What God Has Prepared

The Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on May 28, 2023.  The Bible verses used are 1 Corinthians 2:1-16.

I’ve spent almost my whole life in small towns.  I grew up in one, went to school in one, and have worked in a few.  And as I think you know, Wanda and I both love small towns.  The only time we did not live in a small town is the three years we spent in the Sioux City area.  And don’t get me wrong, the people there treated us very well.  We still here from them, and we still consider some of them friends.  

But even so, we were very happy when we got the chance to come here and come back to small-town living again.  We love the things that go on in small towns.  We love the people who live in small towns.  We love the way you can get involved in things in a small town.  That’s not necessarily good or bad--it’s just who we are and what we like.

But the thing is, there sometimes is a mindset that we get into in small towns.  And it’s understandable, and sometimes I do it, too, but it’s important that we recognize it.  It’s a mindset that allows us to be defined by our limitations.  We start thinking about all the things we cannot do, rather than all the things we can do.

It happens in the community.  We think, “Well, we’re just a small town.  We don’t have very many people or very much money.  We cannot do a whole lot.”  It happens in the church.  We think, “Well, we’re just a small church.  We don’t have much money.  We really cannot do a whole lot.”  It happens in our personal lives, too.  We think, “Well, I’m only one person.  I don’t have much money or much power.  I really cannot do a whole lot.”

I don’t mean to sound critical, because it’s perfectly understandable why this happens.  But when we start to think this way, we need to remember our Bible reading for today.  We especially need to remember the ninth verse:  “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived--those things God has prepared for those who love him.”

That’s a really profound verse.  It’s the antidote to being defined by our limitations.  Because our God, the God we worship, the God we love, the God we are trying to be faithful to, has no limitations.  God’s power is unlimited, just like God’s love is unlimited.  And that means there’s no limit to what you can and I can do when we rely on God’s power and on God’s love.

Do we need to be realistic about that?  Well, yes, to an extent.  But only to an extent.  Because God’s view of what’s realistic could be a lot different from ours.  When Wanda and I decided that I would leave the law practice at age forty-seven and go to seminary with the idea of becoming a pastor, we talked to a lot of people who thought that was not realistic.  Some of them were in my own family.  Some people thought I was going through a mid-life crisis or something.  Now, don’t get me wrong--it’s not that they did not love us or that they did not care about us or anything like that.  Once we showed we were determined to head down this path, some of those people became our biggest supporters.  It’s just that they did not think what we were planning to do was realistic.  And in human terms, maybe it was not.  But it was what God was calling us to do, and so we trusted that it even if it did not seem realistic in human terms, it was realistic in God’s eyes.

Now, there are still are certain realities we have to deal with, of course.  But the thing is that God understands that.  God is not going to ask us to do things unless God has equipped us to do them.  God is not going to ask me to be an auto mechanic, or a basketball player, or any of a thousand other things that God has not given me the talent to do.  God knows--better than we do, really--the talents and abilities God has given us.  God is not going to ask us to do things that we clearly are unable to do.

But at the same time, because God knows our talents and abilities, God knows that each of us has talents and abilities we’ve never used.  Maybe we’ve never had the self-confidence.  Maybe we’ve never had the chance.  Maybe it just never occurred to us that we might have that talent or that ability.  

Or, maybe we’ve tried to develop that talent or ability on our own, rather than asking for God’s help.  Because remember who this God we love is.  This is the God who created the universe out of nothing.  This is the God who made it rain for forty days and forty nights.  This is the God who produced food for the Israelites when they were starving in the desert.  This is the God for whom the impossible is possible.  In fact, this is the God for whom the impossible is not even hard.

              And that’s where our bible verse comes into it.  God has prepared things for us that are beyond our ability to understand.  God has prepared things for us that no eye has ever seen.  God has prepared things for us that no ear has ever heard.  God has prepared things for us that no human mind has ever conceived of.

            So while we need to be realistic about our limitations, we should not place those same limitations on God.  We serve a God who is not limited by anything except God’s own decisions about what’s right and what’s wrong.  The only limitations God has are the ones God creates.  God can, literally, do anything God chooses to do.  We should not place limitations on God.

            And we also should not place limitations on what we can do with God’s help.  Because that’s simply another way of placing limitations on God, the same God we just said had no limitations other than the ones God creates.  Our verse says that God has things beyond our imagination planned for those who love God.  If you love God, that means you.  And, it means me.

            If you doubt this, look back at your life.  Can you think of a time you did something you did not think you could do?  I suspect you can.  If you really think about it, you can think of a time where you were faced with a situation, and you were not sure what to do, but you knew you had to do something.  And so you did, and you discovered you could do figure out the right thing to do, and that you could do it.  Almost all of us have times like that.

            We can think of times like that in our churches, too.  Look at the things our churches have accomplished.  We have active church school programs in Onida and Gettysburg.  Who’d have thought a little church like this could do that?  The Gettysburg church built an addition to the church that cost around three quarters of a million dollars and paid for it in four years.  Who’d have thought a little church could do that?  We have active United Methodist Women’s groups that serve funerals and raise money for missions and do all kinds of important work.  Who’d have thought a little church could do that?  And that’s just scratching the surface.  We could go on and on and on with things that all of our churches have done, things that most people would not have thought a little church could do.

