Sin and Grace

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Romans 6:1-18.

            We are saved, not by our good works, but by our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  If we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, it does not matter what we have done.  God, by God’s grace, will forgive all of our sins.  More than that, it will be like our sins never happened.  Even though we are not truly righteous, God’s grace will cover our sins.  We will be treated as righteous, and we will receive salvation and eternal life.

            Now, all that is absolutely true, and in fact it’s the basis of Christian faith.  So, then, why do we talk so much in church about the things God calls us to do?  Why do we talk so much about loving our neighbor?  Why do we talk so much about treating others as we would like to be treated?  Why do we talk so much about needing to forgive others?  If God’s grace covers all of our sins, if it does not matter what we have done as long as we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, then what difference does all this other stuff make?

            That’s one of the questions the Apostle Paul was facing when he wrote his letter to the Romans.  People basically said, well, if God’s grace is going to cover our sins, why can we not just go on sinning and depend on God’s grace?  In fact, we can sin all the more, because all that does is give God more chances to use God’s grace.  What could be wrong with giving God the chance to use His grace?

            Now, you say it like that, and maybe it sounds kind of silly.  But people were seriously making that argument.  And in fact, we still make that argument, or at least a variation of it.  No one puts it that bluntly, of course.  And in fact, we may not even say it at all.  But you can tell it by the way we live.  If our Christian faith does not make us change our behavior, if our lives are not particularly different from what they would be if we were not Christians, then we’re basically saying what people were saying in Paul’s time.  We’re saying it does not really matter what we do.  God will forgive us, God’s grace will cover us, and we’ll be fine.  So we don’t need to change anything.  We’ll just keep living the way we have been living.

            Paul says it does not work that way.  In fact, Paul says that if we truly believe in Jesus Christ, we have been set free from sin.  We should no longer have any desire to sin, because sin no longer has any control over us.  Paul says that before we knew Jesus, we were slaves to sin.  But now we’re not.  Our faith in Jesus sets us free from that.

            It’s simple, right?  Well, yeah, it is simple.  But that does not make it easy.  Because I know a lot of people who believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, but I don’t know anyone who is totally free from sin.  I don’t know anyone who no longer has any desire to sin, because of their faith in Jesus.  Most definitely including me.

We are all tempted to sin.  Each and every one of us.  Even Jesus was tempted to sin–you may remember in Matthew Chapter Four how Jesus was tempted by Satan.  Now Jesus did not give in to that temptation.  But he was Jesus.  He was the divine Son of God.  I’m not Jesus.  And neither are you.  We’re tempted to sin, too.  But, because we are weak, fallible, imperfect human beings, who have a sinful nature, we sometimes give in to that temptation.

            That’s why repentance is so important.  That’s another argument the people of Paul’s time were making, and it’s an argument we make sometimes, too.  If we believe in Jesus as the Savior, our sins are forgiven and we go on to salvation and eternal life, so why do we need to repent of our sins?  After all, God knows we’re weak.  God knows we’re imperfect.  God knows that better than we do, because God made us.  Because God knows us so well, God will forgive our sins, so we don’t need to repent of them.

            It does not work that way, either.  Why?  Well, for one thing, Jesus told us to repent.  In fact, it was the first thing Jesus said when he started His ministry.  In Matthew Chapter Four, right after Jesus is tempted by Satan, we’re told, “From that time on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”  Again, when Jesus started His ministry, the first thing he did was tell people to repent.  So I think repentance must be pretty important.

            The thing is, I think sometimes we don’t really understand what repentance is.  It’s more than just asking for forgiveness of our sins.  Repentance is a turning away.  It’s a turning away from sin, but it’s even more than that.  It’s a turning away from ourselves, and instead turning to God.

            When you think about it, most of our sins–maybe all of our sins–are rooted in our selves.  Selfishness.  Self-centeredness.  Self-righteousness.  Doing what we want to do, saying what we want to say, regardless of how that might affect someone else and even regardless of how, long-term, it will affect ourselves.  Wanting to have our way, regardless of the consequences.  Convincing ourselves that we are always right, and that anyone who disagrees is not only wrong but stupid and/or evil.  That’s where pretty much all of our sins come from–focusing on ourselves rather than focusing on others or focusing on God.

            Paul says that, when we do that, we are slaves to sin.  And, he says, when we are slaves to sin, it leads to death.  

            You see, if we truly believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, if we truly believe He was and is the divine Son of God, then we need to live our lives the way He told us to live them.  If we don’t, we cannot really say that we believe in Him, can we?  I mean, how can we honestly say we believe in Jesus if we feel free to just ignore what he told us?   If we believe in Jesus, we need to do the things Jesus told us to do.

            Paul says we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.  He does not seem to leave room for any middle ground.  He does not allow for us to do both.  We are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.  As Bob Dylan put it, you’re gonna have to serve somebody.  It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

            When we give our lives to Christ, when we say we believe in Jesus as the Savior, we are saying we will become slaves to righteousness.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven.  But because that is what God deserves from us.

            Think about what God did for us.  God saw human beings.  God saw human beings living only for the self.  He saw human beings living in destructive ways, destructive of others and destructive of themselves.  God had offered to bless human beings.  God had offered to take care of them and give them everything they needed.  And human beings refused His offer and went their own way.  And the result was that human beings were living in selfishness and sin.  And that left human beings in misery.

            God could have just turned His back on humanity.  But instead, God offered us a way out.  God offered us the chance for salvation and eternal life through belief in the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  God sent His Son to earth to teach us the right way to live.  To show us the right way to live.  And to take the punishment we should receive for our sins, so that we can have the chance to go to heaven for eternity.

            That’s an incredible gift God has given us.  It’s a gift we don’t deserve.  It’s a gift we could never earn.  Because of that gift, we should want to serve God.  We should want to be slaves to God’s righteousness.  God deserves that from us.  For all that God has done for us, God deserves to have us be faithful to Him.  God deserves to have us serve Him.  God deserves to have us show love to Him.  Again, it’s not that we’re trying to earn our way into heaven–our faith does that.  But our faith also requires us to show our gratitude to God for all God has done for us.  Our faith requires us to serve God’s righteousness because God deserves that from us.

