From Burdens to Joy

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on October 29, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 11:25-30.

            Let me start out by asking you a question:  do you think being a Christian is easy?

            I’m not going to make you stand up and respond, but I think it’s an interesting question.  It really kind of depends on how you look at it, right?  On the one hand, we think about all the responsibilities we have as Christians.  We think about how we need to constantly seek God’s will.  We need to constantly serve God and be faithful to God and show love to God.  We need to show love to others, too, because that’s the best way we can show our love to God.  We think about how we’re supposed to live good and holy lives.  We think about how Jesus told us to “be perfect”, just as our heavenly Father is perfect.

            That’s a lot of responsibility.  And we have not even talked about all the consequences that can come from following Christ.  We have not talked about how we can be mocked, criticized, even ostracized.  We have not talked about how, in some places, we can even be physically attacked for being Christians.  If we look at it that way, being a Christian is not easy at all.  It’s one of the hardest things we could ever do.

            On the other hand, we can think of all the joy we get from being a Christian.  We think about how Jesus died for our sins, so that we can have salvation and eternal life.  We think about how we can feel God’s Holy Spirit with us in our lives on earth, too.  We think about how God is always there for us, in good times and in bad times and just in ordinary times.  We think about how good it feels to know that God is with us, helping us, leading us, guiding us through life.  We think about how awesome it is to know that, no matter what happens, God will always be with us and will never let us down.  God will be with us every step of the way, no matter where that way may lead.

            The thing is, both of those ways of looking at Christianity have truth in them.  Being a Christian does carry a lot of responsibility.  But at the same time, God does not want us to feel like our faith is a burden on us.  God does not want us to go through life feeling like we’re being dragged down by our faith.  God wants our faith to be something that lifts us up, that keeps us going.  And one of the proofs of that is our Bible reading today.

            Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

            How are you feeling about your burdens today?  Again, I’m not going to make you stand up and respond, but I think that’s an interesting question, too.  I think a lot of us are starting to feel like our burdens are getting pretty heavy.  I don’t think we’re feeling like our yokes are easy at all.

            Now, most of us would not say so.  We’ve all got that cultural thing going on where if someone asks how we’re doing, we say, “I’m fine.  Not too bad.  Could be worse.”  Most of us are not going to come out and say anything about our burdens being heavy, even if they are.

            In fact, we sometimes feel like it’s almost unChristian to say anything like that.  We think, well, I should not be complaining.  Lots of people have it worse than me.  Besides, nobody likes a whiner.  And other people have their own problems.  They don’t need to hear me talking about mine.

            It’s like we feel guilty about life being hard sometimes.  It’s like we feel like it would somehow be admitting a weakness or something if we admit that sometimes life gives us more than we can handle.  I mean, you heard that phrase, “God never gives us more than we can handle”, right?  It’s not in the Bible or anything, but a lot of people seem to believe it.  And so, if we admit that we’re having trouble handling something, we feel like we’re letting God down, because, after all, God would not have given it to us if we could not handle it, right?

            It’s okay to admit that life gives you more than you can handle sometimes.  It’s okay to admit that your burdens are getting heavy, and that you’re not sure how much longer you can carry them.  It’s okay to admit that life is dragging you down right now.

            After all, look at all that life is throwing at us.  War in the Middle East.  War in Ukraine. Corruption in the government.  Wildfires.  Hurricanes.  Cancer.  Other health issues.  Financial problems.  Violent protests.  And I’m sure that’s nowhere near a complete list.  I mean, you’d have to be superhuman to not feel the burden of all that, to not have that stuff drag you down sometimes.  And I don’t know anyone here who’s superhuman.

            But we all know the one who is.  And that’s the one we need to take these burdens to.  When our burdens get too heavy, when we’re not sure how much longer we can carry them, when we fell like life is dragging us down, we need to go to God.  We need to give our burdens to God.  We need to put our complete faith and trust in God.

            God is the one who can carry our burdens when we cannot.  God is the one who can lift us up when life is dragging us down.  God is the one we can always rely on to be there for us.  

            You see, one of the reasons our burdens get so heavy is that we try to carry them ourselves.  We think, I’ve got to solve these problems.  And if I cannot solve them, then I at least need to figure out a way to deal with them.  Now, that’s not to say that we don’t pray about them.  Sometimes we do.  But too often, we pray asking for a specific solution.  We don’t really turn the problem over to God.  Instead, we ask God to solve our problems in a certain way and at a certain time.  We say, God, here’s what needs to be done.  Now do it.  And do it now.  And when God does not do it, or does not do it now, we wonder what’s wrong with God.  And our burden gets even heavier.  We become even more convinced that we have to carry it ourselves, because apparently God is not going to.  And so we make things a lot harder on ourselves than they need to be.

            That’s a kind of arrogance, isn’t it?  To think we should tell God what to do, and wonder what’s wrong with God when He does not do it?  We don’t mean it to be, usually.  We’re well intentioned.  We really think what we’re asking God to do is the right thing.  But still, it amounts to arrogance.  And there’s one more thing Jesus said in this passage, and it’s something we tend to overlook.  Jesus said, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

            That’s what we need to do:  be gentle and humble in heart.  Know that God has heard our prayers.  Know that God knows the situation.  Know that God will act, in God’s way at God’s time.  Stop letting our arrogance make things harder on ourselves than they need to be.  Stop trusting ourselves, and instead, trust God.

            God does not want us to make things hard on ourselves.  God wants to make things easier.  But the only way we can do that is to really give the burdens of our lives to God.  Not tell God what to do.  Not tell God how to do it.  But just turn it over to God, and trust that God will handle things in the right way at the right time.

            Does that mean we’ll just sit back and do nothing, waiting for God to act?  Maybe--there are times we need to do that.  But a lot of times, giving our burdens to God does not mean that we do nothing.  What it means is that we do the best we can, and then we trust God to take it from there.  We do our best to serve God and stay faithful to God, and then we trust God with the results.  We do our best to show love to God and show love to others, and we trust that God will bless what we do in some way.  It may not be the way we wanted or expected.  It may even be some time before we see how God has blessed what we did.  But we trust that God will bless it, in God’s way and in God’s time.

