For the Children

The Sunday night message given June 16, 2024 in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 18:1-10.

            Today is Father’s Day.  And on this Father’s Day, it seems appropriate to talk about children because, after all, you cannot be a father if you don’t have children, right?

            But of course, there’s a lot more to being a father–or a mother–than simply creating a child.  To be a father, or a mother, you need to actually take responsibility for that child.  And that responsibility comes in a variety of forms.  There’s financial responsibility, making sure your children have food and clothing and shelter.  There’s educational responsibility, and that does not mean just sending them to school.  That means really teaching your children the things they need to know to get along in the world.  There’s emotional responsibility, showing love to your children and making sure they always know that you love them.

            But for a Christian, there’s a responsibility that comes above all that.  For a Christian parent, the number one responsibility you have for your children is raising them in a way that they will come to accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            Now, before I go any farther, I want to make one thing clear.  I am not saying that if your children do not accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, that it’s all your fault or that you’ve failed as a parent or anything like that.  Eventually, all children grow up, and when they do they make their own choices.  That’s true in all respects, including faith.  They make their own choices, and they are responsible for the consequences of those choices.  Parents can only do so much for so long, and then they have to let the children go.

            But parents do need to do the best they can.  They need to do the best they can to give their children the best chance they can to make the right choices.  And again, the most important of those is giving your children the best chance you can to choose Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            And that brings us to our Bible reading for today.  Jesus is talking about children.  He makes the statement, which many of us have heard before, that children are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and that if we want to be great in the kingdom of heaven, we need to be as humble as children.

            And we kind of like that.  After all, it’s become a cliche to talk about the importance of children.  “Children are our future”, we love to say.  “We’re doing it for the children”, the politicians say when they’re trying to push their pet program.  “We have to listen to the young people”, we say–as long as those young people agree with us, of course.  We’re fine with Jesus saying children are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

            But then, Jesus starts talking about our responsibility to those children.  “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea. “  Jesus warns against being a stumbling block for those children.  He says, “See that you do not disdain one of these little ones.”

            Now, our church is doing better than it used to be.  A year ago we often did not have any children in church, and last week we had seven.  Almost every week we have at least two or three.  We are making progress.

            But still, think about this.  How many children do we have in this community?  Of that number, how many children go to church on an average Sunday.

            I’m sure there are churches in town that have kids than we do.  But we also know that there are a lot of children in town who don’t go to church anywhere.  Some of them come to our Faith Builders program in Gettysburg, and we’re glad of that.  Some of them might come once in a while, on a special occasion, or at Christmas or Easter.  But many of them never go to church.  Think about that.  We have children in our communities who have never seen the inside of a church.  They have no idea what goes on here.  They have no idea what happens in a church on Sunday morning.  They have no idea who Jesus Christ is.  And because of that, they have no idea why they might want to come here.

            Now, before I go any farther, two things.  If you bring your kids to church regularly, I’m not talking about you.  You are doing your job.  You are fulfilling that most important responsibility of giving your children the best chance they can have to accept Jesus as the Savior.  Again, they may or may not accept Him–they will make their own decision as they get older.  But you are doing everything you can to make the right decision.  And that’s a wonderful thing.  I congratulate you for that.

            And the second thing is, there are probably some of those parents who are teaching their children about God at home.  It’s certainly true that you can be a Christian without going to church.  It’s harder, because you don’t have the support system of a church to help you when your faith wavers.  But it is possible.

            But we know there are many families who are not doing that.  And that means those parents are failing at that most important responsibility.  I’ve heard many parents tell me, in regard to Faith Builders, “well, my kids just don't want to go.”

            Think about that.  We don’t give kids a choice about going to school during the week–we tell them that they’re going whether they want to or not.  We’ll do everything we can to push kids into music or sports or other activities.  But when it comes to something that impacts their eternal life, we say, “Well, I’ll just let my kids do whatever they want.”

            These are parents who love their kids.  These are parents who take care of their kids in many ways.  These are parents want what’s best for their kids.  Except, again, for the one thing that’s most important of all–a relationship with Jesus Christ.

