The Last Christmas

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on November 28, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Luke 21:7-36.

            It’s the first Sunday of Advent.  The time in which we await the coming of Christ.

            Christmas, these days, is a big deal.  The Hallmark Channel started showing Christmas movies nonstop in the last week of October.  Satellite radio started playing Christmas music about that same time.  And of course, some of the stores started putting up their Christmas displays even earlier than that.

            Now, I’m not saying that any of these things are the true meaning of Christmas.  What I’m saying, though, is that these days, it’s not possible to have Christmas sneak up on you.  It’s not possible to not be aware that Christmas is coming.  Even people who don’t believe in Christ, even people who could not care less about Christmas, have to be aware of it.  No matter how big of a Grinch you try to be, you still cannot avoid knowing that Christmas is coming.

            The reason I bring that up, though, is that it’s such a stark contrast to the first Christmas.  Almost no one knew the first Christmas was coming then.  Mary knew.  Joseph knew.  Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, knew.  The wise men knew.  Herod knew, when the wise men told him, although he did not understand what it meant.  At the last minute, the shepherds knew.  But that’s it.  No one else knew that first Christmas was coming.

            Now, in saying that, I want to make clear what I mean.  There were a lot of people who knew Christmas would come someday.  They did not necessarily call it “Christmas”, of course.  But there were lots of Old Testament prophecies that said the Messiah would come.  Someday.  At some point.  Who knew when.  But other than those I listed, no one had any idea that the Messiah was coming right then.  That night.  Even people like the innkeeper did not know the Messiah was coming.  They knew a baby was going to be born, but so what?  I mean, yeah, most people like babies, but they had no reason to think this baby was different from any other baby.

            In fact, it would be thirty years before people actually realized that there had been that first Christmas.  Thirty years before people knew that the Messiah had come.  And of course, even then, a lot of people did not understand, and did not believe.  Think of how sad that would be.  The Old Testament prophecies had been made hundreds of years before.  People had been waiting for it their whole lives, for generations.  And then, when it came, they missed it.  What a sad thing, when you think about it.

            In our reading for tonight, Jesus talks about the last Christmas, the time He will come again.  That’s a prophecy that’s two thousand years old, now.  We know Jesus is coming again.  Someday.  At some point.  Who knows when.  And it may well be that only a few people, if any, will know Jesus is coming right then.  That night.  Or that day.  Maybe it will be just like the first Christmas, when hardly anybody knew Jesus was coming.

            Now, there is one thing that will be different.  When Jesus comes again, it will not be thirty years before anyone finds out.  Jesus says people will “see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”  There’s going to be no mistaking it when Jesus comes.  It won’t matter where we are or what we’re doing.  If we’re asleep, we’ll wake up.  If we’re inside or outside, in town or in the country, whether it’s night or day, winter or summer, we’re going to know that Jesus has come again when he comes.

            A lot of people will be caught by surprise when Jesus comes.  But you know, Jesus does not want to catch us by surprise.  And so He gives some clues, some things to look for.

            First, He says, be careful who you follow.  There will be false prophets, false Saviors.  But then, Jesus starts talking about all the bad things that are going to happen before He comes again.

            And it’s going to be very bad.  Nation will rise against nation.  Kingdom will rise against kingdom.  There will be earthquakes.  Famines.  Pestilences, which is a word for epidemic diseases.  Fearful events.  Great signs from heaven.

            They will seize Jesus’ followers and persecute them.  They’ll put them in prison and haul them up before the authorities.  Jesus’ followers will be betrayed by relatives and friends.  Some of them will even be put to death.

            There will be signs in the moon and stars.  Nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.  The heavenly bodies will be shaken.  All of these things will be signs of that last Christmas, that time when Jesus is coming again.

            Well, those are some words that’ll get us into the Christmas spirit, right?  They’re not making Hallmark Channel movies about that stuff, are they?

            I don’t mean to come across like Scrooge.  I like the Christmas season, too.  But I think we’ve overly romanticized it.  We’ve trivialized it.  We’ve turned Christmas into a nice, soft, warm, fuzzy feeling.  There’s nothing wrong with nice, soft, warm, fuzzy feelings, but nice, soft, warm, fuzzy feelings don’t last.  They come, and then they fade away.  Christmas is so much more than fuzzy feelings.  Christmas is so much more serious than fuzzy feelings.

            We’re talking about the birth of the Savior of the world here.  We’re talking about the start of a chain of events that would end up with that Savior being arrested, and beaten, and mocked, and scorned, and abandoned.  And eventually, killed.  All for us.  All so we could have the chance for salvation and eternal life, through our faith in Him.  That is so much more than a warm, fuzzy feeling.

            And as we’ve seen, the last Christmas, when Jesus comes again, will not have anything at all to do with soft, warm, fuzzy feelings.  There are going to be some terrible, awful, horrible things that happen before He comes.  We just went through the list.

            Some would say that those things are happening now, right before our eyes.  And I cannot say they’re wrong.  Wars.  Earthquakes.  Famines.  Pandemics.  Persecution of Christians.  A lot of that stuff Jesus talked about is happening.  

Now, of course, this is not the first time since Jesus went back to heaven that some of this stuff has happened.  So I’m not saying the second coming of Christ is imminent.  But I’m also not not saying that.  That’s the tricky bit about looking for these signs that Jesus talked about--our human tendencies get in the way of seeing them clearly.  We human beings tend to see what we want to see and believe what we want to believe.  If we want to see signs that Jesus is coming again, if we want to believe his return will be soon, then we’ll see those signs, whether they’re there or not.  Many, many people have, over the centuries.  And on the other hand, if we don’t want to see signs Jesus is coming again, if we don’t want to believe his return will be soon, then we won’t see those signs, even if they’re actually there.

So what do we do?  Well, I’ll tell you what I think we should do.  If we know the last Christmas, the time when Jesus comes again, will happen sometime, and we don’t know when the time will be, the only logical thing to do is to be ready all the time.  Keep our focus.  Don’t be distracted by the things of the world.  Be prepared.

