Trust

The print version of the Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Luke 4:31-37.

            The events we read about tonight took place early in Jesus’ ministry.  He did not have a big reputation yet.  A lot of people had not heard about him, and those who had heard about him did not know a lot about him.

            And so, when Jesus did the things he did, people were amazed.  In fact, when people heard Jesus teach, we’re told, “They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.”  And when Jesus got a demon to come out of man, we’re told people said, “What words these are!  With power and authority he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!”  People were impressed.  They were more than impressed, they were astounded.  They’d never heard anyone teach the way Jesus taught, and they’d never seen anyone who could do the things Jesus could do.

            You and I, of course, are familiar with some of the things Jesus did.  Most of us know the basics of Jesus’ teaching–love God, love others, pray for your enemies, things like that.  And most of know that Jesus could cast out demons while he was on earth.  And we know other incredible things Jesus did–healing the sick, curing the lame, giving sight to the blind, even raising someone from the dead.  And of course, we know that Jesus himself was raised from the dead, appeared to the disciples, and eventually ascended back to heaven.

            Jesus had tremendous power.  And of course, Jesus was always clear about the fact that this power was not His own.  Jesus was using the power of God the Father.  Jesus said in John Chapter Five, Verse Thirty, “By myself I can do nothing.”  Jesus did what he did by the power of God.

            And of course, we know God has tremendous power.  God has so much power that He was able to create the entire universe and everything in it out of nothing.  And God has so much power that He was able to do that just by saying a word.  God did not have to work hard to create the universe and everything in it.  God did not have to exert Himself at all.  He just spoke a word, and boom, there it is.  Incredible power.

            Now, I realize, I have not told you anything you don’t already know.  In fact, you know more.  You know that God is good.  You know God loves you.  And God loves me.  And God loves everyone else.  And you know that God can work all things for good.  All of this stuff is stuff you know and have known for a long time.

            So here’s the question.  If we know God is good, and we know God loves us, and we know God has tremendous power–why are we so hesitant to trust God?  Why do we worry so much about how things are going to go?  Why do we always feel like we have to take care of everything ourselves, rather than just doing our best and trusting God to take care of things?

            Now, maybe those questions don’t apply to you.  Maybe you do trust God with everything.  Maybe you never worry about anything.  Maybe you have complete and total peace in your life, just doing your best and trusting God with the results.

            I hope you do.  If you do, that’s wonderful, because you really are living an awesome life.  But for a lot of us, it’s hard.  And a lot of us don’t do it.  Or, a lot of us are able to do it once in a while, but not very often, and not for very long.

            Why not?  And here’s the other thing:  on the rare occasions when we do trust God, when we do just do our best and trust God to take care of things, and God actually comes through for us–we’re amazed, just like the people in Capernaum were.  We’re astounded.  It’s like we’re thinking, wow, this God really does have the power He says he does.  He really does love us the way we’ve always heard.  God really is good after all.  It’s like a revelation to us.  We’re blown away by God actually being who we’ve always heard God is.

            Now, don’t get me wrong here.  I don’t think it’s a sin when we have trouble trusting God the way we should.  As I’ve said before God understands us better than we understand ourselves, because God made us.  God knows our faults and our failings better than we do.  I don’t think God’s going to send us to hell for this or anything.  

But I do think maybe God’s a little disappointed in us, that after all He’s done for us we still have trouble trusting Him.  And I also think it makes God a little bit sad.  God sees us putting ourselves through all this worry, all this anxiety, all this distress.  God sees us trying so frantically to do things by ourselves.  And God knows all this stuff we’re putting ourselves through is so unnecessary.  God knows we’d all be so much happier, so much more at peace in our lives, if we would just do our best and trust Him with the results.  And yet, we won’t do it.

And you know, that’s not really the right way to say it, either.  Because saying “we won’t do it” implies that we’ve made a conscious decision that we’re not going to trust God.  And that’s not true, at least no for most of us.  It’s not that we refuse to trust God.  It’s not even that we don’t want to trust God.  It’s just that, well, trusting God can be really hard sometimes.

Why is it hard?  I think it comes down to two very human traits:  arrogance and impatience.  

When I say arrogance, I don’t necessarily mean it the way we usually think of arrogance.  It’s not necessarily that we think we’re better than everyone else.  It might be that, but a lot of times, it’s not.  It’s that we think we know how things should go.  We think we know what’s best and what’s right.  And a lot of times, we don’t think that in a selfish way.  It’s just that, well, we convince ourselves that what we want is the best, not for ourselves, but for everyone involved.  We cannot see a possible downside for anyone.  And so, when things don’t go the way we’ve convinced ourselves that they should, we feel like, well, God’s not getting this done.  I’ve got to make it happen myself.  I’ve got to force it to happen.  This has to be what God wants, so I’ve got to do whatever I’ve got to do to bring it about.

It’s a lack of trust in God, of course.  But the point is that, at the time, we often don’t see it that way.  We’ve convinced ourselves that we’re doing what God wants us to do.  It simply does not occur to us that we’ve become arrogant about it, and that God has a different plan from our supposedly “perfect” plan.

And the other thing, of course, is our impatience.  We want God to act right now.  We don’t want to wait.  We don’t even want to wait until tomorrow, much less next year or next month or even next week.  And so, again, when God does not act when we think God should, we try to force the issue.  We try to make it happen right now.  And again, we convince ourselves that we’re doing what God wants us to do, that we need to be the ones that make things happen, rather than waiting for God’s timing.

