The Lord's Prayer

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on October 1, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:5-14 and Luke 11:1-13.

            As I’m sure you noticed, both of our Bible readings tonight gave what we now know as the Lord’s Prayer.  As I’m sure you also noticed, the two versions of the Lord’s Prayer we read tonight are a little bit different from each other.  And neither of them is exactly the way we say the Lord’s Prayer today.  That’s why I don’t usually introduce the Lord’s Prayer by saying, as a lot of people do, that it’s the prayer Jesus taught us.  I’m not saying it’s wrong to introduce it that way, but technically, it’s really not true.  What we pray is similar, but it’s not quite the same prayer Jesus taught the disciples, at least not according to the best sources we have on the subject.

            The other thing you probably noticed is that the setting for the two versions of the Lord’s Prayer are different.  In Matthew, Jesus teaches this prayer to everyone listening.  It’s part of a larger speech Jesus made on a mountainside, what we now call the Sermon on the Mount.  In Luke, Jesus teaches this prayer only to the disciples, and teaches it to them as a direct response to one of the disciples, who asked Jesus to teach them to pray.

            Which setting is the “true” setting?  Which version of the prayer is the “true” version?  We have no way to know.  Does it matter?  Not a lot.  It’s kind of a matter of historical curiosity as to which setting was the “true” one, but that’s all.  The differences in the two prayers, which we will talk about in weeks to come, are really not all that big.  The principles of prayer that Jesus was trying to get across are the same in both cases.

            I do find it interesting, though, that in one case it was Jesus who made the decision to teach people how to pray, and in the other case it was the disciples who made the decision that they needed to learn how to pray.  Because I think both of those things are true.  I think God wants us to pray, and I think we have a need to pray.

            To me, that shows the most powerful thing about prayer.  Prayer involves a relationship.  It involves us talking to God.  It also involves God talking to us.  Both of those things are necessary for us to have a relationship with God.

            Now, I don’t know how much or how often anyone here prays.  Maybe it’s quite a bit.  Maybe it’s occasionally, once in a while.  Maybe it’s rarely if ever.

            That’s okay.  Our prayer life, like other aspects of our faith, involves a process.  If you don’t pray very often right now, I’m not trying to make you feel guilty.  I’ve had times in my life when I did not pray very often, either.

            What I want to do, though, is encourage you to pray more.  Because that’s how we start feeling close to God.  That’s how we start feeling that God is with us in our lives.  By talking to God.  By God talking to us.

            Think about it this way:  have you ever had a close friend who moved away?  Or, have you ever been the one who moved away from a close friend?  What happens?  At first, you call each other up fairly frequently.  You keep in touch with what’s going on in each other’s lives.  You still feel close.  But gradually, what usually happens?  Those calls come a little less frequently.  Then a little less.  Then a little less.  It goes from every day to once a week to once a month.  Then, maybe it’s a call at Christmas.  And maybe you keep up on social media for a while, but as time goes on, that becomes less and less, too.

            And as that happens, what else happens?  You don’t feel like you’re as close as you used to be.  Your friendship is not as strong.  You might still care about each other.  But the close relationship you once had is not there anymore.  It’s gone.

            Why not?  What happened?  You stopped talking to each other.  You’ve drifted apart.  Not because you intended to.  Not because either of you made a conscious decision that you did not want to be close any more.  But you got busy.  You got distracted.  You were living your life.  The other person was living his or her life.  And so, you stopped communicating.  And you don’t feel as close any more.  If it goes on too long, this person you used to be so close to can become a complete stranger to you, because you don’t know what’s going on in their life any more.

            That’s how it is when we don’t pray.  If we don’t talk to God, if we don’t listen when God is talking to us, if we stop communicating with God, that’s what happens.  We stop feeling close to God.  Our relationship to God is not as strong.  God still loves us.  And we may even still feel love toward God.  But the close relationship we once had with God is not there anymore.  It’s gone.

It’s probably not because we intended to break that relationship.  That can happen, but that’s not usually how it works.  Usually, we don’t even make a conscious decision that we don’t want to be close any more.  But we get busy.  We get distracted.  We’re living our life.  And we stop talking to God.  And we don’t feel close any more.  And if it goes on too long, God can feel like a complete stranger to us.

            But the thing is, that relationship can be repaired.  God does not want to feel like a complete stranger to us.  And I don’t think most of us want God to feel like a complete stranger to us, either.  After all, the fact that you’re here, in church, or sitting at home listening to this message, shows that you do want to have a relationship with God.  And it shows that you want that relationship to be closer than it is now.

            But here’s the thing.  Think about that close friend who moved away again.  Have you ever seen them again, after a long time apart?  What happens?  At first, you’re really happy to see each other, right?  You shake hands, or you hug, or you do whatever you do.  You’re excited to get caught up on each other’s lives.  But then, after a while, something else happens.  You start struggling for words.  You cannot think of anything to say.  You want to pick up the relationship, you want it to be close again, you want it to be the way it used to be, but it’s not, because it’s just been too long.  You no longer have much to say to each other.

