Tests, Doubts, and Belief

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

            Have you ever had a crisis of faith?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Lost and Found

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Unfair God

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Division

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, November 6, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 12:49-53.

            We tend to have this picture of Jesus as this nice, mild-mannered, easygoing guy.  Someone who preached about peace and love and understanding.  Someone who just wanted everyone to be able to get along with each other and love each other and just all sit around the campfire singing “Kum-ba-ya” together.

            And there is some truth in that.  Jesus was nice.  Jesus did preach about peace and love.  Jesus does want everyone to love each other–after all, Jesus told us to love even our enemies.  

            But the thing is, that’s not all Jesus was.  After all, Jesus was the divine Son of God.  Jesus had lots of aspects to Him, just like God has lots of aspects to Him.  Our Bible reading for today shows a completely different side of Jesus.

            Listen again to some of what He said:  “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!...Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but division.  From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

            Not a lot of peace and love in those statements, is there?  Not a lot of “let’s just all get along.”  Not a lot of “love your neighbor”.

            So what do we do with this?  It does not fit at all with our idea of who Jesus is or why he came to earth.  And yet, if we’re going to deal with the Bible honestly, we cannot just ignore it or pretend it’s not there or dismiss it as Jesus just having a bad day.  So what do we do with it?

            Well, I think first of all, we need to acknowledge that Jesus was right.  He did bring division.  That division continues to this day.  There are many people who do not just refuse to believe in Jesus Christ, but who actively oppose Christ and the Christian church.  And it’s not just happening in Iran or someplace like that, it’s happening right here in the United States of America.  There was an event recently which featured a man reading the Bible over a loudspeaker.  Protesters attacked him, took the Bible away, tore it up, and even ate some of the pages.  Jesus most definitely did bring division.

            But the thing is, I think we have to be careful not to read into Jesus’ statement things He did not say.  He said He came to bring division.  He did not say He wanted to bring division.  He did not say the division would be a good thing.  He simply said it was going to happen as a result of His coming.

            I suspect that Jesus knew at the time He started His ministry that He would be a polarizing figure.  If He did not, I’m sure it did not take Him long to figure it out.  He knew, when He started working miracles, that it would attract attention.  He knew, when people started saying He was a prophet, or even the Messiah, that those claims would stir up opposition.  And He certainly knew, when He called the Pharisees names like “fools”, “vipers”, and “blind guides”, that those Pharisees would not just sit back and take it without responding.  

            Jesus knew that the things He did were going to force people to choose.  People would either choose to follow Him or they would not.  People would either believe in Him as the Savior or they would believe the things the Pharisees said about Him.  

            And Jesus knew that, when people disagree, we don’t tend to just say, well, I guess we’ll just agree to disagree.  It leads to division, and sometimes more than just division.  When people disagree, we tend to get into arguments.  And those arguments sometimes get personal.  And those arguments sometimes get nasty.  And those arguments sometimes even get violent.

            Jesus knew all that.  That does not mean He approved of it.  In fact, He did not.  That’s why Jesus said all those things about loving our enemies and turning the other cheek and praying for those who persecute us.  Jesus knew that things would happen–but He did not want His followers to participate in them.

            And Jesus gave us the example of not participating in them.  Jesus allowed Himself to be killed on the cross.  He did not have to do that.  Jesus could’ve rallied an army to come to His defense.  He could’ve used His divine power to wipe out His opposition.  But Jesus did not do any of that.  People reacted violently to Him–but He did not respond.  He simply stayed true to Himself.  He continued to be who He was.  He continued to say what He said.  He continued to do what He did.  He continued to offer salvation and eternal life.  It’s like what Jesus told the disciples in our reading last week–he did not fear the Pharisees because all they could do was kill His earthly body.  They could not change who He was, and they could not affect His eternal life.

            But some of you realize that there’s a part of this I have not discussed yet.  What about that first sentence of this reading?  Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”  Those don’t exactly sound like the words of someone who wished division could be avoided.  Those sound like the words of someone who cannot wait for division to come.  In fact, “I wish it were already kindled” sounds like a lot more than that.  Those words sound like Jesus is saying, yeah, it’s going to be a fight.  Bring it on!

