Forgiving Jesus

The Wednesday night Lent message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 28, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Mark 3:20-35.

Jesus’ first miracle came at a wedding in Cana, when He turned water into wine.  This was a pretty unmistakable sign that it was time for Jesus to leave Nazareth and start his ministry on earth.

            Jesus’ leaving must have been hard on His mother, Mary.  She knew it had to be this way, of course.  She remembered what the angel Gabriel had told her.  She knew who Jesus was.  Still, it was hard.  Jesus had been a part of her life for thirty years, more or less.  And now, he was not there anymore.

            There probably was not a day that went by that she did not think of him.  She wondered where he was.  She wondered what he was doing.  She wondered if he was all right, if he was eating properly, if he was getting enough rest.  She wondered all the things that a mother wonders when her son is away from home, out on his own.

            Once in a while, of course, Jesus would come back to Nazareth.  And I’m sure he looked in on Mary, to see how she was doing.  It would sure be interesting to know how those conversations went, don’t you think?  Did Jesus tell Mary about all the things he’d done?  Did he tell her about being tempted in the desert?  Did he tell her about healing people?  Did he tell her about taking on demons?  If so, how would Mary react to that?  Would she be proud of Jesus?  Would she be worried about him?  Did she ever try to get him to come back home, to come back to the carpenter shop?

            Well, we don’t know any of that, of course.  But if she ever did try to get him to come back home, it did not work.  Jesus was never there very long.  He’d be there for a little while, and then he’d be gone again, back to his ministry.  And Mary would be alone again, left to wonder and worry about him.

Obviously, communication back then was not what it is now.  It’s not like Jesus had a cell phone Mary could call.  She could not send him a text or an email.  She could not even contact him on facebook.  Still, though, I’m sure she heard things.  Probably lots of things.  Maybe she heard about the time he fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  Maybe she heard about the huge crowds he was drawing to hear him preach.  Maybe she even heard about him walking on the water and calming the storm.

            If she did, she must have been really proud of him.  I mean, think about it.  Think about if your son or your daughter could do stuff like that.  Most parents are proud of their children anyway, but this would be something really incredible right.  To think that your child was doing that.  It’d be incredible.

            But she probably heard some other things, too.  She probably heard about the times Jesus broke the Sabbath law.  She probably heard about the times he argued with the Pharisees.  She probably heard about the times he got into trouble with the authorities.  And you just know that there were some people eager to tell her about stuff like that, right?  After all, it’s not like gossip is a recent invention.  People did it back then, too.  There were probably people who just could not wait to tell Mary when they heard something critical of Jesus.

            So we come to our Bible reading for tonight.  We’re told that Jesus and his disciples go to a house, and there’s a huge crowd there, so big that Jesus could not even eat.  Then we’re told, “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’”

            Now, we don’t know who this “family” was that thought Jesus was out of his mind.  Some people think it was not actually his family at all, at least not in the sense of blood relatives.  And that does kind of make sense, because people sometimes gave “family” a broader meaning back then.  People who were family friends were sometimes referred to as uncles or cousins, even though they were not actually related.  Whoever it was, though, it must not have been Mary, and it must not have been Jesus’ brothers, because we’re told later in the passage, “Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived.”

            And that’s the part I want to focus on.  Jesus is talking to the people, and he’s telling them things about God and about their faith.  And the things he’s telling them, the way he’s interpreting scripture and telling them who God is, are things they’ve never heard before.  They’ve certainly never heard them from the Pharisees.  And Jesus is saying it like he’s someone in authority, like he knows this stuff and has no doubt that it’s true.

            And because of that, some people think Jesus has gone nuts.  And other people think he’s possessed by demons.  And in the middle of all this chaos and confusion, Mary and Jesus’ brothers show up.  They cannot even get in the door because of the crowd.  So they send a message to Jesus to tell him that they’re there and want to talk to him.

            And here’s Jesus’ response.  He says, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  Then he looks at the people around him, the people who believe in him and trust him, and he says, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

            Can you imagine Mary’s reaction, when she heard that response?  She was worried about Jesus.  She’d heard he might be in trouble.  She came down to check on him, to see if he could help.  And Jesus sends a response that basically is a rejection of both Mary and of his brothers.

            Now, I don’t think Jesus really intended it that way.  It’s hard for me to believe that Jesus would’ve deliberately hurt his mother.  I think he was more making a point about how we are all brothers and sisters if we follow God.  Or, he may have been afraid that Mary and his brothers were going to try to make him stop his ministry.  Or there may have been other reasons Jesus said what he said.  But still, think of this from Mary’s point of view.  Mary has come all this way because she loves Jesus and is worried about him, and Jesus refuses to even see her.  Can you imagine how she must have felt?

            We don’t know what happened after that.  Mark drops the story at that point and moves on to something else.  So do Matthew and Luke in their versions of the story.  We’d like to think, of course, that maybe after the meal was over and the people had left, Jesus went to see Mary and explained things to her.  But for all we know, that may not have happened until much later or it may not have happened at all.  For all we know, Mary and her sons may have simply turned around and gone home, feeling like Jesus did not even care about them anymore.

            Have you ever had someone you love hurt you like that?  Have you ever felt rejected by someone you were really close to?  Someone you were just trying to help?  If so, then maybe you have some idea how Mary felt here.  To have her own son, a son whom she’d been through a lot to have and to raise, and who, after all, was supposed to be the Son of God, reject her, and in a really public way.  It had to hurt.