            And it can be that way with our relationship with God, too.  Sometimes we want to go back to God.  We want to have that close relationship with God again.  We want to start praying again.  But we go to pray and--we start struggling for words.  We cannot think of anything to say.  It’s just been too long.  We no longer have much to say to God.

            And I think that’s one of the reasons Jesus gave us what we now call the Lord’s Prayer.  If we need to talk to God, if we need to pray, but we just cannot think of anything to say, we can say that.  Whether we use one of the versions out of the Bible or we use the version we learned as kids, it does not matter.  The important thing is that we use it.  The important thing is that we talk to God.  When we feel like we don’t have anything to say to God, Jesus has given us words to say.  Jesus has given us something we can always use to talk to God and restore that relationship.

            The Lord’s Prayer gives us all the basics we need to say to God.  We acknowledge who God is, that God is our Father and that God’s name is holy.  We state a desire to have God’s kingdom come on earth and have God’s will done on earth.  We ask for as much as we need for today.  We ask for forgiveness, and we ask for the ability to forgive others.  We ask not to be tempted to do wrong, but to be delivered from wrong.  And we acknowledge that God is all-powerful.

That’s really all we need to say to God.  There’s a lot more we can say to God, but those things are all we really need to say.  If we say those things, and mean them, our faith will be strong, and our relationship with God will be restored.

So, if we want a stronger relationship with God, this is the place to start.  Prayer.  Talking to God, and listening as God talks to us.  And if we can think of nothing else to pray, we can always pray the Lord’s Prayer.  If we pray it, and mean it, our relationship with God will get stronger.  And God will not seem like a stranger any more.  We will feel close to God, as close as an old friend.  Because when we pray and come near to God, that’s who God can be--our oldest and best friend.

 

The Way to Happiness

The message given in the Sunday morning worship services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on October 1, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:19-24.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Fulfillment of the Law

The Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  September 24, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 5:17-22.

            Every society has to have some sort of laws.  They may be written down in to books, or they may be just an understanding among people.  They may be made by a group or they may be made by one person.  But for a society to function, there has to be some sort of rules.  There has to be some understanding of what’s allowed and what’s not.

            In the United States, we’ve always prided ourselves on being a society of law and not of men.  What we mean by that, of course, is that we believe the law should apply equally to everyone.  You’ll hear people use the phrase, “No one is above the law.”  It does not always work that way in practice, of course--you can think of examples, and so can I--but the theory, at least, is that the rules of society apply to everybody, no matter who you are.

            The reason human societies have these laws, as you probably know, is because of sin.  If we all just did the right thing all the time, if we all acted as God wants us to act, there’d be no need for laws.  I suspect that’s how it is in heaven.  There’d be no need for law in heaven, because in heaven our sins will have been washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ.  We’ll be the people we’re supposed to be, holy and spotless, made perfect by God’s love.  No law will be required to make us that way--we just will be that way by our faith in Jesus as the Savior and by God’s love and grace and mercy.

            The society of Jesus’ time was a human society, too, and so that human society had a lot of laws.  There were the laws enforced by the Roman government.  But there were also the Jewish religious laws, enforced by the religious leaders of the day.  There were a lot of those laws.  It started from the Ten Commandments, which were simple enough, but then there were all the laws of Moses, and then there were all the decisions of the judges, and then all the interpretations by the Rabbis, and so by the time Jesus came to earth there was a lot of law.  Not as much as we have in America today, probably, but still, it was a lot.

            And people believed in strict adherence to the law.  The Pharisees especially prided themselves on that.  And this was no small thing, because after all, these were God’s laws.  The Pharisees believed the way to get to heaven was to follow the law.  If you followed the law perfectly, God would be pleased and you’d go to heaven.  Following the law was, for them, a matter of eternal life and death.

            That’s why the Pharisees were so upset when Jesus did things like breaking the Sabbath law, healing people on the Sabbath.  They did not care so much about Jesus himself.  But Jesus was a very influential person.  If people saw Jesus breaking the religious laws, they might think they could break them, too.  The religious laws, which originated from God through Moses and then through all the judges and Rabbis and teachers, could be lost.

            And sometimes we look at Jesus that way, too.  We read about Jesus breaking the Sabbath law, and we think Jesus did not believe in the religious laws.  We say things like, “Well, when Jesus came, he freed us from the requirements of the religious laws.”  I think I’ve probably said that myself at some point.

            But if we say that, what do we do with our passage for today?  Listen again to what Jesus said about the law:

 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to       abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

Yes, Jesus did break the religious laws on occasion.  But he did not say the religious laws were no longer valid.  He did not say we could ignore them and break them with no consequences.  Jesus said the religious laws were tremendously important.  After all, those religious laws came from God.  Jesus would never have told us that we could just ignore God’s law.

But here’s the thing.  Let’s take the Ten Commandments for example.  Now, the Ten Commandments are wonderful.  They’re awesome.  You’ll never hear me say anything against the Ten Commandments.  One of the things I always do with my confirmation students is have them read the Ten Commandments.  But then I ask them a question.  I ask them “What is the thing Jesus talked about the most that is not included in the Ten Commandments?”