            Again, we will not do it perfectly.  We remain imperfect, flawed human beings with a sinful nature.  Even if we determine to be slaves to righteousness, even slaves make mistakes sometimes.  But when we do make mistakes, when we do sin, we need to repent of our sins and start again.  

We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s incredible, loving grace.  That grace truly does cover our sins.  But it does not give us a license to go on sinning.  Instead, God’s grace sets us free from slavery to sin, and allows us to be slaves to righteousness.  It allows us to stop focusing on ourselves, and instead focus on others and on God.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven.  Because that’s what God deserves from us.

The holy, righteous, perfect God has blessed us.  He has offered us the incredible gift of salvation and eternal life.  Let’s accept that gift, and humbly give God the faith and love God deserves.

 

What Do You Want?

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Mark 10:35-52.

Do you pray regularly?

I hope you do.  If you’ve ever been to any church anywhere, you know how much churches believe in prayer.  We believe everyone should pray.  But here’s the question:  why?

Do you ever think about that?  When you come right down to it, why do we really need to pray?  After all, the Bible says that God knows our every thought.  The Bible says God knows what we need before we ask.  So, if God already knows how we feel, and if God already knows what we need, why should we bother to pray?”

            It's a legitimate question, but I think there is an answer to it.  Actually, there's probably more than one answer, but there's one I want to give tonight.  Even though God already knows what how we feel and what we need, we still need to pray because one of the things the act of praying does for us is it clarifies our own faith.  It reveals to us what we really think about God.

            I think our Bible reading for tonight shows that.  We heard two little stories.  Those stories are often dealt with separately, and there's value from doing that, but I also think they come back-to-back in the gospel of Mark for a reason.  There are things the two stories have in common, and so I think there's also value to be gained by looking at them together.

            In both of them, we have people asking Jesus for something.  James and John come up to Jesus and ask for something, and Bartimaeus comes up to Jesus and asks for something. 

            But of course, the way they ask is completely different, right?  James and John come up to Jesus and almost demand that he do something for them.  They say to Jesus, “We want you to do whatever we ask.”  Bartimaeus, on the other hand, goes to Jesus and says, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.” 

            Now, that's two totally different ways of approaching Jesus.  James and John seem to feel like they’re entitled to Jesus' help.  They call him “Teacher”, but at the same time, they talk to him more like he's their servant.  That's sometimes called the vending machine approach to prayer.  We make our requests, we push the button, and boom, God is supposed to give us what we asked for.

            Bartimaeus, on the other hand, does not seem to feel entitled to anything.  He's begging.  He's pleading.  He's hoping desperately that Jesus will hear him and will do what he asks.  He does not act like Jesus owes it to him to help.  But he knows that the only chance he has is if Jesus somehow, for some reason, decides to have mercy on him and help him.

            Two completely different ways of asking.  And yet, Jesus' response to them is exactly the same.  In both cases, he asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”

            Does that seem like kind of an odd question to you?  It does to me.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  Jesus surely knew what they wanted, right?  Jesus is God, the divine Son.  It seems like he'd have known what they were going to say before they said it.

            And yet, Jesus asked the question.  Even though he already knew what they wanted, he wanted to hear it from their own lips.  Why?

            I don't know the whole answer.  But here's something for us to think about.

            Have you ever had a thought or an idea or something like that in your head, and it made sense to you while it was in your head, but then you went to tell somebody else about it, and when you did it sounded totally different when you said it out loud than it did when it was still in your head?  I've done that.  I've gone to say something, and all of a sudden this thought or this idea, this thing that seemed like it was totally reasonable and sensible when it was in my head, sounded really stupid or arrogant or hurtful when I put it into words and said it to somebody else.  It happens because I really have not thought through all the meanings and implications of what I'm thinking.  And when I have to explain it to someone else, all of a sudden those meanings and implications become clear.  And it's not always a very pleasant experience.

I think that's one of the reasons Jesus asked “What do you want me to do for you?”  It's one of the reasons we need to pray, too.  We need to put our feelings into words.  We need to put our requests of God into words.  We need to do that so we can fully understand them.  We need to do that so we can really understand the meanings and implications of what we're asking of God.

I wonder, when James and John actually said to Jesus, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory,” how did they feel?  When they actually said that out loud, when they had to put it into words and say it to Jesus, were they proud of themselves?  Or were they a little ashamed of themselves, suddenly hearing what it sounded like when they said it?  Did they realize that this demand, which sounded so good and reasonable in their heads, sounded really arrogant and almost condescending to Jesus when they said it out loud?  I mean, here they were, telling Jesus they wanted him to put them above all the other disciples and to put them into positions of power and glory.  Did they realize how that was going to sound to Jesus and to the others?  The act of having to put their request into words revealed what they really thought about Jesus, and it did not sound particularly good.

Now, Bartimaeus did not have that same problem.  What he asked for did not sound stupid or arrogant or hurtful.  Still, it revealed what he really thought about Jesus, too.

Bartimaeus does not say to Jesus, “I want you to do whatever I ask.”  He just says, “Have mercy on me.”  Bartimaeus does not think Jesus owes him anything.  He has no real reason to think Jesus will do anything for him.  He does not even know whether Jesus will pay any attention to him.  After all, he'd never met Jesus.  As far as Jesus was concerned, he'd just be some guy on the side of the road, trying desperately to get Jesus to notice him.

When Jesus stopped and said he'd talk to Bartimaeus, how do you think Bartimaeus felt?  Was he excited?  Was he scared?  Probably both, and some other things, too.  He had no idea what Jesus was going to say.  For all he knew, Jesus might be going to chew him out.  He might be going to say, “Who do you think you are, yelling at me like this?  Get out of here.”

But Bartimaeus came up to Jesus.  And Jesus asked him the same question.  “What do you want me to do for you?”

