Go to God Anyway

I wrote last week about how God is the greatest listener in the world.  We can tell God anything, and God will always listen.  But what do we do when we feel like we need to go to God, but we don’t know what to say?

Have you ever had that happen?  You have something bothering you.  Or, maybe you don’t have anything specific that’s bothering you, but you just feel like, somehow, something’s not right.  You want to go to God with your problem, but you’re not really sure what your problem actually is.  Or, maybe you have an idea, but you don’t know how to put it into words.  What do you do?

Go to God anyway.  We don’t have to know what to say to go to God.  We don’t even have to say anything to go to God.  The Apostle Paul wrote, in Romans 8:26, that when we don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit will intercede on our behalf.  The Holy Spirit will know how we feel and what’s going on even when all we can do is utter “groanings too deep for words.”

That’s another of the wonderful things about God.  We can go to God and say, “God, something’s wrong, but I don’t know what it is.  Please help me anyway.”  We can go to God and say, “God, I know something’s missing in my life.  Please give it to me, or please help me find it.”  We can go to God and say, “God, things are going well.  I should be happy, but somehow I’m not.  Please help me feel your presence in my life.”  We can even say, “God, I don’t have anything in particular that I’m asking for, but I just feel like I need to be with you.  Can I just be with you for a while?”

Any of those situations, and many others, are perfectly acceptable to God.  You see, God is our friend.  God loves us.  And when we’re with a friend, when we’re with someone who loves us and cares about us, a lot of times we don’t have to say anything.  Sometimes we just need to be with them.  And sometimes, they know what’s wrong without us even saying a word.  And when that friend is God, well, God always knows what’s wrong, without us saying anything.  And God will always be there for us.

These are troubled times.  We’re going through a lot of stuff.  It can seem, sometimes, like everything is falling apart.  And when things are falling apart, we need to go to God.  We need to go to God even when we don’t know what to say.  God will be there for us.  God will understand.  And if we really open ourselves us to God, we’ll feel God’s love.

When things are going well, we should still go to God, of course.  But when they’re not, and we don’t know what to say, we can still go to God.  God will be there.  God will understand.  And God will give us love.

You can always go to God.  And I hope you know that we are always here for you, too.

Pray With Joy

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, June 7, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Philippians 1:3-11.

            One of the amazing things about the Bible is that you can have read a passage several times, and then you read it again, and something jumps out at you that you never really thought about before.  That happened when I looked at our passage for today.  The things that jumped out at me was verse four.  “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.”

            I pray with joy.  When’s the last time you prayed with joy?  I don’t know when it is for me.  It’s probably been a long time.

            Now, don’t get me wrong.  There are times I thank God in my prayers.  There are times I express my gratitude to God.  And thankfulness and gratitude are good things to have in our prayers.

            But that’s not the same thing as praying with joy.  Joy is defined as “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.”  When’s the last time you felt that when you prayed?

            Now, every prayer is not going to be said with joy.  And it’s not supposed to be.  We’ve talked before about how we can ask God anything.  We can tell God anything.  We can express all our hopes, all our dreams, all our fears, all our feelings to God.  And that’s an awesome thing.  It’s wonderful that we can do that.

            But sometimes, we should pray with joy.  Sometimes, we should feel great pleasure and happiness when we pray.

            And in fact, when we really think about it, why would we not pray with joy?  We’ve talked about this before, but it is such a privilege to be able to go to God in prayer.  It is such an honor God gives us by allowing to come to Him in prayer.  God is so far above us, and yet God not only allows us to come to Him, God encourages us to come to Him in prayer.  God is eager to hear from us, from you and me.  As small and weak and as insignificant as we are compared to God, God wants to hear from us.  That should give us great pleasure and happiness.  That should make us feel joy.

            But you know, we hear that, and maybe we even agree with it.  But still, sometimes, that joy just is not there.  After all, joy is a feeling.  And you cannot force yourself to feel something you don’t feel.  So how can we get to where, at least sometimes, we’re praying with joy?

            Well, what gave Paul the ability to pray with joy?  He tells us.  He says he is praying with joy, “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

            In other words, Paul prays with joy because he can see what the people of Philippi are doing.  He knows that they are believers in Jesus Christ.  And, he knows they are acting on their belief.  They are doing their best to follow God and serve God and be faithful to God.  They are allowing themselves to be led and guided by God’s Holy Spirit, and they are following that leadership and guidance.  They are doing their best to do what followers of Jesus Christ should do and to live as followers of Jesus Christ should live.  And that fills Paul with joy, and it allows him to pray for them with joy.

            Now, Paul was not a man who was easily fooled.  He also was not some kind of cockeyed optimist who looked at the world through rose-colored glasses.  Paul also was not someone who was afraid to chew people out if he thought that was what they needed.  In fact, in some of Paul’s letters, Paul does exactly that.

