That's Incredible

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 27, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Romans 8:14-21.

When you think about it, our reading from Romans today is one of the most exciting promises we’re given in all of the Bible.  Paul tells us in these verses that we, as Christians, are the children of God.

            You may be thinking, “So what’s so exciting about that?  Yes, of course we’re children of God.  We’ve heard that all our lives.  What’s the big deal?”

            Well, that’s the thing.  It is a big deal.  But some of us have heard for so long that we’re God’s children that we’ve kind of come to take it for granted.  And that’s too bad.  After all, God did not have to make us God’s children.  God chose to make us God’s children, and in this passage, Paul explains a little about just how that works.

            Paul tells us that, as Christians, we have received a spirit of adoption.  Think about that:  a spirit of adoption.  Think about how special that is.

            When a child is adopted, that only happens by a deliberate, constant, persistent choice by their parents.  That’s not to say that natural-born children are not planned, or that they’re not loved, but think about what takes place when a child is adopted.

When a child is adopted, the parents involved are specifically choosing to love a child that they have no obligation whatsoever to love.  After all, they had nothing to do with bringing that child into the world.  They’re not responsible for that child.  It’s not their flesh and blood.  If they did not adopt that child and love that child, no one would think any less of them. When someone adopts a child, they are making a conscious, deliberate choice to love someone to whom they do not owe any love at all.

            That’s what Paul says God did for us.  When Paul says we’ve received a spirit of adoption, Paul is saying that God specifically chose to love us without being under any obligation to do so.  I think that’s a pretty big deal.  In fact, it’s about the most incredible, wonderful thing I can think of.

            It’s really a shame that we sometimes take this stuff for granted.  We’ve heard things like “God is love” and “we’re all God’s children” so much that we forget sometimes how special that really is.  It’s true that God is love, but God would not have to be love.  There are lots of societies that do not believe in a loving God.  There are lots of societies that believe in a vengeful God, or in an arbitrary God.  There are societies that live in fear of God.  The fact that God is love is an incredible, wonderful thing.  The fact that we’re God’s children is an incredible, wonderful thing.  We should never take those things for granted.

            But that’s not the most incredible, wonderful thing about this scripture.  Let’s look a little farther.  Paul says that when we refer to God as our Father, that’s the Holy Spirit meeting our spirit and testifying, to ourselves and to everyone else, that we really are children of God.  Then, Paul says this:  if we are children of God, then we are heirs of God.  That means that we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and will be glorified with Jesus Christ.

            Think of who we’re talking about here.  We’re talking about Jesus Christ.  We’re talking about the divine Son of God.  We’re talking about someone who could walk on water.  We’re talking about someone who could feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  We’re talking about someone who could bring the dead back to life.  We’re talking about someone who went to the place of the dead and conquered death itself.  We’re talking about someone who then returned to heaven and took his place next to God the Father.

            On our own merits, we’re so far below Jesus Christ that there’s no comparison.  Yet Paul says that God, by giving us a spirit of adoption, makes us joint heirs with that same Jesus Christ.  In other words, Paul says God has elevated us, we lowly, weak human beings, to the same awesome level as Jesus Christ himself.

There is no way in the world we deserve that.  There’s nothing we could do to earn it.  Even granting that God loves us, even granting that God adopts us as God’s children, this is such an unexpected, really unimaginable gift that God has given us.  I mean, Jesus is Jesus.  And we’re, well, us.  Yet, Paul says we are just as much God’s children, just as much heirs of God the Father, as Jesus Christ is.  Jesus is the Son of God, but I’m a son of God, too.  That’s really kind of unbelievable, but that’s what Paul is telling us.  I’m a son of God.  You are a son or a daughter of God.  That’s an incredible thing!  That’s an awesome thing!

            Now, of course, being children of God and joint heirs with Jesus does not mean that our lives on earth will always be easy.  But of course, that’s the other thing about being put on Jesus’ level—Jesus’ life on earth was not always easy.  In fact, a lot of the time it was not easy.  Jesus went through times of great frustration.  He went through times of great suffering.  He went through times of loneliness.  He went through times of feeling abandoned.

            Paul tells us that, as children of God and joint heirs with Jesus, we’re going to have to do our share of suffering, too.  That’s one of the great misconceptions that people sometimes have about faith:  the idea that if we’re truly Christian and if we love God then we should not have to suffer.  Paul says that’s nonsense.  Of course, we’re going to suffer.  Paul says that suffering is a necessary part of the process.  But, Paul says, the suffering will be worth it.