            But here’s the thing.  Somehow, Mary got over it.  Somehow, Mary got past the hurt.  I don’t suppose it was easy.  It probably took some time.  It probably took some prayer.  Maybe it took talking to Jesus at some point, we don’t know.  But somehow, Mary got over it.  We know she got over it because we see her with Jesus later in the gospels.  In fact, we see her at the cross when Jesus is dying, and we see her going to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. 

            In other words, Mary forgave Jesus.  Does that sound odd to you?  That Mary would forgive Jesus?  After all, Jesus is the divine Son.  Jesus is without sin.  And yet Mary forgave Jesus.  Did Jesus sin, that Mary had to forgive him?

            No, I don’t think so.  I believe that Jesus did not sin while he was on earth.  He was tempted to, but he did not.  But I still think that Mary forgave him.

            You see, I don’t think we have to sin, necessarily, to hurt people.  We can hurt people by accident.  We can hurt people with the best of intentions.  We can hurt people by things we say or do when we don’t even realize how they’re going to take what we say.

            And that can happen to us, too.  We can be hurt by people who have no intention of hurting us.  But despite their intentions, we’re still hurt.  And we have to find a way to get past it.  And that way past it is to forgive them.  We need to forgive them for hurting us even if they don’t know they hurt us.  We don’t forgive them to help them.  We forgive them to help us.

            I don’t think Jesus intended to hurt Mary.  But I suspect Mary was hurt.  And I suspect Mary needed to forgive Jesus.  Not because Jesus needed to receive forgiveness.  But because Mary needed to give it.  She needed to forgive Jesus so she could get past the hurt and have a relationship with her son again.

            Who do you need to forgive?  I suspect there’s someone.  I suspect we all have someone we need to forgive.  I’d encourage you to think about who it is.  I’d encourage you to pray about it.  And I’d encourage you to find a way to forgive them.  It won’t be easy.  It may take some time.  It may take lots of time and lots of prayer. 

            But keep trying.  This period we’re in right now, this period of Lent, is a time for forgiveness.  We usually think of that as us asking for forgiveness from God, and that is a major part of it.  But Jesus said several times that the amount of forgiveness we received is related to the amount of forgiveness we give.  

So again, keep trying to forgive them.  Even if they don’t think they need forgiveness, keep trying to forgive them.  Even if they’re not interested in receiving your forgiveness, keep trying to forgive them.  Keep trying until you can do it.  Because you’re not forgiving them because they need to receive forgiveness.  You’re forgiving them because you need to give forgiveness.  You’re forgiving them so you can get past the hurt.  That’s the only way we can ever be free of it.  And it’s only when we’re free of that hurt that we can truly be the people God wants us to be.

 

The Righteous and the Sinners

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Mark 2:13-17.

            Who did Jesus come to save?

            Well, it’s a silly question, right?  Jesus came to save everybody.  That’s one of the basic beliefs we have as Christians.  John Three Sixteen tells us that whoever believes in Jesus shall have salvation and eternal life.  And that thought appears all throughout the New Testament.  Salvation and eternal life are available to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            But with that in mind, let’s look at our Bible reading for today.  Jesus is walking along the lake.  There’s a crowd there, and Jesus is talking to them, teaching them as he walks along.  Eventually, they come near a booth.  It’s the booth of a man named Levi, who’s a tax collector.

            Now, we’ve talked about this in the past, but it’s important that we remember what a tax collector was back then.  The Roman government’s tax system was completely different from the tax season we’re familiar with in the United States.

            The way it worked is that, if you were hired as a tax collector, the Roman government told you that you were responsible for turning X dollars over the Roman government.  That was all.  The Romans did not care where you got the money.  They did not care how you got the money.  They just cared that you turned the right amount over to them when you were supposed to.  As long as you did that, the Roman government did not care about anything else.

            And the Roman government did not pay you for doing this.  The way you got paid is, whatever you could collect over the amount the Roman government wanted was yours to keep.    So, obviously, tax collectors had a reason to try to collect as much money as they could.  And because the Romans did not care where they got the money, there were literally no legal boundaries to what tax collectors could do.  They would take as much money as they could, and they were not concerned about fairness or morality or anything else.  All this meant that tax collectors were, by and large, quite rich.  But it also meant that tax collectors were, by and large, very much disliked by the people.

            So that’s who Levi was.  That’s the guy Jesus saw at the tax collection booth.  And the way it’s written, Jesus says to words to him.  “Follow me”.  And were told that Levi got up and followed him.

            That’s an amazing thing, don’t you think?  It’s amazing on two levels.  One of them is that Jesus would choose to call this man, Levi, a man who had gotten rich by taking other people’s money, with no regard to fairness or morality, to follow him.  And the other is that Levi, this man who had gotten rich by taking other people’s money, with no regard to fairness or morality, would actually get up and follow Jesus.

            And then, listen to this next sentence.  This is an amazing thing, too.  “While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.”

            In other words, Levi was not a fluke.  Levi was not the one remarkable tax collector who had a change of heart and followed Jesus.  There were a whole bunch of tax collectors who followed.  All these people, who again had gotten rich by taking other people’s money with no regard to fairness or morality, all started following Jesus.  That’s incredible.