            Paul did not think the people of Philippi were perfect people.  But he knew they were doing their best.  And he knew that what they needed was not to be told they were not good enough.  What they needed was encouragement.  And Paul gave it to them.

            Now, the things Paul said about them were not phony or fake.  And the feeling of joy he had was not phony or fake either.  Paul was truly happy to see what the people of Philippi were doing.  He was truly happy to see how faithful they were, how determined they were to serve God, how they felt love for God and love for their neighbors.  Paul was filled with joy to see that.  And that joy spilled over into his prayers.

            So, how can we use that?  How can Paul’s example help us pray with joy?  

            Well, look around you.  Look at the people of the churches of the Wheatland Parish.  You know, we may not be huge in numbers, but we have a lot of people who are really good at a lot of things.  And we have a lot of people who love God and are really faithful to God and are really determined and even eager to serve God in a lot of ways.  

            Look at all the things these churches have done.  Look at the children’s programs we have, the Sunday school in Onida and Faith Builders in Gettysburg.  Look at the number of people involved in that and the number of kids they reach.  Even after the shutdown, our teachers found ways to get the materials to the kids so they could continue to learn about God.  Even now, with shutdowns continuing, we’re talking about ways to give kids VBS materials in this summer.

            And that’s just one example.  I could give a lot more.  But look at the other ways we’ve responded to the shutdown.  On March 15th, we had Sunday church services.  And I said on that day that we would continue to have in-person services.  Then Monday, March 16th, the bishop said, uh, no, you’re probably not.  On Tuesday, March 17th, we said no, we guess we won’t.  The next day, on Wednesday, March 18th, we had our first livestreamed worship service.  None of us had any experience with that, and yet, we did it.  It was not perfect--it’s still not perfect--but we did it.  To me, that was amazing.

            And the things that went on during the shutdown were amazing.  The loyalty that people showed watching the livestream every Sunday was amazing.  I mean, when I started that, I wondered, is anybody really going to watch this?  And in fact, our viewing figures were almost as high as our average Sunday morning attendance.  In Onida, people gathered in their cars in the parking lot a couple of times to watch the service together.  The people of these churches have been checking on each other, looking out for each other, staying connected to each other.  And the giving to our churches was wonderful.  It was not as high as a normal Sunday, but it was a lot higher than I expected it to be.  As we get back to worship, we are in a lot better financial shape than a lot of churches our size.  And the way people have pitched in to clean and sanitize our worship spaces as we reopen our churches is amazing, too.

            And these are just a few recent examples.  We could talk about the incredible things our UMW does.  We could talk about the work of our trustees, keeping our buildings in good shape.  We could talk about the building projects we’ve done.  We could talk the outreach events we’ve held.  We could talk about all the mission work we’ve done.  We could talk about how Agar has grown in attendance in recent years.  We could talk about the Sunday night service.  For the number of people we have, the churches of the Wheatland Parish have done amazing, incredible things.  And they’ve done them because we have people--you--who are faithful to God.  We have people who are determined, even eager, to spread God’s word.  We have people who are incredibly dedicated to serving God and serving these churches.

            Those same things that filled Paul with joy should fill us with joy.  And when we think of those things, when we think of the people of our churches, we should pray with joy, just like Paul did.

            At the end of our passage today, Paul says this:  “this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”

            In other words, Paul says that, even though he’s filled with joy at how well they’re doing, he knows they can do better.  He prays that they will do more.  He prays that they will feel even more love for God and even more love for others.  He prays that God will give them even more knowledge and wisdom.  He prays that they will know more and more about Jesus Christ, and that they will live lives that give even more glory and honor to God.  He prays that, because he knows they can do it!  He prays that because he knows that, as well as these people are doing, he knows that with God’s help they can do even better!

            What a joyful prayer that is!  Think about it.  What could be more joyful than that?  To be filled with joy at how wonderful the people of the church are, to know that with God’s help they can be even better, and to pray that God will help them reach that potential and really be better.

            Yes, there are a lot of bad things going on in the world right now.  And we should pray about them.  But when we think of our churches, let’s pray with joy.  Let’s be filled with joy at the faithfulness and love shown by the people of our churches.  And then, let’s pray that God will help us do even better.  Let’s pray that God will help us feel more love for God and for others.  Let’s pray that God will give us more knowledge and wisdom.  Let’s pray that God will help us truly give honor and glory to God in everything we do.

Be a Nonconformist

The message given in the Sunday night service in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on May 31, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Romans 11:33--12:2.

            That last verse is one of the most popular verses in the Bible.  It shows up in the top ten almost every time a survey of favorite Bible verses is taken.  “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

            It sounds really good, right?  And of course it is good.  That’s why the Apostle Paul told us to do it.  But as with a lot of the things we read in the Bible, it’s a lot easier to say it than to do it.  We know that we should look for God’s will and try to do God’s will.  For Christians, that’s the main thing we should do.  And the fact is that, most of the time, it’s really not all that hard to figure out God’s will. It can be, but most of the time it’s not.