            That’s what giving our burdens to God really means--doing our best and trusting God.  That’s what makes our burdens lighter.  That’s how we can take the responsibilities of being a Christian--responsibilities that can seem heavy sometimes--and turn them into the joy of being a Christian.  Simply doing our best and trusting God.

            Being a Christian is not always easy.  Jesus talked about the cost of following him, and that cost is real.  But even so, being a Christian should not be a heavy burden that drags us down.  And it does not need to be.  If we turn things over to God, God will make our burdens light.  Then, we can truly feel the joy of following Jesus Christ.

 

Blasphemy and Forgiveness

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on October 29. 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 12:22-37.

            One of the most awesome things about God is the forgiveness God offers us.  We know, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans Three, Verses Twenty-three, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  That means we all need forgiveness.  And God offers that forgiveness, time after time after time.  Christians have said, many, many times, that there is nothing that God cannot forgive.

            But if we believe that, what do we do with the passage we read today?  Because Jesus quite clearly says there is a sin that will not be forgiven.  In verses thirty-one and thirty-two, Jesus says, “Every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come.”

            So, is our often-repeated Christian belief wrong?  Is there, in fact, something that God cannot forgive--that is, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?  Is God not, in fact, the all-forgiving God?

            Well first, let’s define what blasphemy is.  It’s kind of a churchy word, and it’s a word that kind of gets thrown around without actually saying what it means.  So here it is:  blasphemy is defined as speaking sacrilegiously.  And what does sacrilege mean?  It means to speak mockingly or profanely against something that is holy.  So, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit means to mock the Holy Spirit or to speak profanely against it.  That’s what Jesus is saying is the sin that will not be forgiven.

            Why would Jesus say that?  Well, because it’s true--Jesus would never say anything that was not true.  But why is it true?  Why would this be the one sin that will not be forgiven?

Well, let’s look at what’s going on in this passage.  A demon-possessed man is brought to Jesus.  He cannot see.  He cannot speak.  And Jesus heals him!  Jesus drives out the demons, the man can seem, the man can talk.  He is completely and totally healed.

            Now, you’d think people would be pretty happy about that, right?  And of course, some of them were.  Some of them, in fact, were completely astonished.

            But not the Pharisees.  Remember, the Pharisees were among the Jewish religious leaders.  Now, don’t you think the religious leaders would be the ones who were happiest about what Jesus did?  I mean, Jesus drove demons out of a man.  From a religious standpoint, what better thing could there be for Jesus to do?

            But of course, the Pharisees were not happy about it at all.  You see, they had already made up their minds that Jesus was a fraud and a blasphemer.  They had already decided that he could not possibly be who people claimed he was, the divine Son of God.  And of course, if your mind is closed, if you’ve already decided about something, you can always come up with reasons to justify the decision you’ve made.

            And that’s what the Pharisees did.  Instead of saying “Wow, look at that!  This Jesus actually drove demons out of someone and healed him!  Maybe he really is the divine Son of God!”  Instead of saying that, they said, well, this may look like it’s good, but there’s got to be something bad going on here somehow.  And so, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”

            The Pharisees’ argument was completely nonsensical, when you think about it.  The devil is going to help someone drive out demons?  It’s the devil who controls the demons in the first place.  When demons possess someone, they’re acting on the devil’s behalf.  Why in the world would the devil help anyone, let alone Jesus, drive out demons?  

And yet, the Pharisees were somehow able to convince themselves that their argument made sense.  It just shows, again, how, once we’ve made up our minds about something, we can always find a way to justify to ourselves what we believe.  The justification may not make sense to anyone else, like this one did not, but we can convince ourselves to believe it.  A lot of times, it’s easier for us to believe nonsensical reasons for something than it is for us to change our minds.  That’s what happened to the Pharisees.  It was easier for them to tell themselves that the devil was driving out demons than it was for them to allow themselves to consider that Jesus might actually be the divine Son of God.

            Jesus immediately points out how silly the Pharisees’ argument is.  And that’s when he makes the statement that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.  And then, Jesus says these things:  “How can you who are evil say anything good?”  “An evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.”  

            So, taking all this in context, it seems to me that what Jesus is saying is this:  You saw me drive demons out of this man.  You know that only the Holy Spirit can do that, and yet you claim it’s the work of the devil.  If you’re going to refer to the work of the Holy Spirit in that way, as the work of the devil, then it’s clear that your minds are closed to ever seeing the Holy Spirit in anything.  You’re not going to ask for forgiveness for what you’ve said, because you refuse to see anything wrong with it.  And so, since you’re not going to ask for forgiveness, you’re not going to be forgiven.

            In other words, I don’t think Jesus is saying that God cannot forgive blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  God, by definition, can do anything God chooses to do.  Jesus would never put limitations on God because God has no limitations.  God can forgive anything, even blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

            But the thing is, while God can forgive blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, God will not forgive it unless the person who commits it asks for it.  That’s true of all of our sins--God will forgive them, but only if we ask, and only if we ask sincerely and from the heart.  And unless the person who commits blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has some sort of incredible conversion, they will never ask.  And so they will never be forgiven.

            Jesus referred to the Pharisees as evil, and of course they were.  But you know, they did not intend to be evil.  They were not deliberately blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.  In fact, they’d have said they were defending the Holy Spirit.  They simply were so closed-minded about who God was and how God worked that they could not see what was right in front of them.  They were so convinced that this unknown carpenter from Nazareth could never be the Messiah that nothing he did and nothing he said could convince them otherwise.  They refused to hear, and they refused to see.  They were like the people described by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah Five, Verse Twenty-one.  They had eyes, but saw not, and they had ears, but heard not.  It’s kind of sad, really, when you think about it.

            But here’s the thing.  Are there ways in which we’re like those Pharisees?  Are there things in our lives that we have never asked God to forgive us for, simply because we refuse to acknowledge those things as sins?  Are there things in our own lives that we are justifying to ourselves, rather than seeing them as they truly are?  Are we coming up with flimsy reasons or excuses to justify the decisions we’ve made, rather than seeing ourselves as we truly are?