            Paul reminds us that Jesus had to suffer what he suffered in order to be glorified as he is now glorified.  In other words, Jesus had to suffer in order to get his inheritance as an heir of God the Father.  In that same way, we may have to suffer sometimes, too, so that we can get our inheritance as heirs of God, too.

            Now, that does not make our suffering any less real.  It did not make it any less real for Jesus, either.  Suffering is suffering, and it’s not any fun.  It’s hard.  It’s painful.  It takes a toll on us physically, it takes a toll on us mentally, it takes a toll on us emotionally, it takes a toll on us in just about every way you can imagine.  The promise of a reward later does not make our suffering any easier to handle now.

            What that promise does, though, is give us hope.  That’s pretty wonderful, too.  Look at it this way: what’s the worst thing that you could think of happening?  To me, the worst thing would not be to be suffering, no matter how bad the suffering was.  To me, the worst thing would be to be suffering without hope.  To be suffering, and to believe that there was no hope that I would ever see an end to my suffering, and then to believe that there was no life after this one, so that all I’d have in my future was suffering and then death.  That kind of complete hopelessness would be about the worst thing I can imagine.

            What Paul tells us is that we will never have to face that.  No matter how bad things get, we always have hope.  We can always live in hope.  That hope is part of what God promised to us through our adoption as children of God, through our status as heirs with Jesus Christ.

            It’s that status as heirs with Jesus Christ that gives us that hope.  Jesus suffered, but Jesus overcame it.  If Jesus was able to overcome death, and if God, despite how unworthy we are, puts us on the same level with Jesus, then, we, too, will eventually overcome suffering.  We’ll overcome death itself.  We’ll overcome it, not because of who we are, but because of who God is.  By putting us on the same level with Jesus, God gives us the hope that we can do what Jesus did.  Not in the sense of having the same power Jesus had on earth, but in the sense of being able to do what Jesus did—to overcome death and be taken up into God’s presence in heaven.

            That’s the great hope we have.  It’s not hope in the sense we normally think of it.  It’s not a matter of us saying, “Well, I hope we’ll overcome suffering and death, but I really don’t know.”  It’s hope in the sense that it’s not something we can see.

The fact that we cannot see it, though, does not make it less real, nor does it mean we cannot be certain of it.  We cannot see the town of Pierre right now, but we know it’s there.  We cannot see the governor at this moment, but we know she exists.  We cannot see the air we’re breathing, but we know there is air here.  

That’s what our hope of overcoming suffering and death is—it’s not something we can see, but we can know that it is real, and that it exists.  We know it because it was something that was promised to us by God, and we know God keeps God’s promises.  It’s the most exciting, incredible, wonderful promise ever made, but there it is.

God puts us on the same awesome level as Jesus Christ.  That means you, yourself, are awesome.  So am I.  Whether we feel awesome or not, we are.  You’re awesome, and I’m awesome, not because of who we are, but because of who God is.

Each of us, as a Christian, is a child of God.  Each of us has received a spirit of adoption.  That spirit means that we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ.  God puts us on the same level as the divine Son, not because we deserve it, but because God has chosen to love us that much.

That’s pretty awesome.

 

The Way to Happiness

This is the message given at the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 20, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:19-24.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Free

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, February 13, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Galatians 3:23-29.

Have you ever felt like you were trapped?

            There are a lot of things in life that can trap us.  Jobs can trap us--we can feel like we’re stuck in a bad job, a job we don’t like but one that we feel like we have no choice but to keep doing.  We can feel trapped financially--we go into debt, for whatever reason, and we get stuck in a situation where all our money is going to try to pay those debts and no matter how much we pay we just don’t seem able to get out of it.  We can feel trapped in a relationship--we know it’s not really working, but we don’t see any way to easily get out of it.  We can feel trapped by a health situation--we wish we could get better, we wish we could do the things we used to do, but we no longer can.  We can even feel trapped in things we like.  We volunteer for something, because we believe in it, but then it seems like we get stuck working on it more and more and we feel like we’re no longer in control of this thing we volunteered for.  Instead, it’s controlling us.

            That’s the thing about getting trapped, right?  When we’re trapped, we don’t have any control over anything.  Or at least, it seems like we don’t.  It feels like we have no choice but to keep doing what we’re doing.  We don’t like it, but we don’t see any way out of it.