            At least, that’s one way of looking at it.  But I think there’s another way of looking at it, too.  And it’s a way that seems to me to fit better with the Jesus we know from other Bible passages.

            Have you ever been faced with a situation that you really wished you could avoid, but you knew there was no way you could?  Maybe you even prayed for God to do something to allow you to avoid the situation, but eventually you saw that God was not going to do that.  God was going to make you face the situation and deal with it.  Dealing with it was the last thing you wanted to do, but you knew you were going to have to deal with it, whether you wanted to or not.

            When we’re in a situation like that, for a while we dread facing it.  We try to do whatever we can to put it off for as long as we can.  But eventually, we reach a point where we say, you know, if I’ve got to do this, let’s just do it and get it over with.  Let’s just get it done, so that whatever happens, I can just move on.

            I think that may have been what Jesus meant when he said, “I wish it were already kindled.”  Not that Jesus just couldn’t wait to have a big conflict.  But Jesus knew that it was going to come.  He knew that it was going to result in His death.  Jesus did not want to die, but He knew that, at some point, He was going to have to face His death on earth.  And a part of Him wished He could just get it over with.

            But He knew that was not how it was going to go.  As He said, “I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!”  He wanted to get it over with, but He could not get it over with, not yet.  It was not the right time.  Even Jesus had to wait for God the Father’s timing, just as you and I often have to wait for God’s timing.

            There’s a lot of division on the earth right now.  There’s a lot of division in our country.  There’s division in the United Methodist church.  Sometimes those divisions turn into arguments.  Sometimes those arguments get personal.  Sometimes they get nasty.  Sometimes they even get violent.

            But you and I don’t have to participate in that.  Yes, we may have to choose, and that may lead to disagreements.  But we don’t have to participate in the arguments.  We certainly don’t have to get nasty or violent.  You and I can simply continue to be true to Jesus.  We can continue to say what we say and do what we do.  We can continue to reach out to people with love and compassion.  We can continue to let people know that salvation and eternal life are available to them through faith in Jesus Christ.  We don’t have to let what other people say and do change us.  And it is certain that nothing anyone else says or does can affect our salvation and eternal life.

            We may wish that the division and the disagreements were over.  We may wish we it would just be done, so that whatever happens, we can move on.  But that’s not the way it works right now.  It is not the right time.  It may feel like the right time to us, but clearly in God’s eyes, it’s not.  And we have no idea when it will be the right time in God’s eyes.  We simply need to wait for God’s timing.  Because we know, no matter how it may feel to us, that God’s timing is always right.

            Someday, the events described in the Book of Revelation will all take place, and there will be peace on earth.  Until then, let’s not let then events that are happening on earth change us.  Let’s stay faithful to Jesus Christ.  Let’s love Him, and serve Him, and do what we can to tell others about Him.  Division may be inevitable, but it is not eternal.  The Lord is.  Let’s stay faithful to Him.

Straight from the Heart

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  October 30, 2022. The Bible verses used are Matthew 18:21-35.

            How do we react when someone hurts us?

            I’m sure it varies, depending on who hurt us and how badly.  It also can depend, sometimes, on whether we think they did it intentionally or not.  But under any circumstances, none of us ever likes being hurt.  And sometimes, the closer we are to the person who hurt us, the harder it is to deal with.  We resent it.  And when we think the person who hurt us did it intentionally, it can feel like a betrayal.  That makes it even harder to deal with.  We can start to feel very resentful toward people who we feel have hurt us.

            I would guess that most of us, if we’re honest about it, can think of times we’ve been hurt.  And I would also guess that most of us, if we’re honest about it, still feel some resentment toward the person who hurt us.  It may be something recent, or it may be something in the distant past.  It may be something we think about a lot, or it may be something we’ve tried to push out of our minds and get past.  But whatever it is, it’s still there.  That hurt, and that resentment, are still part of us.  And they keep us from getting close to God and from loving our neighbor.