            I suspect there are times when all of us do that.  I know I’ve done it.  Maybe I still am, and don’t even realize it.  Or, maybe I do realize it, deep down, but just refuse to admit it.  Many times, the biggest lies we ever tell are the lies we tell ourselves.  And we believe them, even though we know better, simply because we want to believe them, because believing our lies makes life easier.  It’s easier for us to believe our lies and stay as we are than to face the truth and accept that we need to make changes in our lives.

            I encourage all of us, most definitely including me, to examine ourselves.  Examine the things we do and the things we say.  Are there times we’ve refused to see what God was doing?  Are there times we’ve refused to acknowledge our sins?  Are we justifying ourselves to ourselves?  Are we flat-out lying to ourselves, simply because we don’t want to accept the truth?  Are we, in effect, blaspheming against God’s Holy Spirit, which Jesus said is a Spirit of truth?

            Think about it.  Pray about it.  Ask God to help you see yourself as you truly are.  And I’ll do that, too.  And then, we can all ask God to forgive us for those times when we’ve refused to see the truth, either about ourselves, or about others, or about God.

            The Pharisees could not do that.  And, we assume, they were not forgiven.  But we can do it.  And we can be forgiven.  Let’s not follow the example of the Pharisees.  Let’s go to God, ask for forgiveness, and live.

 

Body and Soul

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on October 22, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 10:5-33.

            One of the things people wonder about is why God allows bad things to happen.  And we especially wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people.  I suspect you’ve wondered about that at times.  Most of us have.

            And we especially wonder why God allows bad things to happen to Christians.  After all, if we’re Christians, God’s supposed to be on our side, right?  God’s supposed to take care of us.  God’s supposed to make things go smoothly for us.  And the stronger our faith is, the more we try to serve God and show love to God, the more God should do things for us.  I mean, if we’re doing these things for God, then God should be doing things for us.  It’s only fair, right?

            Well, I’m sure most of you know that’s not how it actually works.  Everyone here has gone through some tough things in your life.  Even you young people have had to deal with some things.  And it’s not because your faith was not strong enough.  It’s not because you did not serve God well enough.  As we look around, there does not seem to be any correlation at all between our faith and how many good things happen to us.

            But the thing is, Jesus does not tell us that there is or that there should be.  In our Bible reading for tonight, Jesus is about to send the disciples out by themselves.  Jesus is giving them a mission.  They are to proclaim this message:  The kingdom of heaven has come near. They are also supposed to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons.

            That’s one heck of a mission, right?  Heal the sick.  Cleanse those who have leprosy.  Drive out demons.  Raise the dead.  And while they’re doing all this, they’re supposed to tell everyone that the kingdom of heaven has come near.  That’s quite a job Jesus is giving the disciples.  And they’re not going to have Jesus with them as they do this--they’re going to be out there by themselves.

            I would think the disciples must have been pretty nervous about this.  I know I would be.  I was nervous enough about going into ministry in small towns in South Dakota.  And nobody was expecting me to drive out demons or raise the dead.  The disciples must have been really worried about whether they could actually do this.

            So you’d think that, before Jesus sent them out, Jesus would give them some reassurance, right?  He’d tell them that God would be with them, that God would protect them, that it was all going to be all right.  After all, Jesus is sending these people out to do God’s work.  It’s only fair that God would take care of them, don’t you think?

            But that’s not what Jesus says at all.  Jesus tells them they will be arrested by the local town councils.  They will be flogged--beaten--in the synagogues.  They will be hated by everyone.  Just because they are telling people the kingdom of heaven has come near.  Just because they are healing people.  Just because they are followers of Jesus Christ and are doing what Jesus has told them to do.

            That does not seem fair at all.  And yet, there it is.  That’s probably why Jesus only gave this mission to his closest followers, to the twelve disciples.  He knew that none of the others would have a faith strong enough to go through with it.  And I wonder if even the twelve had a few second thoughts, had a little lump in their throats, when they heard this.  Could you do it?  Could I?

            We think of Jesus as bringing a message of joy and peace and love, and of course Jesus did bring that message.  But that was not all of Jesus’ message.  Jesus was nothing if not honest.  Jesus told the truth, and he did not sugarcoat things to make them more acceptable to people.  Jesus told it like it is.

            That’s what Jesus was doing here with his disciples.  Jesus was telling them, hey, don’t think following me is going to be easy.  Don’t think this job I’m giving you is going to be easy, either.  Don’t think this is going to be fun.  Don’t think it’s going to make you popular.  This is going to be hard.  It’s going to bring you a lot of pain.  People are going to hate you.  All because of what you’re doing in my name.

            Jesus did that because Jesus knew the disciples needed to know this.  They needed to be prepared.  If they had gone into this thinking people were going to like them, they’d have quit the first time they got into trouble.  Jesus wanted them to know what they were getting into.  And maybe, Jesus was giving them one more chance to walk away, to leave him if they did not think they could do this.

            But after telling the disciples all these things that were going to happen to them, Jesus also told them some other things.  He told them, when you get arrested, don’t worry about what to say or how to say it.  The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say.  And then, he tells them this:  “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

            Most of us are very concerned about our lives on earth.  We’re concerned about our bodies.  We try to eat right.  We try to exercise.  We try to take reasonable precautions to avoid getting sick.   When we do get sick, or when we do get injured, we go to the doctor to try to get better.  We want to be as healthy as we can and we want to keep our lives on earth going as long as we can.  And we also do things to protect ourselves and our families from people who may want to do us harm.

            And none of that is wrong or bad.  God put a survival instinct into each of us.  And God wants us to take care of ourselves, because there are things God wants us to do while we’re here.  There’s nothing wrong with any of that.

            But we also need to live with the realization that our lives on earth are only temporary.  I’m not saying we should be obsessed with death or anything like that.  But we do need to have an awareness of how short our lives on earth really are.  No matter how hard we try to take care of ourselves, our lives are still short.  Think about the thousands of years of recorded human history, and think about how short our lives are in comparison to it.  Think of the millions of years the universe has existed, and think about how short our lives are in comparison to that.  And then think about eternity, an eternity that we’re either going to spend in heaven or in hell.  And think about how short our lives on earth are in comparison to that.

            So, as important as our lives on earth--our bodily lives--are, our eternal lives are much more important.  And so, the most important thing we need to do is follow Jesus Christ.  We need to go where the Lord sends us and do what the Lord sends us to do.  Even if it makes us less safe.  Even if it means taking risks.  Even if it means risking bodily harm.