            Now understand, there’s a difference between knowing God’s plans and God’s purposes for our lives and looking for and doing God’s will.  God will always have plans and purposes we know nothing about.  That’s part of what makes God, God.  God’s plans and purposes are far deeper and far-reaching than we could ever hope to understand.

            But looking for and doing God’s will is usually not that hard.  Again, it can be.  We can have major decisions to make and have a hard time figuring out what God would want us to do in this or that situation.  But as we go about the day-to-day business of living, it’s usually not that hard.  Jesus gave us a lot of information on the subject.  Doing God’s will in our day-to-day lives means loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.  Doing God’s will in our day-to-day lives means loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  Doing God’s will in our day-to-day lives means doing to others what we’d like others to do to us.  Those things are not usually that hard to figure out.

            So, if they’re not that hard to figure out, why don’t we do them?  Now, that’s not really fair.  We do them sometimes.  There are times when we love God.  There are times when we love others.  There are times when treat others the way we’d like to be treated.  There are times when we all do that stuff.

            But there are times we don’t, too.  There are certainly plenty of times when I don’t.  So again, the question is, why not?  If we know God wants us to do these things, why don’t we do them?  Why is that so many times, as our verses say, we choose to conform to the pattern of this world rather than following God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will?  Why is it so much easier to say this stuff than to do it?

            Well, part of the reason is that the world puts a lot of pressure on us to conform to its pattern.  And it’s not hard to understand why.  The world, after all, is the place we live.  It’s hard not to conform to the standards and practices of the place you live.  And those standards and practices make themselves known in all kinds of ways.  They make themselves known through the media.  They make themselves known through rules of society, both the written laws and the unwritten rules.  They make themselves known through the expectations of people we work for and work with.  They make themselves known through the expectations of our friends and our families.  Every day, every hour, almost every minute, the standards and practices of the world make themselves known to us in all kinds of ways.

            The reason it’s so hard not to conform to them is that we know, in the short-term, our lives will be easier if we do.  It’s always easier to follow the crowd.  It’s always easier to live the way everybody else lives.  It’s always easier to do things the way everybody else does them.

            Not following the crowd, not living the way everybody else lives, not doing things the way everybody else does, will make our lives harder.  It can cost us money.  It can cost us our jobs.  Sometimes, it can even result in us going to jail.  And even if it does not do any of those things, it can costs us relationships with our friends or even our families.  People look at us funny when we don’t conform to the pattern of this world.  They think there’s something strange about us.  And because of that, they may not want to be around us very much.

            And none of that is very much fun.  In fact, a lot of it is really hard to deal with.  I suspect some of us can think of times when some of these things have happened to us.  Some of us have had times when we were honest and followed God’s way rather than the way of the world and it cost us money.  We’ve had times when friends dropped us because we would not go along with the way of the world and instead said we were going to follow God’s way.  And that’s not easy.  It’s a natural thing to want to have friends.  It’s a natural thing to want the people around us to like us and think well of us.  

And what makes it harder still is that we’re human.  And that means that some of these standards and practices of the world are pretty appealing to us sometimes.  We’d like to follow them.  We know we should not but, well, it’d sure make things easier.  It’d sure make life more fun.  And besides, what real difference would it make?  Nobody’d be hurt by it.  God would understand.

It is always tempting to take the easy way out.  And it is understandable.  After all, life’s hard enough as it is.  None wants to do something that makes it even harder.  We’re all looking for ways to make our lives easier.  And if going along with the crowd, going alone with the standards and practices of the world, will do that, well, it’s pretty tempting to do it.  Nobody’d blame us.  In fact, a lot of people would be pleased.

            A lot of people would be pleased, but God would not be.  God would understand, I assume—God understands everything—but that’s not the same as saying that God approves or that God’s okay with it.  The goal of a Christian is not to conform to the standards and practices of the world.  The goal of a Christian is not even to conform to the standards and practices of the church.  The goal of a Christian is to conform to the standards and practices of God.  

After all, that’s part of the reason Jesus came here.  Jesus did not come with a message that said, “Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.”  Jesus did not come with a message that said, “Hey, you need to be more like the people around you.”  Jesus said, “You need to be more like God.”  Jesus reminded us that we were created in the image of God, not in the image of other people.  In Ephesians Five, Paul writes that we are supposed to be “imitators of God”.  Not imitators of other people.  Not conformed to the standards and practices of the world.  Imitators of God.  Transformed into people who follow the standards and practices of God.