            Those are all very human feelings.  It’s natural for us to feel that way.  And I’m sure when we feel that way, God understands.  But at the same time, it’s not what God wants for us.  Living our lives with a feeling of resentment does not help anyone, including ourselves.  In fact, it hurts us.  We carry that resentment inside, and it can tear us up.  And again, that resentment can keep us from being close to God.  And it can keep us from loving our neighbor the way God told us to.

            How do we deal with that?  Well, the opposite of feeling hurt and resentment is to grant forgiveness.  That’s what Jesus was talking about in our Bible reading today.

            Peter asks Jesus a question about forgiveness.  And they way Peter asks the question shows that he either did not really understand the whole concept of forgiveness or he just was looking for a loophole.  Because what does he ask?  “Lord, how many times shall I forgive someone who sins against me?  Up to seven times?”

            When we ask the question that way, what are we doing?  We’re trying to put conditions on our forgiveness.  We’re saying, well, okay, I’ll forgive you this time, but I’m keeping track.  I’m keeping score.  You’d better not do anything to me again, because next time I may not forgive you.

            A forgiveness that keeps score is not really forgiveness.  We may think it is, but it’s not.  If we’re keeping score, we really have not forgiven anyone.  We may be moving on, but we have not given up our feelings of resentment.  They’re still there.  And they keep us from restoring our relationship with the person who has hurt us.  We cannot really love someone when we still feel resentment toward them.  And we cannot truly feel love for God when we still feel resentment toward some of the people God created.

            The thing is, though, that this is hard.  Truly forgiving someone, with no strings attached, is a hard thing to do.  And the more we’ve been hurt, the harder it is.  Sometimes, at heart, we really don’t want to forgive someone.  We feel like they don’t deserve our forgiveness.  And, sometimes, we don’t want to give up that resentment.  We want to feel it.  We want someone to know how badly they’ve hurt us.  And we want to make them hurt just as badly.

            We know, of course, that that’s not what Jesus wants us to do.  Jesus wants us to forgive totally and completely, with no strings attached.  And of course, that’s what Jesus was able to do.  When he was hanging on the cross, dying, he was able to pray, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  We know that Jesus wants us to be able to forgive that way, too.

            In our reading for today, Jesus goes on to tell Peter a story to show just how important this whole forgiveness thing is.  He tells about a man who owed a huge debt and had it forgiven, but who then went on to refuse to forgive a small debt that someone owed him.  The man who refused to forgive was thrown in prison.  And Jesus concludes with, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

            Jesus is telling Peter that forgiveness, if it really is forgiveness, has to be total and complete.  We cannot hold anything back.  We cannot forgive and still hang on to our feelings of resentment.  We cannot forgive and still want someone to hurt.  It’s only forgiveness if we completely let go of our resentment.  It’s only forgiveness if we forgive from the heart.

            Jesus told Peter that the stakes are pretty high, too.  He told Peter that if we don’t forgive people, God is not going to forgive us.  This is not the only time Jesus said that, either.  In Mark eleven, Jesus says, “when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”  In Matthew six, Jesus says, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”  In fact, what do we pray every week in the Lord’s Prayer?  “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Jesus seems pretty clear on this point.  If we want God to forgive us, we need to be able to forgive others.

            And we hear that, and we know it, and we agree with it…and yet, it’s still hard.  Even if we really want to forgive, it’s still hard.  Even if we really want our relationship with someone to be restored, even if we really want to give up the resentment and the hurt, it’s still hard.  It’s really hard to forgive someone totally and completely, holding nothing back.

            It’s hard because, when we talk about forgiving from the heart, we’re talking about emotions.  And there’s only a limited extent to which emotions are under our control.  We have some control over them, but not complete control.  We can choose how we’re going to react to the things we feel.  We can choose not to dwell on the things we feel.  And both of those things have some influence over what we feel.  But still, we cannot make ourselves feel something just by deciding we’re going to, and we cannot make ourselves stop feeling something just by deciding we’re not going to.  We may know we need to give up resentment, we may try to make ourselves do it, but sometimes we just cannot, no matter how hard we try.

