Worth the Wait

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on November 27, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Mark 1:1-8.

How many of you are really anxious for Christmas to come?

We all have different times when we start really getting into Christmas, when we feel like we just cannot wait for it to come.  Some people started way back in October, or as soon as Halloween is over.  For some people, it’s when the Hallmark Channel starts showing Christmas movies.  For others, it’s today, the first Sunday of Advent, when the church starts focusing on preparing for Christmas.  Or maybe it’s when we decorate the sanctuary, or maybe when you decorate your house for Christmas.  For me, when I start hearing Christmas music on the radio is when I really start getting into Christmas.

           It can be hard to wait for Christmas.  It’s hard for me sometimes, too.  It was especially hard for me when I was a kid.  See, my birthday is December twenty-second, so not only was I waiting for Christmas, I was waiting for my birthday, too.  And it was hard.  I had all this stuff I wanted, stuff I was waiting for and hoping for, stuff I could not get for myself, but I could not find out yet whether I was going to get it.  I wanted the time to pass quickly and for the big day to come, but time just kept moving one day at a time.  All I could do was wait.    

But then, finally, the big day would come, and sometimes I would get exactly what I wanted.  And when I did, it was always worth the wait.  That’s the thing—anything that’s really good is worth waiting for.

Now, put that in the context of the first Christmas.  In a sense, though, the whole world was waiting for it.  The world had been waiting, really since the first humans walked the earth.  You probably remember the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent.  That’s the story of sin entering the world.

As soon as sin entered the world, humans became separated from God.  We tried to find our way back.  That’s what all that Old Testament law was about.  The theory was that if we could just follow all the rules, if we could just do everything the way we’re supposed to, then we’d be the people we were supposed to be, God would be happy with us, and we’d feel close to God again.

Maybe that could’ve worked.  We’ll never know, because we humans never could follow all the rules.  We could never do everything the way we’re supposed to.  The thing is, we were trying to do something by ourselves that we cannot do by ourselves.  We were trying to get back to God by our own abilities, and by our own merits, and that simply was not possible.  It was not possible because we were and are sinful people, and sinful people cannot follow all the rules perfectly and do everything we’re supposed to do, no matter how hard we try.

Eventually, people figured that out.  They knew they could not get back to God by themselves.  They knew they needed God to bring them back.  In other words, they knew they needed a Messiah.  They knew they needed a Savior.

They knew they needed a Savior, but they had no way to get one.  There was no way they could bring a Savior about.  They knew, from scripture, that they’d been promised one, but there was no way they could cause the Savior to come.  They wanted the time to pass quickly and for the Savior to come now, but time just kept moving one day at a time.  All they could do was wait.

And so, they waited.  Day after day.  Week after week.  Month after month.  Year after year.  Eventually, it became decade after decade, even century after century.  They waited, and they hoped, and they prayed.  And nothing happened.  They waited some more, and they hoped some more, and they prayed some more.  And nothing continued to happen.           

Eventually, some of them got tired of waiting.  Some of them got so desperate that they started following false Saviors, false Messiahs.  Some of them got discouraged.  They decided their hopes were worthless, that there was no point in praying.  Either God did not hear their prayers and was not going to answer, or God did not exist at all.  And so, they quit waiting.  They gave up.

And so, when the Savior finally came, they missed it.  Think about that.  Can you imagine what that would be like?  They’d waited all that time, all those years, but they just could not wait long enough.  And then, what they’d waited for and hoped for and prayed for finally happened, and they missed it.  They saw it, maybe, but they could not recognize it for what it was.  As John says, “the world did not recognize him.”  That’s an incredibly sad thing, when you think about it.          

We wonder, sometimes, why God waited so long.  We don’t know, of course.  We never will know.  We assume there was a reason.  There are theories people have, but we’ll only know when we get to heaven and can ask.  And at that point, it may not matter to us any more.

What we do know is that, for those who did not give up, for those who did not get tired of waiting, for those who kept waiting, and kept hoping, and kept praying, it was all worth it.  It was worth the wait.  Because, eventually, the Savior came.  The Savior came, and they no longer had to be separated from God.  They could come back to God through their belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior.           

So can we.  We don’t have to miss out.  We still wait for Christmas, but we don’t have to wait the way they did thousands of years ago.  We don’t have to wait for something to happen.  We just wait to celebrate the anniversary of something that’s already happened.

We don’t have to wait for the Savior to come.  The Savior has already come.  We’re not waiting for the first Christmas.  We can have Christmas any day of the year.  Any time we make a decision for Christ, any time we dedicate our lives to following Jesus, it can be Christmas Day for us.  And any time we renew our decision for Christ, any time we re-dedicate ourselves to following Jesus, it can be Christmas Day for us, too.  We don’t have to wait.  We can do that any time.  We can do it now, today.           

You know, when I was a kid, Mom and Dad would try to get me what I wanted.  They did not always succeed.  Sometimes what I wanted was not practical or was not good for me.  Sometimes they made mistakes because they’re human.  But they tried.  God, though, did not need to try.  God knew exactly what we wanted and what we needed.  God knew the one thing we could not get for ourselves.  And that’s what God gave us:  a Savior.