Anyone know what it is?

It’s love.  Love is not mentioned anywhere in the Ten Commandments.  They say we should not have any other gods, but they don’t say we should love God.  They say we should honor our parents, but they don’t say we should love them.  They say we should not speak falsely against our neighbor, but they don’t say we should love our neighbor.  Love is simply absent from the Ten Commandments.

Now, the Ten Commandments are still tremendously important.  Again, they came from God.  But what Jesus knew is that it’s possible to follow all the Ten Commandments, to follow all the Mosaic laws, and to follow all the rules and regulations, and yet not feel love.  Not love for God, not love for our neighbor, not love for anyone.  

And yet, what did Jesus tell us was the greatest commandment?  That we love the Lord our God.  And what did Jesus say was just like it?  That we love our neighbor as ourselves.

Jesus was not saying God’s law was unimportant.  Again, he said it was very important.  But what Jesus said is that following the letter of the law is not enough.  We need to do more than that.

In fact, that’s what Jesus goes on to say in our reading for today.  In fact, he uses an example from the Ten Commandments:  you shall nor murder.  Jesus does not say that’s wrong.  It’s right.  We’re not supposed to commit murder.  But Jesus says it’s not enough to just avoid murder.  We need to go beyond that.

He talks about how we treat brothers and sisters, and as you probably know he’s not talking about that in the sense of blood relation.  He’s talking about our fellow believers, male or female.  He says we should not even be angry with each other.  We should not call each other names--“Raca” was a term of contempt in Aramaic.  And if we call each other fools, we are in danger of the fire of hell.

            That’s a tough standard.  But that’s how Jesus says we should look at all of the religious laws.  It’s not enough to just follow the letter of the law, even when it’s God’s law.  We need to apply those laws with love.

            That’s why Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath day.  It’s not that Jesus thought the Sabbath law was unimportant.  He thought it was very important.  Jesus did not say we can do anything we want on the Sabbath.  He did not say go fishing or go golfing or watch a ball game on the Sabbath because the Sabbath does not matter.  But what he did say is that when you have a chance to help someone and show God’s love to someone, don’t let the fact that it’s the Sabbath day keep you from helping them and showing God’s love to them. 

            Jesus said to apply the Sabbath law with love.  That’s what Jesus said about all of God’s laws--apply them with love.  Don’t just put God ahead of other gods--love God.  Don’t just honor our parents--love them.  Don’t just avoid killing each other or lying about each other--love each other.  Love is the fulfillment of the law.  Love of God and love of each other.

            That’s our goal.  To honor God’s law, to follow God’s law, and to apply God’s law with love.  Will we always do that perfectly?  No, probably not.  I know I won’t.  That’s where repentance and forgiveness come into it.  When we fail, we need to ask for God’s forgiveness and then do whatever we can to change, so we can avoid failing the next time.  But we also should not use that as an excuse.  We should be grateful that God gives us another chance, but we need to do our best to take advantage of that chance.  God knows we are not perfect, but God expects us to do our best.  We should not take God’s forgiveness for granted.

            Jesus did not tell us we could ignore God’s law.  In fact, he said we should follow God’s law.  But he also said we should do more than just follow the letter of the law.  We should apply God’s law with love--love of God and love of each other.  That way, we will not just be following the law.  We will be following the Holy Spirit that gave us the law.

 

Faith: The Most Important Thing

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  September 24, 2023.  The Bible verses are Philippians 3:4b-14.

            What would you say is the most important thing in your life?

            Think about it, because there could be lots of different answers.  A lot of people would probably say their family is the most important thing in their life.  We might say good health is the most important thing–the old advertising slogan was that if you have your health, you have just about everything.  We might say freedom is the most important thing, because we certainly do value freedom in this country.  We might say having a place to live is the most important thing.  We might say having rewarding work to do is the most important thing.  There could be all kinds of answers to the question of what’s the most important thing in our lives.

            Now, I’m guessing that some of you have already figured out what I’m going to say.  You think I’m going to say faith in Jesus Christ should be the most important thing in our lives.  And you’re right, I am going to say that.  But it’s not just me who says that.  It’s the Apostle Paul saying it in our reading for today.

            Paul starts by talking about how, according to Jewish law, he’s pretty darn good.  He was circumcised, as a good Jew should be.  He was a member of one of the twelve tribes of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin.  He was a Pharisee, the top religious group among the Jews.  He was zealous in keep the law.  He was faultless in his righteousness according to the law.

            And then he says, none of that means anything.  He used to consider them so important, and now they’re nothing to him.  In fact, they’re less than nothing.  He says they’re garbage.  Rubbish.  Trash.  Worth absolutely nothing.  Throw them away.

            The only thing that means anything to him is knowing Jesus Christ.  Everything else is worthless.  His own accomplishments mean nothing.  His own achievements mean nothing.  The only thing that means anything to Paul is his faith in Jesus.  Becoming as much like Jesus as it’s possible for him to become is the only thing that matters to Paul.