            Jesus said that we need to forgive from our hearts.  So to me, what that comes down to, again, is asking God’s Spirit to come into our hearts.  I know I talked about that a lot, but I truly believe that’s the only way we can do this.  If we cannot do this ourselves—and I don’t think we can—then the only way we can do it is for God to help us do it.  

And the only way God will help us do this is if we honestly and sincerely ask God to come into our hearts, into our souls, into our minds, and into our lives.  God could force us to forgive, but God does not do that.  If God forced us to forgive, the forgiveness would not come from the heart.  It would be like when you got into a fight with your brother and Mom broke it up and said, “Now, say you’re sorry.”  We might have said it, but we did not feel it, and we did not mean it.  A forced apology is no apology at all.  

Again, the only way we can truly forgive, the only way we can give up resentment, is for God’s Spirit to come into our hearts.  And if you’re like me, you’re going to have to ask God to do this more than once.  In fact, you’re going to have to ask God to do it a lot more than once.  You’re going to have to repeatedly ask God to put God’s Spirit into my heart and help me be more forgiving to others.

Now, don’t take that the wrong way.  I’m not saying that I’m constantly being hurt by people.  Everyone here treats us very well.  Sometimes I get hurt by stupid little things that should not hurt me at all.  Sometimes I’m struggling to forgive people for things that really were no big deal in the first place.  But I suspect I’m not the only one who has that happen.  Whether it’s a big thing, a little thing, or really nothing, we still need to forgive it if we’re going to give up our resentment.  Sometimes forgiveness is not something we do to help someone else.  Sometimes forgiveness is something we do to help ourselves.

We cannot totally control our emotions.  But if we ask God’s Spirit to come into our hearts, God will help us control them.  Then, we’ll be able to forgive totally and completely, from the heart.  We’ll be able to give up that resentment that’s tearing us up.  And we’ll be able to love God and love our neighbors the way Jesus told us to.

 

Acknowledging Jesus

The message given in the Sunday morning worship services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  October 30, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 11:53--12:12.

            Most of us know about Jesus’ battles with the Pharisees.  All the arguments He got into with them, all the times they tried to trick Him or trap Him into saying something that would get Him into trouble.  But I don’t know if we think often enough about the courage it took for Jesus to say the things about the Pharisees that He said.

            The Pharisees were the top dogs in the Jewish leadership.  Yes, there were other groups, the Sadducees and the Essenes and so forth.  And there was a Roman government that had ultimate say-so.  But the Pharisees were the biggest, most prominent group, and the Roman government really did not care what the Jews did, as long as they paid their taxes and did not cause any trouble.  So for all practical purposes, the Pharisees were in control.

            And when I say “in control”, I mean that.  The Pharisees pretty much were the law.  They could not give someone the death penalty, but other than that they could do pretty much what they wanted.  And that’s the group Jesus was taking on when He criticized the Pharisees.

            Jesus knew that, of course.  I don’t know that He was concerned about His own safety–after all, Jesus knew how things were ultimately going to go.  But Jesus was concerned about His disciples.  And in the passage we read today, Jesus is trying both to warn the disciples about what was going to happen and to give them courage to face it.

            Jesus tells them, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.  What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”

            Jesus is telling His disciples, look, you cannot be a secret follower of Mine.  You cannot hide who you are.  You cannot hide what you believe.  At some point, everyone is going to know you are My followers.  It’s going to be obvious.  If you are truly following Me, your words, your actions, everything about you is going to show that.  Everyone is going to know who you are and what you believe.

            That had to be a scary thought for the disciples.  And Jesus knew it would be.  So here’s what Jesus tells them next, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.”  

            Now, we hear that, and we probably know where Jesus is going with it.  But if you were James, or John, or Andrew, or one of the other disciples who was right there, that’s not exactly a comforting thought, is it?  Don’t be afraid of the Pharisees, because all they can do is kill you?  That’s supposed to make us feel better?

            But of course, Jesus goes on to explain it.  He says, “I will show you whom you should fear:  Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell.”  