Again, God understands all this.  I don’t think God’s mad at us for it.  But God knows that our lives would be so much better, that we’d have so much more peace in our lives, if we simply did our best and trusted Him to take care of things.

So what should we do?  Well, pray, for one thing.  And yes, I know, that’s always the pastor’s answer for everything.  But the thing is, it really is at least part of the answer for pretty much everything.  We need to ask for God’s help.  We need to ask God to help us trust Him, even when it seems to us like things are not going the way they should or that God is not acting when we think God should.  We need to ask God to help us trust in His wisdom and His timing.

But it also might help us to look through the Bible and look at all the times God used His power, and all the times He used it to help people.  From the creation of the universe to the parting of the Red Sea to Jesus’ miracles to everything in-between.  Over and over, God uses His power for the good of those who love Him.

And if that does not help, I have one more suggestion.  Think of all the times God has been there for you in your life.  Because if you really think about it, I suspect there have been several of them.  Times when you were not sure how things could possibly work out, but somehow they did.  Times when you did not think you could possibly get everything done that you needed to do, but somehow you did.  Times when you thought a relationship could not be repaired, but somehow it was.  Times when you were in trouble, and you could not see a way out, and somehow a way out appeared.  And that’s just a few examples–we could go on and on.

            When that happened, that was God using His power to help you.  Maybe you did not realize it at the time.  Maybe you’ve never thought about it that way.  But it was.  It was God using His power to help you.  If you look back at your life honestly, I suspect you can see time after time when God was there for you and helped you.  

            If God has helped you before, God will help you again.  The God of the universe, the God of Israel, the God through whom Jesus worked His miracles, will be there for you.  The God who loves you, the God who uses His power for good, will be there for you and will help you through whatever it is you need to be helped through.

            We should never take God’s power or God’s love for granted, but we should not be surprised by it, either.  Time and time again, God has shown that we can trust Him.  So lets put our worries and our fears and our anxiety aside.  Let’s do our best, put our trust in God, and be at peace.

 

The Kingdom of Heaven

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, September 25, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 13:31-33, 44-50.

            The kingdom of heaven.  Jesus uses that phrase over and over again in our reading for today.  The kingdom of heaven.  What does that phrase mean?  What is the “kingdom of heaven”?

            Well, let’s look at  it.  First of all, if there’s a kingdom, there has to be a king, right?  And of course, that king is God.  God is the king of the kingdom of heaven.  God in all of His forms–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

            But what, really, is the kingdom of heaven?  Well, Jesus tells us a few things about it.  For one thing, the kingdom of heaven is incredibly valuable.  In fact, it’s worth everything.  He says it’s like a treasure hidden in a field.  If you find it, you’d sell everything you own to buy that field.  It would not matter how much it cost.  You’d do whatever you had to do to get that field, so you could have the treasure.

            And then, just to make sure we get it, Jesus makes the same point by using a merchant looking for fine pearls.  He says that when you find one, you’d sell everything you have to get it.  Again, it would not matter how much it cost.  You’d do whatever you had to do to get that pearl.

            In other words, the kingdom of heaven is more valuable than anything you could ever have.  It’s more valuable than anything else in the world.  It’s more valuable than everything else put together.  Gaining a place in the kingdom of heaven is so important that it should be the entire focus of our lives.

            Well, okay.  That makes sense.  I mean, if God is the kingdom of heaven, and if God is everything we believe He is–the all-powerful, almighty, all-loving, all-caring, all-compassionate, all-everything God–then getting a place in the kingdom of heaven would be incredibly important.  It would be important enough that, once we found it, we would give up everything we have to get it.

            But that kind of begs the question.  How do we find it?  I mean, these examples say what to do after we find the treasure.  But how do we find it in the first place?  How do we find this kingdom of heaven?

            Well, let’s look at something else Jesus said about the kingdom of heaven.  He said the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.

            So what does that tell us about the kingdom of heaven?  Well, what is yeast?  Yeast is something that, just by itself, is pretty much worthless right?  An ounce of dried yeast costs very little.  And, as long as the yeast just sits in a jar or something, it really is not doing anything.  In other words, yeast is not valuable for what it is.  Yeast is valuable for what it does.

            So what does that tell us?  Is the kingdom of heaven worthless?  That does not make any sense.  Is the kingdom of heaven valuable for what it does?  Well, maybe.  But what does that mean?  What does the kingdom of heaven actually do?

            Well, let’s look at the very first thing Jesus said in our reading.  Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.  It starts out really small, but when it grows, it becomes huge.  It grows into a tree so big that birds can come and perch in its branches.

            Okay.  So the kingdom of heaven grows?  Does that make sense?  I mean, when you really look at these things, you can see why the disciples sometimes got frustrated with Jesus for speaking in parables so often.  Jesus, why do you have to be so mysterious all the time?  Why can you not just come out and say what you mean?  Why do you make us work so hard to figure out what you’re getting at?  I mean, it helps keep pastors employed, but other than that, why do you have to beat around the bush so much?