That must have seemed to Bartimaeus like a really odd thing for Jesus to say.  I wonder if anybody'd ever asked him that question before.  You know, blind people were not treated very well in that society.  They were pretty much shunned by everyone.  They were considered to have been cursed by God in some way.  Once in a while someone might've take pity on Bartimaeus and given him something, but no one, at least no one respectable, would become his friend.  No one would've cared about Bartimaeus to ask him what he wanted.

But Jesus did.  Bartimaeus must have been stunned.  It probably took him a second or two to react at all.  He'd been so desperate just to get Jesus' attention that he probably had not really thought about what he'd actually say to Jesus if he got the chance.  He probably had an idea, but he'd never put it into words before, even in his head.  What did he really want Jesus to do for him?

Finally, he stammered it out.  He said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

Again, the act of having to put his request into words revealed what he really thought about Jesus.  He believed that Jesus had power that came from God.  He may not have known exactly what that meant, he may not have known that Jesus was truly the divine Son of God and all that, but he knew that Jesus was a man of God in some way.  He truly believed that Jesus could make him see.  And he knew that the only reason Jesus would do that is if Jesus had mercy on him.

So, what do you want Jesus to do for you?  And what do I want Jesus to do for me?  Our answer to that question reveals what you and I really think about Jesus.

Do we come to Jesus arrogantly?  Do we come to him demanding that Jesus give us whatever we ask, acting as if Jesus somehow owes that to us?  Or do we come to Jesus desperately, knowing that Jesus owes us nothing, and that the only reason Jesus would pay any attention to us at all, much less do what we ask, is because of the great love and mercy that Jesus has for us?

            Jesus did not give James and John what they asked for.  In fact, he said he could not give it to them.  He did not get mad at them, and he did not give up on them.  But he did use the chance to give them a lesson about humility and what greatness is really all about.  

            Jesus did give Bartimaeus what he asked for.  I have to think that Bartimaeus’ attitude, which truly was an attitude of humility, had something to do with that. 

            Yes, God knows our every thought, and God knows what we need before we ask.  But our prayers reveal what we think about God.  They clarify what we actually believe and what we really want.  And that’s one of the reasons why we need to pray.

 

Standing Strong in Faith

The message given in the Sunday morning services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Acts 4:1-22.

            These are not the easiest times to be a Christian.  Every poll you can find shows that the number of Christians in this country is declining.  And of those who claim to be Christian, many do not believe in traditional basic Christian beliefs.  A substantial number of people who claim to be Christians do not believe that Jesus was the divine Son of God.  They do not believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.  They do not believe that belief in Jesus is the only way to heaven.

            In fact, people who do still hold those beliefs are often criticized in our society.  They’re called intolerant.  They’re called self-righteous.  They’re called bigots.  They’re told they need to be more inclusive.  They need to be more understanding and accepting of other viewpoints.  These are not the easiest times to be a Christian.

            And so, those of us who are Christians, who do continue to hold traditional Christian beliefs, are going to see our faith tested.  We may not feel it so much right now, living where we do, but it’s easy to see in other places, and we are not walled off from society.  Those things that happen in other places are on their way here, and sometimes already are here.  Whether we want to or not, we are going to find out just how strong our faith is.  We’re going to find out if we’re willing to stand up for our faith, or whether we’re going to fold, to compromise, to keep our faith to ourselves in order to avoid trouble.

            That’s the choice Peter and John faced in our reading for today.  You know, we talked a few weeks ago about how, immediately after Jesus was crucified, the disciples were not sure what they were supposed to do.  But by this time, they knew exactly what they were supposed to do.  They were supposed to spread the good news.  They were supposed to tell people about Jesus.  They were supposed to go and make disciples, so people could have salvation and eternal life.

            That’s exactly what they were doing here.  Right before our reading for today, in Acts Chapter Three, Peter healed a man who had been lame since birth.  Peter told the people around them that he had been able to do this through the power of Jesus Christ, and told them that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah.

            And, as you heard in our reading, that got them into trouble with the religious authorities.  Now, they had not done this with the goal of getting into trouble.  They had not gone up to the religious authorities and challenged them or told them they were wrong.  They had not interacted with the religious authorities in any way.  They simply had gone about their business, healing people and telling people about the power of Jesus Christ.  But while they did not have a goal of getting into trouble, that was the result.  The authorities arrested them and through them in jail for what they had done.  The next day, they were hauled up before the high priest.

            This was a scary thing.  The high priest had complete and total authority in matters of religious law.  The only thing he could not do was sentence someone to death.  You may remember, that’s why the chief priests took Jesus to Pontius Pilate.  The chief priests could not sentence Jesus to death, but Pilate, as the Roman governor, could.

            But the high priest could do anything short of sentencing someone to death.  He could, for example, sentence someone to life in prison.  Or, he could just sentence someone for an indefinite period, just say you’ll stay in prison until I decide you can come out, which I may or may not ever do.  Or, he could sentence someone to be beaten and tortured, and then sent to prison.  It was entirely up to the high priest.

And of course, prisons then were not like prisons now.  Not that prison is such a wonderful place now, but it’s heated and air conditioned and you get three meals a day and proper clothing.  None of that happened in Roman prisons at this time.  Without going into detail, I’ll just say that prison was a really miserable place to be.  A “life sentence” might not be for a very long time, because you might not live very long once you were sent there.

So this is what Peter and John were facing when they were brought before the high priest.  They were facing the possibility of being thrown in prison for who knows how long, just for the “crime” of spreading the word about Jesus Christ.

What would you do in that situation?  What would I do?  I don’t know that I can say.  I mean, I know what I’d like to believe.  I’d like to think I would stand up for my faith.  But would I?  Would I really?  Or would I try to find a way to compromise to get myself out of trouble?  I don’t know.  I don’t know if it’s possible to know unless and until we’re actually in that situation.

But compromising would certainly be tempting.  It had to be tempting for Peter and John, too.  In fact, that may be what the high priest was expecting them to do.