            In other words, Jesus is saying, keep your priorities in order.  Yes, the Pharisees could end your life on earth, but your faith in Jesus–or your lack of faith in Jesus–determines where you will spend eternity.  That decides whether you go to heaven or hell.  Your life on earth is going to end sometime anyway.  Your eternal life is what you need to be concerned about.

            And the way to keep that eternal life is to stay faithful to Jesus.  He tells them that even sparrows are remembered by God, and people are worth a lot more than sparrows.  And then, Jesus says this:  “Whoever acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God.  But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God.”

            Jesus knew His disciples were going to be in danger.  And He knew that the danger was only going to get worse.  Jesus knew it would take courage for His disciples to stay faithful to Him.  And so He wanted to make clear to the disciples just what the stakes were.  Yes, they could deny Him on earth.  Or, they could just keep their faith in Him to themselves, and not say anything about it to anyone.  And that would make things a lot easier for them while they were on earth.  But the cost would be high.  The cost would be their eternal life.  Because if they did not let people know they were followers of Jesus–if they refused to acknowledge their faith in Him while they were on earth–it would cost them salvation and eternal life.  But if they stayed strong, if they were willing to risk the wrath of the Pharisees, if they were able to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior, the divine Son of God, no matter what the potential cost was on earth, they would receive salvation and eternal life.

            Now, Jesus was saying this to a certain group of people, the disciples, at a certain place at a certain time.  But the fact that it’s in the Bible tells me that there’s a lesson you and I are supposed to know here.  I assume that same standard applies to us.  If you and I acknowledge Jesus as the Savior before others, Jesus will acknowledge us before the angels of God.  If you and I disown Jesus before others, we will be disowned before the angels of God.  So that brings up the key question–do you acknowledge Jesus as the Savior before others.

            That “before others” is the tricky part.  It’s one thing to say I acknowledge Jesus as the Savior when I’m alone.  It’s another thing to acknowledge Jesus as the Savior when I’m around other believers.  But it’s another thing entirely to acknowledge Jesus as the Savior when I’m around people who may not believe in Jesus as the Savior.  And it’s still another thing to acknowledge Jesus as the Savior when I’m around people who I know do not believe in Jesus as the Savior.

            Now, maybe you do all of those things.  I don’t know what you do, and it’s not my job to judge you or point fingers.  But I know I don’t do it nearly as often as I should.  And I even have an advantage over a lot of people, because I’ve been here long enough that just about everyone in the parish knows I’m a Christian pastor.  They assume I believe in Jesus as the Savior.  But of course, I go to lots of other places where people don’t know me.  And when I’m in those places, nobody’s going to know I believe in Jesus as the Savior unless I say something about it.

            And of course, it’s tempting to fall back on the old statement that “I don’t need to tell people about my faith.  I show it by the way I live my life.”  But is that really true?  Can someone tell I believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior by the way I live my life?  How?  Because I do good things sometimes?  There are lots of people who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior who do good things.  Does the way I live my life show that I believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior?  Or does it just show that, sometimes, I can be a nice guy?

            It’s not easy to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Savior before others.  We get scared.  We feel like people might think we’re odd or strange.  People might not like us.  We might make pests of ourselves.  We might even turn people off, get known as that religious nut that people steer clear of because they don’t want to hear it anymore.

            But here’s the thing.  We don’t have to do this by ourselves.  We have the power of the Holy Spirit with us, just like the disciples did.  Listen to what Jesus said to the disciples.  “Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what to say.”

            The Holy Spirit will tell us what to say.  But first, you and I need to decide to say something.  We need to have the courage to actively acknowledge Jesus as the Savior.

            I admit I have failed at this many times.  And I continue to fail at it.  Maybe you don’t, I don’t know.  But for those like me who do, here’s a couple of things that might help.

            The first is what Jesus told the disciples.  Our eternal life depends on this.  Yes, we get salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ and in no other way.  But if we have faith in Jesus, that faith needs to be shown by doing what Jesus told us to do.  And Jesus told us to go and make disciples.  That means you and I need to acknowledge Jesus as the Savior to those people who do not believe in Him.  Again, if we do not acknowledge Jesus as the Savior “before others”--and it was Jesus who threw that “before others” in there–if we don’t acknowledge Jesus as the Savior before others, Jesus will not acknowledge us.