When we’re kids, and we get just what we want for Christmas, we don’t hesitate, do we?  We tear off the paper, we see what it is, our eyes get big, we get a big smile on our face, and we take it out of the package as fast as we can.  We cannot wait to start enjoying the incredible gift we’ve been given.

And yet, too many times, we don’t do that with the most incredible gift of all, the gift of salvation.  God has given us this incredible gift, but so often, just like people did two thousand years ago, we’re not sure about it.  We see it, but we don’t always recognize it for what it is.  We wait, as if we’re deciding whether to accept it.  And so, sometimes, we miss out.

So, sometimes, it’s God’s turn to wait.  We’re no longer waiting for the Savior to come to us.  Instead, now the Savior is waiting for us to come to him.

God will never get tired of waiting.  God will never give up on us.  God will never quit on us.  God does not want to wait, of course.  God wishes we would make the decision now, today, to dedicate or re-dedicate our lives to God.  But God is willing to wait.  God is willing to wait because, to God, you and I are worth waiting for.

Really, that’s the most amazing thing of all.  We understand why it’s important for us to be close to God.  What’s hard to understand is why it seems to be important for God to be close to us.  We understand why it’s worth waiting for God.  What’s hard to understand is why God would decide it’s worth waiting for us.

Yet, God does that.  For reasons that we cannot understand, reasons that don’t really make any sense to us, God does want to be close to us.  God does think that you and I, the sinful people that we still are, are worth waiting for.

When you think about how strong and powerful God is, and how small and weak we are in comparison, there really can be only one reason for that.  God loves us.  We’re God’s children, and God loves us, and God thinks we’re worth waiting for.

When you think about it, that’s the real message of Christmas.  God gave us the greatest Christmas gift of all.  God gave us just what we’d been waiting for:  a Savior.  It was exactly what we wanted and exactly what we needed.

The world waited for a Savior for thousands of years, but we don’t have to wait any longer.  Let’s not make God wait any longer, either.  Let’s make the decision today to dedicate or re-dedicate ourselves to God.  Let’s accept the incredible gift of the Savior that God has given us.

 

Ordinary People, Ordinary Days

The message given in the Sunday morning worship services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on November 27, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 1:5-25, 57-66.

Many of us probably remember the old TV show “Touched By An Angel”.  Every week, these angels would intervene in the life of some ordinary person who was having trouble of some sort.  The angels would appear to be ordinary people for most of the show, but then, at the climax, there’d be this beautiful golden glow surrounding them, and everyone would know they were angels.  The angels would say exactly the right thing to help the person through the tough time, and everything would work out right in the end.

            That, of course, is the Hollywood version of an angel:  an attractive, kindly, nice being who helps us through the rough spots in our lives.  There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, I guess, but I don’t think it’s how angels really are.  My reason for saying that is that, whenever we read about someone in the Bible seeing an angel, they’re scared to death.  That’s how Zechariah reacted to the angel Gabriel in our reading today.

            Zechariah and Elizabeth were the parents of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist, of course, is the person who let people know that Jesus was coming.  He prepared the way for the Savior.

           We know that now, but Zechariah and Elizabeth did not know it then.  Zechariah was a Jewish priest.  We don’t know a lot about him besides that.  We’re not told that there was anything special about him.  He was apparently a veteran priest, because we’re told that he was “well advanced in years”.  As our story opens, Zechariah is chosen to be the one to offer incense to God in the holy place.  That was quite an honor for a priest, but he was not chosen for any particular reason.  Someone had to do it, and he was just chosen at random.

            He was probably a little nervous before he even went into the holy place.  The holy place was a special place in the Jewish temple.  Only one person was allowed in at a time, and it was only the one who was selected.  The incense offering was a precise ritual that was intended to please God.  A priest only got one shot at it, and he did not want to mess it up for fear of angering God.

            So, Zechariah goes into the temple, and nervously starts offering incense.  All of a sudden, here’s the angel Gabriel standing next to the altar.  Do you blame him for being terrified?  He probably thought he’d made a mistake somehow and was going to be killed for it.

            Gabriel tells Zechariah not to be afraid.  Gabriel tells him that he’s going to have a son.  Not just any son, either.  His son is to be named John, and John is going to be “great in the sight of the Lord…he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.  Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God.  And he will…turn the hearts of the…disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

            Zechariah must have been overwhelmed.  Still, he apparently overcame his fear to do the other thing almost everyone in the Bible does when they see an angel.  He raises doubts and questions.  He says to Gabriel, look, my wife and I are both old.  Why should I believe you? 

I don’t know if angels have emotions, but if they do, they must get awfully frustrated sometimes.  They come to give people these messages, and every time they do, people question them.  Gabriel basically says, “Why should you believe me?  Because I’m the angel Gabriel, that’s why you should believe me.  What part of “angel” don’t you understand?  I spend my time in the presence of God.  God gave me this message for you.  That’s why you should believe me.”  Gabriel then says that, because Zechariah did not believe, he won’t be able to talk until this actually happens.