            And in fact, if we had tried to do them by ourselves, we could not have done them.  But we did not do them by ourselves.  We did them with the power of God.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I know there are a lot of people who have worked very hard to make all of those things happen.  But there have also been a lot of people who have prayed very hard to make those things happen.  A lot of them, of course, were the same people.  We went past the limitations that a lot of people would’ve seen, and instead decided to rely on God’s unlimited power.

            So, what else could we do?  What else could God have planned for us?  Because I believe that God is just getting started around here.  I think there are all kinds of things God has planned for us.  Things that no eye has seen, that no ear has heard.  Things that our human minds have not yet conceived.  God has those things prepared and planned for each of the churches of the Wheatland Parish.

            I don’t know what those things are.  I don’t know when those things are going to happen.  But I’m convinced that they are.  And I really believe they’re going to start happening fairly soon.  Some of you may remember that several years ago, I said that I believed God was going to do something special here in the churches of the Wheatland Parish.  After I said that, our churches went through some struggles.  But I remain convinced that God is going to do something special here in the churches of the Wheatland Parish.  I think, through those struggles, God was laying the groundwork for what God is going to do.  

Some would say that the things I mentioned earlier are special things, and they are.  But I think there’s more to come.  In fact, I think there’s a lot more to come.  Again, I think God is just getting started here.  Again, I’m not putting a timeline on when it’s going to happen.  But I do believe that, at some point in the future, we’re going to look back on where we were and where we are and be amazed at all the things God has done.

Again, “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived--those things God has prepared for those who love him.”  I know that the people of the Wheatland Parish love God.  So let’s open ourselves up to what God wants to do here.  When we have an idea, or when a thought strikes us, or when we see something start to happen, let’s be open to it.  When God stirs something in us, let’s try it and see where it goes.  Let’s not put limitations on ourselves.  Let’s not put limitations on God, either.  Let’s free ourselves to imagine.  Let’s free ourselves to dream.  And let’s free ourselves trust God.  

            God is not restricted by artificial limitations.  God is not restricted by what we think is realistic, either.  So let’s stay open.  Let’s keep our minds open.  Most of all, let’s keep our hearts open.  God gives each one of us all kinds of chances to serve God.  God gives our churches all kinds of chances to serve God.  Sometimes, those ways to serve are things we never dreamed of.  But if we stay open, we can notice them.  And if we trust God, we can follow through on them.  We can stop putting limitations on ourselves.  Instead, we can trust the leading of God.  God has all kinds of things prepared, things we’ve never dreamed of.  And nothing is impossible for God.

 

The Why

The Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on May 21, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Hebrews 2:10-18.

Every year, at Christmastime, we tell the Christmas story.  And we should, of course.  But you know, sometimes, when we tell that story, we get a little too bogged down in the details.  We love to hear about the Joseph and Mary being turned away from the inn and going out to the stable.  We love to sing about how Jesus was born there and was placed in a manger.  And then we love the part about the angels and the shepherds and the star and the wise men.

            And that’s all great.  I’m not criticizing it at all.  But the thing is that we sometimes focus too much on the “what” of the story.  What we don’t focus on enough, sometimes, is the “why”.  Why did God do this?  Why did God send Jesus, the divine Son, to earth in the first place?  Why, in short, is this story such a big deal to us?  

The book of Hebrews tells us why.  You know, Hebrews is really a remarkable book.  Someday we may do a sermon series on it, because there’s a lot of really good stuff in it.  We don’t actually know who wrote it.  Traditionally it was attributed to the Apostle Paul, and some sources still give him credit for it, but most scholars don’t think he actually wrote it.  We don’t know who did.  But whoever it was, was an excellent writer, because he or she could say an awful lot in just a few words.

Look at the first sentence of our reading for today.  “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.”

Let’s break that down.  “God, for whom and through whom everything exists”.  Think about that.  We talk a lot, as Christians about how everything was created by God.  But Hebrews does not just say that it is through God that everything was created.  It also says that everything was created for God.

In other words, all of creation exists for God.  It exists to give glory to God.  Everything.  The animals.  The birds.  The trees.  The rocks.  The snow.  The sky.  All of creation exists for the glory of God.  That’s why you’ll read things in the psalms like “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.”  That’s in Psalm 19.  “Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult and everything in it!  Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord.”  That’s in Psalm 96.  We read something similar in Psalm 98, too.  And there are lots of other examples.  “God, for whom...everything exists.”  All of creation exists for the glory of God.

And that includes you.  And it includes me.  You and I exist for the glory of God.  And sometimes, we try to give glory to God.  And sometimes we even succeed.  But of course, you and I are fallen, broken, sinful people.  We may succeed in giving glory to God sometimes, but there are a lot of times when we fail.  As the Apostle Paul says in Romans Three, Twenty-three, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

So God’s goal, as the first phrase in our reading says, was to “bring many sons and daughters to glory.”  Now, in using that word many, I don’t think the writer was saying that God purposely wanted to exclude some.  I have no doubt that God would like to bring all human beings to glory.  But God knew that some people were going to reject him.  The only way to avoid that would be for God to take away our free will, to take away our ability to make our own choices, and God does not do that.  So, God knew that all human beings were not going to be brought to glory.  But God still wanted to bring, “many” to glory, as many as possible.