            Now, we hear that, and maybe we agree with it.  And of course, it’s easy to agree with it when we’re sitting here in church.  But in a little while, we’ll be going back out those doors and back out into the world.  Will we still agree that following Jesus is the most important thing in our lives when we leave here?  Will we still agree with that when we’re at home?  Will we still agree with it when we’re watching the football game, or whatever it is you do on a Sunday afternoon?  Will we still agree with it tomorrow when we go to work, or do whatever it is you do on a Monday morning?

            And if we will agree with it at those times, here’s the more important question.  Does the way we live our lives show that we believe it?  If someone wanted evidence that we considered faith in Jesus Christ the most important thing in our lives, would we have any evidence we could show them?

            Now, those are questions you have to answer for yourself.  And I have to answer it for myself, too.  I don’t presume to know what your answer is.  Maybe you’d have all kinds of evidence to show that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in your life.

            But I’m not sure how much evidence I’d have.  I mean, sure, I could point to all the work I do for the church.  But you know what?  I get paid for that.  That’s my job, to work for the church.  What about the rest of my life, when I’m not specifically working for the church?  How much evidence would I have then to show that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life?

            Think about your life, just as I need to think about my life.  When you break down how you spend your time, would the way you spend your time show that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in your life?  Think about how you spend your money.  Does the way you spend your money show that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in your life?  Think about the things you say.  Do the words you speak show that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in your life?

            These are important questions, and we could come up with more.  We really need to think about these things.  If we say that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in our life, then the way we live our life needs to show that.

            Now, I’m not suggesting that some of the other things we mentioned are not important.  I’m not suggesting, for example, that we should neglect our families.  Our families are very important.  You know, in thinking about this, I thought about the fact that Apostle Paul did not have a family.  I mean, he must have had a mother and father, but we don’t hear anything about them.  We don’t know if he had any siblings.  He did not have a wife or children.  In fact, Paul suggested that it would be better for people not to marry and have children, because those things could distract people from following Jesus.  He recognized, though, that that was not a practical thing for society.

            None of those things I mentioned at the beginning of this message–family, health, freedom, a place to live, rewarding work–none of those things is unimportant.  But I would suggest that their importance should be kept in the context of our faith in Jesus Christ.

            We need to take care of our families, but the most important thing we can do for our family is to do whatever we can to help them have faith in Jesus Christ.  We need to do what we can to maintain our health, but one of the best things we can do with our good health is to use it to share our faith in Jesus Christ.  We need to do what we can to guard our freedom, but the most important freedom is freedom of religion, so that we can continue to be free to worship God and share our faith in Jesus Christ.  Having a place to live is important, but one of the best things we can do with our homes is to use them as a base from which to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Having rewarding work is important, but the best reward we could ever get is to know that we had helped bring someone to faith in Jesus Christ.

            These are not easy things.  They take time.  They take effort.  Paul himself said he had not achieved them.  He needed to keep trying.  He needed, as he said, to “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

            Now, I want to make one thing clear.  I am not suggesting that we can earn our way into heaven by our good works.  In fact, that’s the opposite of what Paul said.  Remember, we said earlier, Paul regarded all the things he had done as trash.  But if faith in Jesus Christ truly is the most important thing in our lives, the way we live our lives should show that.  Our faith in Jesus Christ should be involved in everything we do.

            You see, as Christians, we do not live our lives for ourselves.  We do not even live our lives for our families, as important as our families are.  We live our lives for God.  God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus, just as God called Paul heavenward.  Our lives on earth, as important to us as they often are, are not nearly as important as our eternal life in heaven.  The longest life on earth is short compared to eternity.  In fact, we cannot even compare the length of our life on earth to eternity, because time as we know it does not exist in eternity.  Eternity, by definition, has no end.

            So let’s take a look at our lives.  Let’s see if the way we live our lives shows that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing to us.  If it is, great!  Awesome!  Keep it up!  But again, the Apostle Paul said he had not achieved that yet.  So I suspect all of us have not achieved it, either.  I know I certainly have not.

            If we have not, let’s decide to do something about that.  Let’s “press on”, as Paul says.  Let’s “strain toward what is ahead”.

            And let’s ask God to help us.  Because if you’re like me, you cannot do this on your own.  Any time I have tried to do something like this on my own, I’ve failed.  I might be able to make small improvements.  I might be able to fiddle at the margins a little bit.  But any time I’ve made a real, substantial change in my life, it’s because I asked God to help me.  And I keep asking God to help me, because if I don’t, I’ll slide right back to where I was.

            So let’s think about our life.  Think about whether faith in Jesus Christ is truly the most important thing in our life.  Think about whether the way we live shows that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in our life.  And if we fall short anywhere, let’s ask God to help us with that.  That’s the best way we can, as Paul says, “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called [us] heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

 

What's Going On?

The Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  September 17, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 11:42--12:11.

            One of the things about some Bible passages is that we feel like we’ve heard the story before.  We may not remember all the details, but we know the general outlines.  Even if we don’t feel like we know that much about the Bible, we know how the last part of Jesus’ life went.  We know that Jesus was arrested, that he died on a cross, and that he rose from the dead on the third day.  