So, Zechariah comes out of the temple, and sure enough, he can’t talk.  People realize something must’ve happened, but they don’t know what, and of course Zechariah cannot tell them.  Time passes, and just as Gabriel said, Zechariah and Elizabeth have a son.  The family wants to name the son Zechariah, after his father, but Elizabeth says no, we’re going to call him John.  

Now, since Elizabeth was not present when Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, we assume that Zechariah must have communicated that name to her somehow.  The family cannot understand it, but Zechariah writes down that, in fact, the child’s name is to be John.  And instantly, Zechariah can talk again.  He tells everyone what happened, and everyone’s scared again, wondering what in the world this baby, this “John” is going to be.  They know it’ll be something special, because God is going to be with him.

So, at this point, some of you may be asking “So what?”  I mean, it’s a good story and all, of course.  Given that the Bible is the inspired word of God, we assume everything in it is there for a reason.  Knowing more about what’s in the Bible is always helpful.  Still, just what are we supposed to do with this story?  How is knowing it going to make our lives any better or help us get closer to God?

Well, I think there are a few things we can get out of this story.  The first one is that God sometimes works through ordinary people.  In fact, God almost always works through ordinary people.  Think about all the people in the Christmas story:  Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary. Joseph.  The innkeeper, the shepherds, all of them.  They’re all ordinary people.  No one had ever given them a second look.  Yet, they’re the ones God chose to bring about the birth of the Savior of the world.

God uses ordinary people.  That’s important for us to know, because most of us here would consider ourselves ordinary people.  If any of us thinks that, because we’re just ordinary people, God won’t have any particular use for us, we’ve got it exactly wrong.  Not only can God have a use for us, we’re exactly the people God does use.

Second, we never know when God is going to decide to use us.  Zechariah had no clue that an angel was going to talk to him when he went into the temple that day.  He was just doing his job as a priest, doing what he was supposed to do.  Again, that’s pretty much how it happened for all the people in the Christmas story.  They were all just minding their own business, doing what they did, when they suddenly got the chance to serve God.

God comes to us on ordinary days.  That’s important for us to know, too, because most of our days are just ordinary days.  So, the next time you feel like you’re just having an ordinary day, stay alert.  God comes to us, as ordinary people on ordinary days, and gives us the chance to serve God.

Third, God often asks us to do things we don’t think we can do.  Zechariah did not think he could become a father at his age, nor did he think Elizabeth could become a mother.  Mary and Joseph did not think they could be the earthly parents of the Son of God.  Twenty years ago, I did not think I could become a pastor.  God comes to us, as ordinary people, on ordinary days, and asks us to do things that we think are extraordinary.

Our reaction is usually to doubt and to question.  We don’t think we can do extraordinary things.  We scared of even trying.  We say, how can this happen?  Why should I believe it?  God says, “You can believe it because I’m God.  Trust me.  I’m in control here.  Everything I’m telling you to do will happen the way I’ve told you it will, if you’ll only trust me.”

We don’t understand.  So what do we do?  Do we trust, the way Zechariah and Elizabeth did?  Do we do what God tells us to do, even if we don’t understand what’s going on or why?  Or, do we turn our backs and go our own way?

Each of us has something that God is telling us to do.  God never created anyone without a reason and without a purpose.  That’s true even if we’re just ordinary people.  In fact, it’s especially true if we’re just ordinary people.  There is something God is telling you to do.  There’s something God is telling me to do, too.

We don’t always get to hear what it is directly from an angel.  That’s probably lucky for us, considering how scary angels apparently are.  It may take us some time to figure it out.  Still, there is something God is telling you to do.  There’s something God is telling me to do, too.

If you want to know what it is, here’s what I’d advise you to do:  pray.  I’m not talking about just any prayer, though.  I’m talking about praying specifically for God to give you a chance to serve God.  I can tell you that there’s never been a time when I prayed for a chance to serve God that God did not answer that prayer, usually within a very short time.

The way God answered my prayer was not always the way I’d have chosen.  In fact, sometimes the way was the last thing I wanted to do.  Sometimes the way God gave me a chance to serve scared me.  Sometimes I reacted like Zechariah did, with doubts and questions.  That’s not God’s fault.  God did what I asked.  God gave me a chance to serve Him.

God will give each of us chances to serve.  God will come to each of us ordinary people, when we’re having an ordinary day, and give us the chance to serve God. 

When God does that, we may have doubts and questions, like Zechariah did.  That’s okay.  The question is whether we’ll do what Zechariah then did.  The question is whether, even if we don’t feel qualified, and even if we don’t understand, we’ll go ahead and do what God tells us to do.

Zechariah ultimately trusted God.  May we all trust God, and do whatever it is God is telling us to do.  We may have doubts and questions.  But in the end, it will be worth it.

 

Don't Worry, Be Thankful

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Philippians 4:4-9.

            It’s the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  It hardly seems possible.  It seems to me like Thanksgiving should still be at least a month away.  And yet, here it is.  Soon it will be Christmas and then 2022 will be over.  And I just finally stopped writing 2021 on my checks.

            So, it’s time for the pastor’s annual Thanksgiving message.  And this presents kind of a challenge.  Not because of the topic itself.  There are all kinds of Bible verses to use about thankfulness.  But it’s like what I wrote in the church newsletter.  You’ve heard all this before.  Some of you have heard literally dozens of Thanksgiving messages.  You know we’re supposed to be thankful to God, not just at this time but at all times.  You know what it says in First Thessalonians Five, Eighteen:  Be thankful in all circumstances.  You already know all this stuff.