            Well, I cannot answer that for Jesus.  But I can tell you this–we cannot understand Jesus by just taking little snippets of what he said.  After all, Jesus said a lot of things, and sometimes he assumed his audience would remember the things he’d said earlier and use those things to explain what he was saying now.  And sometimes he would later on explain some of the things he was saying now.

            I think that, to fully understand what Jesus is saying about the kingdom of heaven in this passage, we need to look at what Jesus says in John Chapter Seventeen, verse twenty-one.  The Pharisees are asking Jesus about the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is not something that can be observed.  You cannot say “here it is” or “there it is”.  Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is within you.

            Now, that does not mean that we are all our own gods.  It does not mean we get to make our own rules and do whatever we want.  What it means is that God’s Holy Spirit exists within each of us.  And if we open ourselves up to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit, we will see Him at work in our lives.  And once we see God’s Holy Spirit at work in our lives, we will realize how important it is and will do anything we can to get it.

            God’s Holy Spirit takes root in our hearts.  He starts small.  We may not even realize what God’s Holy Spirit is doing at first.  We may not even realize God’s Holy Spirit is doing anything.  But eventually, we start to feel God’s Holy Spirit grow within us.  We start feeling more love in our hearts.  We start treating other people better.  We start to have more patience.  We start to feel more peace in our lives.  And as that starts, we realize that it feels pretty good.  We want more of that.  We want to feel more love, have more patience, feel more peace, do more for other people.  The Holy Spirit grows and grows inside of us, until it becomes so big that everyone can see it, without us having to say a word about it.

            And like yeast in dough, we cannot keep the Holy Spirit separate from the rest of our lives.  When God’s Holy Spirit is working in us, it works in everything we do.  God’s Holy Spirit changes every aspect of our lives.  There is no part of our lives we can keep God’s Holy Spirit away from.  

            And when you think about it, there’s not part of our lives that we will want to keep God’s Holy Spirit away from.  Have you ever had a time when you felt like you were totally in tune with God’s Holy Spirit, like you were exactly where God wanted you to be and were doing exactly what God wanted you to do?  If you have, you know what an awesome feeling it is.  It truly is the treasure that’s worth everything we have.  It is the pearl that’s finer than any other pearl in the world.  There’s no greater feeling than having God’s Holy Spirit working in us.  God’s Holy Spirit working in us means that we don’t have to worry about how things are going to go.  In fact, it means that we don’t have to worry about anything.  All we need to do is do our best to follow where God’s Holy Spirit leads us.  That puts God in control, and not us.  And when God is in control, we can be at peace.  We’re leaving things in God’s hands, and there are no better hands to leave things in than God’s hands.

            But we do need to note this.  Jesus does not end his statement on this high note.  Jesus ends his statement with a warning.  He says God’s Holy Spirit is like a fisherman who has a whole net full of fish.  He keeps the good fish, and throws the bad fish away.  Jesus then says, “This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            We don’t like to think about that part.  But we ignore it at our peril.  And we ignore it at other people’s peril, too.  Jesus tells us how wonderful God’s Holy Spirit is, and how awesome it is to have God’s Holy Spirit in us, but he also lets us know that not everyone does, and not everyone will.  And there are obviously severe consequences when we don’t.

            The kingdom of heaven is within us.  But we need to open ourselves up to God’s Holy Spirit.  God never forces Himself on us.  God wants to work with us.  God wants each of us to feel the awesome feeling of being totally in tune with God’s Holy Spirit.  But God will not force that feeling on us.  If we choose to shut God’s Holy Spirit off, God will allow us to do that.  But there are consequences.  And you heard what Jesus said those consequences are.

            So let’s open ourselves up to God’s Holy Spirit.  Let’s get that awesome feeling of being totally in tune with God’s Holy Spirit.  And let’s do all we can to help others get that awesome feeling, too.  Let’s all be part of the great kingdom of heaven.

 

What's My Motivation

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on September 18, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18.

            Most of us would agree that humility is a virtue.  But in today’s society, it’s not a virtue we value a whole lot.  We’d say we do.  We pay lip service to humility.  But when we look around, we don’t see a lot of it these days.

            After all, we live in the age of the selfie.  We live in a time of self-promotion.  We’re told that we need to toot our own horn, because if we don’t, who will?  How are we going to get ahead if people don’t know what we’re doing?  We need to make sure everyone know all the good stuff we’re doing, so we get credit for it.

            And churches and pastors are not immune to that.  I like it when the conference knows the good stuff we do around here.  I like it when the community knows it, too.  That’s not necessarily wrong, to want the good stuff that’s happening in the church to be recognized, but it sure can be.  That’s especially true if we want it recognized so that people will give us credit, will pat us on the back, tell us what a good job we’re doing, rather than giving honor and glory to God.

            And you know, it’s really easy for us to justify this sort of thing to ourselves.  Not just in the church, but in every aspect of life.  We tell ourselves that we want people to know what we’re doing so we can set a good example.  We tell ourselves we want people to see our Christian faith in action, so it can bring them to Christ.  What could be a better motive than that?  And if people give us some credit, too, well, we cannot stop them.  That’s just the way it goes.

            There’s nothing new about any of this, of course.  People did it in Jesus’ time, too.  That’s what Jesus is talking about in our Bible reading for today.