So, what was the best way, the “fitting” way, as our reading from Hebrews puts it, for God to do this?  It was to become one of us.  Jesus, “God the Son”, would become human.

And it’s important that we understand that.  Jesus was, in fact, fully human.  Yes, he was still the divine Son of God.  But he was also fully human.  As verse seventeen of our reading for today says, he was “made like them, fully human in every way.”  

There are a lot of things that means, but one of them is that when Jesus died on the cross, he truly did experience death.  Jesus truly died, just as you and I will die.  And that had to happen, because the purpose for Jesus coming was, as it also says in verse seventeen, to “make atonement for the sins of the people.”  Jesus, by dying on the cross, took the punishment that should go to us for our sins.

But there’s more to it than that.  I mean, that would be awesome enough, to have our sins forgiven by the death of Jesus, but there’s more to it than that.  Go back to verse eleven.  Listen to what it says.  “Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

Think about that.  The one who makes people holy--Jesus--and those who are made holy--you and me, through our faith in Jesus--are of the same family.  Jesus is not ashamed to call us, you and me, brothers and sisters.

Is that not incredible?  By the life and death of Jesus Christ, you and I are on the same level as Jesus himself.  We are his brothers and sisters.  Jesus himself calls us that.  In verse twelve, Jesus is quoted as saying to God, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters.”  That’s you and me.  

You and I are Jesus’ brothers and sisters.  There’s no way we deserve that.  There’s no way we’re worthy of it.  I mean, you and I don’t belong in the same area code with Jesus Christ.  And yet, Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters.  Jesus, who was and is completely holy, makes us holy, too.  And it’s all because God, out of God’s tremendous, unbelievable love for us, wanted to bring us, you and me, to glory.

That’s the why.  That’s why Jesus came to earth as a human being.  He could not come as an angel because he did not come to save angels.  He could not come as a spirit because he did not come to save spirits.  Jesus came as a human being because he came to save human beings.

Listen to how the letter to the Hebrews sums it up:

For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.  Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

This was such an incredible sacrifice Jesus made.  Think of it:  to give up his life in heaven.  To give up, even if temporarily, his part in the trinity.  To sacrifice all that, in order to save us.  And to come as someone who, as the letter to the Hebrews says, was fully human in every way.  To start out as a baby, completely helpless.  To be a toddler.  To have to learn how to walk and talk and use a spoon and learn all the things that little kids have to learn.  To grow, to change.  To go through being a young person, learning about the world.  To be a teenager, to be a young adult.  To learn a trade.  To learn how to find his place in society.  And then, eventually, to leave home, to leave his family, to leave the only life on earth he’d ever known, so that he could truly be the Savior that he was sent here to be.  And then, ultimately, to be killed, murdered, to take the punishment that should have gone to us for our sins.

That is love.  That is incredible love.  That’s a love beyond our ability to understand love.  And it’s the love God has for you and for me and for everyone.

The Christmas story is an awesome story.  But let’s go beyond the “what” of the Christmas story.  Let’s remember the “why”.  And let’s be grateful to God every single day of our lives, and give glory to God every single day of our lives, for the incredible love that God has for us.

 

Reverent Submission

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on May 21, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Hebrews 5:1-10.

            When you think about the word “sin”, what do you think of?

            There are a lot of sins, of course.  And we all commit at least some of them because, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans Chapter Three, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  But it seems like there are some sins we think about and talk about a lot, and others that we don’t think or talk about very much at all.

            So what sins do we think of?  Sexual sins, maybe.  Greed.  Violence.  Maybe bad language, taking the Lord’s name in vain.  

But you know, there are some sins we hardly ever think of.  Here are a couple of them.  Arrogance and self-righteousness.

For some reason, we don’t think about those sins very much.  We don’t talk about them very much, either.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe they just don’t grab people’s attention the way some of those others do.  Maybe you cannot get ratings or headlines talking about arrogance and self-righteousness, the way you can talking about some of those other things, I don’t know.

But maybe, one of the reasons we don’t talk about arrogance and self-righteousness is because we have a really hard time seeing it in ourselves.  And we also have a hard time seeing it in people who agree with us.  It’s easy for us to see it in people who don’t agree with us.  If we’re in some kind of debate or argument about something–especially if it’s a political something–it’s really easy for us to see the other side as being arrogant and self-righteous.  But not our side.  We’re not like that at all.  We’re just–right–and everyone should be able to see how right we are.  And if they cannot see it, well, they’re just stupid.  Or arrogant.  Or self-righteous.

The Bible has a lot of things to say about arrogance and self-righteousness.  The prophets talked about it over and over again.  They told people repeatedly that the reason God was going to abandon them, or already had abandoned them, was because of their arrogance.  They had turned away from God.  They had decided they knew better than God, and so they went their own way.  And God was going to make them deal with the consequences of that.