            The question is not whether we know about it.  The question is whether we do it.  And of course, the answer would be different for each one of us.  Some of us probably do live up to that statement of being thankful in all circumstances.  Others of us probably remember to give thanks when things are going well, but are not so good at feeling thankful when things are not going the way we want them to.  Others of us probably are not even very good at giving thanks when things do go well.  We’re all at different points on the spectrum.

            But no matter where we are, I think most of us could probably do better than we’re doing. Even if we’re really good at giving thanks, we can probably still get better.  If we’re not so good at it, we can probably get a lot better.  But how?  How can we get to where we really do live with an attitude of thankfulness, no matter what’s going on in our lives?

            Well, let’s look at what the Apostle Paul write in his letter to the Philippians.  Look at how he starts out.  “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again:  Rejoice!”

            How many of us ever do that?  How many of us ever rejoice in the Lord.  Even if we sometimes give thanks to God, even if we are truly grateful for what God has done, how many of us actually rejoice in the Lord?

            In fact, how many of us even know what it means to rejoice in the Lord?  That word, rejoice, means to feel or show great joy or delight.  And those words, joy and delight, mean to take great pleasure.

            How many of us, when we think about God or when we pray to God, feel joy or delight?  How many of us, when we think about God or pray to God, take great pleasure in doing that?

            I’m guessing not very many of us, and not all that often.  And I base my guess, quite frankly, on the fact that I don’t feel those things that often.  Now, maybe that’s not fair.  Maybe you’re a lot better at this than I am.  Maybe you feel great pleasure and joy and delight every time you think about God and every time you pray to God.  I really hope there are some of us here who do.  If you do, that’s awesome.  That’s wonderful.  You probably don’t need to listen to any more of the message today.

            And there are times when I do feel those things.  But there are a lot of times when I don’t.  And so, for those of you who are still listening and feel like you can improve on this, what do we do?  How do we get that feeling of great pleasure and joy and delight?  How can we get to where we rejoice in the Lord?

            Well, let’s look at what Paul says next.  “The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

            The Lord is near.  The peace of God will guard your hearts and minds.  That would great, don’t you think?  To know that the Lord is near?  To have the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds?  I mean, that’s really what we all want, right?  If we felt the Lord near, if we felt the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds, we’d be able to do what Paul said.  We would not be anxious about anything.  And how awesome would that be?  To not be anxious about anything.  Because my guess is that almost every person here is anxious about something.  It may be a big thing or it may be a small thing.  It may be something that some people would think of as a small thing, but it’s a big thing to you. 

            It would be so wonderful to be able to get rid of all that anxiety.  It would be so wonderful to not have to worry about anything.  It’s our worries that keep us from feeling that the Lord is near.  They keep us from feeling the peace of God.  And because we cannot feel the Lord near, because we cannot feel the peace of God, we cannot rejoice in the Lord the way Paul tells us to and the way God wants us to.  And because we cannot rejoice in the Lord, we cannot live with an attitude of thankfulness the way we know we’re supposed to.

            But does saying that help us any?  Probably not.  Saying “do not be anxious about anything” is easy.  Actually not being anxious is hard.  How do we do it?

            Here’s what Paul says.  “In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  Paul says that if we do that, we will feel the peace of God.  And then, we’ll be able to rejoice in the Lord and live with an attitude of thankfulness.

            So let’s break that down a little farther.  What are we supposed to do?  Present our requests to God.  That means any requests.  There is nothing too big for God, but there is also nothing too small for God.  That’s one of the amazing things about God.  God loves us so much that God is interested in every aspect of our lives.  God is interested in the big things, but God is interested in the small things.  Remember, this is the God that knows the number of hairs on our heads.  Basically, if something is important to us, it’s important to God.  That’s not to say God will always do what we want, and we know that.  We have no ability to order God around.  But there is never a time when we request something of God and God says, “Ah, that’s not important.  I’m not interested in that.  I’m not gonna pay any attention to that.”  God is interested in everything.  God pays attention to everything.  Everything is important to God.  So, no matter what our request is, we can present it to God.

            By what method are we supposed to present these requests to God?  By prayer and petition.  And when are we supposed to present them?  In every situation.

            In other words, we don’t need to wait until we have a specific prayer time to talk to God.  It’s fine to do that, don’t get me wrong.  I have a specific prayer time of my own.  But we don’t need to limit our prayers to that time.  In fact, we’re not supposed to.  We can pray to God in every situation.  No matter where we are, no matter what we’re doing, we can pray to God.  We can present our requests to God.

            Now all that should help.  Knowing that we can pray to God at any time, that we can present our requests to God at any time, knowing that there’s nothing too big or too small for God to be interested in, that all can help us feel the peace of God.  It can help us be able to rejoice in the Lord.

            But here’s the big thing.  How are we supposed to present our requests to God?  With thanksgiving.  Paul says we should present our requests to God with thanksgiving.