            That’s how a lot of the people of Israel had come to feel about the law before Jesus came.  They felt like they were trapped by the law.  Back years ago, when it was just the Ten Commandments, that was something people could understand.  They could follow that.  But since then, there had come all these rules and regulations.  There had come all these explanations and technical decisions.  We’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath, we’re supposed to keep that as a holy day?  Okay.  But what do you mean by work?  Is it okay if I feed my cattle?  Is it okay if I go visit a friend?  And constitutes keeping the day holy?  Do I have to sit and pray and meditate and read the scriptures all day?  Or can I relax a little bit and have some fun?

            And so all sorts of decisions were made, and rules were put forth.  And a lot of them got pretty technical, and eventually people got to where they could not even remember all the rules, much less follow them.

            And they felt trapped.  Because after all, the law had come from God.  It was important that they follow it, because it was what God wanted.  And a lot of them wanted to follow it.  They wanted God to be pleased with them.  They wanted God to look on them with favor.  But there was just so much law.  They could hardly even remember all of it.  They were trying so hard to do everything right, but it was just so hard to do.  They were never sure if they’d done things right, or if they’d done enough.  The law had become a burden to them.  And they felt trapped by it.

            That’s what Paul means when he says that before Jesus came, “we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.”  Faith in God was not something that was giving them joy.  It was not giving them hope for a future.  It was something that made them live in fear, looking over their shoulders, constantly afraid of making a mistake or doing something wrong.  

            If you’ve ever lived like that, you know it’s no way to live.  When we live in fear of making a mistake, what’s going to happen?  We’re going to make mistakes, right?  We’ll probably make them anyway, because none of us is perfect, but we make even more of them when we’re afraid of making them.  We overthink everything.  We second-guess everything we do.  We get afraid to take chances and miss opportunities.  And we get depressed, and we get frustrated.  It’s a terrible thing.

            So let me ask you this:  have you ever felt trapped, and then something happened that you got out of the trap?  You got out of that bad work situation, and into a job that you liked with people you liked.  You somehow finally got your debts resolved.  You got out of that bad relationship.  Your health finally improved.  Somebody came and took some of the burden off you, so you could get back to enjoying that thing you volunteered for.  If that ever happened, how did that feel?

            It felt awesome, right?  It felt incredible.  I’ve felt it a couple of times.  I hope you have, too.  I felt it when I became a pastor and for the first time in my life had a job I really loved.  I felt it when I finally got my student loans paid off and was no longer in debt.  Feeling trapped is terrible.  But when you get out of the trap, when you get out of that bad situation, when you’re finally free from it, it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.  There’s nothing like it.  And somehow, it makes all the time being trapped worth it.

            That’s what Paul says Jesus did for us if we accept him as the Savior.  If we have faith in Jesus, we don’t have to worry about it anymore.  We’re not under the law any more.  We have the grace and forgiveness offered through the life and death of Jesus Christ.

            In other words, we’re not trapped by the law any more.  We’re free of its burden.  We don’t have to be afraid of making mistakes.  We don’t have to worry about whether we’ve done everything right, or whether we’ve done enough.  We’re out of the trap, and we’re out of it forever.  We’re free, and our sins are forgiven, through our faith in Jesus and by God’s incredible love and grace and mercy.

            Now, that does not mean that we can just do whatever we want because, hey, God will forgive us.  Paul dealt with that in the sixth chapter of Romans.  He says, in effect, that God’s forgiveness is not a get out of jail free card.  Yes, we’re free, but we’re not free to sin.  What we’re free from is worry.  We don’t have to worry about whether we’ve done every little thing right, whether we’ve taken care of every last detail in accordance with the precise specifications of the law.  We’re free to serve God as best we can.  We’re free to love God and to follow God.  And when we do, when we do that to the best of our ability, we can be confident that God will see what we’ve done, and that God will bless what we’ve done.  God will not hold it against us if we did not do everything perfectly.  God is not going to judge whether we’ve dotted every i and crossed every t.  God is going to judge what’s in our hearts.

           Here’s an example of what I mean.  When I was in seminary, I had to go to Kansas City to take this one class.  The class lasted a week.  I got to know some people there, including a guy who was a musician for a huge church in the Kansas City area.  He said that, in that church, everything about the worship service had to be absolutely perfect every week, or someone was going to get fired.

            Can you imagine being part of a church like that?  Can you imagine the pressure you’d be under?  Can you imagine how little joy there would be in a church like that?  Talk about feeling trapped.  Where’s the forgiveness in that?  Where’s the grace in that?  I would never want to be part of a church that had that attitude.  Not that they’d ever hire me anyway, but even if they did, who’d want to be part of that? 