            He starts out by talking about giving to the needy.  That’s a good thing to do, right?  To give to the needy?  And of course, it is.  Jesus wants us to give to the needy.  But, he says, don’t make a show of it.  Don’t put it on facebook.  Don’t put a picture of what you’re doing on instagram.  Just do it.  Don’t be proud or self-righteous.  Be humble.

            Jesus then goes on to talk about praying in public.  Now that’s one that hits me personally.  I pray in public every week in church.  It’s part of my job.  Should we change the order of worship, so that I don’t do that?  Well, I don’t know that we need to do that.  But I, and anyone else who prays in public, needs to be careful.  We need to remember that we’re talking to God.  We’re not talking to the assembled group.  We should not be trying to send a message to the congregation in our prayers.  

            And I confess, there are probably times when I’ve done that.  Not in a bad or accusatory way, I don’t think.  But it’s tempting, especially in a prayer after the sermon, to try to sort of recap the sermon in the prayer.  And that’s not what I should be doing.  When I pray, even in church, I’m not talking to you.  I’m talking to God.  And I need to remember that.  Everyone who prays in public, under any circumstances, needs to remember that.

            Then Jesus talks about fasting.  And we tend to skip over that one, because how many of us have ever fasted?  Now, I don’t want that to come across as dismissive.  There may well be people here who have fasted.  It’s a time-honored spiritual discipline.  I’m not trying to diminish it at all.  But there are not a lot of people who do it, so we tend to not spend a lot of time talking about it.

            But there’s a common thread running through all of these things, and you probably know what it is.  Don’t do things, even good things, for show.  Don’t do them for applause.  Don’t do them so people will think highly of you.  In fact, if possible, don’t let anyone know about them.  Still do them.  But do them as quietly as possible.  Be humble.

            What’s really interesting about this is why Jesus tells us to do things this way.  It’s not that God’s going to punish us for letting people know the good things we’ve done.  God won’t send us to hell for doing that.  But God’s not going to give us any credit for it, either.

            Let’s take giving to the needy as an example.  Giving to the needy under any circumstances is a good thing to do.  Regardless of why we do it, what we give will still go to help people who need it.  Even if we did it so we can brag about what generous people we are, the money is still needed and still does good things.

            But while what we’ve given helps people regardless of why we’ve given it, why we’ve given it determines what our reward will be.  If we’ve given so people will give us credit for it, if we’ve given so everyone will know what wonderful, kind, generous people we are, well, then once we get that credit, we’ve gotten all the reward we’re going to get.  If we’ve given quietly, for the honor and glory of God, and don’t care whether anyone knows about what we’ve done, then God will give us a reward.  God will bless what we’ve done, and God will bless us.  Because God knows everything we do, the good and the bad.  Nothing we do ever escapes the notice of God.

            And so, when we’re moved to do something good, we really need to pay attention to our motivation.  Are we doing this to get applause from the human crowd?  Or are we doing it to bring honor and glory to God?

            Now that’s not an accusation.  I know there are lots of people in our churches who have given a lot to the church and to the community over the years, and have never wanted to get any credit or applause for it.  You’ve given money, you’ve given time, you’ve given work.  You’ve given prayers, too, and that’s also important.  Some of you have done that stuff and even I don’t know about it.  But I know there are a lot of people who are very dedicated to this church and to the community.  I don’t want you to think I’m accusing anyone of anything.

            But it is a warning.  Because it’s an easy trap to fall into.  We’re all human.  We like to get recognized for what we’ve done.  We want to know that what we’ve done is appreciated.  Sometimes, all we want is to know that someone noticed what we did, even if they don’t know it was us who did it.

            And none of that’s necessarily wrong.  But it is wrong if we start doing things just to get that recognition and appreciation.  It is so easy, and so tempting, to start playing to the human crowd, rather than doing things to the honor and glory to God.

            Humility is a virtue.  But you know, it’s more than just humility.  It’s knowing who God is, and it’s knowing who we are.  And it’s knowing who we are in relation to God.

            What we forget, sometimes, is what an honor and privilege it is to be allowed to serve God.  We forget how deserving God is of receiving our honor and glory.  God deserves far more honor and glory than we mere human beings are capable of giving Him.

            Think about who God is.  Think about how awesome, how incredible God is.  Think about how powerful God is.  Think about how God created the universe and everything in it just by speaking a word.  When we think about that, we should realize that any good thing we do is so incredibly small compared to the goodness of God.  

            God does not need us for anything.  There is nothing we can do for God that God could not do without us.  In fact, God could probably do things a lot better without us.  A lot of times, you and I probably just get in God’s way.  And yet, God chooses to work through us.  God chooses to allow us to serve Him.  That’s an honor.  That’s a privilege God gives us.  It’s something a lot of us don’t think of often enough.  And it’s something we should never take for granted.

            When we think about it that way, humility should come pretty naturally to us.  We should praise God every day for the honor of serving Him.  And when we do happen to do something right, when we do happen to do something good, we should not take or even want any credit for ourselves.  Instead, we should be grateful to God for the privilege of being allowed to do something for Him.

            It’s a natural human thing to want recognition.  It’s a natural human thing to want to be appreciated.  But Jesus wants us to go beyond natural human things.  Jesus wants us to see the honor and privilege we have in being allowed to serve God.  Knowing that God, as great and awesome as God is, sees and appreciates what we do should be all the motivation we will ever need.