            Now, you may be thinking that I’m addressing this to the wrong audience.  After all, you’re here.  And maybe you’ve already raised your kids, or maybe, like me, you never had any.  But here’s the thing.  Jesus did not just direct those words we read tonight to parents.  He directed them to everyone.  All of us have an obligation to do everything we can to help our children accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Remember, in Jesus’ last statement in the gospel of Matthew, he tells us to “go and make disciples.”  Parents may have the primary responsibility here, but you and I still have a responsibility, too.

            What does that mean?  That means that all of us–you and I and every Christian–have an obligation to do what we can to reach those young people.  I’m pretty sure that just about everyone here knows someone who has children.  We need to do what we can to help those children know about Jesus.  We need to do what we can to help those children accept Jesus as the Savior.

            Maybe that means encouraging those parents to bring their children to church.  Maybe that means encouraging those parents to bring their children to Sunday School or Faith Builders.  Maybe, if you have the chance, it means getting to know the children themselves.  Maybe, if you have the chance, it means telling them Bible stories.  Whatever it means, we need to do whatever we can to bring those children to faith in Jesus Christ.

            And maybe you’re thinking, well, but I’ve tried that, and it did not work.  Or, maybe you’re thinking, there’s no point in trying that, because it won’t work.  And maybe it won’t.  Almost certainly there will be times when it won’t.  But I want to encourage you to keep trying, anyway.  I encourage you to do that for two reasons.

            One is that our definition of success is not the same as God’s definition of success.  God does not define our success by how many people we can bring to Christ.  God defines our success by how faithful we are to Him.  Jesus told us to do what we can to bring children to Christ.  If you and I do everything we can to bring children to Christ, we will have succeeded in God’s eyes, regardless of how many children we actually reach.  Because we will have been faithful to God.

            But here’s the other reason.  I think that if there is even one child who has salvation and eternal life partly because of something we said or did, it will all be worth it.  No matter how many children we don’t reach, if we can reach just one, it will all be worth it.  How awesome would it be to get to heaven and to find out that there was someone else who was there because of what you said, or because of what you did?  And what if there was more than one?  What if there were two, or three, or four, or even more?  That would be the greatest thing ever, don’t you think?

            Jesus said that children are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  If we believe that, let’s do what we can to make sure those children get to the kingdom of heaven.  Yes, the parents have the first responsibility.  But you and I have a responsibility, too.  Let’s do all we can to give the children in our communities the best chance we can to accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.

 

It's About God

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on June 16, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Genesis 22:1-19.

On this Father’s Day, I thought we’d talk about one of the most famous fathers in the Bible:  Abraham.  He’s actually referred to, sometimes, as Father Abraham.  Some of you probably remember the old Sunday school song, “Father Abraham, had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham…”

But as you may remember, it took a long time for Abraham to become a father.  Abraham and his wife, Sarah, had been married quite a while, but they had no children. They were now getting up there in years, past the age of having children. Yet, God promised them that they would, in fact, have children. And they did. Against all odds, except for the odds of God, they had a son, Isaac.

Imagine as either a mother or a father, how you would feel about that. You've been wanting a child all your life. You've never had one. It looks like you never will. Then, unbelievably, you do have a child. You'd be overjoyed, right? That child would become the most important thing in your life. I mean, children are often the most important things in our lives, but it would be even more so in this situation. And to know that child was a direct result of God fulfilling a promise to you, well, you'd be incredibly thankful to God. You'd do anything in your power to protect that child and love that child that God have given you.

Then, at some point, along comes God again. God tells Abraham to take his son, Isaac, the only son he has, the only son he thinks he's likely to ever have, and go out and kill him. God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to God.

Now, there are times in the Bible when people dedicate their lives to God.  There are even times when people dedicate their children’s lives to God.  But this takes that to an entirely different level. God did not just tell Abraham to dedicate Isaac's life to God. God told Abraham to kill Isaac, and dedicate his death to God.

What strikes me, every time I read this story, is the incredibly matter-of-fact way the author of Genesis tells it. No emotions are told to us. We are not told Abraham's reaction when God told him to sacrifice his son. We're not told what he said, how he felt, any of it.