            And of course, it was noticed.  Among those who noticed was the teachers of the law, who were also Pharisees.  And they asked about it.  Now, notice, they apparently did not have the courage to go to Jesus directly and ask him about it.  No, they went to the disciples.  And they asked the disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

            And by the way, this was not just an innocent question.  They were not just asking for information.  The Pharisees were already opposed to Jesus.  They already looked at him as an enemy.  They thought this was a put down.  They thought they could give Jesus a bad reputation.  They were going for guilt by association.  “Look at the kind of people Jesus spends time with.  What does that say about him, that he spends time with these lowlifes?  After all, a man is known by the company he keeps, right?  If Jesus hangs out with that kind of person, well, I guess we know what kind of person he is.”

            Jesus hears what they’re saying, of course.  And he answers them, even though they did not ask him directly.  And what does he say?  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

            That response must have stunned the Pharisees.  I mean, they considered themselves “the righteous”.  And they had no doubt about that, either.  And they were sure that if and when the Messiah came, they’d be the ones he came to.  The righteous Pharisees.  Not these riffraff.  Not these thieves and cheaters.  Not the “tax collectors and sinners”.  The Messiah would come to the best of the best.  And of course, that’s who the Pharisees thought they were.

            So, which do you think you are?  And which do I think I am?  Are we among the righteous?  Or are we among the “tax collectors and sinners”?

            Now, let’s not answer this right away.  Let’s think about it a little.  Because the easy answer, the churchy answer, is to quote Romans Three, Twenty-three and say “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  We say, therefore, that we’re all sinners.

            And that’s true, of course.  We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  But here’s the thing.  Do we really believe that?

            I know we say it.  And I know that, in our heads, we know it’s true.  But do we really believe it in our hearts?  Do we really believe it in a way that affects the way we think and speak and live our lives?

            Each of us has to answer that for himself or herself.  I cannot answer it for you.  I would not presume to try.  It’s not my place to judge you.  But I ask you to really think about it.  In fact, I ask you to pray about it.  Do you consider yourself among the righteous?  Or do you consider yourself one of the “tax collectors and sinners”?

            The reason I ask you to really think about it, and to pray about it, is that I know how easy it is for us human beings to justify ourselves to ourselves.  It’s human nature.  We can excuse almost anything we do if we want to badly enough.  In fact, we can convince ourselves that almost anything we do is good, is right, is exactly what we should be doing, if we want to badly enough.

            And you know another thing we human beings are good at?  We’re really good at not thinking about things we don’t want to think about.  That’s human nature, too.  We’re really good at doing something and just not allowing ourselves to think about the consequences of it.  We just don’t think about how what we’ve done affects other people.  We compartmentalize it and ignore it and pretend that it did not even happen.

            And there’s one other thing we human beings are good at.  We compare ourselves to other people.  We may realize we’re not perfect, but we think, well, I’m not all that bad.  Look at all these other people.  I’m a lot better than they are.  So, I must be pretty good.

            And because of all this, it’s very easy for us to excuse our sins.  It’s very easy for us to pretend that our sins are not really sins.  It’s very easy for us to think that we’re better than someone else, and so we must be okay.  In fact, we’re better than okay.  We’re just fine.  Maybe we’re not perfect, but we really don’t need to change much of anything, either.

            Again, this is not aimed at anyone in particular.  This is simply human nature.  I’m as subject to it as anyone.  The reason I can talk about all these things is because I do all these things.  And I do them repeatedly.  That’s why I can talk about them--I’m intimately acquainted with all these things.

            Because of all this, even though we say we’re all sinners, it is very easy for us to consider ourselves among the righteous.  And so, we come back to Jesus’ statement.  “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

            That does not mean that what we said at the start of this message was wrong.  Jesus did come to save everybody.  But we cannot hear Jesus’ call, we cannot truly accept it, if we consider ourselves righteous.  We can only hear Jesus’ call, and we can only truly accept the salvation that Jesus offers, if we truly realize we are sinners.  Not just realize it in our heads.  Not just say the words.  But know it in our hearts.

            The reason for that is that we can only accept salvation by repenting of our sins and asking for forgiveness.  And we can only do that if we truly know, in our hearts, that we are sinners.  We can only do that if we stop justifying ourselves to ourselves.  We can only do that if we acknowledge and understand how the things we do affect other people.  We can only do that if we stop comparing ourselves to others and start comparing ourselves to Jesus.  Because if we truly compare ourselves to Jesus, we’ll understand what sinners we really are.

            When we understand that, we can come to Jesus humbly.  We can come to Jesus repenting of our sins and asking forgiveness.  And when we come to Jesus that way, we can hear Jesus say to us, as he did to Levi, “Follow me.”  

And we can follow, knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we truly do have salvation and eternal life.

           

 

Sin and Grace

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Romans 6:1-18.

            We are saved, not by our good works, but by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  If we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, it does not matter what we have done.  God, by God’s grace, will forgive all of our sins.  More than that, it will be like our sins never happened.  Even though we are not truly righteous, God’s grace will cover our sins.  We will be treated as righteous, and we will receive salvation and eternal life.

            Now, all that is absolutely true, and in fact it’s the basis of Christian faith.  So, then, why do we talk so much in church about the things God calls us to do?  Why do we talk so much about loving our neighbor?  Why do we talk so much about treating others as we would like to be treated?  Why do we talk so much about needing to forgive others?  If God’s grace covers all of our sins, if it does not matter what we have done as long as we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, then what difference does all this other stuff make?

            That’s one of the questions the Apostle Paul was facing when he wrote his letter to the Romans.  People basically said, well, if God’s grace is going to cover our sins, why can we not just go on sinning and depend on God’s grace?  In fact, we can sin all the more, because all that does is give God more chances to use God’s grace.  What could be wrong with giving God the chance to use His grace?