            Think about that.  Present a request with thanksgiving.  Does that make sense?  I mean, I can understand being thankful after our request is granted.  But Paul says we’re not supposed to wait for our request to be granted to be thankful.  We’re supposed to be thankful as we’re making the request.  We’re supposed to present our request with thanksgiving.

            If we’re thankful to God as we’re making our requests to God, what does that mean?  It means that we trust God.  It means that, as we’re making the request, we trust that our request will be taken care of.  Whatever request we make, whatever the situation is, God’s going to handle it.  Once we’ve prayed to God about it, it’s over.  It’s in God’s hands, and we trust that God will take care of it.

            It’s trust.  It’s faith.  It’s believing that, once we’ve prayed, we can turn the situation over to God.  We can leave the situation in God’s hands.  Again, that does not mean God will do exactly what we want exactly when we want it.  That’s not what we’re thankful for.  What we’re thankful for is that we can trust God to do what’s right.  We’re thankful that we can trust God to do what’s best.  We’re thankful that we can trust God to take care of things and handle them in the right way, not just for us but for everyone involved.

            When we present our requests to God, we’re turning our problems over to God.  When we turn all of our problems, large and small, over to God, and when we do that with thanksgiving, knowing God will take care of them, we can feel the peace of God guarding our hearts and our minds.  Then, we truly will be able to rejoice in the Lord.  And then, we will truly know that the Lord is near.

 

Trust and Be Thankful

The message given in the Sunday morning worship services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:25-34.

            If I asked you what you’re thankful for, what would you say?

            Well, there might be a lot of answers.  Family.  Friends.  Health, if we have it.  Some of us might say we’re thankful for our freedom.  Some of us might say we’re thankful the election is over.  Some of us might mention being thankful for material possessions, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  We should be thankful to God for the material possessions we have, as long as we’re not arrogant or selfish about it.  Some of us might say we’re thankful for the church.  Some of us might even mention being thankful our salvation that comes from Jesus Christ.

            But how many of us would mention that we’re thankful for our lives on earth?  We should be, you know.  I mean, in the church we talk about looking forward to the eternal life that’s coming through our faith in Jesus Christ.  And we should talk about that.  It’s very important.  But our lives on earth are important to.  We should be thankful for them.  And on some level, we probably are.  But how often do we actually stop and give thanks to God for them?  How often do we actually say, “Thank you, God, for the life you’ve given me on earth?”

            Maybe you do, I don’t know.  I do, sometimes.  But not nearly as often as I should.  I mean, when I stop and think about it, I have a pretty great life.  I have a wonderful wife.  I have work that I love and find great satisfaction in.  I’ve got great people to work with.  I live in a beautiful area of the country.  I’ve got plenty to eat and decent clothes to wear and a nice place to live.  Why am I not more thankful to God for that?  Why are a lot of us not more thankful to God for the life we have here on earth?

            Well, I think there are at least two things going on here.  Well, actually, I think it’s one thing, but it shows itself in at least two ways.  One of them is that we take the good things in life for granted.  After all, we say that God is good and that God loves us.  Jesus said that God knows how to give good gifts to those who ask.  So, when we get good things from God, well, that’s what God’s supposed to do, right?  If things are going well, God’s just doing God’s job.  We accept it.  But let something go wrong and, well, what’s the matter with God?  Why is God doing this?  Why is God allowing this to happen?  And of course, a lot of times what we really mean when we ask those questions is, why is God doing this to me?  Why is God allowing this to happen to me?  What’s wrong with God?  Why is God not doing His job?

            What are we doing when we saying when we ask those questions?  Basically, we’re saying that we don’t trust God.  When things happen that we don’t understand, when things don’t go the way we think they should, and we start criticizing God for that, we’re really saying that we don’t trust God to do His job properly.  We think God needs us to tell Him what to do.  Because God obviously does not know what to do on His own, right?  If God did, God would get on the stick and straighten things out.  God would be doing things our way.  Because, obviously, we know what God should do.  All God needs to do is listen to us.

            Now, put it that way and it sounds kind of silly, but how many of us have done some variation of that at some point?  And it’s understandable, in a way.  There truly are things happening that we don’t understand.  And some of them are no fault of ours.  Hurricanes.  Floods.  Fires.  Diseases.  When those things happen, it can be hard to trust God.  It can be hard to trust that God has a plan.  God understands why we struggle with that.  And I don’t think God gets mad at us for asking questions, as long as we ask those questions sincerely and not arrogantly.

            But God would like us to trust Him.  Not because God will be upset if we don’t, but because we will be better off if we do.  And that, finally, brings us to our Bible reading for today.  

            This is part of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount.  It’s a fairly long sermon, one that covers three chapters of the gospel of Matthew.  Jesus has covered a lot of things already.  He’s given the beatitudes, giving blessings to certain people.  He has taught people what we now know as the Lord’s Prayer.  Right before this, Jesus has made the famous statement that no one can serve two masters, that we cannot serve both God and money.  

            Then, Jesus says this:  “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life.”  He tells us we don’t need to worry about what we’re going to eat.  We don’t need to worry about what we’re going to wear.  He tells us we don’t even need to worry about tomorrow.  He says if we seek God’s kingdom, if we love God and trust God, God will take care of things.  You and I don’t need to worry about them.