But they did not do it.  Peter made what was an incredibly bold statement of faith.  He said:

Rulers and elders of the people!  If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel:  It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.  Jesus is

            The stone you builders rejected, 

            Which has become the cornerstone.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

That took faith.  Because again, Peter and John had no idea what was going to happen to them when they said this.  They knew God would be with them, but they did not know whether God would protect them from the high priest.  After all, God had not protected Jesus from being killed, so why would they be treated better?  But they were able to stand up for their faith in spite of that.  They were able to say, it does not matter what happens to me.  I’m going to proclaim my faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences on earth may be.

That’s a lot of faith.  Could you do that?  Could I?  I don’t know.

How did Peter do it?  After all, he and John were, as our reading tells us, “unschooled, ordinary men”.  How could they have the courage to do what they did?  Because, as we’re told, Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit”.

That’s how Peter was able to stand so strong in his faith.  That’s how Peter had the courage to say what he said, and not worry about the consequences.  Because Peter knew the Holy Spirit was with him.  And he knew that if he followed God’s Holy Spirit, God would bless him, if not in this life then in the next one.

But when Peter said this, the authorities were knocked back on their heels.  It sounds like they had not expected that at all.  They did not know what to do.  The authorities, who thought they had all this power, suddenly lacked the courage to use it.  They were desperately looking for a way out of this situation they had created, a way to save face somehow.  So, they decided they would let Peter and John go, but on condition that they not talk about Jesus anymore.

But that did not work, either.  Peter and John’s faith was too strong for that.  They were still filled with the Holy Spirit, and so they gave pretty much the same answer.  It does not matter what happens to me.  I’m going to proclaim my faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences on earth may be.  And ultimately, the authorities simply let them go.

It’s tempting, when we get to the end of this story, to draw the wrong lesson from it.  It’s tempting to say that the lesson is that, if we stand strong in our Christian faith, our opponents will back down.  But I don’t think that’s the lesson here.  That may happen sometimes, but sometimes it may not.  God does not make us a promise that if we stand strong in our faith, out opponents will back down.  There are any number of Christian martyrs, people who have been killed because of their faith, from the time of Peter and John to the present day, who can attest to that.

I think the lesson here is that we are called to stand strong in our Christian faith, no matter what may happen.  We are to speak up for Jesus no matter what the consequences may be.  And when we’re challenged, when we’re criticized, when we are threatened–and when those threats are quite real–we are still to stand strong in our faith and speak up for Jesus.

And the way we can do that is to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit, the way Peter and John were.  That means spending time with God, and doing so frequently.  That means making God a priority in our lives.  That means, as we said last week, loving God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength.  Peter and John could not have done this on their own.  We cannot do it on our own, either.  We need to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.

            And the time to do this is now.  Because, again, these are not easy times to be a Christian.  Society is moving away from Christianity, and it’s moving even farther away from people who take Christianity seriously.  More and more, our Christian faith is going to be challenged and tested.  And we need to be ready to meet that challenge and pass that test.

            Peter and John were ordinary men.  But they were able to do what they did because they were filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  We may feel like we’re an ordinary people, too.  But we, too, can be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  And we, too, can stand up for our faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences may be.  Peter and John did not know what would happen to them on earth when they did this, and neither do we.  But with God’s Holy Spirit, we can do what they did.  We can meet the challenge and pass the test.

 

The Body

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, May 15, 2022.  The Bible verses used are 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.

             There’s an old story about how all the different parts of the body started arguing about which one of them should be the leader.  The brain started out and said, “Well, all the thoughts, all the ideas for what we do come from me, so clearly I should be the leader.”  

The heart said, “Yeah, but I’m the one who gives us all our emotions, all our feelings.  All of our good motivations come from me, so clearly I should be the leader.”  

The eyes said, “Well, but I’m the one who provides the vision, who makes sure we know where we’re going, so clearly I should be the leader.”  

And one by one, all the various parts of the body made their arguments why they should be the leader.  Finally, the neck started to say why it should be the leader, but before it could even get started, all the other body parts started making fun of it.  They said, “You, the leader?  The neck?  What good are you?  All you do is hold the head up.  Why in the world would we make you the leader?”

Well, the neck got really mad at that, so it tightened all its muscles and constricted all its blood vessels, and pretty soon the brain began to feel a pounding, and the heart was having to work a lot harder to pump blood, and everything in the body was feeling really bad.  And so all the body parts said to the neck, “Okay, okay, you can be the leader.”

The moral of this story is that being a leader really does not require brains or heart or vision.  Sometimes all you need to do to be a leader is to be a pain in the neck.

In our bible reading for tonight, the Apostle Paul compares the people of Christ to a body.  He says that we are all one body.  Yet, he says, the body is not made up of just one part.  It takes many parts to make a body.

He goes on to explain that each part of the body has a role to play, and it is important that each part plays the role that it has.  If any one part of the body does not do its job, the entire body will be less.  If any one part of the body is suffering, the entire body will suffer.  Everything about the body is interconnected, and it all has to function properly for the body as a whole to be what it should be.

I found that out a year and a half ago, when I was diagnosed with bulging discs in my back.  The physical therapist gave me a bunch of exercises to do to strengthen my back, and what I found out was that when you strengthen your back you don’t just strengthen your back.  You work on your upper body, your stomach, your legs, everything, because it’s all connected.  If one part of your body hurts, everything hurts.  And if you want one part of your body to get stronger, you have to make your entire body stronger.

The Apostle Paul, of course, was not a physical therapist.  He was making an analogy to the church, the body of Christ.  He was saying that each person has a role to play in the church, and it is important that each person plays the role that he or she has.  If any one person in the church does not participate, the entire church will be less.  If any one person in the church is suffering, the entire church suffers.  And if we want the church to be stronger in following God, every person in the church needs to be stronger in following God.

Now, we say that, and it makes sense.  And people tend to nod their heads in agreement.  But we don’t look at it that way, do we?  We have certain people that we consider to be more important than others, certain people that we consider the leaders of the church.  And that’s true of any organization–there are always people who are considered to be more important, people who are considered to be the leaders.