            Now, you say it like that, and maybe it sounds kind of silly.  But people were seriously making that argument.  And in fact, we still make that argument, or at least a variation of it.  No one puts it that bluntly, of course.  And in fact, we may not even say it at all.  But you can tell it by the way we live.  If our Christian faith does not make us change our behavior, if our lives are not particularly different from what they would be if we were not Christians, then we’re basically saying what people were saying in Paul’s time.  We’re saying it does not really matter what we do.  God will forgive us, God’s grace will cover us, and we’ll be fine.  So we don’t need to change anything.  We’ll just keep living the way we have been living.

            Paul says it does not work that way.  In fact, Paul says that if we truly believe in Jesus Christ, we have been set free from sin.  We should no longer have any desire to sin, because sin no longer has any control over us.  Paul says that before we knew Jesus, we were slaves to sin.  But now we’re not.  Our faith in Jesus sets us free from that.

            It’s simple, right?  Well, yeah, it is simple.  But that does not make it easy.  Because I know a lot of people who believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, but I don’t know anyone who is totally free from sin.  I don’t know anyone who no longer has any desire to sin, because of their faith in Jesus.  Most definitely including me.

            We are all tempted to sin.  Each and every one of us.  Even Jesus was tempted to sin–you may remember in Matthew Chapter Four how Jesus was tempted by Satan.  Now Jesus did not give in to that temptation.  But he was Jesus.  He was the divine Son of God.  I’m not Jesus.  And neither are you.  We’re tempted to sin, too.  But, because we are weak, fallible, imperfect human beings, who have a sinful nature, we sometimes give in to that temptation.

            That’s why repentance is so important.  That’s another argument the people of Paul’s time were making, and it’s an argument we make sometimes, too.  If we believe in Jesus as the Savior, our sins are forgiven and we go on to salvation and eternal life, so why do we need to repent of our sins?  After all, God knows we’re weak.  God knows we’re imperfect.  God knows that better than we do, because God made us.  Because God knows us so well, God will forgive our sins, so we don’t need to repent of them.

            It does not work that way, either.  Why?  Well, for one thing, Jesus told us to repent.  In fact, it was the first thing Jesus said when he started His ministry.  In Matthew Chapter Four, right after Jesus is tempted by Satan, we’re told, “From that time on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”  Again, when Jesus started His ministry, the first thing he did was tell people to repent.  So I think repentance must be pretty important.

            The thing is, I think sometimes we don’t really understand what repentance is.  It’s more than just asking for forgiveness of our sins.  Repentance is a turning away.  It’s a turning away from sin, but it’s even more than that.  It’s a turning away from ourselves, and instead turning to God.

            When you think about it, most of our sins–maybe all of our sins–are rooted in our selves.  Selfishness.  Self-centeredness.  Self-righteousness.  Doing what we want to do, saying what we want to say, regardless of how that might affect someone else and even regardless of how, long-term, it will affect ourselves.  Wanting to have our way, regardless of the consequences.  Convincing ourselves that we are always right, and that anyone who disagrees is not only wrong but stupid and/or evil.  That’s where pretty much all of our sins come from–focusing on ourselves rather than focusing on others or focusing on God.

            Paul says that, when we do that, we are slaves to sin.  And, he says, when we are slaves to sin, that leads to death.  

            You see, if we truly believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, if we truly believe He was and is the divine Son of God, then we need to live our lives the way He told us to live them.  If we don’t, we cannot really say that we believe in Him, can we?  I mean, how can we honestly say we believe in Jesus if we feel free to just ignore what he told us?   If we believe in Jesus, we need to do the things Jesus told us to do.

            Paul says we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.  He does not seem to leave room for any middle ground.  He does not allow for us to do both.  We are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.  As Bob Dylan put it, you’re gonna have to serve somebody.  It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

            When we give our lives to Christ, when we say we believe in Jesus as the Savior, we are saying we will become slaves to righteousness.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven.  But because that is what God deserves from us.

            Think about what God did for us.  God saw human beings.  God saw human beings living only for the self.  He saw human beings living in destructive ways, destructive of others and destructive of themselves.  God had offered to bless human beings.  God had offered to take care of them and give them everything they needed.  And human beings refused His offer and went their own way.  And the result was that human beings were living in selfishness and sin.  And that left human beings in misery.

            God could have just turned His back on humanity.  But instead, God offered us a way out.  God offered us the chance for salvation and eternal life through belief in the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  God sent His Son to earth to teach us the right way to live.  To show us the right way to live.  And to take the punishment we should receive for our sins, so that we can have the chance to go to heaven for eternity.

            That’s an incredible gift God has given us.  It’s a gift we don’t deserve.  It’s a gift we could never earn.  Because of that gift, we should want to serve God.  We should want to be slaves to God’s righteousness.  God deserves that from us.  For all that God has done for us, God deserves to have us be faithful to Him.  God deserves to have us serve Him.  God deserves to have us show love to Him.  Again, it’s not that we’re trying to earn our way into heaven–our faith does that.  But our faith also requires us to show our gratitude to God for all God has done for us.  Our faith requires us to serve God’s righteousness because God deserves that from us.

            Again, we will not do it perfectly.  We remain imperfect, flawed human beings with a sinful nature.  Even if we determine to be slaves to righteousness, even slaves make mistakes sometimes.  But when we do make mistakes, when we do sin, we need to repent of our sins and start again.  