            But that’s a negative way of looking at it.  Don’t get me wrong–it’s still true, and it’s still important for us to know.  But there’s a more positive way of looking at it that might help, too.

            Again, salvation and eternal life depend on faith in Jesus Christ.  Acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Savior before others may lead those others to believe in Him.  You and I, by having the courage to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Savior to people who do not believe, just might lead someone else to salvation and eternal life.

            That would be an awesome thing, right?  To have a role in helping someone have salvation and eternal life?  That would be the greatest thing we could ever do for someone.  It would be an incredible thing to do.

            So let’s all work on this.  The Holy Spirit will tell us what to say.  But we need to decide to that we’re going to say something.  We need to have the courage to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Savior, even with people who don’t believe.  It will be scary, sometimes.  We won’t always succeed.  But actually, we will, because in Jesus’ eyes, our success is not dependent on what other people choose to do.  In Jesus’ eyes, we succeed by being faithful to Him.  And if we acknowledge Jesus as the Savior, we will be faithful to Jesus, whether we convince anyone or not.

            So let’s be faithful to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit will be with us.  And we will be acknowledged before the angels of God.  And when you think about it, it doesn’t get any better than that.

 

The Transformer

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on October 23, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 9:28-36.

            I want each one of us to think of someone we’ve known for a long time.  Maybe they’re in our family, maybe they’re good friends, maybe they’re people we work with.  But whoever they are, we’ve known them for a long time.  We’ve spent a lot of time with them.  

When we do that, when we spend a lot of time with someone and we do that over a long period of time, we start to feel like we know pretty much everything there is to know about that person.  We know what they like and what they don’t like.  We know how they feel about things and how they’re going to react in certain situations.  Sometimes, we even know what they’re thinking, and we know what they’re going to say before they even say it.

Got a person like that in mind?  Okay, now imagine if that person said something totally unexpected.  Imagine if they did something that seemed totally out of character.  How would we react?  We’d be shocked, right?  We would not know what to say.  We would not know what to do.  Here’s this person we thought we knew so well, and they do something so completely out of left field that we feel like we don’t really know them at all.

That’s pretty much how Peter, James, and John felt in our Bible reading tonight.  Remember, they’d been traveling with Jesus for a while at this point.  We don’t really know how long, but it was long enough that they were considered Jesus’ disciples at this point.  They’d heard Jesus speak.  They’d heard him tell parables.  They’d seen him do miracles.  They thought they had a pretty good idea who Jesus was.  In fact, we’re told that just eight days earlier, Jesus had asked them who they thought he was, and Peter had answered, “God’s Messiah”.

And then, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up onto a mountain.  They start praying.  And Jesus transforms.  We’re told the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.  Think how bright that is.  That’s a blinding light.  Peter, James, and John would not even have been able to look directly at Jesus.

Think of how unsettling that would be.  You know, we say that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.  The disciples knew the human Jesus, and they thought they knew the divine Jesus, but now they really saw the divine Jesus in all his glory.  This guy they thought they knew so well, and now suddenly he’s completely different.  

The three of them were stunned.  Peter starts babbling.  We’re not told that James or John said anything.  Probably they were in shock.  All of them were in shock.  Here was this guy they’d been traveling with, this guy they’d been following, this guy they’d been encouraging others to follow, too.  They thought they knew him so well, and now, suddenly, they felt like they did not know Jesus at all.

Have you ever felt like that?  I think most of us do, at some point in our lives.  We’re going along, living from one day to the next.  Things are going okay--not great, maybe, but not terrible.  We go to church fairly regularly.  We pray sometimes.  Life seems to be going on more or less as it should.  

We’re in kind of a routine.  We figure we know what’s going to happen tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.  We think we know God, and we think we know what God has planned for our lives.