It’s not easy.  That’s why Paul said that we need to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.  Because the only way we can really do this is if we give up part of ourselves.  We need to give up that part of ourselves that wants to go along to get along.  We need to give up that part of ourselves that tries to win the approval of human beings, no matter how well-respected or highly-placed those human beings may be.  We need to give up that part of ourselves that wants to follow the crowd and get ahead, regardless of whether “get ahead” means getting more money or a better job or more friends or whatever else it might mean to us.  We need to give up that part of ourselves that wants to do what everybody else does because it’ll make our lives easier.  That’s the sacrifice we make if we decide to not conform to the standards and practices of this world, and instead to be transformed into God’s people, following the standards and practices of God.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”  It sounds really good.  And it is good.  But it’s not easy.  Paul never said it would be easy.  It was not easy for Paul—he suffered terribly because of his faith.  It was not easy for lots of other Christians, either.  And of course, it was not easy for Jesus himself.

And it’s still not easy.  Loving God will all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  Loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  Doing to others as we’d like others to do to us.  None of that conforms to the standards and practices of the world.  Not if we take it seriously, anyway.  Because it’s not enough to do these things once in a while, when the mood strikes us, to make ourselves feel better.  If we’re going to be transformed into God’s people, we need to do them all the time.  Not that we can ever be perfect, but that needs to be our goal.  To do them all the time.  Because if enough of us do this all the time, it’s not just us who’ll be transformed.  The whole world will be transformed.  It’ll be the world it’s supposed to be.  And we’ll be the people we’re supposed to be.  God’s people, living in God’s world.

The official mission statement of the United Methodist church is to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  If we’re going to transform the world, we need to first transform ourselves.  And there’s no better day to start than today.  It won’t be easy.  But it will be worth it.           

God the Listener

We talk a lot about how awesome God is.  God is awesome in all kinds of ways, of course.  God created the world and everything in it.  God can be everywhere at once.  God can be in the past, the present, and the future at the same time.  God knows all and sees all.  God is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, almighty, all-wise, all-caring, all-compassionate, all-merciful, all-caring, all-loving, and all-just about everything you can think of.

But here’s one aspect of God we rarely talk about.  In addition to being all of those things, God is also an incredible listener.

Have you ever thought about that?  I don’t know if I have.  Maybe, compared to all the other things God is, being a great listener doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to you.  But I think it is.  I think it’s one of the greatest things about God.

Do you ever have something on your mind, and you feel like you want or even need to talk to someone about it, but you feel like there’s no one you can talk to?  Either there’s no one you can trust, or there’s no one who’d understand, or there’s no one who’d even think it was important.  Or, if there is someone you can trust who’d understand, you feel like it’s too personal, or it would bother them too much if you told them.  And so, you keep it inside.

And sometimes, when we have stuff like that going on, we don’t expect or even want someone to help us.  We’re not looking for advice.  We’re just looking for someone to listen.  We know the situation is not going to change.  We know we have to face it and deal with it.  And we know that other people have problems that are worse than ours.  We’re not looking for someone to give us a solution.  We just need to express our feelings.  We just need someone to talk to.

Well, when you feel like that, know this:  you can talk to God.  You can always talk to God.  I do.  You don’t have to say it out loud--we can talk to God silently if we want to--but I find that it helps me to actually put it into words.  Find a quiet place, a place where no one can hear you and no one will bother you, and start talking to God.  You can tell God anything.  It doesn’t matter what it is.  It doesn’t matter if someone else might not think it was important.  It doesn’t matter if it sounds like you’re whining.  It doesn’t matter if it’s something really personal.  You can tell God anything.  God will listen.  Because God is a great listener.

I wonder sometimes if that might be part of what Jesus was doing when he went off by himself.  There have to have been times when Jesus felt like he had no one to talk to.  Yes, he had the disciples, and that probably helped, but the disciples could not understand what Jesus was going through.  Not really.  They tried, but the disciples could not even understand the basics about Jesus.  How were they going to understand what it was like to be Jesus?  So, maybe, one of the reasons Jesus went off by himself was just to talk to God, to tell God everything he was going through, knowing that God would listen.

So, whatever may be on your mind this week, and whatever may be in your heart this week, talk to God about it.  God is always there.  And God will always listen.  Because God is a great listener.

Dog Days

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, May 31, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Luke 7:36-50.

            Everyone loves the underdog.  That’s what we always say, right?  Everyone roots for the underdog.

            We say that, but is it really true?  Nationwide, which baseball team has the most fans? It’s the New York Yankees, the team that’s won the most championships.  Who are the most popular NFL teams?  It’s teams like the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the teams that have won the most championships.  We may we root for the underdog in a particular game, but when it comes time to actually pick a favorite team, we tend to choose on one the top dogs.  Our favorite teams tend to be the teams that usually win.

            As Christians, of course, we’re supposed to love everyone.  Top dogs, underdogs, middle dogs, all dogs.  All people, in other words.  That’s what Jesus told us to do.  And that’s what Jesus did.