I don’t even know if God would want to be part of a church like that.  Because God does not expect perfection from us.  God knows we’re not capable of perfection.  God just asks us to do the best we can.  Do the best we can to serve God, to love God, to show love to others, to go and make disciples.  Do the best we can to do the things Jesus told us to do, and trust God to take it from there.

How we do that will be different for each of us, because God made us all different.  And there’s freedom in that, too.  I don’t have to serve God in the same way that you do.  You don’t have to serve God in the same way I do.  I don’t even have to serve God in the same way that other pastors do.  None of us has to feel trapped into fitting into a certain mold.  We’re all free to use the gifts and talents God has given us in whatever way we can, as long as we use them in God’s service.  That’s an awesome kind of freedom. 

God does not want us to be trapped.  God does not want us to feel pressure to be perfect.  God does not want us to feel like we have to fit a certain mold.  Jesus came to set us free from all of that.

If we accept Jesus as the Savior, we are free.  We are free to love God and to serve God in the best way we can.  If we do our best, we can trust God to use it.  God will bless what we do.  And God will bless us.

 

The Cost

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, February 13, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 13:53-58.

            You know, we don’t often think about this, but Jesus was a small-town boy.  Nazareth, in Jesus’ time, is estimated to have had a population of around four hundred to five hundred people.  In other words, just a little bit bigger than Hoven.  

            That little town is where Jesus spent most of his life on earth.  He and his family returned there when Jesus was about two years old, after King Herod died and they were able to return from Egypt.  And he stayed there until he was about thirty, when he began his roughly three years of ministry.  Now, I’m sure he traveled once in a while.  We’re told of a time when Jesus and his family went to Jerusalem for the Passover, when Jesus was twelve.  It seems likely that they went to Jerusalem for the Passover in other years, too.  And even though travel was not all that easy back then, one would expect that they probably went to other towns once in a while.

            Still, Jesus spent most of his life in the little town of Nazareth.  And little towns back then had some things in common with little towns now.  For one thing, there were a lot of people in town who were related to each other.  It might be directly or it might be through marriage, but the chances were that if you lived in a town like Nazareth you had some cousins and uncles and aunts who lived there, too.  

Another thing a town like Nazareth had in common with our small towns today is that you really did not have a lot of privacy.  It was very hard to be anonymous in a town like Nazareth.  Everyone knew you.  Everyone knew your parents.  Everyone knew your brothers and sisters.  And everyone knew pretty much everything you did.  They knew if you liked to go to bed early or if you liked to stay up late.  They knew if you were a hard worker or if you were kind of lazy.  They knew if you were outgoing or quiet.  And that was especially true if you had a business where you had to deal with the public regularly.  Like, say, a carpentry business, which is what Jesus had.  

We don’t really know anything about Jesus’ life in Nazareth.  We don’t know if he was someone who stood out from the crowd, or if he tried to fit in.  He was not doing miracles then, of course.  We also don’t know what the people of Nazareth thought of Jesus.  We don’t know if they thought there was anything different, anything special, about him, or if he was just kind of one of the guys.

By the time of our reading for today, Jesus had been away from Nazareth for a while.  We don’t know how long.  He’d first gone to Capernaum, then started traveling all around Galilee.  He gathered up the disciples.  He did a lot of preaching.  He did a lot of healing, too.  He’d gotten into some arguments with the Pharisees.  He’d gotten a lot of notoriety.  Jesus was becoming famous by this time.

We’re not told, but you’d think news of what Jesus was doing must have spread to Nazareth.  We don’t know what the people of Nazareth thought about him.  We don’t know if maybe they asked Mary what this was all about, what her son was up to.  Maybe some of them were even proud of him.  You know, small town by makes good and all that.  Or maybe, hearing of his problems with the Pharisees and so forth, maybe they were a little embarrassed about him, like you would be if your town was known as the hometown of some fringe political activist or something.  We don’t know.

And now, Jesus is coming back home.  We’re not told why.  But how do you suppose he felt?  You’d think he was probably looking forward to seeing his mother, Mary.  And maybe other family members, too.  Maybe he was even looking forward to seeing some old friends.  He might even have been looking forward to showing the disciples around, showing them where he lived, where his carpenter shop was, all that sort of thing.  I mean, we don’t know, but it seems like a natural thing for him to have wanted to do.