That’s what Jesus said to do, too.  He said, “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you like a trap...Be always on the watch, therefore, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

Very few people knew when the first Christmas was going to come.  That was not because they were bad people or anything--that was by design.  God could’ve announced the first Christmas with bells and whistles and let everyone know about it.  It was God’s will that the Savior would be born quietly, that He would get the chance to grow and mature, and that it would only be later that everyone knew what had happened on that first Christmas.

It may be that very few people will know when the last Christmas is going to come.  But when it comes, everyone will know.  Jesus’ second coming to earth will not be quiet.  It will be announced with the blare of trumpets, with the sight of Jesus coming on a cloud in his full glory.  A sight we cannot even really imagine.

We’ve been waiting for that day for two thousand years.  Let’s make sure we don’t miss out on it.  Let’s not be distracted.  Let’s not let the anxieties of life keep us from being ready.  I don’t know when that last Christmas will come, but I know it will come.  Let’s be ready for it, and let’s celebrate that last Christmas with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

A Time to Wait

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, November 28, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Jeremiah 33:10-17.

            Advent.  A time of waiting.  Not just waiting to no purpose, of course.  Purposefully waiting for something.  Purposefully waiting for someone.  In the Christian context, of course, waiting for the coming of the Savior.

            This is the first Sunday of the period in which we celebrate Advent.  But really, the Christian church is in a constant period of Advent.  We are waiting.  Waiting for the coming of the Savior.  We know He will come.  He promised that He would, and we know the Lord always keeps His promises.  

But we don’t know when.  And so, we wait.  We don’t do nothing while we’re waiting, of course.  We purposefully wait.  While we wait, we do the things the Savior told us to do, to the best of our ability.  We show love to our neighbors.  We go and make disciples.  We do what we can to get ourselves and others ready for the coming of the Savior.

Some people think He will come soon.  None of us knows, of course.  We know that every day that passes brings us one day closer to the day when He will come again.  But whether that day is soon or a long time in the future, no one knows.  It’s true, though, that we certainly see a lot of things happening in the world that we don’t think are right.  And it makes us wonder.  It makes us wonder if perhaps the day will be soon.  But we don’t know.  And so, we wait.

The people of Jeremiah’s time saw a lot of things happening in the world that they did not think were right, too.  Their beloved country, Judah, was laid waste.  Jerusalem was deserted.  Not even animals would live there.  Sometimes we just kind of go past that, but think about it.  A place so deserted, a place so desolate, that not even animals will live there.

            Think about how the people of Israel must have felt.  Jerusalem.  The capital city.  The Holy City.  Completely abandoned.  No one there.  Nothing there.  Imagine how totally devastated they must have been, when that happened.

            God, speaking through Jeremiah, acknowledges all that.  But God says this is not going to last forever.  God says, “there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness…and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord…For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before...in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.”  And in all the towns around, “flocks will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them.”

            That had to sound good to the people of Judah.  It had to give them some hope.  They wrote these words down.  They remembered them.  They kept them.  They preserved them.  These words were so important to them, and they remembered them so well and they preserved them so well, that we still have these words, more than two thousand five hundred years later.

            But then time started to pass.  And nothing was happening.  Jerusalem was not being rebuilt.  Judah was not being restored.  There was no evidence that anything was happening, and there was no sign that anything was going to happen.

            We’re not told, but it seems like people must have gotten discouraged.  It took a hundred years for anything to happen with Judah.  Finally, after a hundred years, the people of Judah were allowed to start rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.  But it was not because Judah had become independent.  It was not because they had regained their freedom.  They were only able to rebuild Jerusalem because the King of Persia agreed to allow them to.  And they could not restore Jerusalem to its former glory.  They did not have the money.  They did not have the manpower.  They did not have the resources.  They did the best they could, but everyone knew this new version of Jerusalem could not hold a candle to the old version.  And some of the people mourned because of that.

            But still, it was better than nothing.  It was not the former Jerusalem, but at least it was not desolate and deserted anymore.  But of course, that was only part of Jeremiah’s prophecy.  The other part was the coming of a Savior.  Because God also said this:  “The days are coming when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.  In those days and at that time, I will make a righteous branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.  This is the name by which it will be called:  The Lord Our Righteous Savior.”

            Again, a great promise.  A promise to give them hope.  A promise that was important to them, one that they remembered and wrote down.  But as the years went on, a promise that seemed like it was not being fulfilled.  Years went by.  Generations went by.  Centuries went by.  One hundred years.  Two hundred years.  Three hundred years.  More.  It was nearly six hundred years until Jesus was born.  And it was more than six hundred years until Jesus started His ministry.

            Think about that.  The people of Judah had to wait six hundred years for this prophecy to be fulfilled.  Think about how long six hundred years is.  Six hundred years ago it was 1421.  There was no United States.  In fact, the people in Europe did not even know that the land we now call America existed.  The King James Version of the Bible did not exist--in fact, the Bible had not yet been translated into English at all.  Not only was there no Methodist church, there was no Protestant church of any kind--Martin Luther had not been born yet.  That’s how long six hundred years is.  And that’s how long the people of Judah had to wait for the Savior to be born.

            The corona virus has been a major part of our world for nearly two years now.  And many people have been praying for God to take it away.  And it has not happened.  There are times when it seems like things are getting better, and there are times when it seems like things are getting worse, but there have been no times where we thought, “Well, that’s all over now.  That’s in the past.  We don’t have to worry about it anymore.”  And it does not look like that time is going to come any time soon.

            And many people wonder why not.  We wonder why God does not hear our prayers.  We wonder why God does not answer.  And of course that happens in a lot of situations other than the coronavirus, too.  Personal situations, work situations, relationship situations, financial situations.  National and world situations, too.  It seems like we pray, and we pray, and we pray, and nothing happens.  And we wonder why.  We wonder why God does not seem to be hearing our prayers.  We wonder why God does not respond.  We wonder why God does not make something happen.

            I’m sure the people of Judah wondered the same thing.  They heard the prophecies.  They believed them.  They prayed for God to make them come true.  The Priests prayed.  The Rabbis prayed.  The teachers of the law prayed.  The common people prayed.  And nothing happened.  And they prayed some more.  And nothing happened some more.  And they kept praying.  And nothing kept happening.