We still like the story, of course.  We still want and need to hear it.  But it starts to lose its impact sometimes, because we know how it ends.  It’s like seeing a favorite movie or reading a favorite book.  We still like it, but it does not make the same impact on us that it would if we did not know how it was going to come out.

So tonight, let’s imagine we’re hearing this story for the first time.  Let’s try to put ourselves in the story in some way, seeing what the people then saw and feeling what the people then felt.

Where our story starts today is right after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead.  Lots of people are putting faith in Jesus, and the Pharisees are worried.  A meeting is called of the Sanhedrin, which was the leading religious council in Israel.  They’re trying to figure out what they’re going to do about this Jesus guy.

I think the reaction of the Sanhedrin is interesting.  We tend to think that they were just mad at Jesus because he was making them look bad.  He was upsetting the apple cart.  We tend to think the Pharisees had personal reasons for wanting Jesus killed.

And maybe some of them did, but that’s not what John tells us.  Here’s why John tells us the Pharisees want Jesus killed.  He quotes the Pharisees as saying, “If we let Jesus go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

You see at this time, as you may know, Israel was part of the Roman Empire.  That’s why we hear about King Herod.  Herod was in control of Israel for the Roman Empire.  Now, Rome did not care that much about the people of Israel as people.  They just wanted to make sure they stayed in control and that taxes were paid like they were supposed to be.  The Jewish people could do whatever they wanted, as long as they did not cause trouble and as long as they paid their taxes.

But that’s why the Pharisees were so scared of Jesus.  They heard him referred to as the King, and thought he was going to try to be an earthly king, someone who was going to try to break Israel away from Rome and make it an independent country.  And even if they did not think Jesus wanted to be an earthly king, they thought the people might very well try to make Him one anyway.

And while the Pharisees were not opposed to an independent Israel in theory, they did not think there was any chance it could actually happen.  Israel had tried to break free from Rome about a hundred years earlier.  They achieved some independence for a while, but then Rome came and crushed them.  And Israel was weaker now than it had been then, while Rome was stronger.  They thought if Jesus led a rebellion, they’d be crushed again.  And this time, Rome might take away everything:  their religion, their national identity, everything.

That’s why the high priest, Caiaphas, said what he did.  He said it was better for one man, Jesus, to die for the people than it was for the whole nation to perish.  He thought the only way for the nation to survive was for Jesus to be killed.

But they had a problem.  The Pharisees did not know where Jesus was or when they’d find him.  They knew the Passover was coming, and Jewish people were supposed to go to Jerusalem for it, but would Jesus come, under these circumstances?  They did not know.  All they could do was wait and watch.

Jesus knew what was going on.  For a while, he hid out in Ephraim with the disciples.  But he knew he was going to Jerusalem for the Passover.  He first went to Bethany, where Lazarus lived.  Mary, Martha’s sister, poured expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet.  Jesus said this was to prepare Jesus for burial.  We’re also told that a big crowd came, not just to see Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, because Jesus had raised him from the dead.  So the Pharisees decided they needed to kill Lazarus, too.  We’re not told if the Pharisees ever carried out that part of the plan.

            The interesting thing--well, there are a lot of interesting things, but the interesting thing I want to point out tonight--is that the only one who knew what was really going on in this story was Jesus. The Pharisees did not know what was going on.  They thought Jesus was going to become an earthly king and start an earthly revolution that could destroy Israel.  The disciples did not know what was going on.  In fact, we’re not told that they had any clue that anything was going on.  Mary did not know what was going on.  Jesus said that she was preparing him for burial, but we’re not given any indication that Mary knew that was what she was doing.  

None of the people involved in this story knew what was going on or why they were doing what they were doing.  And yet, somehow, God used all of them to make all the events of the Easter story happen exactly the way they were supposed to happen.

            And I think that’s one of the most remarkable things about this story.  And it gives me hope.  

Because there are so many times now when it seems like no one really knows what’s going on.  Our leaders--whether we’re talking about religious leaders or political leaders or business leaders or any other kind of leaders--really don’t know what’s going on, even if sometimes they think they do.  The common, ordinary people really don’t know what’s going on.  Even the followers of Jesus really don’t know what’s going on. And yet, somehow, God is using all of us to make all the events in the world happen exactly the way they’re supposed to happen.  

Is it hard to believe that?  Yeah, sometimes it is.  There are so many things happening that don’t seem right.  There are so many things that make us wonder where God is.  There are so many things that make us wonder why God allows things to be the way they are, that make us wonder if God really cares and if God really loves us.  It’s hard to believe that, somehow, God is using all this to make things happen the way they’re supposed to happen.

            That’s why we need to put ourselves in these stories.  Because the people we’re reading about felt the exact same way.  The Pharisees did not believe that what Jesus was doing was part of God’s plan.  They thought they had to stop him for the survival of their nation.  And when we think about where the story goes, with Jesus’ death, we realize that no one thought that could be part of God’s plan.  The disciples did not.  In fact, when Jesus started talking about his death to the disciples, Peter told him to shut up, that he should not talk that way.  The crowds did not.  They thought this was the guy who was going to lead them to freedom and independence from Rome.