He goes to the synagogue to teach.  Just like he’d done in the other places he’d gone.  And–the people were not happy with him.  They could not believe what they were hearing.  Who did Jesus think he was, anyway?  What made him think he could come back to Nazareth and start telling people about God and about how they should live?  He’s just an ordinary guy.  We saw him grow up.  We know his family.  We remember when he was starting his carpentry business and barely knew one end of the hammer from the other.  And now he’s acting like he’s some great rabbi or something?  What’s up with that?

Jesus had to be disappointed, don’t you think?  So, he made the famous statement that a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.  He did not do much in the way of miracles, because of the lack of faith of the people there.  And he left, resuming his traveling and his ministry.

But as I’ve said before, the question is, what are we supposed to learn from this?  I mean, it’s an interesting story.  A little sidelight into the life of Jesus.  But everything that’s in the Bible is there for a reason.  We’re supposed to learn something from it.  So what can we learn from this?  Well, probably several things.  But there’s one I want to focus on today.

When Jesus started his three years of traveling ministry, he was doing what God the Father wanted him to do.  I’m sure Jesus knew that, and I’m sure he was willing to do it.  But it did not come without a cost.

The ultimate cost, of course, was when Jesus was killed on the cross.  But there were other costs along the way.  And one of those costs is highlighted in this story.

            As we said, Jesus had spent most of his earthly life in Nazareth.  And as most of us do, I assume he had gotten into a routine.  He got up at a certain time and went through his morning routine.  He got to the carpenter shop at a certain time.  He ate his meals at regular times.  He went to bed at a regular time.  He went through the sacrifices and routines that a Jewish man was expected to go through.  He lived, I assume, what was considered at that time to be a normal life.

            When Jesus started his ministry, he gave that up.  Once he started preaching, once he started healing, once he started letting people know who he was, there was no chance that he could ever live a normal life again.

            Maybe that does not sound like a big deal to you, but think about it.  Once he started his ministry, Jesus could never just walk down the street like a normal person.  He could never just go to a friend’s house for dinner.  He could never even just go home and relax in the evening.  Wherever he went, he was Jesus, The Divine Son of God.

            And wherever he went, people wanted things from him.  Teach us, Jesus.  Heal me, Jesus.  Feed me, Jesus.  Do a miracle for me, Jesus.  No one really wanted to get to know Jesus, the person.  No one wanted to know how he felt or what he was going through.  Even when they cheered him, they were really just cheering him for what they wanted him to do or who they wanted him to be.  Even his closest friends, the disciples, were always making demands of him or trying to tell him what to do.  I would think that had to be really hard on Jesus.  To know that no one, not even his closest friends, were all that interested in him as a person.  They were just interested in him for what he could do for them.  I would think Jesus had to feel very lonely sometimes.

            Most of us live our lives in some sort of routine, too.  We get up at a certain time and go through our morning routines.  If we have jobs or go to school we do that at a certain time.  We eat our meals at regular times.  We go to bed at a regular time.  We live what, for the most part, would be considered a normal life.

            And that’s not necessarily wrong.  But what if God called you to leave that normal life? What if God called you to leave your regular routines?  What if God called you to go somewhere different, or to do something different?  Would you do it?  Could you do it?

            It’s not easy.  It’s especially not easy if we like our normal life and our regular routines.  It would be a sacrifice.  There would be a cost to following the Lord.  But then, there’s always a cost to following the Lord.

            Maybe you think this does not apply to you.  Maybe you think you’re already where God wants you to be and are already doing what God wants you to do.  And that may very well be true.  But that does not mean that what we’ve talked about does not apply to you.  Just because God wants you to do what you’re doing now does not mean God will want you to do it forever.  Just because you’re where God wants you to be now does not mean God wants you to be there forever.

            And even if you are where God wants you to be, and are doing what God wants you to do, if you’re doing it right there’s still a cost involved.  There are still things you’re giving up to follow God.  Because there are always things we have to give up to follow God.  There is always a cost to following God.  It’s worth it–following God is always worth it.  But that does not make the cost less real.

            Jesus paid the cost.  Jesus gave up what he had to give up.  Jesus’ life is an example to us.  May we follow his example, and willingly pay the cost of following God.

Why Love?

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, February 6, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Mark 12:28-34.

Most of us would say that there’s nothing more essential to our Christian faith than love.  But you know what?  In all the words of Jesus Christ that we have recorded in the Bible, there are very few times when Jesus talked about love.