 

Loving Jesus--and Life

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 18, 2022.  The Bible verses are John 12:20-29.

            Jesus was not like everybody else.  And you say, well, duh, but think about it.  There has never been, and there will never be, anyone who lives on earth who was like Jesus.  

            For us, life begins when we’re born and ends when we die.  We learn about some of the things that happened before we were born, but there’s an extent to which they don’t seem real to us.  I mean, no matter how much I might read about the Civil War, there’s no way I can really understand what it was like to live through it.  And that’s something relatively recent.  When we read about Biblical times, things that happened two to three thousand years ago, it’s utterly impossible to understand what life was like in those times, no matter how much we might try.

            And the future is even more of a closed book to us.  At most, I might live another forty years, and that’s pretty unlikely.  I cannot imagine what the world’s going to be like in 2062.  And to try to imagine what the world might be like two to three thousand years from now, assuming that the world is still around then–well, again, that’s utterly impossible.  

We have the promise of heaven, of course.  And we believe that, and we think about it.  But we have no real idea what that’s like, either.  We have no idea what we’ll be like when we’re there.  So that’s why I say that, for us, life begins when we’re born and ends when we die–because our lives on earth are the only life we can really relate to.

But none of that is true for Jesus.  Jesus was there when the world was created.  And Jesus will exist when the world is gone.  Jesus’ life on earth was extremely short when you compare it with eternity.  And that gives Jesus a different perspective for life on earth than you or I could ever have.

And that brings me to the statement Jesus made in our reading for today.  Jesus said, “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

That’s a tough one for me.  Maybe it is for you, too.  Because, for the most part, I do love my life.  Not always, of course–we all have parts of our lives that we’re not that fond of.  Things we have to do that we’d rather not have to do.  Things that we have to deal with that we wish we did not have to deal with.  But for the most part, I do love my life.  I have an awesome wife.  I have my Mom in town with me now.  I have a great job and work with great people.  I get to do some fun things like sing and do public address announcing.  I really enjoy my life on earth.

And then I think, did Jesus love his life on earth?  I have no way to know, but I suspect He really did not.  I mean, I hope He enjoyed some of it.  I hope it was not just sheer misery for Him to be on earth.  But think about it.  Jesus is part of the Holy Trinity–God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  And while He was on earth, Jesus was separated from that.  He was, in a sense, separated from Himself.  That had to be really hard on Him.

And then, too, think of the life Jesus led once He started His ministry.  As He said, he had no place to call home.  He was constantly traveling, and when He did try to go back to Nazareth, people rejected Him.  He tried to teach people, but He was dealing with people who, for the most part, did not understand and never would understand.  Who sometimes did not even want to understand.  There were His constant battles with the Pharisees and the other religious leaders, who had no desire to learn anything from Him but were just trying to find a way to trap Him.  

Even His closest friends on earth, the twelve disciples, really did not understand Him.  Some of them, like Peter, were always trying to tell Him what He should or should not do.  And none of them could really understand what it was like to be Jesus.  How could they?  Jesus was utterly unique while He was on earth–fully divine and fully human, in a way that we still don’t really understand.  And then, when you add in the cruel and painful way in which he died–well, I have to conclude that there was not a whole lot for Jesus to love about His life on earth.

So it’s not surprising that Jesus said what he said.  But where does that leave us?  Are those of us who do love our lives on earth in the wrong?  Are we truly in danger of losing our eternal lives if we love our lives on earth?

Well, let’s think about it.  As we said a few weeks ago, Jesus said several times that salvation can be found only through faith in Him as the Savior.  He did not put qualifications on that.  He did not add anything to that.  Salvation can be found through faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Period.

Jesus’ statement that those who love their lives will lose it does not put an extra qualification on salvation.  What it does is explain what faith in Jesus means.  And so does the statement Jesus made right after that:  “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant will also be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me.”

What Jesus is saying is not that it’s wrong to love our lives on earth.  It’s not a sin, and it won’t cost us salvation.  Salvation does, in fact, come through faith in Jesus Christ.  But if we do have faith in Jesus Christ, then we need to serve Jesus Christ.  And if we are going to serve Jesus Christ, we must follow Jesus Christ.

We’re tempted to think, well, I follow Jesus Christ.  But do we?  Do we really?  How far are we willing to follow Him?

While Jesus was on earth, there were lots of people who claimed to follow Jesus.  And then, Jesus started saying things they did not want to hear.  Jesus started saying things that were going to be hard.  Jesus started saying things that challenged people to make real changes in their lives.  And when Jesus did that, a lot of those stopped following.

“Whoever serves me must follow me.”  That’s a serious statement.  Because–think about it–where did Jesus go?  He went to the cross.  Jesus died a horrible, painful death.  That’s where Jesus went.

Does that mean we are all required to follow Him there?  Are we all required to die the way Jesus did to prove our faith?

Well, not necessarily.  As we’ve said before, Jesus calls different people to do different things.  We are not all called to die for our faith in Jesus.  In fact, I don’t know that very many of us are called to do that.

But we could be.  Following Jesus means following Him wherever He leads us.  And it means not trying to control where Jesus may lead us, but simply following, obediently, willingly, no matter where He may lead us to go.