We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s incredible, loving grace.  That grace truly does cover our sins.  But it does not give us a license to go on sinning.  Instead, God’s grace sets us free from slavery to sin, and allows us to be slaves to righteousness.  It allows us to stop focusing on ourselves, and instead focus on others and on God.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven.  Because that’s what God deserves from us.

The holy, righteous, perfect God has blessed us.  He has offered us the incredible gift of salvation and eternal life.  Let’s accept that gift, and humbly give God the faith and love God deserves.

 

Jesus' Prayer For You

The print version of the Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 18, 2024.  The Bible verses used are John 17:1-26.

            Every Sunday morning, we have a time where we ask for prayer requests.  Lots of churches do that.  It’s called “Joys and Concerns” or something similar.  It’s a time for people to express what they would like the church, and the people in it, to pray about.

            That’s a good thing.  We should pray for each other.  In fact, the Bible tells us many times that we should do that.  But in our Bible reading tonight, we have an example of Jesus himself praying for us.

            That’s a pretty awesome thing, don’t you think?  That Jesus Christ, the Savior, the divine Son of God, would pray for you?  And for me?  It’s another example of how much Jesus loves us.  After all, at the time of our Bible reading, Jesus had a lot on his mind.  The prayer we read tonight is, according to the gospel of John, the last thing Jesus said before he went to the garden of Gethsemane.  And of course, that is where he would be arrested, an arrest that would lead to his death on a cross.

            Jesus could certainly have been excused if, at that point, his thoughts were all on himself.  But they were not.  A little, yes, but not that much.  His thoughts were mainly on God and on his disciples and followers.

            So, what does Jesus pray?  First, he prays that God the Father will be pleased with what Jesus has done.  He says, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

            You know, when we talk about the sacrifice Jesus made, we immediately think of his death on the cross.  And of course that was a tremendous sacrifice that Jesus made.  But it’s not the only sacrifice Jesus made.  Jesus’ statement reminds us that Jesus gave up a lot just to come to earth in the first place.

            “Glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”  Jesus, as God the Son, was with God the Father in heaven.  He always had been.  God the Son had glory with God the Father before the universe was ever created.

            Jesus gave up that glory to come to earth.  And he had a specific job to do while he was here.  Now, his work on earth is nearly finished, and he prays that God will be pleased with what he has done and will return that glory to him again.

            But again, Jesus does not spend much time on himself.  He goes on to pray for the disciples.  And it’s interesting, I think, to note that Jesus specifically says he is not praying for the world.  He is simply praying for those who are his, who follow him.

            What does he pray for them?  Maybe not what we’d expect.  Jesus does not pray that God the Father will make things easy for them.  He does not pray that they will have anything material.  He does not even pray that God will keep them from harm.  Instead, he prays that God would protect them from the evil one.  And he prays that God would sanctify them with God’s word, which is truth.

            Protect them from the evil one, and sanctify them with God’s word, which is truth.  What does that mean?  Why would Jesus pray that way?

Jesus knows that now the disciples have a job to do, just as Jesus had a job to do while he was on earth.  They are going to have to carry on the ministry that Jesus has started, spreading the good news of salvation.  And Jesus knows it’s going to be a tough job.  He’s already told them they’re going to have all kinds of trouble.  In fact, he’s told them that the world is going to hate them because of him.  And he knows he’s not going to be there any more to protect them.

But Jesus wanted the disciples to look at this the way he looked at it.  Jesus knew that, if he stayed firm, if he stayed with God the Father and with God’s truth, nothing the world could do could touch him.  Yes, they could kill his earthly body.  But they could not do anything to his eternal life.  If he stayed with God the Father, he would, as he said, return to his glory in heaven.

And that’s what he wanted the disciples to do.  Stay firm.  Stay with God the Father and with God the Son.  Stay with God’s truth.  And so, he prays that God the Father will protect them from the evil one.  Protect them from the temptation to compromise.  Protect them from the temptation to back off, to get along.  Protect them from the temptation to soften God’s truth to satisfy what the world wants to hear.  

Again, Jesus knows that, if they stand firm, they will get into trouble.  But he knows that, if they stay with God’s truth, there’s nothing the world can do to them.  Yes, the world could kill their earthly bodies.  But the world could not do anything to their eternal lives.  If they stayed firm, if they stayed with God’s truth, they would be sanctified.  They would be set apart, and they would go to heaven to be with the Lord.

As I thought about that, I realized that we don’t pray that way for each other nearly enough.  We pray for others’ good health all the time, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.  We should do that.  We pray, sometimes, for protection from storms.  We pray for favorable weather or for safe travels.  We pray for lots of things.  But we rarely pray that God would keep us strong in our faith.  We rarely pray that God will help us stand firm and stand with God.  We rarely pray that God would help us stay with God’s word and God’s truth.

That’s wrong.  And it’s at least partly my fault, as the pastor, that we don’t pray that way more.  I’m not saying every prayer we ever pray needs to be that, but we should pray that way more than we do.  And I’m going to try to do my part to correct that.

Because that’s something we all need.  You and I are every bit as tempted to compromise as the disciples were, if not more.  We’re every bit as tempted to back off, to get along.  We’re every bit as tempted to soften God’s truth to satisfy what the world wants to hear.  And we’re also tempted to convince ourselves that the “softened” version of God’s truth is the right one, because sometimes it’s what we want to hear, too.