            They did not understand it.  I’m sure some of them got discouraged.  I’m sure some of them started to have doubts.  Maybe some of them even gave up on God.  Maybe some of them decided the prophecy was wrong, or maybe it had been misinterpreted.  Or maybe Jeremiah had made the whole thing up, and God had not spoken to him at all.  

            God made them wait.  And those who had enough faith did wait.  They passed their faith to their children, who passed it on to their children, who passed it on to their children.  They waited a hundred years for even the partial rebuilding of Jerusalem.  They waited six hundred years for the coming of the Savior.

            It was a lot of years, and a lot of waiting.  It was not easy.  But it was worth it.  It was worth it because, eventually, the Savior did come.  And the people who kept their faith, and who recognized the Savior, and who believed in Him, were able to claim salvation and eternal life.

            We are waiting now.  God is making us wait.  We don’t understand it, sometimes.  Sometimes we get discouraged.  Sometimes we start to have doubts. Sometimes, we’re tempted to give up on God, too.

            It is hard to wait.  God created humans to be an impatient bunch.  In fact, it seems like we’re less patient now than we’ve ever been.  Less patient with technology, less patient with each other, and less patient with God.

            But patience is a virtue.  Now, that exact quote is not found in the Bible.  But the Bible does have many verses that talk about how important patience is to our faith.  If we’re going to be Christians, if we’re going to trust God, we’re going to have to learn to be patient.  God does not act on our time schedule.  God acts in God’s way and at God’s time.  We need to learn to trust God’s timing, even if we don’t like it, and even if we don’t understand it.

            The people of Judah waited a long time.  Sometimes it seems like we have to wait a long time, too.  It’s hard to wait.  But let’s make sure it’s a purposeful waiting.  Let’s use this time of waiting that God is giving us.  Let’s use it to love our neighbor.  Let’s use it to go and make disciples.  Let’s use it to stay faithful to God.  May this time of Advent be a time of holy, blessed, purposeful waiting.

 

His Love Endures Forever

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 118.

            Thanksgiving is this Thursday.  So how many of us are really feeling thankful?

            I mean, yes, of course, we know we should be thankful.  And when we stop and think about it, we can think of things we should feel thankful for.  But when we get up in the morning, when we go about our daily tasks, when we get to the end of the day, how thankful do we really feel?

            Maybe you feel thankful a lot.  I hope so.  It’s awesome if you do.  But sometimes it’s hard.  Again, we know we should.  We know we’re supposed to.  We know the statement in First Thessalonians that says we should be thankful in all circumstances.  There’s nothing new I can tell you about how we’re supposed to thank God.  You already know that.  Thanking God is not a matter of learning or knowing.  It’s just a matter of doing.  It’s a matter of attitude.

            But even though we know we should be thankful to God, sometimes that’s hard.  I mean, it’s easy to say “be thankful in all circumstances”.  It’s easy to sing, as the doxology says, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”.  It’s easy to say all those things.  But doing them, feeling them, that’s the hard part.

            It’s hard because a lot of us are having trouble feeling thankful right now.  The world has changed a lot in the past year.  COVID has completely disrupted our society, and we don’t know when or even if things will get back to normal.  Sometimes we wonder what normal even means.  And of course, there are people who are suffering from serious illnesses, who have seen the breakup of their marriages, who’ve lost jobs, who had all kinds of things happen that make it hard to be thankful.

            The fact is that there are a lot of bad things that happen in life.  And I’m not going to stand here and tell you that you should be thankful for them.  Yes, we talked before about how God can bring good out of anything, even bad things, and I do believe that, but that thought is not much help when we’re in the middle of the bad things.  It may give us some hope for the future, but right at the moment, we’re still suffering.  And when we’re suffering, platitudes about being thankful in all circumstances don’t really help much.

            That’s why we read Psalm 118 tonight.  Now, that’s a psalm that says we should be thankful to God.  The first verse and the last verse both say, “Give thanks to the Lord.”

            But look at why we are supposed to give thanks to the Lord.  We don’t give thanks because of anything specific that God has done.  We don’t give thanks to the Lord because God has done things for us.  We don’t give thanks to God for having blessed us with health or wealth or peace or joy or anything like that.  I mean, we should give thanks to God for those things, but none of those things are why psalm one hundred eighteen says we should give thanks to God.

            We are told to give thanks to God for two reasons.  One is because God is good.  That phrase appears twice in the psalm.  And of course, God is good, and we should give thanks that God is good.  But what’s the number one reason we should give thanks to God?  It appears five times in the psalm, four times in the first four verses.  We are to give thanks to God because “His love endures forever”.

            And that, really, is what it comes down to.  Because those are the things that we know we can always count on.  Those are the things that will always be there.  Those are the things that will last.  Again, it’s important to thank God for the things God has done, but the foundation of our thankfulness to God is not the things God has done.  The foundation of our thankfulness to God is the things God is.

            Think of it this way.  If our thankfulness to God is based on God giving us good health, what happens if we suddenly don’t have good health anymore?  If our thankfulness to God is based on how much money we have, what happens if we lose that money?  If our thankfulness to God is based on a feeling of inner peace and joy, what do we do if something happens to take away our inner peace and our joy?  And all of those things can happen to us at any point in our lives.

            But God is good.  God always has been good.  And God always will be good.  And God is love.  God always has been love.  And God always will be love.  As the psalm says, his love truly does last forever.

            That’s the foundation of our thankfulness to God.  God is good and God is love.  That’s the main thing we should be thankful for.  Because God’s goodness and God’s love will always be there for us, no matter what happens and no matter what our circumstances are.

            The author of psalm one hundred eighteen does not have things always go his way.  In fact, it sounds like there are a lot of things that did not go his way.  He talks about “being hard pressed”.  He talks about how “all the nations surrounded me...they swarmed around me like bees”.  He says, “I was pushed back and about to fall”.

            Have you ever felt like that?  Like you are really hard pressed?  Like enemies are surrounding you, swarming like bees?  Maybe not human enemies, but pressures, problems, worries, fears, anxieties?  Have you ever felt like those things were swarming like bees around you?  Have you ever felt like you were being pushed back and you were about to fall?