That’s a hard thing to do.  Because Jesus could lead us anywhere.  Even if Jesus does not lead us to risk death for Him, he may lead us to do things that make us uncomfortable.  He may lead us to do things that scare us.  He may lead us to do things that require us to give up our current lifestyle.  He may lead us to do things that take us way out of our comfort zones, to do things we really don’t want to do or go places we really don’t want to go.

I don’t know whether Jesus is calling you to do that right now.  I know Jesus is calling you to do something, but whether Jesus is calling you to make a major change in your life, I don’t know.  But the question is, if Jesus did call you to do that, would you say yes?  

It’s hard.  Most of us do love our current lives.  And if we don’t love them, at least we like them.  And even if we don’t like them, we’re comfortable with them.  It’s what we know.  Would we be willing to follow Jesus into a different sort of life?  Into a different job?  Into a different place?  Into being with different people?  Into an entirely different lifestyle?  

If we say no, we’re saying we’re more interested in keeping our lives the way they are than we are in following Jesus.  We’re saying we love our lives more than we love Jesus.  And as Christians, there is nothing in this life that we should love more than we love Jesus.

It may seem like Jesus is asking a lot.  But think of it this way.  If you’ve ever been married, or even if you’ve ever been in a serious relationship, have you given up things for the person you love?  Of course you have.  Did you think it was worth it?  You probably did, or you would not have done it.  You may have liked your life the way it was, but you changed it out of love for someone else.  One of the things that makes a loving relationship work is that we make sacrifices for each other.  

Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us–He gave up His life on earth.  But Jesus asks us to make sacrifices, too.  Jesus asks us to give up things to follow Him.  There may be times when it’s hard to do that.  But it will be worth it.  If we want our relationship with Jesus to work, there will be times we need to make sacrifices for Him, just as He made sacrifices for us.

It’s okay to love our lives on earth.  But let’s not love our life on earth more than we love Jesus.  Because loving Jesus is the way to eternal life.  And that’s the life we really need to love.

 

How Do We Respond?

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 14:19-31 and Matthew 18:21-35.

            Today, September 11, 2022, is obviously an important day in our country.  Of course, most of us know why.  It’s because today is the first Sunday of the new NFL season.

           No, obviously, today is the twenty-first anniversary of the attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers in New York, and it’s clearly not something to joke about.  About three thousand people died on that day, and it still amazes me that the number was not higher.  What happened on this day fifteen years ago is among the most significant events that have happened in my lifetime.  If it’s not the most significant event, it’s certainly on the short list.  After all, this was not just an attack on New York City.  This was an attack on all of America.

            In the aftermath of those attacks, a lot of Christians struggled with what the proper Christian response should be.  I mean, we all knew that we should do whatever we could to help the victims of the attack, but beyond that, what should we do?  Some Christians believed we should immediately launch a counter-attack against the people who did this to us.  Other Christians said we should pray for our attackers and offer them forgiveness.  There were lots of other Christian opinions as well, from viewpoints all along the spectrum.  The proper Christian response to those attacks was the source of a lot of conversation and debate at the time.

            Twenty-one years later, it still is.  A lot of Christians still struggle with the proper Christian response to those attacks and to the whole issue of terrorism.  A lot of things have happened in those twenty-one years, of course.  We’ve seen acts of terrorism all of the world, including some in this country.  Luckily they so far have not been on the same scale, but there’s no guarantee that they won’t be.  In fact, a lot of people say that not only is another terrorist attack on that scale possible, it’s almost inevitable.  And we now have additional issues regarding immigration and refugees.  

If another large-scale terrorist attack does happen, we’ll probably have the same debates and conversations again.  Inevitably, those debates and conversations get bound up in politics.   And of course, that makes it even harder for us to find answers.

            Our scriptures for today give a couple of different responses for us to choose from.  The first one is our reading from Exodus, the story of the people of Israel crossing the Red Sea.  If you remember the story, Israel had been oppressed by the Egyptians for some time, and Moses was chosen to go to Pharaoh and get him to let them go so they could go to the land God had promised them.  Pharaoh refused until he was convinced by a series of plagues.  Then, after agreeing to let Israel go, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent the army to bring them back again.  The people of Israel get to the Red Sea, have no way to cross it, and the Egyptian army is hot on their trail.

            You heard the rest of the story.  God acts through Moses, parts the Red Sea, and allows the people of Israel to cross.  God gives the Egyptian army problems, they decide to run away, and God acts through Moses to wipe them out.

            There’s not a lot of forgiveness for the Egyptians in that story, is there?  Not much tolerance, not much understanding other viewpoints.  The goal is not to try to make peace with Egypt, the goal is to destroy the Egyptian army.  In fact, even after the army has decided to retreat and run away, God does not let up on them.  God does not say, “Okay, you’ve learned your lesson, so I’ll let you go and give you another chance.”  God completely obliterates them.  We’re told “not one of them remained.”

           On the other hand, we have the story from the gospel of Matthew.  Peter asks Jesus how many times he needs to forgive someone who’s wronged him, suggesting what to him was a high number of seven times.  Jesus responds with a much higher, almost limitless number.  He then tells a story about someone who asked for forgiveness and received it, only to refuse to give forgiveness to someone else.  His refusal meant that he was no longer forgiven, either.  This is a pretty common theme in the gospels:  that the forgiveness we receive from God is directly tied to the forgiveness we give to other people.  Jesus does not tell us that when someone attacks us, we should fight back with everything we’ve got.  Jesus tells us to forgive.

