Malachi 4:1-6.

            I said last week that judging people is not our job.  It’s God’s job.  And I still believe that. 

            But in saying that, we need to remember that it makes two true statements.  It’s true that it is not our job to judge people.  But it’s also true that it is God’s job to judge people.  And if there’s one thing we can be confident about, it’s that God is going to do God’s job.  God’s truly does judge people.  God’s judgment is real, and if you and I ignore that fact we will come to regret it.

            We read this morning from the book of Malachi.  Malachi is one of the Old Testament prophets.  He is sometimes referred to as one of the Minor Prophets, but that does not mean his words are less important than those of other prophets.  The term “minor prophet” only means that his book is shorter\ than those of the Major Prophets.  But his words are just as true, just as important, and just as inspired by God.

            Malachi is writing about God’s judgment.  And what he says, basically, is that each of us has a choice.  We can follow God and be saved, or we can refuse to follow God and be destroyed.  Malachi does not allow for a third way.  He does not allow for any compromise or any grey area.  We’re either with God or we’re not.  We’re either in or we’re out.  Period.

            God, speaking through Malachi says that twice in just these six verses.  Here’s how the passage puts it:  “All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire…Not a root or a branch will be left to them.  But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.  And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.”  And later, God says, “I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day comes.  He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

            It’s a pretty clear distinction God makes.  That can make us kind of uncomfortable, really.  You know, a lot of times we don’t like things to be that clear cut, to be that black and white.  We’re more comfortable with grey areas.  We like to think the answer always lies in the middle, that the answer always lies in compromise.  And in some situations it does, of course.  I’m not saying compromise is always a bad thing.  Many times it’s a good thing.  But when it comes to following God, there’s not a lot of room for compromise.  The way Malachi is written, we either follow God or we don’t.  That’s it.

            Now, I do want to point out a couple of things.  First, Malachi was written for the people of Israel.  The first words of the book are “A prophecy:  The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.”  The reason I point that out is that this means this book was written, this prophecy was made, to people who had heard the Word, who knew who God was.  That means this prophecy applies to people who have the ability to make a clear choice whether to follow God or not.  It does not necessarily apply to people who don’t know God and are not able to make that choice.  Now, I still believe there will be a Day of Judgment for those people, too, but how that’s going to work is something for another day.  It’s not something that Malachi explicitly addresses, because again, Malachi was written for the people of Israel.

            And the other thing I want to point is that saying we either follow God or we don’t does not mean we’re required to be perfect.  We’ve talked before about the fact that we’re not capable of perfection and that God understands that. We are to revere God’s name and remember God’s laws and decrees.  If we revere God’s name and do our best to obey God, God will forgive our flaws and our flubs and our mistakes.

            So let’s look at that word “revere”.  It’s not a word we use a lot these days.  We remember Paul Revere, some of us remember the musical group Paul Revere and the Raiders, and some of us might even remember when the Twins had an outfielder named Ben Revere.  Other than that, though, “revere” is not a word we hear much.  What does it mean to “revere” God’s name?

            Well, if you look in the dictionary, you find that the word “revere” means “to treat with respect tinged with awe”.  And “awe” means an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear.

            Dowe feel that way about God?  I think we should.  I think most of usknow we should.  But do we?

            How many of us think we have the right to tell God what to do?  I suspect a lot of us do.  Now, we’d never say it that way.  None of us would ever say we have the right to tell God what to do.  But how many times has something happened, and we think or even say, “God, why did you do that?  Why did you make that happen?  And if you did not make it happen, why did you let it happen?  How can a loving God let such terrible things happen to so many people?

            I suspect a lot of us have said that.  Many people have said that about COVID--why would God allow this to happen?  Why does God not stop this?  People said it after the 9/11 attacks.  People say it after a disaster like a tornado or an earthquake or a flood.  After a young person dies in an accident or gets cancer or some other terrible disease.  After we lose a job.  When things like that happen, we say, “God, why did you let that happen?  Why don’t you do something about it?”  And sometimes we get upset with God when it looks to us like God is not doing anything about it.