            Nobody knew what was going on.  And yet, God used it all to make the story come out exactly the way it was supposed to.

            God is doing the same thing now.  God is doing that for the world.  God is doing that for the country.  And God is doing that in our personal lives, too.

            Because we feel that way in our own lives sometimes.  I do.  Don’t you?  I think most of us do, at least sometimes.  We have times when we feel like we don’t know what’s going on or how it could possibly be God’s plan.  We feel like nobody else does, either.  And yet, if we just trust God, God will use all the things that are going on in our lives to make our stories come out the way they’re supposed to come out, too.

            You and I may not know what’s going on.  Maybe there’s nobody who knows what’s going on.  But God knows.  And if we just keep trusting God, God will use all the things that are happening to make things come out the way they’re supposed to.  God will do that for the world.  God will do it for the country.  And God will do it for you and for m

 

Stress Relief

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  September 17, 2023.  The Bible verses used are acts 5:27-42.

            The first United Methodist appointment Wanda and I had was to the McCook Lake United Methodist church in North Sioux City, now known as the ARK United Methodist church.  Now, that church had quite a history.  It had started out as a small, mission church.  Then Gateway Computers came into North Sioux City.  The town boomed, and the church boomed right along with it.  They were averaging over two hundred people in worship on Sunday morning, and it looked like that would grow to more.  The church’s future looked incredibly bright.

            Then, Gateway ran into trouble.  And they pulled out of North Sioux City.  And the town faltered, and the church faltered right along with it.  The number of people in worship plummeted.  When Wanda and I got to North Sioux City this church, which had been averaging more than two hundred people in worship, was down to about twenty-five.  And when we got there, we were told that we had three years to get the church turned around or it would be closed.  In fact, at the first church meeting we had after we got there, we were told that we were going to have to leave our building in two months and find another place to worship.  That’s why the picture of the school is up there--that’s ultimately where we held worship services for most of the three years Wanda and I were there.

            So anyway, there we were.  Our first United Methodist appointment.  Not really knowing what we’re doing anyway, a couple of small town people now living in the suburb of what, for this area at least, is a fairly good-sized city, and told to find a way to get this church turned around in three years or it would be closed.  Without even having a building to have worship services in.  Talk about a stressful situation!

            Well, as you might guess, we prayed a lot.  And as I was praying one day, this thought struck me.  If God wants this church to be here, then it’ll be here no matter what I do, because I’m not stronger than God.  And if God does not want this church to be here, then it won’t be here no matter what I do, because I’m not stronger than God.  Now, that does not mean that I decided to sit back and do nothing.  What it means is that I decided to do my best to follow God and to serve God, and then I would see what God decided to do with that.  If God decided to bless it, the church would grow.  If not, then it would not.  It was not my job to determine the results.  It was God’s job to do that, and I would trust God to make the result come out the way it was supposed to.  All my job was, was simply to be faithful to God and to do the best I could.

            When I realized that, it took a lot of stress out of my life.  Wanda and I still worked hard.  But we knew that if we stayed faithful to God and did the best we could, the result did not matter.  In we stayed faithful to God, we would have succeeded, no matter what the actual result might be.

When Jesus died, at first the disciples did not know what they were supposed to do.  But Jesus told them to go and spread the gospel, to make disciples of all nations.  And that’s what they started doing.

            The disciples had no guarantee of what was going to happen when they went out to spread Jesus’ message.  I’m sure they had hopes.  I’m sure they had dreams.  I’m sure they were hoping that they would make hundreds, thousands of converts.  They were probably dreaming of a day when everyone they talked to would believe in Jesus and be saved.

            But at the same time, they’d been with Jesus for three years.  They saw what happened when Jesus spread the gospel message.  There were some people who believed, but there were some people who did not.  There were people who rejected Jesus’ message immediately.  There were others who followed for a while, and then lost interest.  And of course, they saw what ultimately happened to Jesus--he was killed on a cross.  If that could happen to Jesus himself, the disciples surely knew that it might happen to them, too.  That’s a pretty stressful situation, too!

            The disciples did not know how things would go when they started to spread the gospel message.  But they realized that they did not need to know.  Jesus had told them to go and spread the gospel and make disciples of all nations.  So, they decided to do the best they could to do that.  They would do their best to follow God and to serve God, and then see what God would do with that.  If God decided to bless their work, then the gospel message would be spread.  If not, then it would not.  The disciples knew that it was not their job to determine the results.  It was God’s job to do that, and they trusted that God would make the result come out the way it was supposed to.  Their job was simply to be faithful to the task Jesus had given them and to do the best they could.  If they did that, they would have succeeded, no matter what the results might be.  And I suspect that knowing that took a lot of their stress away, too.