            Now, you might think, well, nobody’s going to physically attack me for following Jesus Christ.  And maybe, in our little town, they won’t.  But two things.  One, there are people in the world--there are people in our country--who are physically attacked for following Jesus Christ.  And our little town is not walled off from the world.  Much as we might like to think we’re living in Mayberry and the worst thing that ever happens is that old Otis has a little too much to drink on Saturday night, that’s not the way it is.  We are a part of the world, and the things that happen in the rest of the world are going to come here.

            But the other thing is, especially for younger people, you’re probably not going to live all your lives here.  Maybe you will--some people do--but some of you will not.  You’re going to go out into that world.  And you will very well might meet people who will want to attack you for being a follower of Jesus Christ.

            But even if not, there are other ways that following Jesus Christ involves risk.  If we take our faith seriously, if we live it out, there will be people who don’t like us because of that.  There will be people who won’t want to have anything to do with us.  We may lose friends.  We may lose business.  We may even have family members who don’t want to have anything to do with us.  There are all kinds of consequences for truly belong a follower of Jesus Christ.

            Jesus knew that we needed to know that.  He did not tell the disciples that, and he does not tell us that, to discourage us.  He tells us that so we’ll be prepared.  He tells us that so we’ll be ready to handle this.  Jesus tells us this so we’ll know what we’re getting into.  And maybe, he tells us this to give us the chance to walk away if we don’t think we can handle this.

            The disciples did not walk away.  It’s my hope and prayer that you and I won’t walk away, either.  Jesus does not sugarcoat things.  He knows that following him will not always be easy.  But he tells us that the Holy Spirit will be with us.  The Holy Spirit will tell us what to say and how to say it.  And he tells us that no matter what someone may do to us, they cannot kill our souls.  If we stay faithful to Jesus Christ, we will receive our reward--eternal life in heaven.

            The Lord does not promise us an easy life on earth.  But the Lord does promise to be with us as we go through our lives on earth, and to help us through those lives.  And through our faith and by God’s grace, our faithfulness will be rewarded.  Our souls will have eternal life with God.

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Just What We Always Wanted

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on October 22, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 11:2-19.

Have you ever had a time when you really wanted something?  I don’t mean just kind of casually hoping for something.  I mean really, really wanting something, wanting it so much that you think about it almost every day.  And then, you get the thing you wanted, and--you have a hard time believing it.  You think, is this really true?  Did this really happen?  Do I really have this thing that I wanted so much?

Well, we’ll come back to that.  Let’s look at our Bible reading for today.  At this point in Jesus’ life, he’s been in active ministry for probably a couple of years.  That means Jesus is starting to get a reputation.  People are hearing about these miracles he’s performed.  They’re hearing about the people he’s healed.  They’re hearing about the things he’s been saying, too.

            One of the people who heard about all this was John the Baptist.  This is the part of John the Baptist’s life we don’t talk about too much.  We talk about how John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for Jesus.  We talk about how John the Baptist baptized Jesus.  But then, we just kind of let John the Baptist fall out of the story and focus on Jesus instead.

            That’s understandable.  And of course, John the Baptist himself said that Jesus was much more important than he was.  But still, after John baptized Jesus, he did not just go away and retire or something.  He was still an important person.  He was still preaching and he was still baptizing.  He did not hesitate to speak his mind and he did not hesitate to declare the need for people to repent of their sins.  And he did not hesitate to say that even the King, King Herod, was a sinner who needed to repent of his sins.

            That did not sit well with King Herod.  So, Herod had John the Baptist arrested and thrown in jail.  And that was where John was at the time of our Bible reading for today.

            But as we said, John the Baptist heard about what Jesus was doing and saying, even in prison.  So, John sends some people to Jesus to ask him one question.  They ask Jesus, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

            Now, I don’t know about you, but when I read that, I think, how can John ask that question?  I’d have thought that if there was anyone who knew who Jesus was, it was John the Baptist.  I mean, by earthly reckoning, they were related.  Jesus’ earthly mother, Mary, and John’s mother, Elizabeth, were related to each other.  In fact, in the first chapter of Luke, we read about Mary going to visit Elizabeth while she was pregnant with Jesus.  And Elizabeth instantly knew that Mary was going to give birth to the Savior.  Surely she must have told John about that, right?  So why would John send people to ask Jesus if he was the Savior?  He should’ve known that already.

            And then, there’s the story of Jesus’ baptism.  We talked about that earlier in this sermon series.  Jesus comes out of the water, and a voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  And of course, John is right there.  You’d think he’d have to have heard that.  So again, why would John send people to ask Jesus if he was the Savior?  He should’ve known that already.

            And that gets me back to the question I asked at the start of this message.  John the Baptist wanted the Savior to come.  He wanted it more than anything in his life.  He’d spent his entire life doing everything he could to prepare the way for the Savior to come.  He completely dedicated to getting as many people as possible ready for the coming of the Savior.

            And then the Savior came.  And John the Baptist knew he had come.  He heard the voice from heaven saying so.  He heard all the reports of everything he was doing.  And yet.  And yet.  He still was not quite sure.  He had wanted this so much, and yet now that it had happened, he hesitated.  He wanted to trust.  He wanted to have faith.  But could he?  Could he really trust that this was the Savior?  What if he’d gotten something wrong?  What if he put his trust in Jesus, and it somehow did not work out?  John wanted this so much, and yet, he was afraid to actually believe it had happened.  He could not quite bring himself to believe that the Savior, whom he had waited for all his life, was actually here.

I think we all have times when that’s where we are.  We want to believe in Jesus Christ.  We want to surrender our life to him.  And yet.  And yet.  We hesitate.  We’re just not quite sure.  We want to trust the Lord.  We want to have faith.  But can we?  Can we really trust that Jesus is the Lord, the Savior?  What if we’ve gotten something wrong?  What if we put our trust in the Lord and it somehow does not work out?  We want to believe.  Sometimes we really, really want to believe.  And yet, we’re afraid to actually believe.  We cannot quite bring ourselves to believe that Jesus Christ really is the Savior.  We cannot quite trust him.