            Now, I’m not saying it’s a sin to ask questions like that.  Some of the great heroes of the Bible asked similar questions, and God did not punish them for it.  God did not even get angry with them for it.  But still, that’s not exactly revering God, is it?  That’s not exactly holding God in awe, when we ask questions like that.

            But I suspect God understands when we do it.  That does not make it right, but I think God understands why, when we’re grieving, or when we’re scared, or when we’re stressed, or when we just plain cannot understand what’s going on, why we start trying to tell God what to do.  And I think God will forgive us for that.

            But I think there’s a subtler, more dangerous way that we don’t revere God.  It sneaks up on us.  It can happen without us even noticing it, which is why it’s dangerous.  It happens when we believe in God, and we believe in Jesus as our Savior, but we just kind of put that belief in a little box, a little compartment of our life.  We keep our belief locked away and don’t let it affect the rest of our lives.

            It seems to me that’s the tricky one.  We don’t flat out reject God.  We say we still believe.  We go to church, at least sometimes.  We even pray, at least once in a while.  Maybe we even read the Bible on occasion.  It’s just that we keep that church time, that prayer time, that Bible time, separate from the rest of our lives.  We leave church, we say Amen, we close the Bible, and then we go on about our business as if nothing had happened.  And in fact, for us, nothing really has.

            We talk sometimes about how we need to pray for God to put God’s Spirit into our hearts, into our souls, into our minds, into every aspect of our lives.  I think that’s how we get that feeling of reverence for God.  I’m not saying it’s the only way, but it’s the best way I know.  When we pray for God to put God’s spirit into our hearts and souls and minds and lives, and when we do it sincerely and consistently, we start to get an idea of just how incredible, how great, how awesome in every sense of the word that God is.  And when we start to get an idea of just who God is, we start to feel that reverence for God.  In fact, when we get an idea of who God is, we really will not be able to do anything but feel reverence for God.

            Malachi sets this up as a pretty clear choice.  We can be among the people who revere God and be saved.  Or, we can be among the arrogant and the evildoers and be stubble that gets set on fire.  That’s pretty much it.  

Frankly, it’s not the way I’d like it to be set up.  I’d like there to be more grey areas.  Things would be a lot easier if just a half-way commitment to God was enough.  But God did not ask me how to set this up.  God does things God’s way, not my way.  And the way this is written, a half-way commitment is not enough.  It’s not enough to just sort of follow God part of the time.  We either follow God—not perfectly, because we’re not capable of that, but the best we can, asking for God’s Spirit to be in our hearts and souls and minds and lives—or we don’t.  Period.

            As the saying goes, we are free to choose, but we are not free from the consequences of our choices.  The consequences here are pretty big.  In fact, they’re eternal.

            We each have to make that choice.  And none of us knows how long we’ll have to make it.  None of us is ever promised tomorrow.  We need to make this choice now, today.  And we need to keep making it every day.  We need to choose to ask for God’s Spirit to be in us, so we can truly follow God and feel reverence and awe for God.

The choice we face is real, because God’s judgment is real.  How we feel about that does not matter.  Each of us has to make our choice, and the choice we make will have eternal consequences.  So let’s make the right choice.  Let’s make our commitment today.  Let’s choose to revere God.               

 

Do the Right Things

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are John 15:18--16:4a.

            It’s Jesus’ last night on earth.  He’s with the disciples, other than Judas, who has already left to go and betray Jesus.  In just a few minutes, they are going to go to the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus is going to be arrested there, an event which will lead to him being beaten, mocked, tortured, and ultimately killed.

            Jesus knows that’s going to happen, of course.  He knows this is the last time he’s going to be with his disciples before his death and resurrection.  And so, Jesus knows this is the last chance he’s going to have to tell the disciples things they need to know, to get them ready to carry on his ministry without him.

            Jesus tells them a lot of things, more than we’re going to talk about tonight.  But one of them is this:  if you continue to follow me, the world is going to hate you.

            It’s hard for us, living here in north-central South Dakota, to really imagine that.  I mean, we know it.  We know Jesus himself was crucified, and we know his disciples and others who were part of the early church were persecuted.  But it’s something that it’s really hard for us to relate to:  the idea that people would hate you because you were a follower of Jesus Christ.