            I think probably a lot of us have felt that way at one time or another.  Maybe some of us feel like that now.  If you do, do what the author of the psalm did.  Rely on God.  Cry out to God.  Feel God’s presence with you.  Let God give you courage and conquer your fear.  Let God be your strength and your defense, as the psalm says.  Because God is good, and God is love.  And God’s goodness and love will help carry you through, no matter how bad things look at the time.  That does not mean all our problems will completely disappear, but it does mean that God will help us deal with our problems and get through them.

            But you know, we say all that, and it sounds kind of like a platitude, too.  “No matter what your problems are, just rely on God and everything will be okay.”  But all of us have times when things are not okay.  And sometimes, it seems like things are never going to be okay again.  And we may say God is good and God is love, and we may even believe it, but at that moment it does not help.

            The thing is that because God is good and God is love, God understands that.  God understands that it can be hard to just relax and trust God when it seems like all kinds of things are going wrong.  God understands that it can be hard to be thankful when that happens.

            So this Thanksgiving, if you’re not feeling all that thankful, it’s okay.  Don’t beat yourself up for it.  Don’t try to force yourself to feel something you don’t feel.  It’s okay.  God’s not mad at us when we have trouble feeling thankful sometimes.  God understands it.  Again, God understands us better than we understand ourselves.  God understands, and God won’t hold it against you.  It’s okay.

            But even if you cannot feel thankful, my prayer is that you still know that God is there.  My prayer is that you still know that God is good.  My prayer is that you still know that God is love.  And my prayer is that you still know that God’s love endures forever.

            Psalm one hundred eighteen repeats that line four times in the first four verses.  And so, if you’re having trouble feeling thankful, I’d suggest you repeat it, too.  It’s not a magic formula, but try it.  See if it helps.  No matter what may happen, know that God’s love endures forever.  When we’ve lost a loved one, God’s love endures forever.  When we’re battling a serious health problem, God’s love endures forever.  When we’ve lost a job, God’s love endures forever.  When we have no sense of inner peace, God’s love endures forever.  When we’re feeling hard pressed by worries and concerns, God’s love endures forever.  When pressures, problems, fears, and anxieties are swarming around us like bees, God’s love endures forever.  When we’re being pushed back and we feel like we’re about to fall, God’s love endures forever.  Throughout all the trials of life, and even beyond death, God’s love endures forever.

            Life is not always easy.  In fact, sometimes life is very hard.  But God is good.  And God’s love endures forever.  My prayer is that, whatever you may be feeling now, and whatever may happen this Thanksgiving and beyond, you will know that.  And not only that you will know it, but that you will feel it.  God is good.  And God’s love endures forever.

 

Enter With Thanksgiving

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, November 21, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 95.

            What was your attitude when you came to church today?  What was on your mind when you walked through the door?

            If could’ve been a lot of things, and I don’t think any of them were bad.  But I’m sure it varied.  Some of us may have been tired.  Some of us may have been looking forward to seeing people.  Some of us may have been thinking about what we’re going to do after the service.  Some of us may have had nothing in particular on our minds.  We were just coming to church because it’s Sunday morning and that’s what we do.

            Again, there’s nothing particularly wrong or bad about any of that.  All of those things are very natural, human things to have on our minds.  But here’s the thing.  Psalm one hundred, which we read responsively this morning, says we should enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and enter God’s courts with praise.

            How many of us did that this morning?  How many of us walked through the church door with giving thanks to God on our minds and in our hearts?  How many of us entered the sanctuary with praise this morning?

            Now, I could tell you that I did that this morning, and it’s kind of true, but only because I had written this sermon and so had it on my  mind.  On a normal Sunday, do I have thankfulness to God on my mind as I walk through the church door?  Do I have praise to God in my heart when I enter the sanctuary?

            No.  I’m no better than anyone else at this.  I have things on my mind, too.  I’m hoping I did not forget something I need, I’m focusing on keeping the service running relatively smoothly, I’m trying to deliver this message in a way that will keep people interested and that they will find meaning in, all kinds of things.

            Now, that does not mean that we do not feel thankful to God.  It does not mean we don’t praise God.  But it does mean that those things may not have been at the forefront of our minds when we came to church today.  And that’s too bad.  It means we are probably not giving God the respect God deserves.  And just as importantly, it means we are cheating ourselves of experiencing God’s love as fully as we should when we come to church.

            The psalm we just read, psalm ninety-five, really says it better than I can.  It tells us to “sing for joy to the Lord”, to “shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.”  We should “come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.”

            And then it tells us why.  “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.  In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.  The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.”

            When we come to church with an attitude of thankfulness and praise to God, we when we sing for joy in the presence of God, that means that we recognize who God is.  It means we acknowledge that God is “the great God”, that he is “the great King.”  We declare that everything was created by God and belongs to God.  From the mountain peaks to the very depths, the land and the sea.”  It all belongs to God.  We may be allowed to take care of a little bit of it for a while, for a brief time, but none of it is every really ours.  It all belongs to God.

            The psalm goes on to say what our response to that should be.  “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.”

            When we recognize who God is, when we realize that God created everything that is, when we acknowledge that it all belongs to God and not us, when we live with an awareness that we would not even exist if not for the great love and mercy of God, it seems like that response would become automatic.  When we think about how great, how powerful, how awesome, how beyond our comprehension God is, we will automatically bow down before God.  We will automatically kneel before God.  In fact, I suspect that whe we go to heaven and are in the presence of God, that’s the first thing we’ll do.  We’ll do it without even thinking about it.  When we see God for who God truly is, we’ll be so in awe that we’ll immediately kneel before Him.

            But then, I think God will tell us to stand up, and we’ll feel God’s loving embrace.  Because, as the psalm also says, “we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.”  We will feel the incredible love of God more strongly than we ever feel it while we’re on earth.

            That last part is why it’s important for us to come to church with thanksgiving and praise to God.  God is indeed awesome, and God deserves our thanksgiving and praise.  That would be reasons enough to come with that attitude.  But giving God that thanks and praise helps us to feel God’s love with us in a way that we won’t otherwise.