            So now, how many of us live our lives without ever worrying about anything?  Yeah, me neither.  We may or may not worry about what we’re going to eat or what we’re going to wear.  But I’ll guarantee that there are plenty of us here who worry about tomorrow.  And by that, I don’t just mean the next twenty-four hour period.  I mean the future.  There are a lot of us here who worry about the future.
            And again, it’s understandable.  The future is, by definition, uncertain.  We don’t know for sure what’s going to happen.  There’s no way we can know.  And what do we tend to do when we don’t know what’s going to happen?  That’s right, we worry.  It seems like the most natural thing in the world to do.

            But when we worry about the future, what are we doing?  Again, we’re saying that we don’t trust God.  We’re saying that we don’t trust what Jesus said, that God knows how to give good gifts to those who ask.  We’re saying that we don’t trust what the Apostle Paul said, that God can work all things for the good of those who love him.  We’re saying that we need to worry about what’s going to happen, because we cannot trust God to do things right.

            Again, God does not get mad at us when we do that.  Jesus does not say that if we worry about the future we’re committing a sin.  God understands our doubts and our fears, just like God understands everything else about us.  God is not mad, but I think God is sad.  God is sad that we don’t trust Him more.  I think God says to us, why don’t you trust me?  Your life would be so much easier, so much happier, if you just trusted me.  I did not give you this life as a punishment.  I did not give it to you so you could be consumed with worry and fear.  I gave you this life to enjoy.  

Jesus said in John Chapter Ten, Verse Ten, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  God wants us to have an abundant life.  God wants us to live lives that are full.  When we lose that with worry and doubt and fear, we’re not really sinning against God.  What we’re doing is cheating ourselves.  We’re robbing ourselves of those good gifts that God wants to give us.

Now, understand, when Jesus said not to worry about the future, he was not saying that we should not prepare for the future.  In fact, preparing for the future is the exact opposite of worrying about the future.  When we’re prepared for the future, we don’t need to worry about it.  We’ll be ready for it.  But part of preparing for the future is being able to trust God.  Part of preparing for the future is having confidence in God.  Part of preparing for the future is having faith that, if we’ve done the best we can, God will take it from there.  And that does not just apply to preparing for the future.  That applies to every aspect of our lives.  In fact, that’s what trusting God really means--doing our best, in every circumstance and every situation, and trusting God to bless our efforts and take it from there.

If we trust God, we can stop worrying about our lives.  If we trust God, we can enjoy our lives.  If we trust God, we can stop cheating ourselves and robbing ourselves of the good gifts God wants to give us.  If we trust God, we can have that abundant life that Jesus came to give us.

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, let’s stop doubting, and let’s stop worrying.  Let’s put our fears away.  Let’s do our best in every circumstance, and trust God to take care of the rest.  If we do that, we can be thankful to God for every day of life on earth that God gives us.

 

Tests, Doubts, and Belief

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on November 13, 2022.  The Bible verses used are James 1:2-8.

            Have you ever had a crisis of faith?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Lost and Found

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, November 13, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 15:1-10.

When I was about eight years old, I went to a high school basketball game with my folks in my old home town of Delmont.  I did that a lot, of course—I loved sports even then, and my oldest brother was on the team—but I remember this one particular time for a reason. 

After we got to the game, I did what most eight-year-olds do at a basketball game.  I went off to play with my friends.  Eventually the game got over, everybody started leaving, and I went to find my parents so we could go home.  I got near the exit, where I thought they’d have to come, but I never saw them.  Either they went out a different way, or I just missed them somehow.

Once I realized that, I went out to where I knew the car was parked.  As I approached it, I saw the car start to move.  I thought Dad was just playing a trick on me, pretending to leave to make me scared, but the car kept going.  I started running after it, but apparently Dad did not check the rear-view mirror and did not see me.  The tail lights got smaller, and eventually disappeared.  I had been left behind.

Well, they did not do it on purpose, of course.  When they did not see me, they figured I’d gone home with my brother.  My brother, of course, figured I was going home with my folks.  It was just a mistake.  I probably should’ve been smart enough to figure that out, and if I’d stopped to think, maybe I would’ve been.  At the moment, though, all I could feel was fear.  There I was, eight years old, left alone on the mean streets of Delmont.

It all worked out, of course.  I walked to a friend’s house, they called my parents, and they came and got me.  I probably got some sort of a lecture about not wandering off, but I really don’t remember that part.  I just remember how scared I was when I thought I was lost, and how relieved I was when my parents came and I was found.

That’s not the only time in my life I’ve felt lost and alone.  It’s happened to me several times at various points along the journey of life.  I’ll bet it’s happened to you, too.  That’s why these stories Jesus tells about a lost sheep and a lost coin resonate so well with us.  Most of us know what it’s like to be lost, and most of us know what it’s like to be found, too.

As I was thinking about these stories Jesus told, there were a couple of things that struck me about it.  One of them is how persistently the lost item is looked for.  The searcher never gives up.  In fact, it looks like it never even occurs to the searcher to give up.  Listen to how Jesus put this:  the man who lost a sheep will “go after the lost sheep until he finds it.”  The woman who lost a coin will “search carefully until she finds it.” 