            Now, understand, it’s not the goal of a Christian to be hated.  Jesus did not tell his disciples to go and try to make people hate them.  Jesus did not do things to make people hate him.  Yes, Jesus argued with the religious authorities, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the others.  And sometimes Jesus did things that he knew would make those people hate him.  But that was not the reason he did them.  The things Jesus did--healing someone on the Sabbath, proclaiming himself to be the divine Son of God, offering salvation and eternal life through faith--were the things God wanted him to do.  They were the things Jesus had come to earth to do.  

Basically, Jesus did those things because they were the right things to do.  How people reacted was how they reacted.  Jesus could not control how people would react.  All he could control was what he did.  And what he did was stay faithful to God and do the right things, the things God wanted him to do.

And that’s what Jesus tells the disciples to do.  Do the right things.  Stay faithful to God.  Do what God wants you to do.  Jesus tells them, in effect, if you do what I have done, they will treat you the way they treated me.  They hated me, and if you follow me, they will hate you, too.

But Jesus tells them some more things, too.  For one thing, he tells them that it does not matter.  It does not matter if people hate them.  They are not supposed to do things to be popular.  They are supposed to do things to please God.  Not because they want God to reward them on earth or even because they want to earn their way into heaven.  They are supposed to do things to please God because that shows love for God.  They are supposed to do things to please God because God deserves that.  They are supposed to do things to please God because that’s the right thing to do.  How people react is how they react.  That’s up to them.  It’s not your concern.

We’re not told how the disciples reacted when they heard this.  But it cannot have been easy to hear.  To be told that following Jesus and doing the right thing is going to lead to people hating you.  Most of us want to be liked.  We want to have friends.  We want to be thought well of in our community.  I don’t know anyone who wants to even be disliked, much less hated.  For the disciples to hear that this was going to be their fate, if they continued to follow Jesus--well, that had to be a really tough thing.

But Jesus told them this because they needed to know it.  Jesus said, “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away….I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I have warned you about them.”

And it’s clear that the disciples took Jesus’ warning to heart.  It took a lot of courage for the disciples to carry on Jesus’ ministry, despite all the opposition and hatred they faced.  But one of the reasons they were able to have that kind of courage is that they were ready.  They knew what was coming.  They may not have known all the details, but they knew they would need to stand up to the hatred of the world if they were going to follow Jesus.  And they did.

You and I need to be ready, too.  We need to know what’s coming.  And we need to let that knowledge give us courage, just like it did for the disciples.

I said earlier that it’s hard for us, living here in north-central South Dakota, to imagine a time when we might be hated for our Christian faith.  But Jesus’ words apply to us, too.  Jesus said, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.”

You and I, as Christians, do not belong to the world.  Christ has chosen us out of the world, just as he chose the disciples.

What does that mean?  That means that you and I need to follow Christ, just as the disciples needed to follow Christ.  It means we need to do the things Jesus told us to do.  It means we need to live the way Jesus told us to live.  It means you and I need to stay faithful to God and do the right things, regardless of what the world thinks.

And we hear that, and maybe we even nod our heads in agreement.  The thing is, though, that it’s easy to say we don’t belong to the world.  But we live in the world.  This is our home.  It’s pretty hard for us to say we’re not going to care what the world thinks, when everywhere we turn we’re surrounded by the world.

But it was hard for the disciples, too.  That’s why Jesus said the things he said, so they’d be ready.  And that’s why those things are recorded in the gospel of John, so you and I could read them and be ready, too.  

But there’s one more thing to say about this, and it’s good news.  The disciples did not do this alone, and neither do we.  You may have noticed that there’s one thing in our reading I have not mentioned yet.  Jesus said, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father--he will testify about me.”

“The Advocate” refers to what we now call the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus left, he sent God’s Holy Spirit.  God’s Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus.  He testifies about Jesus to us.  And he testifies about Jesus to others, too.