            And yet, Jesus did often stick up for the underdogs, rather than the top dogs.  Think about it.  Who were the top dogs of Jesus’ day?  They were the religious leaders, right?  They were the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the teachers of the law.  And who did Jesus usually get into arguments with?  That’s right, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the teachers of the law.  Jesus did not try to flatter the top dogs.  He did not even try to get along with them.  Often, Jesus fought against them.

            Who were the underdogs of Jesus’ day?  That’s right, they were the “tax collectors and sinners”.  They were the sick and the blind and the deaf and the lame.  They were the people who were threatened with being stoned.  They were the people who were looked down on by “proper” society, sometimes because of what they’d done but sometimes through no fault of their own.  Those were the people Jesus spent time with.  Those were the people Jesus stuck up for.  Those were the people Jesus worked hardest to save.

            And we have an example of that in our story from the gospel of John.  Jesus, for a change, is spending some time with a top dog.  He’s been invited to have dinner with a Pharisee.  So Jesus is sitting there in the Pharisee’s house, and here comes a woman who, we’re told, “lived a sinful life”.  It sounds like she was not invited to the Pharisee’s house.  She found out that Jesus was going to be there and crashed the party.  She brought with her an expensive jar of perfume.

            She comes up to Jesus, and she’s overcome with emotion.  She starts crying.  She wets his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, kisses his feet, and pours the perfume on them.

            The Pharisee sees this, and he’s appalled.  He probably thought about kicking this woman out of the house.  But since Jesus does not seem to mind, the Pharisee does not do anything.  Still, he thinks, if this Jesus was all he’s cracked up to be, he’d know what kind of woman this person is and would not let her anywhere near him.

            Of course Jesus knew exactly who this woman was.  And Jesus knew who the Pharisee was, too.  But I want us to think about both of them.

First, the woman.  All we’re told about her is that she “lived a sinful life”.  That’s it.  We’re not given any more details than that.  We’re not told what it was about her life that made it sinful.  We could guess.  I think, though, that there’s a reason we’re not given any other details about this woman.

I think we’re not given any other details because what this woman’s sins were is irrelevant.  What’s important is that this woman was a sinner and she knew she was a sinner.  And that’s why she was so overcome with emotion in the presence of Jesus.

We don’t know how much she really understood about Jesus.  We don’t know if she understood that he was the divine Son of God.  We don’t even know if she’d have understood what that meant.  What she did know was that Jesus was someone special.  She knew that Jesus was greater than she was.  She knew that she did not deserve to be in Jesus’ presence.  But yet, she felt like she had to come.  She had to be there.  Even though she had no right to be there, even though she knew Jesus was far above and beyond what she was, she still needed to be there, in Jesus’ presence.

Now let’s think about who the Pharisee was.  He was one of the religious leaders.  He was the one who defined Jewish religion for other people.  He did not think he had led a sinful life.  He did not know he was a sinner.  And so, he was not overcome with emotion in the presence of Jesus.  It would never have occurred to him to think he did not deserve to be in Jesus’ presence.  In fact, he probably thought he’d done Jesus a favor by allowing Jesus to come to his house.  He probably thought he’d been very generous by allowing Jesus to eat with him.  He did not think he needed to be in Jesus’ presence.  He thought Jesus was lucky to be allowed into his presence.

Now, this is a pretty clear case of an underdog and a top dog, right?  And it’s pretty clear which is which.  So, two questions.

First, which of these people do we think we are?  Do we think we’re the person who’s lived a sinful life?  Do we think of ourselves as the person who really has no right to come into the presence of Jesus at all, but simply feel like we need to be there anyway?  Or do we think of ourselves as the Pharisee, the person who feels like we’ve done Jesus a favor by allowing Jesus to come into our presence.

Now, we know what the answer is supposed to be.  We know we’re supposed to say that we’re all sinners.  We’re supposed to say that we’ve all fallen short of who we’re supposed to be and that it’s only by God’s grace that we’re allowed into God’s holy presence.

We know that’s what we’re supposed to say.  And maybe, in our minds, we know that’s true.  But do we really feel it?  Do we really identify with the lowest of the low?  I want you to think of the lowest of the low, and I’m not going to put a picture up here because who I think of as the lowest of the low might not be the same as who you think of.  But think of the lowest of the low.  Is that really who you identify with?  Is that really who I identify with?

Again, we know we’re supposed to.  The point is, do we?  Do you?  Do I?

I want you to think about that.  And then, I want you to get to the other question.

The other question is this:  If you were Jesus—if I was Jesus—which of these people would be our favorite?  Which one would we want to spend time with?  Would we want to hang out with the underdog, with the woman who apparently everyone knew had “led a sinful life”?  Or would we want to hang out with the top dog, the Pharisee, the guy everyone in town looked up to and wanted to be on the good side of?

Again, we know what the answer is supposed to be.  We’re supposed to say that we’d rather be with the underdog.  But is that really true?