And when Jesus got upset with the Pharisees, what did he criticize them for?  Their arrogance.  Their self-righteousness.  Jesus even told a story about a Pharisee who stood on the street corner and loudly thanked God because of how great and wonderful the Pharisee was, how he was so much better than all the other people around him.  And he said that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Our reading for today points out how Jesus did not exalt Himself, but humbled Himself, being obedient to God.  Right there, that should be a lesson to us against arrogance and self-righteousness.  Because, after all, if there was ever someone who walked on earth who was entitled to exalt Himself, it would be Jesus, right?  This is the divine Son of God we’re talking about here.  This is the Messiah.  This is the one who can work miracles:  heal people, drive out demons, even raise people from the dead.  If there was ever someone who was entitled to be self-righteous, even arrogant, it would be Jesus Christ.

But He was not.  The letter to the Hebrews describes Jesus as “the great high priest”, but it reminds us that this was not a title Jesus took for Himself.  This was a title given to Him by God the Father.  And then it says this:  “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission.”

Think about that.  Again, we’re talking about the divine Son of God here.  The One who was with God the Father at the creation of the world.  The One who voluntarily came to earth to save us from having to take the consequences for our sins.  If anyone’s prayers would be automatically heard by God, it would be Jesus Christ’s prayers, don’t you think?  And yet, our reading says the reason Jesus’ prayers were heard was “because of His reverent submission.”

That makes me think about how I pray.  Maybe we should all think about that.  When we pray, do we pray with “reverent submission”?  Do we even know what it means, to pray with reverent submission?

Reverent submission, from what I’ve read, means a few things.  First, it means showing extreme respect for God.  Second, it means recognizing our complete and continual dependence on God.  Third, it means a complete and total surrender of our will to God’s will.

So again, do we pray with reverent submission?  Maybe you do.  I hope you do.  But I have to admit that too often, I don’t.  And if we don’t, maybe we should not be so surprised when God does not do what we want God to do.

Do we show an attitude of extreme respect for God?  Or do we just expect that God will be there to hear our prayer, no matter how we pray and no matter when we pray?  Now, don’t get me wrong.  God is always there for us.  But do we take that for granted?  Or are we deeply grateful that we can go to God, no matter what our situation is, and God will be there for us?  

We need to remember that this is the almighty, all-powerful God we’re praying to.  This is the God who created the entire universe just by speaking a word.  We need to treat that God with extreme respect.  I mean, if even Jesus treated God the Father that way, I think you and I probably need to do that, too.

When we pray, do we recognize our complete and continual dependence on God?  Maybe we do when we’re in trouble, when we’re praying for God to get us out of a tight spot or something.  But do we do it at other times?  When things are going well, do we still recognize our complete and continual dependence on God?  Or, again, do we start to take God for granted?  Do we start to assume that, because things are going well now, they always will go well?  Do we think that because, after all, we’re Christians, God owes it to us to help us and do what we want?

Again, this is the almighty, all-powerful God we’re praying to.  Even Jesus, who could do miracles and had more power than you or I could ever dream of having, recognized his complete and continual dependence on God the Father.  He knew that any power He had, any power He would ever have, had been granted to Him from God.  Again, if Jesus treated God the Father that way, I think you and I probably should, as well.

And when we pray, is our attitude one of complete and total submission to God’s will?  Or are we really trying to tell God what to do and how to do it?  And when God does not do things our way, do we get disappointed or even upset with God?  Do we wonder what’s wrong with God, that God did not do things the way we wanted God to do them?

Again, it comes down to recognizing that this is the almighty, all-powerful God that we’re talking to.  God, who exists in the past, the present, and the future all at the same time.  God, who knows more about right and wrong than you and I ever could.  God, who not only knows the future, but knows our future, and knows what’s best for us better than we ever will.  Again, if Jesus Christ Himself submitted to God’s will, I think you and I probably need to, too.

But one more thing.  If we’ve have not been doing this very well, if we have not been praying with reverent submission, it’s not the end of the world.  We can work on it.  We can learn.  Because our reading today also said this about Jesus:  “Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered.”

Even Jesus, the divine Son of God, had to learn this while He was on earth.  Because Jesus, while He was fully divine, was also fully human.  And being fully human, Jesus dealt with all the things you and I deal with.  He had to overcome the things you and I need to overcome.  That tells me that even Jesus, Himself, had to overcome a tendency to arrogance and self-righteousness.  As our reading says, He had to learn to be obedient to God.

And He did.  Jesus was able overcome that human tendency to arrogance and self-righteousness.  And that gives us hope that you and I can overcome it, too.

And the good news is that we don’t have to do it alone.  Jesus will help us.  Because Jesus is the great high priest, and as our reading also says, the high priest represents us before God.  Jesus is there for us.  Jesus is working with us.  Jesus will show us the way to overcome our arrogance and self-righteousness.  And if we follow Him, if we obey Him, we will overcome it.

Jesus’ prayers were heard because He prayed with reverent submission.  When you and I pray with reverent submission, our prayers will be heard, too.  The almighty, all-powerful God will hear us.  And He will respond, in His way and in His time.  We can always count on God.

 

It Can't Be Stopped!

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, May 14, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 13:31-35.

            When you hear the phrase “the kingdom of heaven”, what do you think of?