            Well, the result, at least at the time of our Bible reading for today, is that the disciples got hauled up before the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish ruling authority.  The Sanhedrin basically said, hey, we told you to stop telling people about Jesus.  And yet, here you are, going around talking about nothing else.  What do you think you’re doing?

            And the disciples basically say, you can tell us whatever you want, but we have to do what God told us to do.  God told us to spread this message.  Yes, we know you might try to stop us, but we cannot control what you do.  We can only control what we do, and what we’re going to do is follow God.  So you do whatever you’re going to do.

            We tend to kind of gloss over that, but think of the faith that takes.  I mean, the Sanhedrin could’ve had them put in prison for life, and there would’ve been nothing they could’ve done about it.  And back then, prison was a really bad place to be.  Not that it’s a great place now, but prisons were awful back then.  Just the unsanitary conditions might kill you.  And yet, here the disciples are, standing up before the Sanhedrin and saying, do whatever you want.  We don’t care.  We’re going to follow God no matter what you do to us.  Again, they were going to be faithful to God and trust that God would make things come out the way they were supposed to.

            Well, when the disciples said that, the Pharisees were up in arms.  They were furious.  Some of them wanted to kill Peter and the others, despite the fact that they really did not have the power to impose the death penalty.  And then, a Pharisee named Gamaliel speaks.  And Gamaliel takes a similar attitude to what the one I took in North Sioux City.  He said to the others, look, if God is not behind what these guys are doing, we don’t have to do anything.  What they’re doing will fail, because they are not stronger than God.  But if God is behind what these guys are doing, then nothing we do is going to stop them, because guess what, guys.  We’re not stronger than God, either.  So you know what?  We don’t have to take on the stress of defending God.  God can defend Himself.  So let these people go and wait to see what God decides to do.

            It seems to me that’s a pretty good attitude to take toward all aspects of our lives.  In fact, it seems to me that it would make a lot of our lives a lot less stressful, too.  Whatever our situation, whether we’re at work, or at home, or wherever.  Do the best we can.  Do the best we can to love God, to serve God, and to be faithful to God.  And realize that if we do that, we’re not responsible for the result.  God is.  And we can trust God to make that result be the way it’s supposed to be.  That may not be the way we wanted it to be, but it will be the way it’s supposed to be.  It’s not our job to get a result.  It’s our job to be faithful to God and do the best we can to serve God and show love to God.  If we do that, then in God’s eyes, we’ll have succeeded, no matter what the result might be.

            It’s not always easy to give control of the results to God.  We tend to want to control the results ourselves.  And maybe sometimes we can.  But my experience has been that when I try too hard to control the results, what I end up doing is trying to force things to go my way, and trying to force people to do what I want them to do.  And that does not work very often.  And when you think about it, you can see why.  Even God does not force us to do things the way God wants us to.  If God does not force people to do things, why would I think I can do it and make it work?  But if we just do our best and leave the results to God, then we don’t feel a need to force anything.  We can relax, let go of the stress, and let God take care of things.

            God is always stronger than we are.  If God wants things to happen in a certain way, they will happen that way, no matter what you and I do.  If God does not want things to happen in a certain way, then they won’t happen that way, no matter what you and I do.  So let’s do the best we can to serve God, to follow God, and to love God.  And let’s trust God to take it from there.  It’ll take a lot of stress out of our lives.  And if we stay faithful to God, then in God’s eyes we will have succeeded, no matter what the results on earth might be.

 

Follow God's Heart

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Mark 14:32-41.

            One of the things you’ll hear people say, one of the pieces of advice people give, is that you should always “follow your heart”.  Have you ever heard that?  “Follow your heart.”  Listen to that inner voice inside you.  It’ll tell you what you need to do.

            Now, there are times when that’s good advice.  But there are times when it’s not, too.  I mean, I don’t know about you, but there are times when my heart is not very reliable.  There are times when my heart tells me to watch the ball game when I know I really should be going to visit someone.  There are times when my heart tells me to go have a big bowl of ice cream when I know I need to watch my weight.  There are times when my heart tells me to go buy something I cannot afford when I know my checkbook is telling me not to.  In other words, there are plenty of times when following my heart could get me into a lot of trouble.

            It’s not always bad to follow your heart.  But if we’re going to follow our hearts, we’d better make sure our heart is in line with God’s heart.  Because it’s God’s heart that we really need to follow, not our own.  I think that’s one of the many things our Bible reading for today shows us.

            Jesus and the disciples have just had what we now call the Last Supper.  They’ve left the Upper Room.  They go to Gethsemane.  It’s interesting, to me at least, that we always refer to this as “the Garden of Gethsemane”, but the Bible never uses that phrase.  Mark and Matthew just say that they went to “a place called Gethsemane”.  John says they went to a garden, but does not give the garden a name.  Luke says they went to the Mount of Olives--from what I read, Gethsemane is at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

            Anyway, they go there.  Jesus tells most of the disciples to sit and wait.  He takes Peter, James, and John with him, and they go a ways farther.  Then He tells them to stay and keep watch.  Jesus goes on a little farther and prays.