Some people might consider me, as the pastor, to be a leader of the church.  And maybe there’s some sense in which I am.  But if there’s nobody here to hear what I say, if there’s nobody watching the livestream, if no one reads the church newsletter or looks at the things I say on facebook, then I’m not the leader of anything.  I’m just sending words out into the void.  Because again, one part of the body can do nothing unless the other parts of the body are doing their jobs.  The entire body needs to be working toward the same goal.

And in fact, it goes a step farther than that.  If people are listening and watching and reading, but they’re not doing anything about what I say, then I’m still not the leader of anything.  Because words are meaningless without action.  That’s one of the things the Apostle James meant when he said, “Faith without works is dead.”  

Now, don’t take that the wrong way.  I am not saying everyone should listen to me and do what I say.  What I’m saying is that all of us–the pastor, the church council, the trustees, the United Methodist Women, people who are not part of any committee or church group–we all need to be on the same page.  We all need to be working together.  We all need to be working toward a common goal of serving the Lord.

            To once again use the analogy of a body, if one foot goes forward and the other foot goes backward, the body won’t get anyplace.  If the legs want to go to the left but the arms want to go to the right, we won’t get anywhere.  In fact, we’ll fall down.  Again, we all need to be working together, toward a common goal of serving the Lord.

            And the only way we can work toward a common goal is if we’re all working.  Because again, each part of the body has a role to play.  As Paul also says, one part of the body cannot say to another part, “I don’t need you.”  Every part of the body is not just important, but necessary, for the body to function properly.  If there’s a part of the body that’s not used, it will atrophy.  It will wither away.  And before long, it will be useless.  

            As Paul also points out, every part of the body does not do the same thing.  Each part of the body has a gift, and it needs to use the gift it has.  That’s true of the church, too.  Everyone does not have the ability to lead worship, although I suspect there are some people who have that gift and simply don’t use it.  Everyone does not have the ability to sing or to play an instrument.  Everyone does not have the ability to lead a Bible study.  

            Everyone may not have those gifts–but everyone does have some gift.  And it’s up to us, with God’s help, to figure out how we can use the gifts God has given us to serve Him.

            Because I’ll guarantee you that there is a way.  That’s why God gave us the gift–to use it in His service.  And that’s true no matter what the gift is.  Including some things we may not think of as gifts.  Being able to be organized is gift.  Being an optimistic, cheerful person is a gift.  Being a good driver is a gift.  Anything that you are good at–or even anything that you’re just half-way decent at–is a gift that can be used to serve God.  It’s just that sometimes the ways those gifts can be used to serve God may not be obvious.

            And so, I encourage you to think about it.  And I encourage you to pray about it.  Think about the things you are good at.  Think about the things you’re just kind of good at.  Think about the things that maybe you don’t think you’re all that good at, but that you just enjoy doing.  In fact, what I’m really saying is, think about the things that make you, you.

            And then ask God, how can I use those things to serve You?  And then–and this is the really important part–be open to hearing God’s answer.

            Because my experience is that whenever we say to God, “Show me how I can serve you,” God answers that prayer.  And usually God answers it pretty quickly.  But the answer may not be what we were looking for.  The answer may be something that we were not thinking about at all.  And the answer might not come from a person or place we were expecting it to come from.

            I don’t say that to scare you off from this.  But this is not something to be done lightly, either.  We need to be serious about this.  Again, when we ask God to show us ways to serve, God takes us up on it.  So we need to be ready to do what God shows us to do.

            All parts of the body are important.  If one part suffers, the entire body suffers.  If one part of the body does not do its job, the entire body is less.  So let’s move together as a body.  Let’s move together as a church.  Let’s strengthen each other in our faith.  Let’s all use the gifts God has given us to serve God.  When we do, the entire church will be stronger.  And our community and our world will be better, too.

 

A Complete, Total Love

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, May 15, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Deuteronomy 6:1-19.

            This is the time of year for graduations.  This Saturday is high school graduation day.  A week ago many of our colleges had their graduation day.

            Graduation day is a significant day in a person’s life.  It’s the end of something, something that you’ve accomplished.  And it’s important in life that we take the time to celebrate our accomplishments.  Our graduates should be proud of what they’ve done.

            But while it’s the end of something, it’s also the beginning of something.  And as always happens when we talk about a beginning, you’re really not sure what it’s the beginning of.  You have a plan, probably.  You may have an idea where you hope things are going to go.  But will they actually go there?  Only God knows.

            And in fact, the odds are that things won’t go according to your plan, because they rarely do.  We always have to make adjustments as we go.  And that’s true at any age.  Even when you’re sixty-three, like I am, things still rarely go according to my plan.  I have to make adjustments as I go, too, just like everyone else.

            We still have to have a plan, of course.  We cannot just go through life aimlessly, not having any idea where we’re going or what we want to do.  But what we need to realize is that the most important thing is not that life goes according to our plan.  The most important thing is that life goes according to God’s plan.  And that’s why, at any age, it is important that we stay connected to God.  

            In our Bible reading for today, Moses is trying to prepare the people of Israel for their future.  And he tells them, here is the most important thing you need to know.  He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  

            Now, some of us have heard that many times.  But the thing is, sometimes we don’t think about it enough.  We say, okay, yeah, sure.  We’re supposed to love God.  I get that.  Let’s move on.

            But think about what that says.  Moses did not just say, “Love God.”  Moses said love the Lord your God.  And love Him with all your heart.  Love Him with all your soul.  Love Him with all your strength.  Not a little bit of your heart.  Not some of your soul.  Not a lot of your strength.  But all your heart.  All your soul.  All your strength.

            In other words, God is not supposed to be someone we love sometimes.  God is not supposed to be someone we love when we have time.  God is not supposed to be someone we love when it’s convenient for us.  Our love for God is supposed to be complete.  It’s supposed to be total.  It’s supposed to be all the time.

            That’s really the only way it’s love, right?  If it’s complete.  If it’s total.  If it’s all the time.  A partial love, a love that’s just once in a while, is not really love.  The only way it can really be love is if that love takes priority over everything else.