            When we’re kids, at least if we’re fortunate enough to grow up in a loving home, we know that our parents love us.  But we don’t really think about it very much.  We really kind of take it for granted that our parents will love us because, well, they’re our parents.  They’re supposed to love us.  And so we don’t really appreciate their love the way we should.  And we also don’t think about how special it is that they love us.

            Because, you know, they would not have to.  Our parents would not have to love us.  Parents make a choice to love their children.  Now, maybe you say that’s an instinct, that there’s something inside parents that leads them to love their children.  And I agree with that.  I think it’s something put there by God.  But at the same time, we know that there are parents who don’t love their children, for whatever reason.  So there still has to be an element of choice involved in the love parents have for their children.

            That love is shown in lots of ways.  It’s shown in the things parents do for their children.  It’s shown in the things parents give up for their children.  And when I say “things”, I don’t just mean material things, although that’s part of it.  Parents give up their time.  Parents give up their privacy.  Parents give up doing things they’d really like to do.  Parents do all these things for their children, because they love them.

            But sometimes, it’s only when we get older that we realize that.  And so, a lot of times, we don’t appreciate the love of our parents as much as we should.  But more than that, we don’t feel the love of our parents as much as we should.  When we don’t think about the sacrifices our parents make for us, we miss out on truly knowing how much love they feel for us.  We miss out on understanding how complete and total their love really is.

            In that same way, God the Father makes a choice to love us.  A choice God would not have to make.  We know God loves us.  But unless we have an attitude of thanksgiving and praise, we won’t really think about God’s love for us.  We’ll take it for granted that God loves us, because, well, He’s God.  He’s supposed to love us.  And we don’t appreciate God’s love the way we should.  We don’t think about how special, how incredible, it is that God loves us.

            Because God would not have to love us.  That love is shown in lots of ways.  It’s shown in the things God does for us.  It’s shown in the things God has given up for us.  And of course, the biggest thing God gave up for us is His son, Jesus Christ.  God sacrificed His divine Son so that, through our faith, we can have salvation and eternal life.  We can go to be with Him in heaven.

            We know that.  But too often, we don’t think about it.  And so, we don’t appreciate God’s love as much as we should.  And more than that, we don’t feel God’s love as much as we should.  When we don’t think about the sacrifices God made for us, we miss out on knowing how much love God feels for us.  We miss out on knowing how complete and total God’s love for us is.

            We should be thankful for God every day, of course.  And of course, we should praise God every day, too.  But when we enter God’s house, we should be especially thankful.  And when we enter God’s sanctuary, we should always feel praise for God in our hearts.  When we do, we will know how awesome, how beyond our understanding God really is.  And then, we’ll know what an incredible thing it is that God loves us.  We’ll feel God’s love in a way we’ve never felt it before.

            And then, we’ll have even more to be thankful for.

 

A Process of Becoming

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Luke 2:41-52.

            The Bible tells us everything we need to know about God, about Jesus, about our faith.  Everything we need to know, but not everything we’d like to know.  There are a lot of things I’d like to know that the Bible is silent about.

            For example, I’d like to know more about the early life of Jesus.  Wouldn’t you?  The Bible tells us about Jesus’ birth and about the troubles Mary and Joseph had for the first couple of Jesus’ life, on the run from King Herod.  But then, the next thing the Bible tells us is ten years later, when Jesus was twelve.  We’ll talk about that story in a minute, but don’t you wonder what happened to Jesus in those ten years?  And don’t you wonder what Jesus was like when he was a kid?  Was he like any other normal kid?  Did he run around with his friends?  Did he play with toys and misbehave and get into trouble occasionally?  

I mean, I know we’re talking about the divine Son of God here, but still, we say that Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine.  A little kid misbehaving once in a while is not sin.  A little kid misbehaving once in a while is a little kid being a little kid.  It’s what they do.  Sometimes it’s how they learn.  Mary and Joseph obviously knew who their child was, because the angel Gabriel and the shepherds and the rest had told them.  But would an outsider, just observing Jesus growing up, have known there was something different, something special about him?  Or would Jesus have looked like just another little kid running around Nazareth?

We’ll never know, of course.  So we look at our story for tonight.  Jesus is twelve.  And understand, a twelve year old back then was considered a lot closer to being an adult than a twelve year old is today.  He would not have been considered an adult yet, but he would not have been that many years off.

But Jesus was still growing up, and he was living with his parents.  And every year, when the time of Passover came, they would go to Jerusalem to celebrate it there.  That’s what good Jews did, at least the ones who lived within a reasonable distance.  I’ve read that it was about a five day trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem.  By this time, Mary and Joseph probably had some other children, too, because we know from other passages of the Bible that Mary and Joseph did eventually have other children.  They go to the Passover festival, they do all the things they’re supposed to do, and they head for home.  Jesus is not with them, but they’re not too worried about that.  They’re in a big group, and Jesus is not a little kid any more.  He’s around somewhere.  They’ll find him later.  

But then, night falls, and they cannot find him.  They go around to all the people in the group.  “Have you seen Jesus?”  No one’s seen him.  So they head back to Jerusalem, and can you imagine how panicked they must have been?  I mean, it would be horrible to have your child be lost under any circumstances, right?  But you’re the parents of the Savior, the Messiah, the divine Son of God.  And you’ve gone and lost him!  What’s God going to say about that?

They search.  And think of how hard that search would’ve been.  Jerusalem was a city.  You read wildly differing estimates of how big it was, but it’s not like it was a small town.  And of course, you had no mass communication back then.  You could not put out an Amber Alert or something.  You could not even put someone’s picture on a milk carton.  All Mary and Joseph could’ve done was go house to house, building to building, asking people if they’d seen Jesus.

It took three days.  Three days of wondering where Jesus could be.  Wondering if they’d ever see him again.  Maybe wondering if, somehow, this could be part of God’s plan.  Then, they find him in the temple courts.  We don’t know why they went there, but they find Jesus there.  And he’s talking with the teachers like he’s their equal.  Asking them questions, responding to their questions, and amazing everyone with his understanding.  And when his parents tell him how worried they’ve been, he says, “Why were you searching for me?  Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”  But of course, Jesus went back to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and continued to mature and grow in wisdom.