But Jesus did not stop there.  Jesus continued, praying for all who will come to believe.  That includes you and me.

What was his prayer for us?  It’s a prayer for unity, but not in the way we might have expected.  Yes, he’d like us to be united, but united because we have God’s Holy Spirit in us.

Listen to what he says.  He prays “that all of them might be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”  A little later he says something similar, “that they may be one as we are one--I in them and you in me.”

Again, Jesus does not pray for the whole world.  He prays for believers.  Jesus knows that there can be no unity between believers and non-believers.  We should love them, yes.  We should pray for them.  We should treat them as we would like to be treated.  But we cannot be unified with them.  As Jesus said earlier, his disciples are not of this world, just as Jesus himself was not of this world.  Trying to be unified with the world is what leads to the compromises that Jesus prayed his disciples would avoid.

As believers, we are to be unified with Jesus.  That’s our goal.  To live as Jesus told us to live.  To treat others as Jesus told us to treat them.  To believe as Jesus believed.  To think as Jesus thought.  To love as Jesus loved.  To have the courage and trust in God the Father that Jesus had.  We’ll do it imperfectly, of course, because we’re imperfect people.  Even the disciples did it imperfectly.  But they did it, and we can, too.  And if we’re unified with Jesus, we can be unified with each other, too.

And Jesus prayed for one more thing for us.  He prayed, “Father, I want those you have given me to be where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

Jesus wants us to be with him.  To be in heaven.  To be with God the Father.  To see His glory.

            And when that happens, we truly will be unified with Jesus.  We will be perfect, just as God intended in the beginning.  Not because of anything we’ve done, but because the death of Jesus, and our belief in him, washes away our sins.  What an awesome thing.  What an amazing thing.  What an incredibly loving thing.  To be one with each other and one with Jesus in the presence of God in heaven.

            We should pray for each other.  But when you get down, when you get discouraged, when it seems like things are not going the way they should, remember this:  Jesus has prayed for you.  Jesus is still praying for you.  With Jesus on our side, there is nothing we cannot overcome.  We can stand firm in our faith.  The world may not love us for that.  But if we stand firm in our faith, we can be unified with Jesus, on earth and in heaven.

Riding the Roller Coaster

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on February 18, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Philippians 2:1-11.

            When you look at Jesus’ life, he had a lot of ups and downs.  He had the highs of the crowds praising Him, and the lows of Pharisees and Sadducees always trying to stop him.  We have the highs of thousands of people following Him to, ultimately, everyone abandoning Him.  In the last week of His life on earth, we have the high of Palm Sunday to the low of the Garden of Gethsemane, with Jesus being arrested and beaten, to Jesus being killed on the cross.  But then, we go up, higher than we’ve ever been, as the tomb is empty and Christ is risen!

            And yet, when you look at that incredible roller-coaster, Jesus remains pretty much the same.  Jesus does not get overly excited when he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and hears the cheers of the crowd.  And Jesus does not get overly depressed when he arrested and beaten.  Not that he liked it, obviously--it was a really hard thing to go through.  But Jesus does not complain, he does not get mad, he does not say, “Why me?”  Jesus accepts everything that happens, the good and the bad, and stays on an even keel.  Maybe that’s part of what the author of the letter to the Hebrews meant when he wrote that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

            I think that tells us a lot about Jesus.  It tells us who we was, and it tells us who he is.  And that’s what our reading from the book of Philippians tells us, too.

            It starts by telling us that Jesus was, in his very nature, God.  And we know that, of course.  And the thing is, Jesus knew it, too.  Jesus, at least once he was baptized and started his ministry, knew exactly who he was.  He knew that he was, in fact, the divine Son of God.  He knew that he was, in fact, God--God the Son, part of the Trinity.

            We say that, and we kind of nod our heads in agreement with it, but think about what that really means.  Think about the incredible power Jesus had while he was on earth.  And think about how tempting it must have been for him to use that power.  

            Really think about it.  What would you do, if you had Jesus’ power?  Would you use it for your own benefit?  Would you use it to acquire money and control and power for yourself?  Would you use it to let you just sit back, take life easy, and not have to do much of anything?  Or, would you try to use it for good?  Would you heal everyone, and feed everyone, and get rid of injustice and oppression and all the other bad things in the world?

            I don’t know.  I don’t know what I would do, if I had Jesus’ power.  There are so many options, more options than we can imagine, really.  But there’s one thing that I don’t think I would do.  I don’t think I would let that power go unused when someone betrayed me.  I don’t think I would let that power go dormant while I was arrested for no real reason.  I don’t think I would just allow that power to lapse while I was being beaten and mocked.  And I’m pretty sure I would not allow that power to go unused while I was being killed in a very painful way.

            But Jesus did.  That’s what the Apostle Paul is talking about when he says Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.  Jesus could’ve used his power for himself in so many ways.  Certainly he could’ve used it to avoid death.  But he did not.  Jesus purposely and deliberately refused to use his power, and instead allowed himself to be killed on the cross.

            Why?  Paul tells us that, too.  He says, “Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

            Jesus was obedient.  He was obedient to God the Father.  That’s why Jesus was able to stay on an even keel throughout everything that happened.  Jesus knew who he was, but he also knew what he was supposed to do.  Jesus knew that everything that was happening, was happening because God was allowing it to happen.  And Jesus knew that if he stayed obedient to God, God would see him through everything.  Jesus was able to stay calm, to handle everything, to stay on such an even keel, because he trusted that, no matter how hard things got for him, God was in control.  He trusted that God had good reasons for allowing things to be the way they were, and that God would use it all for God’s glory.