            I suspect that a lot of us think of the place believers in Jesus Christ go when we die.  I don’t know how you picture that.  The cartoon version of it, of course, is people with wings sitting on clouds.  That’s probably not what heaven is really like, of course.  Maybe you picture it as a place where the streets are paved with gold, as Revelation says.  A lot of us picture being with all of our loved ones who’ve passed before us.  And of course, in heaven we’ll be in the presence of the Lord.

            But the thing is, when Jesus talked about “the kingdom of heaven”, I don’t think that’s what he was talking about.  For Jesus, “the kingdom of heaven” is not the place believers in Him go when we die.  For Jesus, the kingdom of heaven was not something that was in some far off place.  It was something that was coming to earth.  In fact, Jesus said in Luke Seventeen that the kingdom of heaven is not something that can be observed.  It’s not something that you can say, “Here it is” or “there it is”.  Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is in your midst.

            Now, don’t misunderstand me.  I do believe heaven is a real place, and that believers in Jesus Christ do go there when we die.  The point is that Jesus was talking about something different from that when he talked about “the kingdom of heaven”.  For Jesus, “the kingdom of heaven” is something that exists on earth.  And we need to know that to make sense of the parables Jesus told in our reading for today.

            Jesus gives two examples of what the kingdom of heaven is like.  The first is the mustard seed.  A mustard seed is a very, very small seed.  Now, technically, it’s not the smallest seed in the world, but it’s the smallest seed that the people Jesus was talking to would’ve know about.  And Jesus goes on to say that this small seed grows into something so large that birds can sit in its branches.  

            The second example Jesus gives is yeast.  Jesus says that when you take a little bit of yeast, and mix it with flour, it’ll eventually work through all the dough.  There won’t be any part of the flour that is not affected by that yeast.

            So, in both cases, we start with something very small.  And that very small thing has a huge effect on everything around it.

            And here’s another thing about this–once that small things starts working, there’s really no stopping it.  Once the mustard seed starts to grow, you cannot stop it from growing, short of uprooting the whole plant and throwing it away.  Once the yeast starts working in the flour, you cannot stop it, short of just throwing it all out.  Once these small things start their work, they continues its work.  It’s inevitable.  There are things you can do to help it along–you can give the mustard seed proper water and fertilizer and such–but again, short of intentionally destroying it you cannot stop it from growing,

            So, what’s the lesson we’re supposed to take from this?  What does this mean for you and me as we live our lives?

            Well, let’s think about this.  Jesus, obviously, started the movement now called Christianity while he was on earth.  And it started out very small.  Yes, there were times when Jesus drew huge crowds while He was on earth.  But as you know, in the end, all those people abandoned Him.  Some of them even called for His death.  Christianity began as a very small thing.

            And even in the time after Jesus’ death, during the writing of Paul’s letters and the other parts of the New Testament, Christianity was still a small thing.  It was growing, to be sure.  But it was still small.  It was not anywhere near a majority, even in the parts of the world where it existed.  A lot of people looked at Christians as this small, strange sect.  It was definitely not a mainstream organization at that point.  People were curious about them, sometimes, but for the most part, Christians were a bunch of fringe people who were really not even worth thinking about very much.

            And yet, Christianity grew.  It was inevitable that it would grow, because it had been planted by God.  There was nothing anybody could do to stop it.  There were things the early Christians could do to help it along, and they tried to do those things.  They tried to spread the word about Jesus to everyone they could.  And those things did help.  But you know, if the early Christians had done nothing–if Peter had not stood up to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, if Paul had not gone on his missionary journeys–Christianity would still have grown.  God would have found another way.  There was nothing anybody could do to stop the growth of the Christian faith.  God had started the process, and nobody could stop what God had started.

            And that’s still true today.  You know, when we look at our world, it’s easy to get discouraged.  We see the world more and more turning away from God.  We see our country turning more and more away from God.  And we feel like there’s nothing we can do about it.  Christians are already a minority group in some ways, and it looks like that will become true more and more as time goes on.  It seems like the world will just keep turning more and more away from God.

            And maybe it will, for a while.  But not forever.  Because what God has started is still going to happen.  It’s inevitable.  There’s nothing anybody can do to stop it.  That mustard seed that God planted is still growing.  That yeast that God put in the dough is still doing its work.  

            We may not see it now.  That’s okay.  When a mustard seed is planted in the ground, you don’t see it growing right away.  You check on it the first day and–nothing.  You check it on the second day and–nothing.  You check it after a week and–still nothing.  

            But through all that time, the mustard seed is still growing.  You cannot see it, but it is still growing.  And eventually, when you go out to check on it, you see something.  You see a little growth.  And later, you see a little more.  And in time, that mustard seed has grown into the full-grown plant that it was always going to be.

            That’s how it is with the Christian faith.  We may not see much happening with Christianity right now, and what we do see may not always be good.  But it’s okay.  Eventually, we are going to see something.  And then, we’ll see more.  And in time, we’ll see Christianity full-grown, the way God intends it to be, the way it was always going to be.

            There’s nothing anyone can do to stop Christianity.  There’s nothing anyone can do to stop the kingdom of heaven.  But there are a couple of things you and I can do to help it along.