            So, where does that leave us?  Are we supposed to try to wipe out our enemies, the way God, acting through Moses, did to the Egyptians?  Or are we supposed to forgive our enemies, the way Jesus told us to?

            It’s interesting that both of these stories give us a way to avoid applying them, if that’s what we’re looking for.  In the story of the parting of the Red Sea, one could make the argument that it was not the people of Israel who attacked the Egyptians, it was God.  All the people of Israel did was run away; God did the fighting, not Israel.  So, one could argue, when we’re attacked, we should let God fight our battles for us, not fight them ourselves.

            On the other hand, in the story of forgiveness from Matthew, the question Peter asked Jesus was “if another member of the church sins against me, how many time should I forgive?”  One could make the argument, then, that in the case of terrorist attacks, we are not sinned against by members of the church.  So, one could argue, what Jesus said about forgiveness does not apply.

           I also don’t think we can just solve the dilemma by saying, “Well, the story of the Red Sea is the Old Testament, and the story of forgiveness is the New Testament, so we have to follow the New Testament and forget the Old.”  It’s not that simple.  As Christians, and as United Methodist Christians, we say that we believe in both testaments, the new and the old.  We say that both of them are the inspired word of God.  It’s not a good answer to say that we’re going to ignore certain parts of God’s word just because we don’t happen to like them or because they complicate things for us.

            Another thing that complicates this is that we can find sincere, committed Christians on all sides of this.  There are sincere, committed Christians who believe in a strong military, so strong that we are not just able to prevent attacks but so strong that no one would dare attack us.  There are sincere, committed Christians who believe that war is never justified, and that we need to make deep cuts in our military.  There are also, of course, sincere, committed Christians at many other points along the line.

           Because of that, I’m not going to stand here and tell you what I think the Christian position is.  I don’t think I have the authority to do that.  If I say, “here’s the Christian position”, I’m implying that anyone who disagrees, is not really a Christian, or at least not a very good one.  Not only don’t I believe that, I don’t think I have the right to decide who’s a Christian and who’s not.  God decides that, not me.

            What I will do is tell you some things we all need to consider as we think about this and similar issues.  This is not a full list, but I think doing these things will help us as we try to sort it all out.

            For one thing, we should not assume that we already know it all.  In the twenty-one years since the World Trade Center attacks, and as we’ve seen other acts of terrorism, a lot of us have pretty well decided what we believe.  That’s okay, but we should also not be afraid to re-examine what we believe.  We’re all allowed to change our minds.

            Also, we should never believe something just because someone else believes it.  That’s the case even if that someone else is someone we really respect. We need to make our own decisions, not just trust the opinions of others.

            One thing we should definitely do is pray.  You probably knew that one was coming, but it’s necessary.  We should pray in all circumstances, of course, but we should especially pray when we need guidance, and this is an area in which we need guidance.  God will probably not just pop an answer into our heads, but the more time we spend in prayer, the closer we will be to God, and the closer we are to God, the more likely we are to live our lives the way God wants us to live them

            We should also read and study the Bible.  After all, the Bible is God’s message to us.  There are lots more scriptures that talk about these issues than just the ones we looked at this morning.  We need to read them and study them.

            We need to be willing to struggle with these issues.  It’s okay for us to not have an answer right away.  Sometimes, things take time to work through.  We need to think about this to the point that we know not just what we believe, but why we believe it.  We need to be able to have solid reasoning and scripture behind what we believe, not just a vague feeling that we’re right.

            Finally, we need to accept those who disagree with us.  That’s not to say we need to agree with them, but we need to realize that some of those who disagree with us have struggled with the issues just as much as we have.  They’ve prayed, and they’ve studied, and they’ve come up with different answers.  They may not be right, but they are still sincere Christians who love the Lord just as much as we do.  The fact that we may disagree with someone, even if we have a pretty strong disagreement, does not change that.

            Jesus never promised that being a Christian would be easy.  When Jesus was on the earth, his disciples struggled with a lot of issues.  Today, two thousand years later, we continue to struggle.  That’s okay.  It’s not our job to have all the answers.  It’s our job to be faithful, to love others, and to leave the answers to God.

            The one thing we know is that, no matter what happens, God is always in control, and God will win in the end.  If we trust that and do our best, God will take care of the rest.

 

Fear

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 11, 2022.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy 1:5-14.

            Today is the twenty-first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

            Those of us who lived through it will never forget it.  I can tell you exactly where I was when I heard about it.  I can tell you exactly what I thought and how I felt.  I suspect many of you can do the same thing.

            It was an incredibly shocking thing.  My first reaction, when I heard about it, was disbelief.  I thought the person telling me about it must be exaggerating.  Those huge towers could not possibly have fallen.  It was not until I went home, and could actually see the video of it myself, that I truly understood what had happened.  I suspect that’s true of some other people, too.

            In the immediate aftermath of it, one of the main feelings people had was fear.  We were wondering what might happen next.  Would there be more terrorist attacks?  Were we going to be at war?  There were all sorts of rumors flying around.  People were frantically filling their gas tanks, because the rumors were that gas was going to eight, nine, ten dollars a gallon.  What else might happen?  Nobody knew.  And everybody was scared.