            And we think, well, but Jesus knew he was going to be resurrected.  And he did.  He told the disciples that.  But that did not make the pain any less.  It did not make what he went through any easier.  That’s why Jesus prayed so hard in the garden of Gethsemane.  He was begging God, please, if there’s any other way to do this, do it that way.  If there’s any other way to save human beings other than me having to go through this, do it that way.  Jesus knew how hard this was going to be.  But ultimately, Jesus was still obedient to God the Father.

            It was because of Jesus’ obedience to the Father that Jesus was ultimately raised to sit at the right hand of the Father.  It’s not me saying that, it’s Paul.  After he says Jesus was obedient even to death on a cross, he says this:  “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

            Jesus had incredible power while he was on earth.  And he knew it.  And he was tempted to use it for his own good.  That’s what Satan was trying to do when Jesus was fasting in the wilderness--trying to get Jesus to use his power for himself.  But Jesus refused.  And that refusal was good for his entire life on earth.  No matter how much he was tempted--and he was, all his life--Jesus refused to use his power for himself.  He was humble.  He was obedient.  He trusted God the Father.  And his obedience and trust resulted in our salvation and in Jesus being exalted to the highest place and being acknowledged as Lord.

            That, of course, was what people were doing on that first Palm Sunday--acknowledging Jesus as Lord.  But they did not have Jesus’ humility or obedience.  They wanted Jesus to use his power.  They wanted him to use his power for them, of course.  They wanted him to use it to take control and establish a kingdom on earth.  And, of course, they thought that when he did that, they’d get the benefit of his power.  They did not want Jesus to be obedient to God the Father--they wanted him to be obedient to them.  They wanted Jesus to do things their way, rather than trusting him to do things the way God the Father wanted him to do them.

            And are we really all that different?  We pray to God.  And many times, we pray for God to use God’s power.  And we want God to use God’s power for us.  We might not think about it that way.  We might truly believe that what we’re asking God to do would be the best for everybody.  We might honestly think that all we’re asking God to do is what’s just and right.  But, no matter how honest and sincere we may be, when we pray that way, we’re not trying to be obedient to God.  No matter how well-intentioned we might convince ourselves that we are, the truth is that many times, we’re trying to get God to be obedient to us, rather than the other way around.

            Now, don’t get me wrong.  It’s okay to ask God for things.  Again, Jesus asked for God to do things differently when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane.  But ultimately, we need to be obedient to God.  And that means accepting what God wants.  Accepting it even when it’s not what we want.  Accepting it even when it’s going to be really hard.  Accepting it even when it does not make sense to us.  Being able to pray, under all circumstances, “Thy will be done.”  And trusting that, no matter what God’s will may be, God will stay with us, and God will see us through it.

Our lives can be a roller coaster, too.  We try to deal with it, and we do, but it’s not always easy.  We go up and down, back and forth.  We have some high highs, and we have some low lows.  Sometimes we wish things would just even out.  We don’t necessarily demand high highs, we just wish we could avoid the low lows.  Sometimes we’d settle for normal, even boring.  And sometimes, we get that, for a while, but not for long.  Eventually, we go back on the roller coaster, with the high highs and the low lows again. 

The only way we can deal with that is to do what Jesus did:  be obedient to God.  Trusting that, no matter what happens, it’s happening because God is allowing it to happen.  Trusting that, if we stay obedient to God, God will see us through everything.  Trusting that, no matter how hard things get, God is still in control.  And trusting that God is going to use it all for God’s glory.

And if we do that, God will exalt us, too.  If we can stay faithful, and continue to love God and trust God, God will bless what we do.  God will bless us.  And by our faith in Jesus as the Savior, we will receive our reward in heaven.

Do It for the Lord

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 11, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Romans 14:1-18.

            Sometimes it seems like everywhere you look in the world, you have disagreements and arguments.  You certainly have it all over the news.  You have it in a variety of social issues.  You have it in a lot of families.  Sadly, you even have a lot of disagreement within Christian churches.

            But one thing we need to remember, as we think about this, is that there’s nothing new about it.  There have been disagreements within Christian churches since Christianity started.  That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote the things he did in our Bible reading for today.

            The things people disagreed about back then may not seem important to us now, but they were hugely important at the time.  “One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another…eats only vegetables.”  The Jewish dietary laws were very important at the time.  There were things religious Jews simply could not eat, under any circumstances.  As Christianity began to spread beyond the Jewish community, the question of whether non-Jewish Christians had to follow those dietary laws became a major controversy.

            “One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike.”  We’ve talked about this before, but keeping the Sabbath was also really important at that time.  You probably remember the times Jesus got into trouble with the Pharisees for breaking the Sabbath laws.  So again, as Christianity spread beyond the Jewish community, the question of whether non-Jewish Christians had to follow the Sabbath laws also became a major controversy.

            And Paul responds to these controversies.  He says two things about them.  First, he says, look, this is not stuff we need to be arguing about.  If one person says he’s only going to eat vegetables, that it helps him feel closer to God to do that, then fine.  Let him.  He’s not hurting you.  If someone else says he’s going to eat whatever he wants, that he can feel close to God without limiting his diet, then fine.  Let him.  He’s not hurting you.  You’re not supposed to judge each other that way.  Let people eat whatever will get them closer to God.