            That’s surprising, don’t you think?  For all that we think of love as being what our Christian faith is all about, Jesus rarely talked about it.  In fact, our reading for today is the only time in the gospel of Mark in which Jesus is quoted as even uttering the word.

            And Jesus uses the word in a surprising context.  You know, we’ve heard this so much, that Jesus said the two most important commandments were to love God and love our neighbor, that we’ve kind of come to take it for granted.  We don’t think about it all that much.  “Well, of course the two most important things to do are to love God and love our neighbor.  That’s what our faith is all about.”  But that’s not what the people who first heard Jesus say this would’ve thought.  So let’s look at it.

            This is not something that Jesus just said out of the blue.  Jesus is talking with a bunch of Jewish religious leaders--Pharisees, Sadducees, a variety of others.  They’re trying to trick him, to trap him, to stump him, trying to do anything they can to discredit Jesus.  But of course, it does not work.  Jesus is able to answer every question, and in fact often turns the questions back on them.

            We don’t know how the others reacted, but at least one of them, a teacher of the law, had a mind that was open enough to be impressed.  So he asks Jesus a question.  And when you think about it, it’s a really good question.  “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

            It’d be a good question anyway, but remember how important the law was to the Jewish people.  They had all kinds of rules and laws they were supposed to follow.  So many, really, that it was very hard to follow them all.  So it would be helpful to know which was the most important, so you could really focus on at least following that one.

            Now, when you and I hear the word “commandment” in a religious context, a lot of us think right away about the Ten Commandments.  And people would’ve thought of that in Jesus’ time, too.  Yes, as I said, they had a lot of other rules and laws, but the Ten Commandments were considered foundational.  Following them was a given.  In fact, a lot of the other rules and laws came about as an attempt to give a more precise definition to the terms used in the Ten Commandments.

            But it’s interesting that Jesus does not cite any of the Ten Commandments in his answer.  And if we really look at the Ten Commandments, I think we can see why.  Because here’s the thing about those Ten Commandments.  This is a question I ask my confirmation students every time we study the Ten Commandments, and I don’t think any of them has ever gotten it right.  Let’s see if you do.  What one important concept, one that we consider essential to our Christian faith, is not even mentioned in the Ten Commandments?  Anybody know?

            It’s love.  Love is not mentioned in the Ten Commandments.  Not even love of God.  They say we should have no other gods.  They saw we should not worship anything or anyone but God.  But they do not say we should love God.

            The Ten Commandments do not say we should love our neighbor, either.  They do tell us we should not do certain bad things to our neighbors.  We should not kill them, for example.  We should not steal from them, we should not lie about them, and we should not be envious of them.  But they do not say we need to love them.

But Jesus does.  Listen again to what he says:   “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus agreed that we should have no other gods.  He agreed that we should only worship God.  He agreed that we should respect God and honor God and serve God.  But Jesus knew that, for us to really do those things properly, we need to love God.  

            And Jesus knew it was not enough for us to just not treat our neighbors badly.  We could do that by totally ignoring them.  But Jesus wants us to do more than that.  Jesus knew that we need each other.  We need to support each other and encourage each other and be there for each other.  And the only way we can do that is to love each other.

            Now, Jesus did not just pull his statements out of the air.  They did have a basis in the Old Testament.  The part about loving God came from Deuteronomy Chapter Six.  Moses is giving the law to the people of Israel, and one of the things he says is “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  Jesus added to that that we should love the Lord with our minds as well.

            And we should not just skip over that addition.  Jesus did not just add that because he forgot the original commandment, nor was it a slip of the tongue or anything.  Jesus added this deliberately.  Jesus wanted us to know that it’s important to love the Lord with our minds, as well as with our hearts.  It’s important that we allow the Lord to guide our thoughts as well as our feelings.  Both our thoughts and our feelings need to work together if we’re going to truly love God the way God deserves.

            The part about loving your neighbor as yourself has a basis in the Old Testament, too.  It comes from Leviticus Chapter Nineteen.  God is telling Moses a bunch of things the people of Israel are supposed to obey, and among them is this:  “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

            But here’s the question we don’t ask often enough about all this:  why?  Why would Jesus say that the two most important commandments are that we love God and that we love our neighbor?  Why is it not enough that we just do what God wants us to do?  Why is it not enough that we just don’t treat our neighbors badly?  Why do we need to love God and love our neighbors?