As usual, there are a lot of things we can take from this story.  But one of the things that has always interested me about Jesus is this:  at what point in his life on earth did Jesus really understand who he was and what he was supposed to do while he was here?

Some might say that he knew from the moment he was born.  And I cannot dispute that because, after all, we are talking about the divine Son of God here.  If you believe that even as a baby Jesus knew who he was and how his life was going to go I have no basis to argue with you.

What I suspect, though, is that Jesus had to go through a process of understanding who he was.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I do believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the king, from the moment he was born, just like the wise men said.  And he may have had some sense of that right away.  But I think he still had to grow, he had to develop, he had to mature.  After all, it was not until he was about thirty years old that Jesus started his ministry.  I have to think that he made good use of that time.  I think there’s some sense in which Jesus had learn how to be who he was supposed to be, who he was sent here to be.

I think there’s even a sense of that throughout Jesus’ ministry.  Early on, he has times when he gets angry and frustrated with people, including the disciples, when he tells them things and they just don’t get it.  But by the end, Jesus appears to be more sad when people don’t understand.  He’s resigned to it, understanding that that’s simply the way people are, that it’s really not their fault, and that, in the final analysis, that’s why he was sent here to save us--because we’d never be able to do it on our own.

I think there’s a sense in which that’s the journey we all go through as we go through life.  We may start out with some sense of who we are.  But we need to grow.  We need to develop.  We need to mature.  We need to learn how to be who we’re supposed to be.  We need to learn how to be who we’re created to be.

And that’s not always an easy process.  It was not always an easy process for Jesus, and he was the divine Son of God.  It’s certainly not an easy process for you and me.  A lot of stuff happens to us along the way, and sometimes that stuff knocks us off the path of becoming who we’re created to be.  And sometimes it can take a long time to get back on that path.

As many of you know, it took me a long time to figure out how to be who I was created to be.  And I’m not saying I’m there yet.  Certainly I have a lot of things to improve, a lot of things to work on.  But what I mean is that I was forty-seven years old before I became a pastor.  And before that happened, I did a lot of things to try to find some sense of meaning, some sense of purpose in my life.  Some of them were work-related and some of them were not.  But I had a sense that I was not yet who I was supposed to be, that there was a hole in my life, and I was trying to fill it with all sorts of things.  I had to learn how to be who I was created to be.  And it was not always an easy process.

Now, the point here is not to hold myself up as a role model.  The point is that this is something that happens to a lot of us.  We take a long time to learn how to be who we were created to be.  And it’s a struggle sometimes.  We know there’s a hole in our lives, and we try to fill it with all sorts of things.  And sometimes we get angry and frustrated, both with ourselves and with other people.  And sometimes we get sad.  And sometimes it takes us a long time to get on the right path.

And so, for me, thinking about Jesus’ life in this way gives me a lot of hope.  I hope it gives you hope, too.  Because if even Jesus had to learn how to be who he was supposed to be, and if even Jesus struggled to do it sometimes, then it’s okay for us to struggle, too.  It’s okay for you and me to have trouble figuring out who we were created to be.  It’s okay if we need to grow, to develop, to mature.  And it’s okay if we don’t have it all figured out by the time we’re thirty.  It’s okay if we don’t have it figured out by the time we’re forty-seven.  It seems to me that Jesus was continuing to grow, to mature, to develop, right up until the end of his life on earth.  And I think you and I can expect to do that, too.

But think about what helped Jesus in his struggles.  It’s what he told Mary and Joseph when they found him in the temple.  He needed to be in his Father’s house.  He needed to stay as close to God as he could.  He knew that if he did that, God would help him figure it all out.  God would show him how to be who he was supposed to be.

And that’s what we need to do.  We need to stay as close to God as we can.  If we do that, God will help us figure it out, too, just as God the Father did for Jesus.  God will show us how to be who we’re supposed to be, who we’re created to be.  And then, it’s just a matter of following where God shows us to go.

Life is a journey.  It’s a process.  And sometimes it’s a struggle.  But if we stay close to God, God will help us through those struggles.  God will show us show us how to be who we’re created to be.  God will be there every step of the way, just like God the Father

 

Stay Connected

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, November 14, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 15:1-8.

            Jesus is trying to explain to his disciples how faith works.  He uses the analogy, which some of us have heard many times, of the vine and the branches.  If you cut a branch off from the vine, it will eventually wither and die.  If the branch stays connected to the vine, it will grow and thrive and bear fruit.  

            Jesus then goes on to say that He is the vine, and that His disciples--which includes you and me--are the branches.  As long as we stay connected to Jesus, we will grow and thrive and bear fruit, the way we’re supposed to.  If we somehow get cutoff from Jesus, or if we break away by ourselves, we will eventually wither and die.  Jesus goes on to say, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

            And if our purpose today was just to learn Jesus’ message in these verses, we could stop right there.  Because there it is.  There are times when Jesus’ message seems unclear, when we’re not totally sure what Jesus is saying, but this is not one of those times.  Jesus says it very plainly and simply.  Remain with Jesus, and our faith will bear much fruit.  Go away from Jesus, and we will accomplish nothing for the Lord.  If our goal was just to understand what Jesus was saying, we could end the sermon here, say a prayer, sing our closing hymn, and be done.

            But the thing is, our goal is not just to understand what Jesus is saying.  Our goal is to live the way Jesus wants us to live.  So here’s the question:  if we know what Jesus is saying, if we know that the key to it is to stay connected to Jesus, why does it seem like it can be so hard to actually do that?

            Now, maybe for you it’s not.  I cannot claim to speak for everyone.  But I think for at least some of us it can be hard.  We know we should be connected to Jesus.  We know we need to be connected to Jesus.  And yet, sometimes, we don’t feel like we are connected to Jesus.  Why not?

            Well, there can be lots of reasons.  Sometimes we just get caught up in the busy-ness of everyday life.  We have jobs, we have family obligations, we have community obligations, we have lots of things going on in our lives.  And sometimes, without meaning to, we allow Jesus to get crowded out.  We don’t make a conscious decision to stop making time for Jesus.  It just happens.  And before we know it, we don’t feel connected to Jesus anymore.