The disciples would’ve known what Jesus meant.  They should have, anyway.  Because this is not the first time Jesus talked to them about the Holy Spirit.  In Luke, Chapter Twelve, Jesus tells the disciples about the Holy Spirit, too.  And it’s in a pretty similar context, really.  He’s telling the disciples that they are going to be brought up before religious authorities.  They’re going to need to defend themselves and their faith.  And Jesus tells them not to worry about that.  He said, “Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

            If you and I follow Jesus Christ.  If you and I do the things Jesus told us to do.  If you and I live the way Jesus told us to live.  If you and I stay faithful to God and do the right things, then the Holy Spirit will be with us.  The world will react in whatever way it reacts.  But it won’t matter.  It won’t matter if you and I are hated for our faith.  When we’re challenged, the Holy Spirit will be with us.  And the Holy Spirit will teach us what we should say, just as the Holy Spirit taught the disciples what they should say.

            Will you and I, living here in north-central South Dakota, ever experience hatred because of our faith in Christ?  I don’t know.  As I said, it’s hard to imagine.  But it would be a mistake for us to think that, just because of our location, we are not subject to the influences of the world.  We may like to think we live in Mayberry, where the worst thing that ever happens is that Otis gets drunk on Saturday night, but it’s not true.  Gettysburg, and Onida, and Agar, are part of the world.  The things that happen in the rest of the world can happen here, too.  And they will happen here.  And we need to be ready when they do.

            As Christians, it is not our goal to be hated by the world.  But it is also not our goal to go along with the world.  The world will do what it does.  But our goal is to do the right things in God’s eyes.  Our goal is to stay faithful to God.

 

Move Forward

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, June 6, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 19:1-11.

            To be honest, when these Bible verses popped up this week, my first thought was, “Maybe I should just preach on John 3:16 instead.”  Because, as you heard, our Bible verses are Jesus’ teaching on divorce.

            These days there are very few families who have not been touched by divorce in some way.  Some of you have been divorced.  Others of you have loved ones who have been divorced.  In my own family, three of my nephews have been divorced and both of my brothers married women who have been through a divorce.  Because of that, it tends to be a pretty sensitive subject.

            So, before I get into it too much, I want to say that my purpose here is not to attack anyone, not to condemn anyone, and not to point fingers at anyone.  If you feel that I’ve done that, please come and talk to me after the service, because that is most definitely not my intent.  Everyone’s circumstances are different.  I don’t know the circumstances of anyone’s life but my own.  And even if I did, it’s not my job to judge anyone.  That’s God’s job.  And God obviously does a much better job of it than I ever could.

            But having said all that, these are the words of Jesus, as set down by Matthew under the inspiration of God.  And so, if we’re going to call ourselves Christians, we have to take them seriously and deal with them.  If we’re going to just ignore the words of Jesus that we don’t like, we’re going to have the Gospel According to Me.  And that would be a lot easier gospel to deal with while we’re here on earth.  But it would not be true to God’s word, and it would not be faithful to Jesus Christ.  The Gospel According to Me would not be one a Christian can or should follow.

            So let’s look at it.  Jesus is asked whether it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason.  He was not asked whether it was lawful for a woman to divorce her husband for any and every reason, because women did have the right to seek a divorce back then.  Women had very few rights at all.  The question was asked the way it was because of the legal situation at the time.

            And note that Jesus does not actually answer the question.  Jesus was not interested in what was lawful under Jewish law.  Jesus was interested in what was right in God’s eyes.  

            So Jesus quotes Genesis.  He quotes it twice, in fact.  He says “at the beginning the Creator made them male and female”, and he says “For this reason a man will leave his father and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  He concludes, then, that it is God who made a husband and wife one flesh, and says that what God has united, humans should not separate.

            His questioners, the Pharisees, respond by citing the law again.  They point out that Moses allowed men to divorce their wives.  Jesus responds by saying, yeah, I know.  Moses had to do that to allow for the faults and failings of human nature.  But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be.  That’s not why God created marriage in the beginning.  And that’s still not what marriage should be.  Jesus did allow for divorce due to sexual immorality, but for no other reason.