            Jesus does not get mad at John for sending these people to ask the question they asked.  He does not criticize John the Baptist for his lack of trust.  He just tells them, look, go tell John what you’ve seen and heard.  Tell him everything there is to tell about me.  Tell him about all the people I’ve healed.  Tell him about the things I’ve said.  Tell him what he’s heard is true.  He’ll know what it means.  Just tell him.

            What Jesus was telling John’s people to do, in effect, is to remind John of what he already knew.  And a lot of times, that’s what we need to do--be reminded of what we already know.  We know all the things the Bible says about the Savior.  We know the things it says he said and did.  We also know all the times when we’ve felt the Lord working in our lives.  We know all the times we were in a tough spot and the Lord helped us out.  We know all the times when it looked like things were going against us and we did not know what to do and somehow it all still worked out all right.  We know all the times God has been there for us.  We know all the times God’s Holy Spirit has worked in and through us.  We know that we can trust the Lord.  We just need to be reminded of it.  Or, sometimes, we may need someone else to remind us of it.

            And sometimes, we need to be the ones who remind others.  Because we know there are a lot of people out there who are struggling with their faith.  If you and I, who are in church, struggle with truly believing in Jesus Christ; if you and I, who are in church, struggle trusting God enough to truly turn every aspect of our lives over to God; then how much more are people going to struggle who are not going to church anywhere? 

            This is not said in a judgmental way.  It’s not for me to judge anyone’s faith.  That kind of judgment is God’s job, not my job.  But there are lots of people out there who struggle with this.  There are a lot of people, right here in this community, who would say they believe in God, who would say they believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, but who struggle with really trusting God enough to really surrender our lives to him.  

They’re afraid.  They’re scared.  They don’t know what will happen if they really surrender their lives to God.  Often, they want to believe it would be something wonderful, but--what if it’s not?  And so, again, they hesitate.

They know they need God in their lives.  But they need to be reminded, just like we need to be reminded.  They need to be reminded of who Jesus is.  They need to be reminded of how much they need him.  And if we don’t remind them, who will?  And I don’t mean we as United Methodists.  I mean we as Christians.  If we, as Christians, don’t remind people of how much they need God who will?  If we, as Christians, don’t remind people of all the things God has done, who will?  If we, as Christians, don’t help people get over their fear and get over their hesitation, who will?  If we, as Christians, don’t tell people everything there is to tell about Jesus Christ and remind them of who Jesus is, who will?

That thing that we’ve always wanted, that thing that we’ve been waiting for all our lives--it’s here!  It’s actually here!  So let’s stop hesitating.  Let’s stop being scared.  Let’s truly turn our lives over to the Lord, knowing that God really can be trusted with our lives.  And let’s help others turn their lives over to the Lord, too.  Let’s help them know that God really can be trusted with their lives.  Our salvation is here.  Now.

 

Love Never Fails

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on October 15, 2023.  The Bible verses used are 1 Corinthians 12:27--13.

            The Bible verses we read tonight are among the most popular in the Bible.  In fact, some surveys say they’re the most popular.  

            It’s easy to understand why.  It’s about love, and who does not want to hear about love?  Everyone wants to hear about love.  Everyone wants to feel love.  Everyone wants to be loved.  That’s why Hallmark Channel movies are so popular.  That’s why so many popular songs are love songs.  After all, whether we’re talking about movies or songs or Bible passages, things become popular for a reason.  They speak to us somehow.  They have a message that’s important, or that appeals to us, or that makes us think or feel or something.  All scripture is useful, as the Apostle Paul told his young friend Timothy, but we still have certain passages that speak to us more at certain times.  That’s perfectly natural.

            But the thing that can happen about our favorite Bible passages is that sometimes, because we’ve read or heard them a number of times, we stop thinking about it.  We take it for granted.  And that can be true of pretty much anything, too.  For example, how many times have you heard the National Anthem?  If you go to sports events, you’ve probably heard it hundreds of times, maybe thousands of times.  How often do you really think about what the words mean?  Probably not very often.

            What we read was the end of First Corinthians Chapter Twelve and all of Chapter Thirteen.  Chapter thirteen is often called “the love chapter.”  It gets used at weddings a lot.  It gets used at funerals occasionally, too.  Again, as you heard, it talks about love, what love is and what love is not.  And you’ve heard sermons preached on that before, and you will again.  But today, I want to talk about the rest of this passage, too.  And I want to start with the part of chapter twelve we included.

            In chapter twelve, Paul writes about gifts of the spirit.  He says that we all have different spiritual gifts, and that they’re all important.  He compares it to the parts of the body.  He says that all parts of the body are important:  the feet, the hands, the ears, the eyes, all of it.  He lists some of the gifts of the Spirit, such as teaching, prophesying, working miracles, healing, helping, guidance, all sorts of things.  He says we should work together to develop the gifts we’ve been given so we can serve God.  But then he says this:  “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”

            Now, if you were listening when we read today’s Bible verses, you know what comes next.  But pretend you don’t.  Imagine that you’re one of the people in the town of Corinth that this letter was written to.  You’re reading his letter, or more likely someone is reading it to you.  And you’ve heard Paul say that all these spiritual gifts are important and that we need to work together to develop them so we can serve God.  

And then you hear:  “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”  What would you think?  I’d be thinking, “Most excellent way?  What could be more excellent than working together to develop our spiritual gifts to serve God?”

Paul tells us.  The more excellent way is love.  Paul says it does not matter how awesome our spiritual gifts are, or how hard we’ve worked to develop them, if we don’t have love.  Someone could be the greatest speaker in the world, they could be the greatest prophet ever known, they could have so much faith that they could literally move mountains, and none of it would matter.  None of it matters without love.

Did you ever wonder why that is?  I mean, we just kind of take it for granted sometimes, don’t we?  We hear that, and we think, well, of course none of that matters without love.  But why not?  Why do prophecy or evangelism or even faith not matter without love?  

I mean, suppose that I was a really great speaker and evangelist.  I know that’s quite a stretch, but just suppose it.  And suppose I was also a real jerk.  Maybe that’s not as much of a stretch, but again, just suppose it.  If, by my great speaking ability, I was able to bring people to Christ, why would it matter that I was a jerk?  Why would it matter that I was doing it for personal glory or for fame or for whatever reason?  As long as I was able to get someone to accept Jesus as their Savior, why would it matter what my motivation was for doing it?