And then, something happens, and it all transforms.  It can happen in all kinds of ways.  It can happen in good ways:  falling in love, having a baby, getting a new job opportunity.  It can happen in bad ways:  losing a job, having a healthy problem, having a relationship fall apart.  

Either way, it’s really unsettling.  Even when the transformation happens in a good way, it’s still really unsettling.  We thought we knew God, and we thought we knew what God had planned for us, and now, suddenly, everything is completely different.  We thought we knew God so well, and now, suddenly, we feel like we don’t know God at all.

Sometimes, when something like this happens, we don’t know what to make of it.  Peter, James, and John did not know what to make of it.  They kept it to themselves, not telling anyone else.  We’re not told why.  Maybe they did not understand it.  Maybe they thought no one would believe them.  Maybe they did not quite believe it themselves.  Maybe they were not sure what believing it even meant.  Now that they’d seen Jesus in his glory, were they supposed to do something?  If so, what were they supposed to do?

And sometimes, when we feel God wanting to transform our lives, we keep it to ourselves, too.  We don’t tell anyone else.  Maybe we don’t quite understand what God is trying to do.  Maybe we think no one will believe it.  Maybe we don’t quite believe it ourselves.  Maybe we don’t know what we’re supposed to do if we do believe it.

Peter, James, and John came down from the mountain with Jesus.  We’re not told what they did.  Except for one thing.  They kept following Jesus.  Even though they did not really understand, even though they were not quite sure what had actually happened, they kept following Jesus.  They went where Jesus wanted them to go.  They did what Jesus wanted them to do.  And they never forgot what they had seen.  And at some point, at least one of them told it to Luke, so he could record it in the gospel he wrote some thirty years later.

And that’s what we’re supposed to do, too.  Keep following Jesus.  Even if we don’t really understand, even if we’re not quite sure what’s happening, we need to keep following Jesus.  We need to go where Jesus wants us to go.  We need to do what Jesus wants us to do.  And we need to never forget the transformation that’s taken place in our lives.

Transformation is one of the things our faith is all about.  When Jesus was transformed on the mountain, he revealed to Peter, James, and John, who he really was.  When God transforms our lives, God reveals to us who we really are, too.

You see, it does not require a whole lot of faith for us to just keep living our lives the same way we’ve been living them.  It does not require a lot of faith to have tomorrow be pretty much like today.  But a change of life requires faith.

And that’s true whether the change is a good change or a bad change.  It takes faith to leave a comfortable job and take a new one.  It takes faith to let someone know you’ve fallen in love.  It certainly takes faith to have a baby.

And when the change is a bad change, when we do lose a job, or have a health problem, or have a relationship fall apart, that takes faith, too.  It takes faith to believe that God is still there.  It takes faith to believe that God is with us in the bad times just as much as in the good times.  It takes faith to keep trusting God when all the things we counted on, all the people we trusted, all the things we thought were fixed in our lives, are suddenly not there for us any more.  It takes faith to keep believing that God is still in control when it feels like we’ve lost all control ourselves.

When God transforms our lives, we find out whether the faith we claim to have is real.  When God transforms our lives, we find out whether our faith is strong enough to deal with that transformation, no matter what it is.

Because transformation is really what faith in Jesus Christ is all about.  If we say we believe in Jesus Christ, but nothing about us changes–if we say we believe in Jesus Christ and are still the exact same people we were before we believed in Jesus Christ, then Christian faith has really pretty much been lost on us.  We have not truly repented of our sins.  We’re no closer to God, we’re no closer to each other, we’re no closer to being the people God wants us to be, than we were before.

Jesus did not come to tell us to just keep doing what we’ve been doing.  The fully human yet fully divine Jesus lived and died so that our sins could be forgiven.  But our sins can only be forgiven if we repent, if we ask God for forgiveness and resolve to change our lives.

God wants to transform our lives.  Let’s open ourselves up to that transformation.  We may not understand it.  We may not know what we’re supposed to do.  But let’s keep following Jesus anyway.  Let’s go where Jesus wants us to go and do what Jesus wants us to do.  If we truly do our best to do that, our lives will be transformed in ways we will never expect.  And we’ll come to know God in a way we never have before.