            Sometimes, when we don’t feel connected to Jesus, it’s because we feel like He’s let us down.  We prayed for something, and we did not get what we prayed for.  And we look at it, and we feel like what we prayed for was good.  It was reasonable.  In fact, it seems like it would have been a wonderful thing, not just for ourselves but for lots of people.  We cannot see a downside to it.  Yet, it did not happen.  And we don’t understand why not.  So, we feel like Jesus is ignoring us.  We feel disconnected from Jesus.

            And of course, sometimes we don’t feel connected to Jesus because we just don’t want to do what Jesus told us to do.  We’ve talked about this before, but some of the things Jesus told us to do are hard things.  Loving our enemies.  Going the extra mile for people.  There are all kinds of things Jesus told us to do that are not easy to do.  It’s a lot easier to not do them, and so we don’t.  But when we make that decision to not do what Jesus told us to do, the chances are that we’re going to feel disconnected from Jesus.

            There are other reasons, too, of course.  We could go on and on with them.  But the question is, when we feel disconnected from Jesus, what can we do about it?

            That’s the question, but the chances are you already know the answers.  They’re the same answers we’ve gone through any number of times.  Pray.  Spend some time with Jesus.  Open our hearts to Jesus.  Ask for forgiveness for the times we’ve drifted away.  Ask God to take us back, to give us a second chance.  Ask for God’s help in taking advantage of that second chance.  Ask for God’s Holy Spirit to be poured out onto us, to come into our hearts and into our souls.

            In listing those things, I know I have not given you any brilliant insights.  You probably know those things as well as I do, maybe better.  We know how to get back to feeling connected to Jesus again.  But there’s that question again.  If we know what to do, why does it seem like it’s so hard for us to do it?

            Again, maybe for you it’s not.  I don’t claim to speak for you.  But again, for at least some of us it can be hard.  Why?

            Well, let’s think about Jesus statement again.  He is the vine, and we are the branches.  Jesus is the one from whom we get all of our power, all of our strength, all of our life.  We can do nothing without Him.

            When we sit here in church, and we hear that, we probably nod our heads.  Yes, that’s right.  It all comes from Jesus.  Without Jesus, we can do nothing.

            But then we leave here, and we start making all kinds of decisions.  Big ones and small ones.  What we’re going to do.  How we’re going to spend our time.  Who we’re going to spend our time with.  How we’re going to spend our money.  We make these and any number of other decisions every single day of our lives.  

            How many times, as we make those decisions, to we stop to consult Jesus about them?  How many times, as we make the decisions that affect our lives, do we ask Jesus what we should do?

            For many of us, probably not that often.  For some of us, maybe never.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not suggesting that we should ask Jesus what we should have for lunch today--although, when you think about it, that certainly would not be a bad thing to do.  And maybe, when we know we have a major decision to make, we do ask the Lord about it.  But how often do we ask the Lord about our day-to-day decisions?  How often do we invite Jesus to be part of our everyday lives?  Again, for many of us, it’s probably not very often, if ever.

            We say we believe what Jesus said.  We say we believe that apart from Him, we can do nothing.  But what makes this so hard is that, a lot of times, we really don’t want to turn control of our lives over to Jesus.  We want to keep control of our lives for ourselves.

            And that’s what can lead us to become disconnected from Jesus.  Instead of being the branch, receiving what we need from the vine, there are a lot of times when you and I want to be the vine.  There are a lot of times when you and I want to be the ones in charge.  We want to be the ones directing the branches, making them grow the way we want to.  And in fact, sometimes, we want Jesus to be one of the branches, instead of the vine.  We want to direct Jesus on what to do and how to grow, rather than letting Jesus direct us.

            You see, that’s the thing about being a branch--it takes humility.  It means trusting the vine to provide what we need, rather than trying to provide it for ourselves.  It means growing the way the vine wants us to grow, rather than just going our own way.  It means allowing the vine--Jesus--to be in control of what we do and where we go, rather than going our own way.  And that can be really hard for we arrogant, self-centered human beings to do.

It can be hard--but it’s worth it.  Because Jesus--our vine--knows so much more than we do.  Jesus--our vine--is so much better than we are.  Jesus--our vine--sees so much farther into the future than we ever can.  You and I like to think we know best, but there are so many times when we don’t.  The Lord always knows best.  Every time.

            Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.  If we want to do something--do something for the Lord, do something for our neighbors, do something for ourselves--we need to stay connected to the vine.  We need to be content to being a branch, letting Jesus nurture us in the way we should go and trusting Jesus to help us become what we’re supposed to become.

            Being a branch is not always easy.  Staying connected to Jesus is not always easy.  It takes time.  It takes commitment.  It takes humility.  But it’s worth it.  Because if we stay connected to Jesus, Jesus will show us how to live our best life.  He’ll show us how to live a fruitful life.  He’ll show us how to live the life we are meant to live.

            Jesus is the true vine.  If we stay connected to Jesus, we will be the people Jesus wants us to be.

 

Who Do We Say He Is?

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on November 7, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 16:13-20.

            One of the things that can be frustrating when we read the words of Jesus is the number of times that he seems to be almost deliberately mysterious about what he means.  Jesus would use parables.  He would use figures of speech.  He would make analogies.  Sometimes you’d like to be able to go to Jesus and say, “Would you just come out and say what you mean?”  

In fact, at one point, the disciples kind of did that.  In John Sixteen, when Jesus is making what has been called his Farewell Address to the disciples, right before he goes out to the Garden of Gethsemane to be arrested, the disciples say, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.”  You can just hear the relief in their voices, that finally, after all this time, Jesus is just coming out and saying what he has to say.

            And for all the figures of speech and parables and all the other things Jesus used, he could cut right to the heart of the matter when he wanted to.  That’s clear from our reading for tonight.  Jesus first asks his disciples who the public is saying he is.  And they tell him, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, some say one of the other prophets.

            And then Jesus asks the big question.  “What about you?...Who do you say I am?”