            One of those things is simply to continue to be faithful to God.  We can continue to serve God.  We can continue to love God and to love others.  We can continue to keep our faith in Jesus Christ strong.  We can continue to live the way followers of Jesus Christ are supposed to live.

            And just that will help the kingdom of heaven along more than we might think.  Because, as the world does turn away from Christ, those of us who still follow Him are going to be noticed more and more.  People are going to see what we do.  They’re going to see how we live.  And they’re going to be curious about it.  They’ll wonder what’s up with those people who call themselves Christians.  Why do they seem to be happier than I am?  Why do they seem to be more at peace than I am?  What do they have that I don’t have?  People are going to be curious, and some of them are going to want to know more.

            And that brings us to the other thing we can do.  We can spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Not by getting in people’s faces about it.  But by gently, calmly, even joyfully, explaining who Jesus Christ is.  Explaining that Jesus loves them.  Explaining that salvation can be found through faith in Jesus Christ.

            Everyone won’t want to hear it.  Everyone who hears it won’t believe.  As we’ve said before, that happened to Jesus, too, and you and I certainly cannot expect to do better than Jesus did.  But some people will want to hear it.  And some people will believe.  And if we can play a role in bringing even one person to faith, it will be worth it.  Jesus told us in Luke Chapter Fifteen about the rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.  If we could play even a small part in bringing about that rejoicing, that would be an incredibly awesome thing to do.

            The kingdom of heaven is in our midst.  No matter what things may look like, that statement remains true.  It’s inevitable.  God has already decided it, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.  But let’s do what we can to help it along.  Let’s live the way followers of Jesus Christ are supposed to live.  And let’s do what we can to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Let’s do what we can to bring about that rejoicing in heaven.

 

Stand Firm

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on May 7, 2023.  The Bible verses used are 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.

            If you pay attention to the news, it’s easy to believe that Christianity is in a state of decline.  It seems like every month, if not more often, there’s a poll someplace that has negative news about Christianity.  There are fewer people who believe in God, fewer people who call themselves Christians, fewer people who attend church regularly.  If you believe all those polls, you’d have to think that Christianity is on a downhill slide and that there’s not much we can do to stop it.

            And if you look at society, you might conclude that’s right.  We don’t notice it so much here, in small town South Dakota, but there are places where being a Christian results in being looked down upon.  And that’s especially true if you’re open about your faith and try to share it with others.  A lot of people say they’ll tolerate your faith, as long as you keep it to yourself.  But they don’t want you to be too public with it.

            And then, too, you’ll see all kinds of pseudo-religions out there.  People whose faith can be found in Mother Earth, or karma, or in some sort of vague “spirituality”.  They believe in something, but a lot of times they, themselves, are not really sure what it is.  But whatever it is, it is not the divine Son, Jesus Christ.

            When we see that kind of thing, it’s easy to get depressed about the future of our faith.  But you know, there’s nothing really new about it.  The people of the church of Thessalonica were apparently concerned about these same things.  And Paul writes to them to tell them how to deal with it.

            Paul says they should not “become easily unsettled or alarmed” at the fact that there was false teaching out there.  They should not even be unsettled or alarmed if the people spreading that teaching claimed to be representing Paul and his associates.  He warns them not to be fooled by it, but he also tells them to not get overly upset about it, either.

            And Paul tells them why they should not get too upset about this stuff.  He says, look, we knew this was coming.  In fact, he says, I told you this was coming.  Paul says, “Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?”  He tells them, this is not unexpected.  We knew this would happen.  

            But there’s another reason the Thessalonians were not supposed to get too upset about all this.  Paul tells them that, ultimately, these false teachings and false teachers will not prevail.  It might look like they’re going to, for a while, but they will not.  Eventually, they will be defeated.  He refers to those who spread false teachers as representing someone he calls “the lawless one”.  And Paul says, “The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”

            But Paul does warn them that it’s going to be tempting to follow those false teachings.  He also says this, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.  He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie.”

            Does any of this sound familiar?  Because there are a lot of false teachings out there, and there are false teachers, too.  And a lot of those false teachings are things that sound really good.  They can be really tempting.  And if we’re not careful, we can find ourselves falling for them.

            You’ve probably heard some of them.  “Well, you know, a loving God would never allow people to go to hell.”  “Well, it really does not matter what you believe, as long as you’re sincere in your beliefs.”  “Well, all that really matters is that you be nice to people.”  “Well, you can do whatever you want, as long as it does not hurt anybody else.”   “Well, the only religion you really need is kindness.” “Well, it does not matter what you do in your personal life, as long as your public opinions are right.  Give to the right causes, support the right laws, vote the right way, and what you do or what you believe privately does not matter.”

            I’m sure most of us have heard at least some of these, are some variation of them.  And of course, this is not a comprehensive list by any means.  There are all kinds of false teachings out there.  And some of them are spread by famous people who seem like really nice, really good people.  But they’re all designed to do the same thing.  They’re designed to lead people away from God and toward something else.  Some watered down, mild, milquetoast version of niceness.  A method of living that allows us to do the things we want to do and call them okay, regardless of what God might have had to say about them.