I already asked you to think of the lowest of the low.  Now, I want you to also think of someone who represents the top dog to you.  And again, I’m not going to put a picture up here because who I think of may not be the same as who you think of.  And when you think of that top dog, don’t think of someone who lied or cheated their way to the top.  Think of someone you really admire and respect, someone who you think of as a good person.  Because that’s how people thought of the Pharisees.  We look down on the Pharisees now because we know Jesus looked down on them, but that’s not how it was at the time.  People looked up to the Pharisees.  People respected the Pharisees.

Have you got the two pictures in your head?  Okay.  Now, which one would you rather be with?  Which one would I rather be with?  Would you rather be with the underdog, or the top dog?  Would I rather be with the underdog, or the top dog?

The Pharisee did not want to be around the underdog.  He did not understand why Jesus did.  In fact, he thought Jesus must not know who this woman was, because there was no way Jesus would want to be around her if he did.

But Jesus wanted to be with the underdog.  He told the Pharisee that this woman had shown love to him and the Pharisee had not.  And Jesus told the woman that her sins were forgiven.

Who are the underdogs in our community?  Do you identify with them?  Do I?  Do you want to hang around with them?  Do I?

Jesus loved everyone.  And we’re supposed to love everyone, too.  And that includes the underdogs.  So let’s stick up for the underdogs.  Let’s spend time with the underdogs.  Let’s show love to the underdogs. 

And then, let’s realize that we are underdogs.  Let’s realize that we, too, are sinners in need of forgiveness.  Let’s realize that we do not deserve to be in Jesus’ presence any more than the woman in our Bible reading did.  But let’s realize that we need to be there anyway.  And let’s realize that we—you and I—need as much as anyone to hear Jesus tell us that our sins are forgiven.

It's Up to Us

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, May 24, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Acts 1:6-14.

            We talk a lot about the importance of reading the Bible.  And it is important.  It’s very important.  But the thing is, we cannot just read the Bible the way we would any ordinary book.  If we’re going to really get anything out of the Bible, we need to actively engage with it.  We need to interact with it.  Because a lot of times, the people who wrote the Bible describe incredible, extraordinary events in very matter-of-fact terms.  And so, if we not engaged, if we’re not actively thinking about what we’re reading, we’re going to miss just how awesome the events described really are.          

            Our reading for today is a good example of that.  Let me just read verse nine again.  “After Jesus said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”  I mean, that sounds like it was a perfectly ordinary thing.  It’s about like saying, “After we’re done with worship today, I’m going to get in the car and go home.”  Like it happens every day.  No big deal here.  Same old same old.

            Think about what that must have been like for the disciples.  As far as we know, they had no reason to think Jesus was going to leave them on that particular day.  We know, because Luke tells us, that Jesus was on earth for forty days after his resurrection, but we have no indication that the disciples knew Jesus would leave after forty days.  In fact, we don’t know whether the disciples knew Jesus was leaving at all. 

Really, the question they ask Jesus right before this—“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”—sounds to me like they expect him to be around for a while.  And the way it reads, it’s about thirty seconds after they ask that question that Jesus leaves.  He says, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  And then, he’s gone.  Taken up, and hidden by the clouds.

Imagine you’re one of the disciples.  I think I’d just be standing there with my mouth hanging open.  I mean, think of it.  You were just talking to Jesus.  You were having a conversation.  And suddenly, he’s gone.  Vanished in the clouds.

What do you suppose they thought?  At first, they probably did not think anything.  They were stunned.  Then they started thinking, okay, now what?  Maybe Peter, James, and John had a flashback to the transfiguration, when they saw Moses and Elijah with Jesus and a cloud covered them all.  They stand there for a while, just looking up at where Jesus had been.  Where did he go?  When is he coming back?

And then, apparently out of nowhere, two men dressed in white appeared.  And that’s presented very matter-of-factly, too.  Who were these guys?  Were they angels?  Maybe, but the Bible does not specifically say so.  It simply describes them as two men.  And the disciples don’t seem particularly startled to see them.  Maybe, after Jesus dying and being resurrected and appearing to them several times and then vanishing into a cloud, maybe after all that nothing much surprised the disciples any more.  Anyway, the two men are there.  And they say to the disciples, what are you doing waiting around here?  What are you looking up into the sky for?  Jesus is not there.  He’s gone up to heaven.

So, eventually, the disciples left.  And can you imagine the conversations they had along the way?  At first, they were probably silent, stunned by what they’d seen.  Then one of them speaks.  Maybe it was Peter—after all, it seems like he always had something to say, no matter what the situation was.  And then the ice was broken.  Everyone starts talking, in tones of awe and wonder and probably a little fear, too.

They start out by talking about what they’ve just seen and heard.  And maybe that was enough conversation on the road home.  But when they get back to the place they were staying, the start talking about other things.  They talk about all the things Jesus told them.  They talk about what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments, to love God and to love each other.  They talk about the mission statement Jesus gave them, to go and make disciples of all nations.