            That’s the kind of love Moses said we need to have for God.  How do we show we have that love?  By keeping God’s commandments.  In other words, by doing the things God told us to do.  Living the way God told us to live.  And again, not just doing that sometimes.  Not just doing it when it’s convenient.  Doing it all the time.  

            And Moses told us how to make sure we do this.  He told us that living the way God wants us to is something that should be impressed on our hearts.  We should talk about it whenever we’re with our families.  Look at this:  Moses says, “Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  In other words, our love for God, our desire to live the way God told us to live, should not be something we keep to ourselves.  It should not be something that’s just lurking in the background.  It’s something that should be a topic of conversation in our family time.  It’s something that should always be at the forefront of our minds.

            And to make sure it stays in the forefront of our minds, look at what Moses told us to do with God’s commandments:  “Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

            Now, do I think we need to take that literally?  Well, obviously not–I don’t have God’s commandments on my hands or on my forehead.  But I do think we need to take the purpose of what Moses says seriously.  What he’s saying is that we need constant reminders of the importance of God in our lives.  We need to be reminded that we are to do the things God wants us to do, and that we are to live the way God wants us to live.

            Because if we don’t have those reminders, what’s going to happen?  The chances are, we’re going to drift away.  We may not intend to.  We may not even realize we’re doing it.  But the thing is that life gets awfully busy.  Life gets awfully crowded sometimes.  And in all that busyness, in all that crowding, it’s really easy for God to get crowded out.  It’s easy for us to move God to second-class status.  

Again, a lot of times we don’t intend to.  It happens slowly.  Gradually.  We don’t even realize we’re doing it.  But we do.  We gradually stop praying.  We gradually stop thanking God.  We gradually stop even thinking about God.  Again, we did not make a decision to do that.  We may not even be aware that we have done it.  But we have.  We still think we love God.  If someone asked, we’d probably say that we love God.  But it’s pretty hard to truly love someone if you don’t talk to them.  It’s pretty hard to love someone if you don’t think about them.  We may not have made a decision to stop loving God.  But in fact, that’s what we’ve done.

Because the thing is that loving God, quite often, is not something that comes naturally to us.  It’s not something that we do automatically.  Loving God is something we need to think about.  It’s something we need to make a decision to do.  And we need to make that decision every day, day after day.  Each day, we need to make a decision that we are going to love God fully and completely.  That’s the only way it’s going to happen.  

Because the world is going to do its best to keep us away from God.  And that happens in all kinds of ways.  We make new friends, friends who don’t necessarily make God a priority.  We have new work commitments or school commitments.  We find new things to do.  Or, sometimes, we slip into old habits, because those old habits are easy and comfortable.  And the next thing we know, love for God is not the number one thing in our life anymore.  It’s one of many things in our lives, and not necessarily a very major one.  Again, we’d still say we love God.  But there may not be very much in our lives that shows it.

We need those reminders Moses was talking about.  If we’re not going to do it the way Moses told us to, we need to find some other way.  A designated prayer time, even if we have to get up earlier in the morning to do it.  A reminder on our phone.  A note on the bathroom mirror.  Something.  Anything.  Whatever works for you.  But something.  Somehow, we need those reminders to put God first.  We need those reminders to show love to God.  We need those reminders to do what God wants us to do 

I assume everyone here loves God and wants to love God.  You would not be sitting here in a Christian church on a Sunday morning if you did not.  But it’s not what we do on Sunday morning that’s the most important.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re here.  I hope you’ll come again next week and every week, and I know many of you do.  But if we come here to worship God on Sunday morning and then we don’t think about God again until next Sunday morning, we cannot truly say we love God.  Again, loving God cannot be a sometimes thing.  It needs to be an all the time thing.

Moses did not just say that we are to love the Lord.  He said we are to love the Lord with all our hearts.  With all our minds.  With all our strength.  That’s a tough standard.  If we don’t focus on it, if we don’t actively make an effort to do it, we won’t.  It won’t happen by itself.  If we truly love the Lord, if we truly want to do the things God wants us to do, if we truly want to live our lives the way God wants us to live them, we need to consciously make the decision that that’s what we’re going to do.  And then we need to give ourselves constant reminders, so that we don’t slide back and drift away from God.

God always loves us.  But God does not force us to love Him.  God leaves that choice up to us.  So let’s make that choice, every day.  Let’s keep God in the forefront of our minds.  Let’s give God a love that’s total and complete.  When we do, we’ll find that God will always be there for us.

 

Faith of Our Parents

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 1:5--2:10.

             I hope everyone had a very happy Mother's Day.  Tonight we're going to look at a mother–and a father–who you may not be terribly familiar with, but who are incredibly important in Biblical history.  We're going to look at the story of Jochebed and Amram.

            And if your response was “Who?”, you’re probably not alone.  There are probably not a lot of people who are familiar with the names “Jochebed” and “Amram”. As you may have guessed from the Bible verses we read today, though, these were the parents of Moses. Jochebed was Moses' mother, and Amram was his father.

If you did not catch the names during the Bible reading, that's not your fault. Their names are not mentioned in that reading. Amram is referred to only as “a man of the house of Levi” and Jochebed is referred to simply as “a Levite woman”. It's only in some lists of genealogies, one found in Exodus six, one in Numbers twenty-six, and one in First Chronicles six, that we learn that the name of Moses' father was Amram, his mother's name was Jochebed, and that they had three children together, Moses, his brother Aaron, and their sister Miriam.

And by the way, I did not remember all this stuff off the top of my head, either. Before I started working on this sermon, I could not have told you what the names of Moses' mother and father were. I had to look this up just like you would.

Moses, of course, became the greatest leader of the nation of Israel. He led Israel out of captivity in Egypt. He stood up to the mighty Pharaoh and demanded “let my people go”. He talked directly to God. The Ten Commandments were given to us by God through Moses. Lots and lots of Jewish law came through Moses. Moses led Israel to the doorstep of the Promised Land.