Paul answers that question.  He says, basically, that that’s the way children think.  And he’s right.  Kids will say, well, as long as I do what I’m supposed to, it does not matter why I’m doing it.  But parents, you know better, right?  You’ve told your kids to do something and seen that look on their face.  You’ve seen them trudge slowly out to do what their supposed to do, like a condemned person walking the last mile.  And you don’t like it very much, do you?  And you say something, and the kid says, “What’s wrong?  I’m doing what you told me to do.”  Children think that our motivation does not matter.  Adults know that it does.  

Paul also answers the question in another way.  He answers it by saying that love is the only thing that will never pass away.  It’s the only thing that will never fail.  There will come a time when all the great prophecies will cease and pass away.  There will come a time when all the collected knowledge of mankind will cease and pass away.  There will come a time when all the greatest speakers will pass away and their words will be gone forever.  

And besides, while we’re on earth, none of our prophecies, none of our knowledge, none of our speeches, will really be full and complete the way they’re supposed to be.  He says that, while we’re trying to see God’s kingdom, but we can only see a reflection of it in a dim and cloudy mirror.  We can only get a vague glimpse of God’s kingdom while we’re on earth, and that’s going to show up in all of our prophecies, and all of our knowledge, and all of our speeches.  None of them are going to be accurate or true.  The only time they will become accurate and true is when completeness comes, when the Lord returns and, as Paul says, we can see clearly, face to face.

The gifts of the spirit that we’re given are important.  I’m not saying they’re not, and Paul did not say that, either.  And as Paul says, we should work together to develop them as much as we can to serve God.  

But no matter what gifts we’re given, and no matter how hard we work to develop them, they’ll never be quite right.  We will never be able to develop them completely while we’re on earth.  And ultimately, they will all cease and pass away, just as we, ourselves, will all cease and pass away from the earth someday.  The only thing that will remain, the only thing that will never fail, is love.

Think of it this way.  Think of a teacher or coach you really liked.  Do you remember specific lessons they taught you?  Or do you remember that they cared about you and wanted to help you do the best you could?  Think of a pastor or a Sunday school teacher who made an impression on you.  Do you remember specific things they taught you?  Or do you remember that they cared about you and were there for you whenever you needed them?  If you grew up in a loving home, think of your parents and grandparents.  Do you remember specific things they taught you?  Or do you remember that they loved you and cared about you and that they’d be there for you no matter what happened?

Love never fails.  The things we do without love eventually will always, inevitably, fail.  But the things we do with love will live on.  In fact, when we do things out of love, the love we show will love on long after the specific thing we did has been forgotten.

That’s why the gospels, and the letters, and all of the New Testament emphasize so much that God is love, and that what we’re supposed to do is love God and love other people.  We talk sometimes about the things God has done, and God has done great things.  God created the world out of nothing.  God created everything we see, every tree, every rock, every plant, every animal, every bird, every insect.  God created you.  God created me.  And God is still creating.  And it’s awesome what God has done and what God continues to do.

But imagine if God had created all that without love.  Can you even imagine that?  I’m not sure I can.  What would the world be like without love?  What would God be like without love?  What would you and I be like without love?  It’d be terrible.  No one would want to live in a world like that, and no one would want to worship a God like that.  I really cannot imagine it and I really don’t want to even try to imagine it.

And praise God, we don’t have to.  Because God did create us with love.  And God created the world with love.  Because God is love.  And when we show love to someone, we are behaving in as much of a God-like manner as it is possible for humans to behave.

It’s important for us to work together to develop the spiritual gifts God has given us.  But it’s more important for us to use them with love.  Love is the most excellent way.  Love never fails because God never fails.  And God is love.

 

Peace Through Weeping

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on October 15, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Luke 7:36-50.

            Most of you know that I like to have fun.  I like to laugh.  I believe in the old saying that laughter is the best medicine.  That actually comes from the Bible, you know.  Proverbs 17:22 says a cheerful heart is good medicine.  Proverbs 15:15 says a cheerful heart has a continual feast.  There are lots of Bible verses that say that laughter and cheerfulness are good for us.

            The third chapter of Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to laugh.  But it also says there’s a time to weep.  And of course, it says that God has made each of these things beautiful in its time.

            Now, as I said, I have no problem with there being a time to laugh.  And obviously, we all recognize that there are times not to laugh.  We all know people who are dealing with serious things right now.  And we also have to make sure that our laughter is not hurtful.  I’ve had times when people were laughing at me.  I’ll bet you have, too.  That’s not fun at all.  That hurts.  It hurts a lot.  When our laughter is hurtful, it is most definitely not the time to laugh.

            But what about the other side of it.  Why is there a time to weep?  How is weeping beautiful?

            As we answer that question, we need to think about what weeping is.  It’s not the same as crying.  There’s a reason Ecclesiastes says “a time to weep” rather than “a time to cry”.  Crying can be joyful.  We can shed tears of joy.  There’s no sense in which weeping is joyful.  Weeping means to be so overpowered by grief or sorrow or some similar emotion that shedding tears is the only thing we can do.

            When we think about that, we first tend to think of the people we’ve lost in the communities of this parish in the last month or so.  And we think of the people who are dealing with serious illnesses in our communities as well.  But there are other things that cause us to feel grief and sorrow, too.  A relationship that falls apart.  Seeing someone we care about making bad choices and going down the wrong path, and knowing there’s nothing we can do about it.  There are all kinds of things that can cause us to feel grief and sorrow, and sometimes that grief and sorrow can overwhelm us.

            Sometimes we wish God would keep us from feeling those things.  But they’re part of being human.  And since God allows them to happen, we assume there must be a purpose for them, even when we cannot see what it is.  And again, Ecclesiastes tells us they can be beautiful, even when we cannot see how.

            That brings us to our Bible reading for today from the seventh chapter of Luke.  It’s the story of Jesus going to a Pharisee’s house for dinner.  A woman finds out that Jesus is there, so she goes there, too.