And somewhere along the line, they realize that now it’s up to them.  Yes, Jesus is coming back, sometime, but they don’t know when it will be.  And they realize that until Jesus does come back, whenever that is, they’re in charge.  They’re in charge of spreading God’s word and showing God’s love.  They’re in charge of making disciples of Jesus Christ.

That’s a pretty awesome responsibility they had, you know?  So, what did they do?  They prayed.  They “joined constantly in prayer”, as our reading told us.  And eventually, they received power from the Holy Spirit.  And then, they went to work.  They started doing what Jesus told them to do.

You and I are disciples of Jesus Christ too, of course, so what Jesus told the disciples to do now applies to us.  That means that now, it’s up to us.  You and me.  The men, whether they were angels or whatever they were, are saying to us what they said to the disciples.  They’re saying, what are you doing waiting around here?  

We’re the ones who are in charge now.  You and I are in charge of spreading God’s word and showing God’s love.  You and I are in charge of making disciples of Jesus Christ.  Not just us here in this church, obviously.  Us along with everyone else in all the other Christian churches in town and around the world.  But still, it’s up to us.  Jesus told each one of us to spread God’s word and show God’s love.  Jesus told each one of us to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

It’s a pretty awesome responsibility we have.  So, what’s the first thing we should do?  Pray.  Pray for God to help us reach more people.  Not because we want to have a big church, but because there are people right here in the towns of the Wheatland Parish who have not accepted Jesus as the Savior.  Pray for God’s guidance, so that we will know where to go and what to do and what to say, so we can reach them.  Pray that God will touch our hearts and theirs, so we can reach those people for God.

If we pray with open, sincere, honest hearts, and if we’re willing to follow where God leads us, we will receive power from the Holy Spirit, just like the original disciples did.  If we dedicate ourselves to God and are truly willing to follow wherever God leads, God’s Spirit will come into our hearts and into our lives and we will be able to do things we’ve never imagined, because all things are possible with God.

And after we’ve prayed, and after we get that power, we need to do what the original disciples did.  We need to go to work.  And I know a lot of people in this parish have been working.  I know there are a lot of people here who are trying hard to share God’s word and show God’s love.  And we’ve seen some things happen.  Even in this strange time we’re in, we’ve seen things happen.  Our livestream is one of them—we’re reaching people on this livestream that we were not reaching before.  We are seeing things happen.  And we’re going to see more things happen.  So please, be encouraged.  Keep working. 

And don’t get discouraged if things don’t happen in the way we planned or as quickly as we wanted.  I’m sure there were times when things did not happen the way the original disciples planned, either.  And I’m sure there were times when things did not happen as quickly as they wanted.  And they probably got discouraged sometimes.  But they did not quit.  They kept working.  They trusted God enough to know that if they did what they were supposed to do, God would make things work out the way they’re supposed to work out, even if that was not the way they had planned or on the time schedule they had in mind.

The original disciples gave us the perfect formula, really.  At first, they were waiting for Jesus to come back.  But then they realized he was not coming back right away, and that now it was up to them.  So they prayed.  In response to their prayer, that got power from the Holy Spirit.  And then, they went to work.  And God helped them start spreading the gospel across the entire world.

That formula worked for the original disciples.  And it will work for us.  Pray sincerely, openly, and honestly.  If we do, both as individuals and as a church, we’ll get power from the Holy Spirit.  And if we then go to work, God will help us spread the gospel across our entire parish and beyond.

We know what to do.  So let’s do it.

Humble Ourselves

This is the message given on Sunday morning, May 24, 2020, in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are 1 Peter 5:5b-11.

            Peter writes, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand.”

            We don’t talk a whole lot about the virtue of humility.  We also don’t talk a lot about its opposites, the sins of pride and arrogance.  I don’t know why that is.  Maybe it’s because, unlike some sins, pride and arrogance have less to do with outward behavior, which everyone can see, and more to do with inner attitudes.  And because of that, maybe we think of it as more of a grey area.  You know, murder, adultery, things like that, those are things that are black and white.  Either you did them or you did not.  Arrogance?  Well, a lot of times that’s a matter of opinion.  And so, we don’t talk about it much.

But that’s not right.  It’s not Biblical.  God has a lot to say on the subjects of pride and arrogance.  A few years ago, when we did a sermon series on the Minor Prophets, I was struck by how often God, speaking through the Minor Prophets, spoke out about the sin of arrogance.  In fact, when you look through the Old Testament, arrogance is all over the place.  

And inevitably, it gets people into trouble.  What happens, time after time after time, is that God blesses the people and the people prosper.  And then, those prosperous people decide that their prosperity is because they’re so good and they’re so great.  They don’t give credit to God for their success--they take credit for themselves.  They become arrogant.  And eventually, God decides it’s time to show them how wrong they are.  God withholds His blessings, and things almost immediately fall apart.  At some point, the people realize what’s happened, they humble themselves before God, and eventually God blesses them and they prosper again.  This cycle happens over and over and over.