Think about that.  They search until they find it.  They don’t just search for a little while and then quit.  They don’t just check a few likely places and when they cannot find what they’re looking for go on about their business.  They look until they find it.  It does not matter where they have to go.  It does not matter what they have to do.  It does not matter how long it takes.  It does not matter what else they might have going on.  They look until they find it.

That’s how it is with God when we get lost.  God will look for us, and God will keep looking until God finds us.  It does not matter where God has to go to find us.  It does not matter what God has to do to find us.  It does not matter how long it takes for God to find us.  It does not matter what else God might have to do.  God will look for us until God finds us.

God does that for the same reason the man looks for the lost sheep until he finds it, and the same reason the woman looks for the coin until she finds it.  God does that because each one of us is that important to God.

Maybe you wonder sometimes, why are we that important to God?  I mean, God is so much bigger and more powerful than we are.  Why should God care about us so much?

Well, think of that story of my getting left behind in Delmont.  Suppose I had not thought to go to a friend’s house.  Suppose, instead, I had just started aimlessly wandering those mean streets of Delmont.  What do you think my folks would’ve done?  They’d have gotten back to Delmont as fast as they could.  They’d have looked everywhere they could think of.  They’d have gone to everyone in town to ask if they’d seen me.  They’d have gotten the police involved.  They’d have done everything they could possibly do to find me.

Well, that’s obvious, I suppose, but why?  Why should they have done that?  I mean, my parents were so much bigger and more powerful than I was.  Why should they care about me so much?

Of course, you know the answer.  It’s because I’m their son.  That’s all the reason they needed.  It did not matter that they were bigger and more powerful.  In fact, that made them care about me even more.  They knew I could never make it on my own.  They knew I needed them to take care of me.  Because I’m their son, they were going to do everything they could to take care of me.  In fact, all these years later, Mom still worries about me and wants to know that I’m okay, just because I’m her son.

You and I are God’s children.  That’s all the reason God needs to care about us.  It does not matter that God is so much bigger and more powerful than we are.  In fact, that makes God care about us even more.  God knows you and I can never make it on our own.  God knows we need God to take care of us.  God takes care of us through our whole lives, because we’re God’s children.

Remember, though, I said there were two things about this story that struck me.  Here’s the other one.  The man will look for the sheep until he finds it, but what if the sheep decided it did not want to be found?  What if the sheep purposely hid from the shepherd?  What if every time the shepherd got close to finding the sheep, the sheep ran farther away?  Or, what if the shepherd found the sheep, only to have the sheep run away again?

            Sadly, that’s what we do sometimes.  We deliberately keep ourselves from God.  And the thing is that God allows us to do that.  God gives us free will.  God will never give up on us, and God will keep trying to get us to come back, but God will not force us.  God allows us the power to separate ourselves from God if that’s what we choose to do.

It’s such a sad thing when we do that.  It’s tragic, really.  It’s tragic in the eternal sense, of course, but it’s also tragic right here on earth.  God wants so much to take care of us.  God wants so much to help us.  We don’t even have to do anything, really.  All we have to do is stop resisting, stop hiding, and stop running, and let God find us.

If that’s what anyone here has been doing, why not stop?  Why not just stop where you are, turn around, and wait for God to find you?  It probably won’t even take very long.  And if you know someone who’s been doing that, try to get them to stop.  I mean, don’t try to force them, don’t try to threaten them or anything like that.  Just ask them to stop, turn around, and wait for God to find them.  After all, God already knows where they are.  All we need to do is stop resisting, stop hiding, and stop running.  All we need to do is turn around, and there God will be.

Jesus said there is a huge celebration in heaven and among the angels when just one person who was lost finally allows themselves to be found.  Let’s find a way to help kick off a party in heaven today!

The Unfair God

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on November 6, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 20:1-16.

            This story raises one of the questions that we always struggle with when we think about God.  Is God fair?

           We like to think God so.  After all, it would be pretty hard to love a god who was not fair, right?  We might respect the power of such a god, and we might serve such a god out of fear, but we would not love a god who was not fair.

           On the other hand, we see a lot of things that happen in this world that don’t seem fair to us.  Someone who seems to have lived their whole life serving God and loving God is stricken with cancer, or is killed in a car accident.  How’s that fair?  A tornado comes along and wipes out a town.  Is that fair?  Some people are born into wealth and freedom, and others are born into poverty and servitude.  Is that fair?

           In our Bible reading for tonight, Jesus tells a story about how God treats people that may not seem fair to us.  We have four groups of people who all work for a farmer.  One group works all day, one group works all afternoon, one group works part of the afternoon, and one group works for about an hour.  At the end of the day, they line up to get paid, and they all get paid the same amount. 

The ones who worked all day were upset.  We can understand why.  Here they were working all day, manual labor, in the hot sun.  Then, here come are these other people, who only worked for an hour, and they get the exact same amount.  That does not seem fair, does it?

           Well, first, we need to remember is that Jesus did not tell this story as an example of good economic policy.  The first words of the story are “the kingdom of heaven is like…”  Jesus told this story to help us understand God and heaven, not economics.