Now, all Luke tells us about this woman is that she has lived a sinful life.  We’re allowed to make any assumptions we want about exactly what they may mean.  But whatever her sins were, apparently everyone in town knew about them.  This woman was not well thought-of.  She was not well-respected.  People looked down on her, and they thought they had good reasons to do so.

            We also don’t know what this woman knew about Jesus.  But she knew enough.  She knew, somehow, that this was a man of God.  And she knew, somehow, that she needed to see him.

            And when she saw him, she immediately began weeping.  She was weeping so much that she was able to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears.  We’re not told why she felt this grief and sorrow, but we can guess.  Again, while we don’t know what her sins were, we’re told that she had lived a sinful life.  And I’m sure she knew she’d lived a sinful life.

            But then, we’ve all lived sinful lives, right?  I mean, the Apostle Paul says that all of us have sinned, that all of us have fallen short.  So, we really should all be able to see ourselves in the place of this woman.  We’re all sinners who’ve lived sinful lives.

            But you know, we say that all the time.  And we mean it.  I’m not saying that we don’t.  But at the same time, there are a lot of times we don’t let it bother us too much.  I’ve said this before, but if there’s one thing we human beings are good at, it’s justifying our own behavior.  We can justify almost anything to ourselves.  Our reasoning may not justify our behavior to others, but we can justify it to ourselves.  

And please don’t think I’m pointing a finger here.  I’m just as good at this as anyone, and probably better than a lot of you.  I can find all kinds of wonderful ways to justify doing what I want to do and to justify not doing what I don’t want to do.

And I’m sure this woman was good at it, too.  She may have known, deep down, that what she was doing was wrong, but she found a way to justify it to herself.  She found a way to not let her sinful behavior bother her too much.

And I suspect she did something else we all do, too.  She looked at herself, and she said, you know, I’m not all that bad.  I’m doing the best I can.  After all, nobody’s perfect.  I’m better than some people.  In fact, I’m better than a lot of people.  Have you ever done that?  I have.  I suspect this woman did, too.

But then.  Then, she came face to face with the divine Son of God, Jesus Christ.  And all of a sudden, the reality of who she was hit her right between the eyes.  For the first time in years, maybe in forever, she saw herself as she truly was.  All the ways she used to justify her behavior fell apart.  All of her thoughts about how she was better than a lot of people fell by the wayside.  Everything about her life was suddenly in full view.  It was right in front of her eyes.  There was no hiding from it.  She was in the presence of perfection, and she suddenly saw how imperfect, how sinful, she really was.

And when that reality hit her, there was only one thing she could do.  The only thing she could do was weep.  She was so overpowered by the grief and sorrow of what she’d done, of all the ways she had fallen short of who God wanted her to be, who God had made her to be, that all she could do was weep.

And I suspect that’s what you and I would do, too.  If the reality of who we really are hit us right between the eyes, if we saw ourselves as we truly are, if we were stripped of all our justifications and all our rationalizations and all the ways we use to make ourselves think we’re okay, if we could no longer hide from who we are and were in the presence of the perfection that is God, I think you and I would probably weep, too.

But look at the rest of the story.  This woman washes Jesus’ feet with her tears.  And Jesus tells her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

            When this woman came into the presence of Jesus, she was overpowered by grief and sorrow at the thought of who she was.  All she could do was weep.  And to Jesus, her weeping was beautiful.  And Jesus forgave her for everything.

            We’re not told what happened to the woman after that.  I assume she felt better.  I also assume, though, that her problems were not all magically solved.  People probably still looked down on her.  She may have resolved to change her life, but we all know that’s not an easy thing to do.  And even if she succeeded and really did change her life, it would’ve taken a long time for her to get people’s respect and trust.  Getting forgiveness from Jesus probably made her feel better, but it did not change anything about her condition, at least not right away.

            But Jesus did not just say “your sins are forgiven”.  Jesus said something else, too.  He said, “Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace”.

            Sometimes we hear a phrase like “go in peace” the way we hear “have a nice day”.  It’s just something people say, without really thinking about it.  But when Jesus said, “go in peace”, I don’t think it was just something to say.  I think Jesus meant every word of it.  And I think Jesus’ words have power.  When Jesus said “go in peace”, I think this woman actually felt a sense of peace.

            And that, really, is one of the greatest gifts we get from our faith in Jesus.  The greatest gift of all, of course, is salvation and eternal life.  But while we’re on earth, one of the greatest gifts we get from our faith in Jesus is to feel a sense of peace.  And we can feel that peace no matter what our circumstances are.

            As I said, meeting Jesus did not magically solve this woman’s problems.  But I think that when Jesus said “go in peace”, she really did.  She went in peace.  She now knew that, no matter what her problems were, she was not alone.  She knew that the Lord was with her.  She knew that the Lord would always be with her, no matter what happened.  And she knew, because of that, that she could handle whatever might happen to her.

            This life on earth gives us many reasons to weep.  We don’t always understand why.  But when we’re overpowered by grief and sorrow, we need to do what this woman did.  We need to go to Jesus.  And if we need to weep, it’s okay.  Because Jesus will see the beauty in our weeping.  And Jesus will offer us forgiveness and salvation.  

And Jesus will tell us to go in peace.  That won’t solve all our problems.  But we’ll know we’re not alone.  We’ll know the Lord is with her and always will be, no matter what happens.  And we’ll know, because of that, that we can handle whatever might happen to us.  And because of that, we will feel peace.

 

Why Not Judge?

The Sunday evening message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on October 8, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:1-5.

            “Do not judge, or you, too, will be judged.”  It’s probably one of the most famous verses in the Bible.  But a lot of people have a lot of different reactions to it.  And sometimes we, ourselves, have different reactions to it, depending on what’s going on at the time.

            There are times when we love this verse.  When we get criticism that we don’t want to hear, when someone tries to tell us that what we want to do is wrong, we love to pull this verse out.  “Who are you to judge me?  Jesus told us not to judge people.  You can’t tell me what to do.”

            But on the other hand, when other people are doing things we don’t want them to do, and especially when those things affect us, we don’t like this verse at all.  We feel like we should have every right to judge people.  “How dare you do that to me.  Who do you think you are?  You can’t do that to me.”

            So what did Jesus actually mean by this verse?  What was he actually talking about?