            But again, we should not be too upset about this.  We should be aware of it, of course.  But all of this is to be expected.  Paul told us it would happen two thousand years ago.  Jesus said it would happen, too.  In fact, Jesus predicted they would come in exactly the way we’ve talked about.  In fact, if you’ve ever heard that phrase, “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, this is where it comes from.  In Matthew Chapter Seven, Verse Fifteen, he says, “Beware of false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”  

In other words, it’s just like we were saying.  These false prophets, these people who spread all these false teachings, will do it in a way that sounds really good.  They’ll sound like they’re really nice people who just want everyone to get along.  And what makes it really deceptive is that there is truth in it.  Of course God wants us to show love.  Of course God is in favor of kindness.  But Jesus did not tell us that we should all just get along.  There’s a lot more to Jesus’ message than that.

Jesus is the one who told us to go the extra mile.  Jesus is the one who told us to show love even to our enemies.  Jesus is the only who told us to pray for those who persecute us.  Jesus is the one who told us that if someone wants our coat, we should also give him our shirt.  And of course, Jesus gave us the ultimate example of doing all those things and more when he went to the cross, dying for things he had not done, dying to save us from suffering the consequences of our sins.

            So what should we do?  We should do exactly what Paul told the church at Thessalonica.  “Stand firm and hold fast to the teachings” that have been passed on to us.  In other words, stay faithful to the word of God and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            When we hear these false teachings, and when they sound really good to us, we need to go back to the Bible.  We need to ask, “Is that what the Bible says?”  “Is that what Jesus taught?”  Because, again, a lot of these false teachings do sound really good.  They sound really persuasive.  But if they don’t agree with God’s Word, if they don’t agree with the gospel of Jesus Christ, then they’re not true, no matter how good they might sound.

            You and I have access to the truth.  We need to make use of that access.  We need to make sure we are not fooled by the false teachings of the false teachers of the world.

            And of course, we need to do more than that.  We should not keep that truth to ourselves.  We need to share it with others.  We need to do what we can to keep others from being fooled by those false teachings.  After all, if they sound good to us, how much better will they sound to someone who does not have a background in Christianity?  How much better will they sound to someone who does not know what the Bible says and does not know the gospel of Jesus Christ?  

            Now, I’m not saying we need to go out and point a finger in someone’s face and try to force the gospel on them.  Jesus never did that.  What did Jesus do?  Jesus said, here’s how it is.  Here’s the truth.  You can choose to believe it and have eternal life.  Or, you can choose not to believe it and suffer the consequences.  If you have sincere questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.  But if you don’t want to believe the truth, well, that’s your choice.

            I think that’s the attitude you and I need to have.  We know the truth.  We need to share it with people.  But if they choose not to believe it, that’s their choice.  There’s not much more we can do.

            Except for one thing.  And really, it’s probably the most important thing of all.  We can pray.  We can pray that God will bless our efforts.  We can pray that God will touch people’s hearts.  We can pray that God’s Holy Spirit will break down someone’s resistance.  We can pray that God will show up for them in a way that they simply cannot deny.  We can pray that God will do what we cannot do.

            Because God can.  God can do that.  God can do anything.  In fact, that’s the only way anything is going to happen--with God.  You and I cannot bring anyone to faith by ourselves.  We can only do it if God chooses to work through us.

            There’s a lot of false teaching out there.  But don’t let that alarm you.  It’s to be expected.  Besides, we know that in the end, God is going to win.  What you and I need to do is simply stand firm and hold fast to the teachings of God and of the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  And then, we need to do what we can to share those teachings with others.  If we do that, God will take care of the rest.

 

Trust God Anyway

The message given in the Sunday morning worship services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on May 7, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:7-12.

            Do you believe God always do what we’d like God to do?

            I suspect for all of us, the answer is no.  That’s true for a few reasons, but the biggest one is probably our own experience.  We’ve all had times when we wanted God to do things, and God did not do them.  Now, sometimes, after time goes by and we can look back on a situation, we feel very fortunate that God did not do what we wanted.  We can see now that God’s plan was better than ours.  And we thank God that God did not give us what we thought we wanted.

            But there are other times when we don’t understand why God did not do what we wanted.  My guess is that we’ve all had that experience.  We’ve prayed for the healing of a loved one, for example, and they were not healed, at least not in this life.  We’ve prayed for God to help us get out of a difficult situation, and God left us in the situation.  We’ve prayed for all kinds of things, sometimes good things, sometimes things that seemed like they would be best for everyone with no possible downside to them, and God did not give us what we prayed for.

            We don’t know why.  All we can do is hold onto our faith and continue to trust.  We trust that God must have some reason for not doing what we wanted.  We trust that God knows better than we do.  We trust that God has plans and purposes we know nothing about.  We trust that God can see farther into the future than we can.  We trust that, as it says in Isaiah chapter fifty-five, God’s ways are higher than our ways and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  And we trust that God loves us, and so God must have a better plan in mind for us than the plans we have for ourselves, even if we have no clue what that plan is.