            Well, here’s why.  Every once in a while, Wanda will ask me to do something.  And sometimes, I’ll do it right away and do it cheerfully and happily.  Other times, she’ll have to ask me several times, and I’ll do it grudgingly, making it clear that I really don’t want to.

            Now, either way, I’ve done what Wanda wanted me to do.  But which way is going to make her pleased with me?  Which way is more likely to feel love for me?  Well, it’s obvious, right?  The first of those ways shows love to Wanda.  The second does not.

            And there’s one other point.  If I do what Wanda asks right away, and I do it cheerfully and happily, I’m probably going to take the time to do it well.  If I do it grudgingly, making it clear that I don’t want to, I’m probably just going to do it to get it done.  I’ll do it as quickly as I can, and I won’t really pay attention to whether I’m doing it well or not.  I’m just doing it to get it over with.

            And in fact, there’s one more point.  If I do what Wanda asks right away, and I do it cheerfully and happily, she’s probably going to be a lot quicker to forgive me if I mess it up.  She’ll know I was doing my best, and she’ll be pleased with my effort, even if I make some mistakes.  But if I do it grudgingly, and I mess it up, she’s probably going to be upset with me.  She’ll know I did not give it my best effort, and she’ll know that’s why I did not do it right.

            The attitude I bring to the things Wanda wants me to do is, in many ways, more important than what I actually do.  And that’s how it is with God.  If we do what God wants us to do cheerfully and happily, and if we take the time to do our best--in other words, if we show love to God--God is likely to be pleased with us.  And we’ll probably do a good job of serving God.  If we do what God wants us to do grudgingly, if we make it clear that we really don’t want to, if we’re just going through the motions, God is probably not going to be as pleased.  And we’re probably not going to do a very good job of serving God.

            God wants our service.  But more than that, God wants our love.  Because, when you think about it, there’s nothing we can do for God that God could not do without us.  There’s nothing we can give God that God could not have without us.  Except for one thing.  The one thing we can give God is love.

            And the best way we can show God that we love Him is to love other people.  Because each and every person on earth was specifically created by God.  Each and every person is special and important to God.  God loves each and every person.  And when we show God that each person is special and important to us, too, when we show God that we love them, too, we are showing our love for God.

            So let’s renew our commitment to love.  To love God, and to love our neighbors.  It’s the one thing we can do for God.  And according to Jesus, it’s the most important thing we’ll ever do.

 

Light and Darkness

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, February 6, 2022.  The Bible verses used are John 1:1-18.

            When Wanda and I lived in Wessington Springs, for most of our time there we lived in a basement apartment.  This basement apartment had no windows.  None.  There was a window in the hallway, but none in the actual apartment.  So, when you turned out the lights, it was dark.  Completely and totally dark.

            So, of course, we had night lights, so when we needed to get up in the night we could see where we were going.  And that worked fine, except.  Except that once in a while, there would be a storm, and the power would go out.  And so, of course, we had no night lights.  When that happened, you were grateful for any kind of light.  Flashlights, candles, anything.  Any kind of light, so you could see your way out of the darkness.

            And you know, it’s amazing how much difference one little flashlight, or one little candle, can make when you’re in total darkness.  One second you cannot see anything, the next you can see everything.  Not brightly, of course, but you can see it.  You see it well enough that you don’t trip over it or step on it.  One light, even a small light, makes a tremendous difference when you’re in total darkness.

            If one small light can make that much difference, think about how much difference a big light can make.  That big light is Jesus.  The light of the world.  The light of all mankind, as John says.  The true light, that gives light to everyone.

            Jesus came to the world at a time when it needed light.  It was a world of darkness.  The nation of Israel was no longer really a nation.  It was subject to the rule of Rome.  And Rome made sure everyone knew it.  Roman soldiers walked the streets, and they had very few restrictions on what they could do.  If they felt like taking something, they took it.  If they felt like beating someone up, they beat them up.  If you got one of them upset, you got thrown in prison without a trial.  And even if you managed to avoid all that, you still had to pay very high taxes to Rome.  Rome was in control, and they never let anyone forget it.

            And even among the people of Israel, there was no unity or even consensus.  There were four different groups, each trying to claim leadership of the people.  The ones we hear about are the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  But there were two other groups, the Essenes and the Zealots.  And each one of them claimed to be the “true” voice of God, and the true representatives of the people of Israel.  And the fighting among those groups made it even easier for Rome to assert control.