            That’s the big question.  It was the big question for the disciples.  It’s the big question for us.  Who do we say Jesus is?

            Now, we’d like to think, in a Christian church, that we would all say what Peter said.  Jesus is the Messiah.  The Savior.  The divine Son of the living God.  The one who can give us salvation and eternal life.

            And maybe all of us here tonight would say that.  Maybe everyone watching the livestream would say that, too.  I hope so.  But maybe not.  

            A recent survey of people who claim to be born again Christians--now again, these are not just people who claim a vague, general belief in God, these are people who claim to be born again Christians--a recent survey said that nearly seventy percent of those people say that belief in Jesus is not the only way to heaven.  They said that belief in Muhammed or in Buddha is just as valid a belief, and just as able to get you to heaven, as belief in Jesus Christ.

Well, if you believe that, then you don’t agree with Peter.  You don’t actually believe that Jesus is the Savior.  You don’t believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God.  Not because I say so, but because Jesus said so.  Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  Jesus did not say “I am one of several ways.”  Jesus said “I am the way.”  Jesus did not say, “I am one of several truths.”  Jesus said, “I am the truth.”  Jesus did not say there are lots of people who can lead you to God the Father.  Jesus said, “No one can come to the Father except through Me.”

            People say, well, that sounds awfully exclusionary.  You’re saying that people who don’t believe in Jesus as the Savior don’t go to heaven.  Well, again, I’m not saying anything.  Jesus is the one who said that.  What I say makes no difference to anything.  I have no ability to get someone into heaven or to keep them out.  And I’m very glad of that, by the way.  All I’m doing is repeating what Jesus said.  People can believe it or not believe it.  It’s their choice.  But anyone who does not believe it does so at their peril.  And anyone does not believe it does not really agree with Peter about who Jesus is.

            Another recent survey said that slightly more than half of American Christians say that we get into heaven by our good deeds.  And again, if you believe that, you don’t agree with Peter.  You don’t actually believe that Jesus is the Savior.  Because if we could get into heaven by our good deeds, we would not need a Savior, right?  We could earn our way into heaven.  All we’d need to do is be good enough, do enough good things, and we’ll get to heaven.  We don’t need Jesus for it.  We can do it ourselves.

            People say, well, are you saying bad people can go to heaven?  Yes.  Yes I am.  In fact, those are the only people who can go to heaven.  Because, compared to God, there are no “good people”.  Jesus said that, too.  In Mark, Chapter Ten, someone referred to Jesus as “Good teacher” and Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good?  No one is good except God alone.”  

Only God is good.  Jesus said that even he is not good--unless you accept the fact that He is the divine Son of God.  So unless you know someone who’s as good as God--and I certainly don’t--there are no “good people” in heaven.  There are only bad people--sinners, who are saved by their belief in the divine Son of God as the Savior.

And again, none of this is true because I say it.  I’m just repeating what Jesus said.  And again, people can believe it or not believe it.  It’s their choice.  But again, anyone who does not believe it does so at their peril.  And anyone who does not believe it does not really agree with Peter about who Jesus is.

            So, I ask the question again.  Who do we say Jesus is?  Do we agree with Peter that Jesus is the Messiah, the divine Son of the living God?  Or do we believe Jesus is something or someone else?  Do we believe Jesus is who He said He was?  Or do we make Jesus whatever we want Him to be?

            It is tempting to make Jesus whatever we want Him to be.  Because if belief in Jesus is the only way to heaven, that means there are people I know, people I care about, who will not go to heaven.  That may be true for you, too.  I don’t like to think about that.  I don’t want those people to not go to heaven.  But if we believe what Jesus said, then unless those people change that’s the way it’s going to be.  

            But the story does not end there.  Because after Peter says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus says that Peter is the rock on which He will build His church, “and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

            Jesus did not say this because Peter was so smart, or so holy, or had such a great personality, or because of any of the things humans tend to think of as important.  Jesus said this because Peter had shown his faith in Jesus.  It was Peter’s faith that made him the strong rock on which Jesus could build His church.  It was Peter’s faith that would help make that church so strong that the gates of Hades would not overcome it.

            And that’s what our faith can do.  Our faith in Jesus can make us a strong rock as well.  You and I can be a rock Jesus can build on, just like Peter was.

            We hear that, and we think, well, but Peter was one of the greatest heroes of the Bible.  I could never be Peter.  My faith could never be that strong.

            But it can be.  Who was Peter?  He was an ordinary fisherman when he met Jesus.  He made all kinds of mistakes.  

In fact, the next thing that happens after the Bible verses we read tonight is that Peter starts arguing with Jesus and Jesus calls him Satan.  When Jesus was arrested, Peter three times denied knowing that he’d ever been with Jesus.  After Jesus was killed, Peter was so confused and scared that he decided to go fishing.

Jesus knew who Peter was, of course.  He knew Peter was far from a perfect person.  And yet, because Peter knew who Jesus was, Peter became the rock on which Jesus built his church. 

Jesus could deal with Peter’s failings because He knew Peter’s faith.  Jesus can deal with our failings because Jesus knows our faith.  It’s like a saying I read on facebook:  “When God put a calling on your life, He already factored in your stupidity.”  That’s funny, but it’s also true.  The Lord knows everything about us, the good and the bad.  And yet the Lord still calls you and me to serve Him, just as the Lord called Peter.  The Lord calls us, not because we’re so smart or so holy or have such great personalities, but because of our faith.

That faith can make you and me a rock Jesus can build on, just as Peter was a rock Jesus could build on.  But it all comes back to the question.  Who do we say Jesus is?  Do we say, as Peter said, that He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God?  Or do we say he’s something else, something a little more comfortable, something a little less exclusionary?  Do we say that Jesus is a Savior, but not the Savior?  Do we say that Jesus is one of many ways to heaven?  Or do we believe what Jesus said, that He is the way to eternal life, and that no one can come to the Father except through Him?  Will we be the solid rock Jesus can build on?  Or will we be, as the old hymn says, sinking sand, something that nothing solid could ever be built on?

Who do we say He is?  Our eternal life, and the eternal life of others, may depend on our answer.