            But the thing is, what, then, do we do with our Bible reading for today?  Because Jesus seems to say that God will do what we want God to do.  Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  And then, Jesus says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

            We know that God does not always do what we want God to do.  But as Christians, we also know that Jesus’ words cannot be wrong.  So, what does Jesus mean?  What’s Jesus talking about?

            Well, first, Jesus says that if we want God to do something, we have to take some action, right?  Jesus says that if we want something to be given to us, we need to ask.  If we want to find something, we need to seek it.  If we want the door to be opened to us, we need to knock.  

            In other words, God does not just drop things into our laps.  God is willing to help us.  God wants to help us.  But God waits to be asked.  God waits for us to actively seek God’s goodness.  God does not open doors for us until we ask that they be opened.

            So that’s one thing, and it’s an important thing.  Because sometimes our “requests” are really demands, right?  We do not ask humbly.  We do not ask recognizing how much higher and greater God’s ways are than our own.  Instead, we act as if we believe God owes it to us to do things for us.  We act as if God would not know what to do if we did not tell Him, and if God does not do what we tell Him, then there must be something wrong with God.

            Now, when you put it that way, it sounds kind of silly.  But if we’re honest with ourselves, I suspect some of us have done that.  I know I have.  And I doubt I’m the only one.

            Not only that, but Jesus’ statement implies that, if we want God to help us, we need to do our part.  Whatever we want God to give us, we need to actually seek it.  Whatever door we want God to open for us, we need to actively knock on it.  If we just sit back and do nothing, waiting for God to do it all, we are likely to be disappointed.  God will do God’s part.  But first, you and I need to do our part.

            But, we say, we’ve done all that.  We’ve asked humbly.  We’ve sought what we want god to do.  We knocked on the door.  We’ve done our part.  And--God did not do God’s part.  In fact, it looks to us like God has not done anything.

            Well, let’s look a little farther.  Jesus uses a couple of examples of how human parents act.  He says, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?”  Then he says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

 Jesus says God will give good gifts to those who ask him.  But here’s the thing:  Is everything we ask God to give us really a good gift?

We may believe it is.  We may believe we’re acting completely selflessly.  We may believe that what we ask would be best for everyone concerned.  We may believe there is downside to it whatsoever for anyone.  But that does not mean that what we believe is true.

Let’s look a little more closely at those good gifts that human parents give.  Those of you who’ve had children, let me ask you:  do you, or did you, give your kids everything they wanted, just because they asked for it?  And if you don’t have children, think of your own childhood.  Did your parents give you everything you wanted, just because you asked for it?

I’m pretty sure the answer for everyone here is no.  Human parents don’t give their children everything they ask for just because they ask for it.  And the reason human parents don’t give their children everything they ask for is because they love their children.  And human parents know that sometimes, the things their children ask for are not, in fact, good things.

The children may believe that they are.  The children may not think of themselves as being selfish at all.  In fact, sometimes they could probably give you a whole list of reasons why they should get what they’re asking for.  They may not be able to see any downside to it at all.

But you can.  Because human parents know better than their children.  Human parents know that it’s more important to give their children what they need than it is to give them what they want.  To use Jesus’ words, human parents will give their children bread even if they’ve asked for a stone.  They’ll give their children a fish even if they’ve asked for a snake.  The children might not see anything wrong with what they’ve asked for, but their parents do.  And so, parents will give their children good gifts, even if their children don’t see them as good gifts at the time.

That’s what God does for us.  God gives us the good gifts we need, which may not be the gifts we’ve asked for.  We may believe we’ve asked for something good, but God knows that it’s a snake.  And God won’t give it to us, because God knows it’s not a good gift, no matter how strongly we believe it is.

It’s still hard to understand, though.  We may understand the logic of it, but still.  When you’re loved one is in the hospital and you pray for healing and the healing does not come, it’s hard to understand why that healing would not be a good gift.  When we’re in a really tough situation and we don’t see any way out and God does not help us get out, it’s hard to understand how God helping us out of the situation would not be a good gift.  None of that makes much sense to us.

And so we end where we began.  Because again, it really comes down to a matter of trust.  Can you and I trust God enough to believe that what we are asking God to give us would not, in fact, be a good gift, even if every bit of our minds and hearts tells us that it would be?  Can you and I trust God enough to believe that, when God does not give us what we ask, it means that God has something better in mind for us, even if we cannot possibly understand what could be better than what we’re asking for?  In short, can we trust God enough to believe that God knows what He’s doing, even when what God is doing--or not doing--makes absolutely no sense to us?

This is where, as they used to say, the rubber meets the road.  This is where we find out whether we really have faith in God, or if we just say we do.  When we cannot understand why God is not doing what we’ve humbly and sincerely asked God to do, when we’ve knocked on the door and it seems like God has slammed it shut, can we continue to have faith anyway?  Can we continue to believe in God’s goodness anyway?  Can we continue to trust in God’s love anyway?

We really cannot know until we’ve been there.  And I know some of us have been there.  And those of us who have not been there yet will be at some point.  It’s just the way life works.

When we are there, may we trust in God’s greatness.  May we trust in God’s goodness.  May we trust in God’s love.  And may we trust that God will give us good gifts, even if we cannot see them as good at the time.  May we continue to trust God.