            Well, first, let’s look at the context of what he said.  Right before this, Jesus talked about how we should not worry.  Don’t worry about what you eat or drink.  Don’t worry about what you will wear.  Don’t worry about tomorrow.  Instead, Jesus said, seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.  If we do that, God will take care of all these other things, so we don’t need to worry about them.

            And right after this verse, as we read today, Jesus talks about seeing a speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and not seeing the plank in our own.  He tells us to first take the plank out of our own eye, and then we’ll be able to see the speck in someone else’s eye.

            But before that, Jesus said one other thing.  Jesus said that if we judge others, we’ll be held to the same standards that we use in judging them.

            So, where does that leave us?  Well, let’s add one other thing to the mix.  Two of the things Jesus spoke against most often were self-righteousness and arrogance.  In fact, if we go back even farther in Matthew, right before telling us not to worry, Jesus criticized people who make a big fanfare about giving to the poor, or who give long, flowery public prayers to impress people, or who fast in a way that they make sure everyone knows they’re fasting.  And of course, Jesus’ biggest criticisms of the Pharisees were that they were always trying to make sure everyone knew how righteous they were.

So, putting all that together, I think what Jesus was telling us is that our focus should not be on the behavior of others.  Our focus should be on ourselves and on God.  And when I say “our focus should be on ourselves”, I don’t mean that in a selfish or self-centered way.  I mean that we need to focus on our own behavior, on our own thoughts, on our own words.  And we need to focus on the kingdom of God.  We need to do all we can to make sure our own behavior, our own thoughts, and our own words are pleasing to God.  We need to make sure those things honor God and glorify God.  We need to make sure those things are things that are worthy of God, to the extent it’s possible for humans to do things that are worthy of God.

            And really, when you think about it, that’s a big enough job right there, right?  If you’ve tried to do that–if you’ve tried to improve yourself in that way–you know how hard it is.  We work on things, we try to live our lives in ways that are pleasing to God.  And sometimes, we feel like we’re making a little progress.  But then, the next thing we know, something happens, and we slip right back to where we were.  

            So think of it this way:  if it’s that hard for us to change ourselves, what makes us think we can change someone else?  And if we cannot change someone else, why are we judging them?  What good does it do?  

            Now that does not mean we have to approve of everything other people say or do.  Of course not.  Jesus never set forth an “anything goes” philosophy.  Jesus was quite clear that certain things are right and certain things are wrong.  In fact, Jesus said that certain things are good and certain things are evil.  And it’s okay for us to say that, too, as long as the things we say are right and wrong are the same things that Jesus said are right and wrong.  But the point is that our focus should not be on other people.  Our focus should be on living our own lives in as Godly a way as possible.  And the best way we can do that is to keep our focus on God and on God’s kingdom.

            I think that’s something we don’t do enough.  I don’t, anyway.  We focus so much on the things of the world.  On “earthly concerns”, as Jesus told Peter he was doing.  We don’t focus enough on “heavenly concerns”.  We don’t focus enough on God and God’s kingdom.

            That’s not to say that we don’t pray–I’m sure most of us, maybe all of us, do.  It’s not to say that we don’t love God, either–again, I’m sure most of us, maybe all of us, do.  And it’s not even to say that we do not believe in Jesus as the Savior–I’m sure most of us, maybe all of us, do that, too.

            What I’m saying is that we don’t think enough about who God really is.  Now, I realize I should not make that as a blanket statement.  Maybe you think about who God is a lot, I don’t know.  If so, then just know that this part of the message does not apply to you.  

            But I think what can happen is that we take God for granted.  And we take prayer for granted.  It’s easy for us to forget what an honor it is to be allowed to pray to God.  It’s easy to forget what a privilege it is to be allowed to pray to God.  We start to think God owes it to us to listen to our prayers, when in fact God does not owe us anything at all.

            Think of it this way.  Imagine that you were God.  I mean, it’s not easy to do, but try.  Imagine you were an all-powerful being.  You could do anything you wanted and you could create anything you wanted.  You could be at all places and at all times in the universe at once, because you’re eternal and you created it all.  And not only are you all-powerful, but you are also completely holy, completely righteous, and complete good.

            If that was you, would you want to hear from human beings?  These small, whiny, sinful, imperfect little creatures?  These people who, as Isaiah said, are like grasshoppers compared to you, and yet they have the nerve to complain to you and try to tell you what to do?  These people for whom you’ve done everything, for whom you’ve given life itself, for whom you even sent your son to die for their salvation, and yet most of the time they don’t even seem to appreciate any of it?  If you were God, would you want to hear from people like that?  I don’t think I would.

             And yet, God does.  God does want to hear from us.  For all that God is, and for all that we are, God wants to hear from us.  In fact, God is eager to hear from us.  God is interested in us.  God wants to hear everything we have to say–the good, the bad, the ups, and the downs.  Anything we want to say to God, God is willing to listen to.  God loves us that much.  God loves you, and God loves me, so much that God wants us to go to Him with everything.  There’s nothing too big and nothing too small for us to go to God with.

            Before we start to pray, we should think about that.  We should think about who God is.  We should think about what an honor and a privilege it is to be allowed to pray to God.  I think doing that will help us put our focus on God, and on God’s kingdom.  And it will make us want to change our behavior, our thoughts, and our words, so that they are pleasing to God.  We’ll want to live lives that honor and glorify God.  We’ll want to live lives that are worthy of God, again to the extent it’s possible for us to do that.

            If we do all that, I don’t think we’ll even want to judge others anymore.  In fact, we really won’t even have time to judge others anymore.  We won’t be interested in that speck in someone else’s eye.  We’ll be too busy trying to get the plank out of our own eye.  We’ll be trying to whittle it down, make it smaller, and then smaller still, and then smaller still.  We’ll probably never completely get rid of it.  But we’ll be trying, and we can keep trying.  And with God’s help, we will make that plank smaller.  We will get closer to living lives that please God, lives that honor and glorify God, lives that are worthy of God.

            Jesus’ statement that we should not judge others is not a “get out of jail free” card that allows people to do anything they want.  It’s a reminder to us that we need to clean up our own lives.  So let’s focus on that.  That’s probably enough of a job for most of us.  In fact, it’s probably a job that will last a lifetime.