            And the thing is that, while each of these groups claimed to speak for God, God Himself had not been heard from for some time.  The last of the prophetic books of the Old Testament, Malachi, was written somewhere around Four Hundred Fifty B. C.  And since then, there had been no prophets who had received the word of God for Israel.  There were some who claimed to be prophets, of course–there’s never a shortage of false prophets around.  And again, the various religious groups all claimed to be speaking for God.  But there had not been a true prophet for the people of Israel for centuries.  They were truly in darkness–a spiritual darkness, and a political darkness.

            That’s the world Jesus came into.  And he was the light!  He was the light that shines in the darkness!  And the darkness has not and cannot overcome it!  What an awesome thing!

            And yet.  Listen to what John says.  “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

            When you think about it, those have to be some of the saddest words in the Bible.  “The world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

            Why not?  We’ve heard the answers before.  He was not what they expected the Savior to be.  He upset the social structure and the power structure of the society.  And so forth and so on.

            But think about this.  A society that was living in darkness had a chance to live in light.  And they rejected the light.  They decided they would rather live in darkness than live in light, simply because it was not the kind of light they wanted.

            It’s like Wanda and me being in that basement apartment with the power out, and someone comes over and offers us a light, and we turn it down.  We say, no, we don’t want that.  We want a fluorescent light.  We want an LED bulb.  We don’t want that candle.  We don’t want that incandescent bulb.  If we cannot have the kind of light we want, we’ll just sit here in the dark.  That sounds crazy, right?  But that, in effect, is what the people of Israel did.  They stayed in the dark, because Jesus, the light of the world, was not the kind of light they thought he should be.

            Not all of them, of course.  John goes on to say that “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”  And that’s an incredible thing.  It’s an incredible honor, to be a child of God.  

            But it was not always an easy thing.  The people who chose to stay in darkness did not like those who chose the light.  The early Christians were persecuted.  They were criticized and mocked.  If they were too outspoken about their faith, if they took their duty to go and make disciples seriously, they could be jailed or even killed.  The darkness cannot prevail against the light, but it will do its best to try to dim the light and keep it from shining.

            So.  Fast-forward to today.  Some would say the world is getting darker.  Survey after survey shows that fewer and fewer people accept Jesus as the Savior.  And among those who say they do accept Jesus, many say He is not the only way to heaven, that there are lots of other people or prophets that you can accept as your Savior.  Others say that it really does not matter what you believe, as long as you’re nice to people.  Others say they believe in Jesus as the Savior, but do not allow that belief to make any impact on their lives.  Many people are turning away from the light and turning to darkness.

            And some would say our world is turning darker in other ways.  Simply quoting certain Bible passages can get you suspended from social media.  Pastors have been threatened with jail for holding religious services in a way the government did not approve of.  We are dealing with COVID and other diseases.  Our society seems more polarized than ever before.  Even the United Methodist church worldwide is polarized and may very well break up.  

            The world may be turning darker.  And yet, the light is still shining.  The light of Jesus is still shining, and the darkness cannot overcome it.  

            But the darkness is trying.  It will keep trying.  If the darkness cannot overcome the light, it will do it’s best to make it as dim as possible.

            And that’s where you and I come in.  You know, when we lived in that basement apartment, there’s a little trick that we would use when the power went out.  When we lit a candle, we would put it by a mirror.  And the mirror would reflect the light of the candle, and make it brighter than it was when it was just on its own.

That’s what you and I need to do.  As followers of Jesus Christ, as the “children of God”, as John puts it, it is our job to reflect the light.  We cannot be the light–only Jesus Christ can be the light.  But we can reflect the light of Christ.  We can make that light brighter that it would be otherwise.

How do we do that?  You already know the answer.  By living lives that reflect the light of Christ shining in us.  By living lives that show love of God and love of others.  By living lives that serve God.  By living lives that honor God and give glory to God.  And by telling others about the salvation and eternal life that’s available to everyone through faith in Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

God the Father sent Jesus Christ into the world.  He was and is the light that shines in the darkness.  So, everyone has to make a choice.  Live in the light, or live in the darkness.  Those are the only options.  Living in the twilight, living in the dusk, is not one of the options.  We either live in the light, or we live in the darkness.  Period.

It’s sad to think that people are choosing to live in darkness.  So let’s do everything we can to bring them into the light.  Let’s reflect the light of Jesus Christ.  Let’s let people see the light of Christ shining in us.  Let’s be those mirrors, making the light of Christ shine brighter and brighter in this world.