            So what do we do with this?  Well, first, let’s look at what Jesus did not say.  Jesus did not say that people who get divorced are going to hell.  He did not say divorce is an unforgivable sin.  He did not say divorced people are not loved or valued or treasured by God.  Jesus did not say any of that.

            In fact, Jesus did not say that divorce, in and of itself, is a sin at all.  He did say that if a man divorces his wife for any reason other than sexual immorality, and then marries another woman, he commits adultery.  And of course, adultery is a sin--one of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  And we’ll come back to that.  But Jesus did not say that just the act of divorce is a sin.

What Jesus is saying is that God created marriage to unite two people.  And that unity is supposed to last forever.  And in theory, I think most people would agree with that.  I mean, when you get married, you get married with the idea that it’s going to last forever, right?  You get married with the idea that you’ve found the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.  I don’t know anyone who gets married with the thought that, “well, we’ll do this for a few years and then we’ll get divorced.”  When we get married, we want it to last the rest of our lives.

            It does not always work like that, of course.  And the reason it does not is the reason Jesus stated--because any marriage is a joining together of two imperfect, broken, sinful people.  And sometimes those imperfections, that brokenness, that sinful nature, results in a marriage falling apart.  

            And when a marriage falls apart, people get hurt.  The two people who were married get hurt, of course.  Children get hurt.  Families get hurt.  Friends get hurt.  Any divorce, regardless of the circumstances, results in hurt and pain.  And I’m sure you know that.

            That’s why Jesus is opposed to divorce.  Not because Jesus wants people stuck in bad, loveless marriages.  And Jesus certainly does not want people stuck in abusive situations.  What Jesus wants is for people to be in loving marriages.  To be in marriages where the husband and wife care for each other and support each other and encourage each other.  To be in marriages where the husband and wife are always there for each other and help each other.  That’s why God created marriage.

            Now, again, Jesus did say that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery.  But let’s look at how Jesus treated people in that situation.

            John Chapter Four tells us a story about Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a well.  It turns out she has had five husbands and the man she is with now is not her husband.  Jesus does not condemn her.  Jesus does even criticize her.  In fact, Jesus says he can give her living water.  Then, he does something he rarely did--he tells her right out that he is the Messiah.  Jesus did not want this woman to feel guilt or shame.  Jesus wanted her to have salvation and eternal life.

            In John Chapter Eight a woman is brought to Jesus who, we’re told, was caught in the act of adultery.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees want her to be stoned to death.  Jesus does not argue with them.  He simply says, “Let any of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  And of course, no one does, because they know they are all sinners.  After they leave, Jesus forgives the woman and tells her to change her life.

            What Jesus knew, and what the Bible tells us, is that we are all sinners.  And God does not look at sin the way humans do.  God does not put sins on a scale, and say this person’s sins are really bad and another person’s sins are not so bad and someone else’s sins don’t matter at all.  God says all of us are equally sinners.  All of us have an equal need to repent.  All of equally need God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Every one of us.

            And Jesus knew something else.  Jesus knew that none of us can live our lives backwards.  We cannot go back to the past and change the things we’ve done.  All of us can think of things we’d do differently if we had it to do over again.  But it’s not possible to do that.  All we can do is start from where we are and go forward.

            And that’s what Jesus wants us to do.  Jesus does not want us to be burdened with guilt and shame over the past.  If we need forgiveness, Jesus wants us to ask for it and receive.  But then, Jesus wants us to let it go and move forward.  What Jesus wants us to do is what he told the woman in John Eight and what he told so many others:  Go, and sin no more.

            So, if you’ve been divorced or are going through a divorce right now, know this:  God loves you.  God is there for you.  God is sorry that you’ve been hurt.  But God will not hold it against you.  God wants you to put your past mistakes behind you, start from where you are, and move forward with your life:  loving God, loving others, being faithful to God, following God, and allowing God to lead you and guide you through life.  Of course, that’s what God wants for people who have not been divorced, too.

            God did not give us rules for living so He could punish us for violating them.  God gave us rules for living to help us live our lives in the best way we can.  Wherever we are in life, and whatever we’ve done in life, may we go forward living our lives the way God wants us to.  If we do that, we’ll live the best lives we can possibly live.