            Fear is a powerful thing.  If we look around, we can see a lot of things to fear in our world right now, too.  COVID and its variants.  Inflation.  Crime.  Shortages.  The constant threat of war.  Rights that we’ve taken for granted, in some cases all our lives, being threatened or restricted.  There are a lot of things to fear in our world right now.

            But you know, there were a lot of things to fear in the world the Apostle Paul lived in, too.  There were all kinds of diseases back then, and very little that anyone could do about them.  I don’t know what their economy was like, but there was certainly crime.  And they had very few rights at all.  In fact, Christians were under constant threat of persecution from the government.  They could be thrown in jail simply because of the fact they were Christians.

            And in that society, Paul writes to his young friend, Timothy.  And he tells Timothy not to be scared.  He says Timothy should “fan into flame” the Spirit of God, which has been given to him.  And then Paul says, “For the Spirit of God does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.”

            The Spirit of God does not make us timid.  That’s the words of the New International Version of the Bible, which is the version we normally use.  Some translations say it as “God did not give us a spirit of fear.”

            Whichever way you say it, the meaning is the same.  God did not create us to live our lives in fear.  God did not create us to be scared.  That’s true no matter what the situation is.  That’s true no matter what’s going on in the world.  God did not create us to live our lives in fear.  God gives us power, love, and self-discipline.  In fact, Paul says, “God calls us to live a holy life.”

            You know, we use that word all the time.  “Holy”.  One of the most famous old hymns is “Holy, Holy, Holy”.  We say God is holy.  We talk about God’s Holy Spirit.  The word “holy” appears in the Bible approximately five hundred fifty times, varying a little depending on which translation you use.  

            What does it mean?  Can you define it?  That word “holy”, that we throw around all the time in church–what does it actually mean?

            Well, what it means is “dedicated to God”.  When Paul says, “God calls us to live a holy life,” Paul is telling us that God has called us to live a life that’s dedicated to Him.

            And God calls us to do that regardless of the circumstances.  God calls us to do that no matter what may happen to us as a result.  In other words, God calls us to dedicate our lives to Him, and to do that without fear.

            Now, that’s easy to say.  But Paul had the authority to say it.  Paul, at the time he was writing this, was in prison.  He references that.  He says, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.  Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.”

            Paul lived a life dedicated to God.  And Paul was going to live that life no matter what happened to him because of it.  And he was not afraid of what might happen to him because of it.  He was not afraid of being in prison.  He was not afraid of being killed.  In fact, Paul said, in the first chapter of Philippians, that to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If he kept living, it meant he got more chances to serve the Lord.  If he died, he could go and be with the Lord.  The way Paul looked at it, either way, he won.

            That’s what having God’s Spirit in our hearts does for us.  That’s what living a holy life, a life dedicated to God, does for us.  It takes away fear.  It gives us a Spirit of power.  We don’t have to be afraid, because we win no matter what happens.  Either we’ll be on earth, and serve God, or we’ll go to heaven and be with God.  

            But of course, we have things we fear other than death, don’t we?  In fact, sometimes death is not even one of our major fears.  Now, in saying that, I don’t mean in any way to diminish the sadness of losing a loved one.  I know many of you here have lost loved ones–in fact, I conducted some of their funerals.  It’s not an easy thing at all.  It’s something you think of pretty much every day.  I don’t mean to in any way sound like what you’re feeling is not a big thing, because it is.

            But what I’m saying is that, sometimes, we fear other things even more than death.  Loneliness.  Rejection.  Not being able to take care of ourselves.  Letting people down.  Not being able to do things we think we should be able to do.  Feeling worthless or incompetent.  There are all kinds of things we fear in our lives.

            What would Paul say about those things?  Well, I think Paul would say the same thing that he said to Timothy.  We are called to live a holy life.  We are called to live a life dedicated to God.  And we are called to do that regardless of what may happen to us as a result.  

            Again, it’s easy to say.  It’s not so easy to do.  Paul did it.  I don’t know that it was easy for him to do, but he did it.  How was Paul able to do it?  He tells us.  It was through the grace of Jesus Christ.

            Listen to what he says.  “He has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

            Christ has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  That’s why we don’t have to live our lives in fear.  It’s not just that we don’t have to fear death.  It’s that we don’t have to fear anything.  Because whatever we might fear in this life, it’s only temporary.  Everything in our life is only temporary.  What we have ahead of us, through our faith in Jesus Christ, is eternity.

            That’s where we need to keep our focus.  If we keep our focus on eternity, we can live a holy life, a life dedicated to God.  And if we live a life dedicated to God, we have absolutely nothing to fear.  Any bad things that may happen in this life will only be present for a little while.  And they will be more than outweighed by the glory that’s waiting for us in heaven.

            So think about what it is that you fear.  And whatever it is, realize that God has given you a Spirit of power that will allow you to overcome that fear.  God’s Spirit will allow us to live holy lives, no matter what may happen as a result of that.

            September 11, 2001 was a terrible day.  There have been other terrible days since.  There will be more terrible days to come.  The world gives us lots of reasons to live in fear.  But God did not give us a Spirit of fear.  God gave us a Spirit of power, and a calling to live holy lives dedicated to Him.  If we do that, we can overcome the fears of this temporary life.  We can live lives without fear, looking forward to eternity with Jesus Christ.