            He says the same thing about the days.  He does not specifically reference the Sabbath day, but he says, look, if one person thinks some days are more sacred than others, if it helps them feel closer to God to make some days more sacred, then fine.  Let him do that.  He’s not hurting you.  And if someone else says all days are equally sacred, if that helps them feel closer to God, Paul says, let him do that.  He’s not hurting you.  Again, Paul says we’re not supposed to judge each other that way.  Let people treat the days in whatever way will get them closer to God.

            So that’s the first thing.  We’re not supposed to judge each other for what we need to do to get closer to God.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  Paul was not saying “anything goes”.  Paul was not saying anything anybody wants to do is okay.  What Paul was saying is, look, you don’t need to be paying attention to what other people do.  You need to be paying attention to what you do.  You need to make sure you have your own life in order.  It gets back to what Jesus said:  Don’t look at the speck in someone else’s eye until you get rid of the plank in your own eye.

And that gets to the most important point Paul was making here.  He says, “Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord.  Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.”

            Paul says that whatever we do, we need to do it for the Lord.  Wherever we eat, do it for the Lord.  Whatever we think about the sacredness of days, do it for the Lord.  Whatever we do about anything, do it for the Lord.  Everything about our lives is to be done for the Lord.

            In other words, Paul is saying that it’s not so much what we do that’s important.  It’s why we do it.  It’s our attitude toward it.  If we do things, even good things, to bring glory and honor to ourselves, God is not going to be impressed by that.  If we do things, even good things, to impress others and try to get them to think well of us, God is not going to be impressed by that.  If we do things, again, even good things, for any purpose other than to bring honor and glory to God, it is no credit to us at all.

            And Paul applies this to everything we do.  From the time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed at night.  It’s all supposed to be done to bring honor and glory to God.

            The work we do, regardless of what our job may be, should bring honor and glory to God.  Our time with friends and family should bring honor and glory to God.  The time we spend just relaxing and having fun should bring honor and glory to God.  The meals we eat, the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the place we live–everything about our lives should bring honor and glory to God in some way.

            Now, two things about that.  One is that you may be sitting there thinking, how can all those things bring honor and glory to God?  And certainly, sometimes the way something can bring honor and glory to God is more obvious than it is at other times.  

But there is some way in which everything we do can bring honor and glory to God.  Because everything about our lives involves choices we make.  Choices about how we’re going to spend our money.  Choices about how we’re going to spend our time.  Choices about who we’re going to spend our time with.  Choices about where we’re going to be and what we’re going to do while we’re there.  And all of those things affect our ability to bring honor and glory to God.  Sometimes they affect it positively.  Sometimes they affect it negatively.  But they all affect our ability to bring honor and glory to God.

The second thing about that is that I’m not standing here telling you that everything about my life brings honor and glory to God.  It does not, and you know me well enough to know that.  This is something I need to work on.  This is something we all need to work on.

And in saying we need to work on it, I’m not saying that we need to earn our way into heaven.  We cannot do that.  It’s impossible.  No one could ever be good enough to get to heaven.  As Jesus said, no one is good except God alone.  If we have to be good to get to heaven, God would be the only one there.  We get into heaven by our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, not by being good.

But Paul is not writing about how to get into heaven.  Paul is writing about how to live out our faith.  If we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, the way we live our lives should show that.  And that means, again, that everything we do should be done for the Lord.  Everything about our lives should bring honor and glory to God.

            So take a look at your life.  And I need to take a look at my life, too.  Let’s think about the things we do every day.  Do we do those things for the Lord?  Do those things bring honor and glory to God?

            For most of us, I suspect, the answer is, well, sometimes.  There are times we do things for the Lord.  There are times we do things that bring honor and glory to God.  I know some of the things you do that do that.  This church would not be here if not for the dedication of many, many people who are here.

            But, for most of us, I suspect there are times when the things we do are not done for the Lord.  There are times when the things we do don’t bring honor and glory to God.  And it’s not because we’re horrible people.  But we are people, and that means we’re imperfect.

            Now, we need to acknowledge that we are imperfect.  But we also should not use that as an excuse.  We should not say, well, I’m not perfect, and just continue to do what we’ve been doing.  The attitude we need to have is, I’m not perfect, but I’m going to get as close as I can.  I’m going to do as much as I can to see that everything I do is done for the Lord.  I’m going to do as much as I can to see that the things I do bring honor and glory to God.

            That’s not easy.  But look at what Paul says at the end of our reading for today.  “The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

            That’s how we do this.  That’s how we do everything for the Lord.  That’s how we do everything for the honor and glory of God.  By praying for God’s Holy Spirit to come into our hearts.  By praying for God’s Holy Spirit to bring us peace and joy and righteousness.

            It probably won’t happen overnight.  It could–nothing is beyond the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  But for most of us, I suspect it will be a process.  Some of us have probably already started that process.  And in that process, we’ll move forward sometimes, and we’ll slide backward sometimes.  We’ll do better, and then we’ll slip back.

            But if we keep praying for God’s Holy Spirit, I think we’ll find that we do make progress.  We’ll move farther forward than we move backward.  And when we do slip back, the slipback period will be shorter.  We’ll get ourselves headed in the right direction again, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit.  It will happen, if we consistently and frequently pray for God’s Holy Spirit to help us.

            Let’s live our lives for the Lord.  Let’s live our lives to bring honor and glory to God.  And let’s pray for God’s Holy Spirit to help us.  And feel that peace and joy and righteousness that God’s Holy Spirit will give us.