And because we know all that, it became really easy for Jochebed and Amram to be forgotten about. What I want you to do today, though, is try to put yourselves in their place and think about what they did.  Because what they did showed great courage and great faith in God.

The nation of Israel had come to Egypt during the time of Joseph. Joseph, of course, was an Israelite who was sold into slavery in Egypt but eventually worked his way up to become the number two person in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. There had been a famine, and so lots of Israelites had come to Egypt to find food. Then they stayed and lived there.

And for a while, that was fine. But then Pharaoh died. Joseph died. All the people who were around when this had happened died. And there was a new group of leaders in Egypt. Those new leaders looked around and saw all these foreigners living in their country, and they got scared. They were not sure they could trust these Israelites. So they forced them into slavery.

More time passed. The Israelites kept having children. There were more and more of them living in Egypt. And because the Egyptians had mistreated them, now they were even more scared of them. They did not want all these Israelites living in their country. On the other hand, they could not just kick them all out, because they'd come to depend on that slave labor.

They felt like they needed to do something to keep the Israelite population from growing. Since they did not have modern methods of birth control back then, they took some pretty drastic action. They decided that every male child born to the Israelites should be killed. They let the girls live because they figured the girls would not form an army and take over the country. But the boys would all be killed.

So that's what the world was like for Amram and Jochebed. Think of what it would be like to live in that world. You're a slave, and you're probably always going to be a slave. If you have a son, he's going to be killed. Would you even want to get married in that situation? Would you want to have children at all in that situation?

Well, Amram and Jochebed did get married. And eventually, Jochebed told Amram that they were going to have a baby.

How do you suppose they felt? Were they happy to be having a child? I mean, a part of them probably was, but at the same time, they knew what would happen if they had a son. We're not told this, but I bet they prayed. I don't know what they prayed, but I bet they prayed a lot. Maybe they prayed that the child would be a girl. Maybe they prayed that, if it was a boy, God would take care of it somehow. There had to be all kinds of mixed emotions going on inside them.

The first child was a girl, Miriam. And Amram and Jochebed were relieved. A girl would be allowed to live. Life could go on for all of them.

Then, at some point, Jochebed must have told Amram that they were going to have another child. And they went through the same emotional roller coaster again. A part of them was probably happy to have another child. Maybe, in some ways, they even wanted to have a boy. But they knew what would happen if they did. So again they waited, and again they prayed, and again they had all kinds of mixed emotions going on inside of them.

Eventually, of course, this child was born, too. And this time it was a son. How would they have felt then? I'm sure both Amram and Jochebed loved their son, but they knew what was going to happen. They hid him as long as they could. Then, finally, Jochebed put Moses in a basket and put him in the reeds along the banks of the Nile.

And a miracle happens. It must have felt like a miracle to Jochebed and Amram, anyway. Moses is found. And he's not found by just anyone, he's found by the daughter of the mighty Pharaoh. What's more, she does not send him away to be killed, which is what they probably expected her to do. Instead, at Miriam's suggestion, she has Jochebed herself take care of Moses until he gets older, and then brings Moses into Pharaoh's household as her son.

It took a lot of faith for Amram and Jochebed to get married in that situation. It took a lot of faith for them to have children. They knew what the law said. And yet, somehow, they were able to trust God enough to have children. They trusted that, somehow, if they had a son, God would take care of that son. And of course, God did take care of Moses. Not only did Moses live, he was brought up in Pharaoh's house. Eventually, with God's help, Moses led Israel out of exile in Egypt and across the Red Sea into freedom. And it all started with the faith of Jochebed and Amram. That's a lot of faith.

But you know, it always takes faith to bring children into the world. We don't live in the world Amram and Jochebed lived in, but there are still a lot of problems in the world. There are wars going on, and there is the threat of more wars to come.  We still live with the pandemic of COVID lurking in the background. There's all kinds of uncertainty about the economy.  Even though we got some rain last week, we're still currently in a drought. There are drugs and crime and violence.  There are lots of other dangers in the world, too. Things may not be like they were in Jochebed and Amram's time, but it's still a very dangerous and difficult world to bring children into.

And yet, people do. They do all the time. And I think a lot of it has to do with faith, the same faith that Amram and Jochebed had. A faith that says that somehow, bringing a child into this world is the right thing to do. A faith that says that, somehow, if we have children, God will take care of those children. A faith that says, if we have children, who knows what those children might become? With God's help, those children might even go on to do great things, just like Moses did.  

And if they don’t, they may do great things in a small way.  They may make their communities better.  They may lead people to Christ.  They may have a positive influence on people that lasts for generations.  They may do something that leads to something else, which leads to something else, which leads to many, many people coming to know Jesus as the Savior.  If we have children, with God’s help, anything is possible.

I think that's what we can learn from this mother and this father, Jochebed and Amram. That even in a situation that seems hopeless, we can still have hope. We can still have hope because of our faith in God. No matter how bad the world looks, there is always hope that God will make it better. And there is always hope that God will use us, and our children, to do it.  If we do nothing, nothing will change.  But if we put our faith and hope and trust in God, and we follow God’s will, things can change.  And they can change for the better.  That’s the hope our faith in God gives us.

So the next time you start feeling depressed about the situation the world is in, look at a little child. Think about what God may do with that child. And realize that as long as God lives, we're never without hope.

 

Mother Mary

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, May 8, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 2:21-40.

            This is, of course, Mother’s Day.  And probably the most famous of all mothers in the Bible is Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.  There are others who might claim the title–Eve, of course, the first mother; Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel; Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist–but Mary is probably the first one we think of when we think of a mother in the Bible.

            When you think about it, it really is an amazing thing that Mary did.  Agreeing to become the mother of the Savior of the World.  I mean, it’s a pretty awesome responsibility to be a parent at all.  But to the mother of the Messiah?  To be responsible for caring for Him, for raising Him, for nurturing Him?  That’s pretty incredible.

            We read about Jesus’ birth every year, of course.  We read about the visits by the angels.  We read about the trip to Bethlehem, about there being no room in the inn, about the stable and the visits of the shepherds and the wise men.  But the bit we read today is one we sometimes overlook.  And when we do talk about it, we tend to look at it from Simeon and Anna’s perspective.  But Mary was there, of course, and she heard all these things that Simeon and Anna were saying about her Son.