           What Jesus is trying to tell us is that there are no differences between people in heaven.  It does not matter whether we grow up in the faith, whether we accept Jesus as our Savior as children, as young adults, when we’re middle aged, or at the end of our life.  I mean, it matters as far as how we live our lives and what we do.  It matters as far as the impact our lives make on others and on society.  Jesus’ point, though, is that it does not matter as far as whether we get into heaven.  All that matters is that we accept Jesus as our Savior at some point in our lives.

           But you know, sometimes that does not seem fair, either.  Why should someone who has believed in Jesus all their life, and who has tried to be a good person and do what’s right, be on no better footing in heaven than someone who lied and cheated and stole all their lives and then came to believe at the last minute?  It’s not necessarily that we think those late-comers should be kept out of heaven, but it just does not seem right to us that someone who hurt all kinds of people in their life on earth, and then, finally, after years and years of bad behavior, finally saw the error of his or her ways, should get just as much privilege in heaven as someone who followed the rules his or her whole life.

           In that way, this story really has something in common with the story of the prodigal son.  Because that’s exactly how the older brother felt, right?  He felt cheated.  He felt like he’d been dealt with unfairly.  He did not necessarily want his brother kicked out of the house, but he did not want Dad to throw a big party for him, either.  He did not see why his brother and he should be on an equal footing.  The younger brother had been irresponsible and wasted everything, while the older brother had been responsible and done his duty.  How was that fair?

          What that question shows, I think, is that how humans look at fairness and how God looks at fairness are two entirely different things.  Humans tend to look at fairness as a comparative thing.  We compare what we have with what other people have.  We compare the way we’re treated with the way other people are treated.  We compare our circumstances to the circumstances of other people.  And if that comparison leaves us feeling like we’re not doing as well as we think we should be, we get upset.  We say, “That’s not fair.”

           Jesus points out the trouble we run into when we look at it that way.  Listen to what he tells us God’s viewpoint on that is.  He says, “I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.  Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?  Or are you envious because I am generous?”

           That’s what happens we will look at fairness as a comparison with other people.  We try to put limits on God’s generosity and God’s goodness.  We tell God it’s not right if it seems like God has given more to some people, or if God gives gifts to people who don’t “deserve” them.  We get envious of people we think have gotten gifts from God, especially if their gifts seem better than our gifts or if we’ve decided they don’t deserve those gifts.

           See, when we look at fairness as a comparison with others, we’re always going to run into a problem.  There’s always going to be somebody who we think is better off than we are.  There will always be someone who has more money than we do, or who has a better family situation than we have, or who has more friends than we do, or who just generally seems to have gotten a better deal from life than we have.  Always.  It does not matter who we are.  I suspect even Bill Gates has somebody he looks at and thinks sometimes, “I wish I could have that life.”  Any time we compare our lives with others, we’re going to find someone we can envy.

           Jesus tells us that’s not how God looks at fairness.  God looks at fairness as a one-to-one relationship.  Fairness is a relationship between us and God.  Other people have nothing to do with it.  

So, looking at that one-to-one relationship between us and God, is God fair?  Well, actually, no.  I don’t think so.  Here’s why I say that.  Think about how this relationship between God and us works.  On one side, you have God.  God, who is all-powerful.  God who is all-wise.  God, who is perfect.  Then, on the other side you have us, who are…not. 

We are not all-powerful, although sometimes we like to think we are.  We are not wise, although we like to think that, too.  We’re certainly not perfect.  As Paul wrote, we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God.

           Given who God is, and given who we are, how would a “fair” god treat us?  Not very well, I suspect.  A “fair” god would give us what we deserve.  A “fair” god would punish us for our sins.

           Yet, that’s not what God does.  This all-loving, all-merciful, completely unfair God does not give us what we deserve.  God gives us much better than we deserve.  God says that if we have faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, then God will have mercy on us, forgive our sins, and allow us into heaven.  It does not matter what we’ve done.  It does not matter who we’ve hurt.  It does not how long we’ve hurt them.  If we accept Jesus as our Savior, if we ask God to forgive our sins, God will do just that.  It’s not “fair” at all.  It’s just wonderful and amazing.

           Sometimes when things go wrong, we think God is not fair.  That’s not it.  It’s not the times when things go wrong that God is not fair.  It’s the times when things go right.  It’s the times when we’re scared of something, and then everything turns out to be okay.  It’s the times when we’re sick and get well.  It’s the times when we jam on our brakes and avoid the car accident.  It’s the times when there’s all kinds of lightning and thunder and wind, but nothing gets destroyed and nobody gets hurt.  Those are the times when God is not fair.  Those are the times when God does not give us what we deserve, but instead gives us something better than what we deserve.  And, of course, there’s what we just talked about, the greatest unfairness of all, that God would take lowly sinners like us and, as long as we believe in Jesus as our Savior, allow us into heaven.

           It’s natural to question God when things don’t go the way we think they should.  God understands why we do that, and God won’t get mad at us for it.  We’ll be happier, though, if instead of blaming God when things go wrong, we instead think of all the things that went right.  Then, we can praise God for all the wonderful, incredible, unfair blessings God gives us.