Because that’s really where our arrogance becomes a problem--when we don’t humble ourselves before God.  I mean, yes, it’s not good to act arrogantly toward other people, either.  But think about what we’re doing when we act arrogantly toward God.

I mean, really that’s taking arrogance to a whole different level, right?  We’ve talked about this before, but think about who God is.  God is all-powerful.  God is all-wise.  God is all-knowing.  God is all-seeing.  God is the one who created the world and everything in it.  God can be everywhere and do all things at the same time.  God can be at each point in history at the same time.  God is bigger and greater and more than anything we can ever imagine.  You and I cannot even begin to get our heads around how incredible God is.

And yet, how many times do we think we should be able to tell God what to do?  How many times, when things are not going the way we want them to, do we get frustrated with God?  How many times do we act like God owes it to us to explain what it is that God’s doing?  Or not doing?  How many times do we ask, or even demand, that God explain what God’s doing to us?  And when things are not going the way we think they should, as is happening a lot right now, how many times do we question God or even doubt God?  How many times do we wonder if God cares or even knows what’s going on?

And it works the other way, too.  How many times, when things are going well, do we do what the people in Old Testament times did?  How many times do we give ourselves credit, believing that things are going well because of how great we are and because of all the wonderful things we did?  How many times do we look at ourselves as the source of all our good fortune, rather than giving the credit to God?

All of that is rooted in arrogance.  It’s rooted in a feeling that we know better than God.  We’d never put it that way, but that’s what it is.  It’s a feeling that we don’t really need God, and that in fact, God would do well to take our advice a lot of times.  It’s a feeling that God really should be doing things the way we want God to do them.  It’s a feeling that we know what God should be doing, and if God’s not doing things that way, then, well, there must be something wrong with God.  It’s a feeling that God owes it to us to make things go the way we want them to go, and if God’s not going to do that, then God had darn well better explain to us why not.

Again, we’d never put it that way.  In fact, when we do put it that way, it sounds kind of silly.  It sounds ridiculous, really.  That you and I would put ourselves on the same level as God?  And in fact, that we’d put ourselves on a higher level than God!  

I wonder how God must feel, when we do that.  We may not know that, but we know what God did, at least in Old Testament times.  God withdrew His blessings and let the people deal with the consequences of that.  Basically, God said, oh, you think you don’t need Me?  You think you know better than I do?  You think you can do things without Me?  Well, then I’ll just let you go ahead and try.  I’ll let you do things without Me for a while.  I’ll let you see just how that goes.  And of course, it does not go very well.

Does God do that with us sometimes?  I think God probably does.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  God always loves us.  God always cares about us.  God always wants to help us.  But when we refuse God’s help, when we make a conscious choice to live without God, I think God probably pulls away and lets us live with the consequences of our choices.  

But the good news is that God always gives us a chance to turn around.  God gives us a chance to turn back to God again.  When the people of the Old Testament did that, God forgave them and gave them His blessings again.  And God will do that for us, too.

Remember the quote from our Bible passage that I read to start this message?  I quoted Peter as saying, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand.”  And that’s an accurate quote, but some of you may have noticed that it’s incomplete.  The full quote says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

When we humble ourselves, when we acknowledge who God is, when we acknowledge how weak and insignificant and low we are in comparison to God, when we put our faith and trust in God’s goodness and knowledge and wisdom, when we listen to God and do things God’s way, rather than trying to force God to do things our way--when we do all that, God will lift us up.  

Now it may not happen right away.  Peter says God will lift us up “in due time”, not necessarily right away.  Even after we turn back, God still may make us deal with the consequences of our choices for a while.  God may want to teach us a lesson.  God may want us to learn from our mistakes, from our sins, from our arrogance.  God may wait so that we know our turning back is real.  But God will lift us up.  It will happen “in due time”.  In God’s time.  And God’s time is always the right time.

But that means that sometimes we have to wait.  And waiting is not easy.  When we want something, when we need something, and yet we have to wait.  We get worried.  We get scared.  There’s a lot of anxiety involved in waiting.

And God understands that.  And God does not want us to be worried while we wait.  God wants us to trust Him.  That’s why Peter tells us this:  “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

            It all fits together.  If we humble ourselves before God, we can trust God.  And when we humble ourselves before God, God will lift us up in due time.  At the right time.  And when we humble ourselves before God, we don’t have to worry.  We don’t have to be anxious.  When we humble ourselves before God, we can give all that worry and anxiety to God, because we know how great and how good God is.  And we know that God will use God’s greatness and God’s goodness for our benefit, because we know God loves us and cares about us.

            Arrogance and pride will always get us into trouble.  But when we humble ourselves before God, we can relax.  We don’t have to worry.  We don’t have to be afraid.  We can rely on God.  God has it all handled.  God cares for you.  And He always will.