            From what I’ve read, this would’ve been forty days after Jesus was born.  Jesus was taken to the temple to be consecrated to the Lord.  In other words, Mary and Joseph were saying that Jesus would be dedicated to God.  This was in keeping with Jewish law at the time, and it was what Jewish families did with their first son–they dedicated him to God.

            When Mary and Joseph went to the temple that day, they had no reason to think anything unusual was going to happen.  I’m sure it was a special day for them–a consecration day was always kind of a special thing for parents–but they had no reason to think anything beyond just the ritual consecration of Jesus was going to happen.

            They walk into the temple courts, and there’s a man named Simeon. We don’t know whether Mary and Joseph even knew who he was.  They might have, but the Bible does not really say.  But anyway, Simeon takes Jesus in his arms.  And here’s what he says:

Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:  a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.

            We’re told that Mary and Joseph marveled at that.  I wonder if they even really understood it.  I’m sure they remembered what the angel had told them, that their child was the divine Son of God.  But still.  “A light for revelation to the Gentiles”?  “The glory of your people Israel”?  What did that even mean?  And how in the world could their son, a kid who was going to grow up in the little backwater town of Nazareth, do all that?  I mean, it sounded good and all, but was that really going to happen?  How?

            Simeon gave them a blessing, which I’m sure they appreciated.  But then Simeon said this:

This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many others will be revealed.  And a sword will pierce your own soul, too.

I imagine Mary and Joseph understood even less about that.  I mean, their son was to be the Messiah.  He was to bring salvation to the Jewish people.  Why would that cause the falling of people in Israel?  The rising they could understand, but the falling?  How could salvation cause people to fall?

And “a sign that will be spoken against”?  The Jewish people had been waiting hundreds of years for the Messiah.  They’d been praying for His coming.  They’d been making sacrifices, begging God to send Him.  Now, there were going to be people who would speak against Him?  How could that be?  Who would do that?  Why would anyone do that?  I would think this did not make any sense to them at all.

And then, that last part.  “A sword will pierce your own soul, too”.  What?  Why?  What had Mary and Joseph done?  What were they going to do?  All they were going to do, as far as they knew, was take this child home and raise him as best they could.  They were going to do what God had asked them to do.  Why would a sword pierce their souls?  Was that mean literally?  If not, what did it mean?  They had to be really confused.  

And as far as we know, that’s all Simeon said.  He did not explain any of this.  The next thing we hear about is Anna, an elderly widow who, we’re told, “gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”  And then, we’re told, Mary and Joseph went home.

How do you think they felt, hearing all this?  Again, I would think they would be confused.  Probably scared.  I would think they had to be thinking, what in the world have we gotten ourselves into?  I mean, sure, the angel told us we were going to be the earthly parents of the divine Son of God, but the angel never mentioned any of this stuff.  The angel never said anything about people falling or their Son being spoken against.  And I’m pretty sure they would’ve remembered if the angel had said something about a sword piercing their souls.  

Why did Gabriel not tell us all this stuff, when he talked to us about being Jesus’ parents?  Did Gabriel not think this was something we’d want to know ahead of time?  Was God afraid we’d say no if we knew all this?  Was God trying to trick us or trap us into saying yes, so He waited to tell us until it was too late for us to back out?  I mean, I’m sure they still loved Jesus and everything, but even so.  They had to have a lot of mixed emotions about all this.

And I suspect there’s an extent to which all parents, especially first-time parents, can relate to this.  Now, there’s obviously only one divine Son of God, and most parents I know did not get visited by the angel Gabriel.  But–while I’ve never been a parent–I suspect there are times when first-time parents feel confused.  And probably scared.  And probably wonder, what in the world have we gotten ourselves into?  And I suspect there are all kinds of things that first-time parents wish they had known before they got into this, but did not find out until it was too late to back out.  They still love their child and everything, but still.  I suspect there are times first-time parents have some mixed emotions about all this.

But here’s the thing.  Despite their confusion, despite their fears, despite everything, Mary did what needed to be done.  And so did Joseph.  They did not have an easy time of it.  Just the circumstances of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, miles from home, were hard.  Then they had to go to Egypt to escape Herod.  And then, finally, when Herod died, they were able to go back to Nazareth and start their lives in some semblance of normality.  

But of course, even that did not put an end to all their problems.  It is never easy, even under the best circumstances, to be a parent.  But somehow, they did it.  They did it, because they knew God was with them.  And they trusted that God would help them and see them through whatever they had to go through.  I don’t suppose they were perfect parents–I don’t know that there is such a thing as a perfect parent.  But they did their best, and God helped them, and somehow things worked out.  

Because, while we know very little about Jesus’ life as he was growing up, they apparently did a pretty good job.  Because Jesus did grow up, and He was the divine Son of God.  He did all the things He was supposed to do–healing, teaching, and so forth–and eventually He gave up His earthly life so that we could have the chance for salvation and eternal life.

And those of you who are parents, or have been, can relate to that, too.  It is not easy to be a parent, but somehow you did it.  Or you are doing it.  You know God was with you and is with you.  I don’t suppose any of you are or were perfect parents.  But you do your best, and God helps you, and somehow things work out.  You trust that God will see you through whatever you have to go through.  And, with God’s help, the chances are that you’re doing a pretty good job, too.

The reason Mary is the most famous mother in the Bible is not because she was a perfect mother.  It’s because she trusted God, and she did the best she could.  She was confused sometimes, and scared sometimes, and sometimes she wondered what she’d gotten herself into.  But she still trusted God, and she still did the best she could.

That’s what God wants all parents to do.  Not try to be perfect.  Just trust God and do the best you can.  You’ll be confused sometimes, and scared sometimes.  And sometimes you’ll wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into.  But trust God and do the best you can.  You may not raise the divine Son of God.  But you will raise a child of God.  And that’s a pretty awesome thing to do.