            Listen to what Jesus prays.  We’re told that He “fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.”  He says, “Abba, father, everything is possible for you.  Take this cup from me.”

            Jesus knew what was coming.  He knew that the authorities were coming to arrest Him and kill Him.  He had told the disciples many times this was going to happen.  In fact, He’d just told them that again, in the Upper Room at the Last Supper.

            But now, the moment had actually come.  It was time for Jesus to face it.  And when He did--He looked for a way to get out of it.  He wanted desperately to avoid what was coming.  He was praying with all His might for God to somehow, some way, take Him out of this situation.  Luke tells us that Jesus prayed so hard that He was sweating, and that His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

            This is why I say that “follow your heart” is not always good advice.  Because if Jesus had followed His heart at that moment, He’d have run away, right?  He’d have gotten out of Dodge as fast as he could.  His heart was saying, “I don’t want to do this.  There’s got to be some other way.  God the Father can do something else to save human beings.  After all, he’s God the Father.  Everything is possible for Him.  There has to be some other way this can work.  I don’t want to suffer and die.  I want to get out of here.”

            It’s pretty understandable, right?  I mean, yes, Jesus was the divine Son of God, but He was also fully human.  And as such, He had all the same feelings and fears that you and I have.  Jesus did not want to die.  He especially did not want to die in an incredibly cruel, painful way.  Who would?  Would you?

            When I think about that part of Jesus’ prayer, it sounds a lot like prayers I’ve prayed at times.  Not that I’ve ever thought I was going to die, I don’t mean that.  But there are times where I was faced with a situation, and I knew I was supposed to go through with it, but going through with it was the last thing in the world I wanted to do.  Have you ever had a time like that?  I would think some of you must have.  A time where you knew what you should do, knew what you were supposed to do, but it was the last thing you wanted to do.

            When that happens to us, our heart tells us to avoid the situation.  Either run away, or quit, or give in, or do something different, or something.  Find a way to get out of it.  Never mind what we may be “supposed” to do.  Follow your heart and get out of there.

            And so we pray.  We pray for God to show us the way out.  We pray for God to do something that somehow, in some way, will allow us to follow our heart and avoid doing what we know we should do.

            When you’ve done that, what’s happened?  Did it work?  It never has for me.  In fact, the times I’ve prayed that way have really been the times when I felt farthest away from God.  I would pray and pray, and it felt like my prayers were just hitting the ceiling and bouncing back from me.  It felt like God was not there at all, or if God was there God was ignoring me.

            That was not true, of course.  God was there.  God was not ignoring me.  God was answering my prayer.  I just did not want to hear the answer, because the answer was no.  God was telling me that God was not going to take me out of the situation.  God did not want me to follow my heart.  God wanted me to follow His heart.  And God’s heart was for me to face up to the situation and do what I knew I should do, what God wanted me to do.

            That’s pretty much how it worked for Jesus, too.  Jesus was praying for God to show him a way out.  Jesus wanted God to allow Him to follow His own heart.  Three times, Jesus prayed that way.  And God gave him an answer.  But the answer was no.  This was what Jesus had been sent to earth for in the first place--to die, to take the punishment for our sins that should go to us.  God the Father was not going to take him out of that situation.  God the Father wanted Jesus to follow God’s heart.

            And of course, Jesus did.  Some of you are ahead of me on that.  You know the last line of Jesus’ prayer, the line I left out earlier.  The last line of Jesus’ prayer is “Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

            Jesus knew what His heart was telling him.  But He knew that what His heart was telling Him was not the most important thing.  The most important thing was for Jesus to follow God’s heart.  And He did.  Even when it was not what Jesus wanted to do--even when it may have been the last thing in the world Jesus wanted to do--he still did it.  Even when He knew it would cost Him His life on earth, he still did it.  Jesus followed God’s heart all the way, all the way to death on a cross.

            The Bible does not tell us this next part.  But I suspect, when Jesus said that last line--”Yet not what I will, but what you will”--he felt as close to God the Father as he ever had while he was on earth.  The reason I think that is because that’s how it works for me.  Any time I stop praying for God to do what I want God to do, and instead pray that God’s will be done, that’s when I feel God’s presence with me the most.  

That, more than any other time, is when I feel God with me.  When I stop trying to tell God what to do, when I stop telling God to take me out of hard situations, and instead just ask God to help me do His will.  When I stop listening to my own heart, and start following God’s heart.  It does not mean things always go smooth and easy.  For Jesus, doing God’s will meant things went about as hard for Him as they could possibly go.  But even though things were very hard, He knew that God the Father was with Him.  And when you and I do God’s will, we will know that God the Father is with us, too.

            God asks us to do some hard things sometimes.  We don’t want to do them.  Our heart tells us there must be some other way.  We pray, as Jesus did, God, everything is possible for you.  Take this away from me.

            But God never promised to keep hard things away from us.  But God does promise to be with us through the hard things.  If we do what Jesus did, if we follow the heart of God the Father, we will feel God keeping God’s promise.  We will know that God is with us.  And with God’s help, we’ll be able to face anything we need to face.