It does not take too much imagination to figure it out, though. How would you feel? We'd probably go through all five stages of grief. We'd be in denial: did God really say that? I must've heard wrong. God does not really want me to kill my son. Then there'd be anger. What's the matter with you, God? Why would you tell me to do this? What's wrong with you? Then there'd be bargaining: God, I'll do anything you want if you'll just let my son live. Then would come depression, when reality set it and we realized that this really was what God wanted us to do and we were going to have to do it.

The Bible does not give us any of that, though. It goes right to acceptance. As soon as God stops talking, it tells us about Abraham's preparations for the trip.

We don't know if he told Sarah. He clearly did not tell his servants. He tells them to stay put while he and Isaac go off to worship and then they'll come back. He did not even tell Isaac what was going on. In fact, when Isaac asks about it, he evades the question.

Abraham's heart had to be breaking. But he was willing to go through with it. He built an altar. He arranged the wood for the fire. He tied up Isaac and put him on the altar. Again, this is all told to us very matter-of-factly. We don't know if Abraham ever told Isaac why he was doing this. We don't know if Isaac fought, if he thought his dad had gone nuts, or what. Abraham pulls out his knife and raises it. He's just about to kill Isaac when an angel of the Lord stops him. The angel tells him that it was all just a test, and that Abraham passed, because he did not withhold even his son from God.

That's one heck of a test. I guess that's why the Bible tells us to pray that we not be led to a time of testing. That's about the hardest test anyone could ever have.

Do you think you could pass it? For most of us, it's probably pretty hard to say. It's hard to imagine being in a situation where God told us to kill anyone, really. Maybe in a war, but even there, I don’t know that God would tell us to kill someone. But this is entirely different.

Could you do this?   Could you do what Abraham was willing to do?  Could you kill your own child, if God told you to? 

If you don't have children, imagine being told by God to kill your spouse, or your parents, or someone else who's really important in your life. And leave aside the fact that we'd probably say someone who said they were told by God to kill someone was mentally ill. Imagine having no doubt about it actually being God who wanted you to do this. Could you?

See, we talk all the time in church about how God should be the number one thing in our lives. But this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where stuff gets real. Because if we say no, then we're saying that God is not, in fact, the number one thing in our lives. God may still be important, but other things are more important.

I'm not saying that in a judgmental way. I'm also not saying that I could do it. I don't even like to hit a bird on the highway. But still, it's just a fact that, if we say we could not do what Abraham did, if we could not do this even if we were completely and totally convinced it was what God had told us to do, then we're saying that there are things in our lives more important than God and obeying God's will.

I doubt that any of us will ever be tested the way Abraham was. But we get other tests. We get them all the time. We get them every day. Every day, in a hundred different ways, we make choices between doing what we know God wants us to do and doing what we want to do. And every day, in a hundred different ways, we have to decide whether God is the number one thing in our lives or not.

And every day, in a hundred different ways, we fail. At least I do. I know I do. Every time I put my own desires ahead of doing something for someone else, I fail. Every time I see a chance to do something for someone, and I don't do it, I fail. Every time I close my eyes to the needs of someone else, I fail. Because those are things I know God is telling me to do. When I don't do them, I'm saying that God is not the number one thing in my life. God may still be important, but other things are more important.

I could go on about other ways I fail these tests. What about you? What are the ways you get tested? What are the ways you fail? What are the things you do, or don't do, that show that God is not the number one thing in your life?

Don't misunderstand me here. I'm not saying you're all terrible, horrible people. I'm not saying I'm a terrible, horrible person, either. We're people, that's all. We don't always fail the tests. There are times when we do exactly what God wants us to do. There are times when we do make God the number one thing in our lives. But there are a lot of times we don't. And we need to do something about that.

But what? What do we do? How do we get ourselves to where we pass those tests? How do we get to where we really do make God the number one thing in our lives?

You know, I wonder if maybe that's why Genesis tells us this story so matter-of-factly. Maybe that's why we're not told how Abraham felt about any of this. It's not that Abraham did not have any feelings about this. Of course he had feelings. It's because Abraham's feelings did not matter, and Abraham knew his feelings did not matter. Abraham knew it was irrelevant whether he wanted to do this or not. This was not about Abraham. It was not about Isaac, either. It was about God.

That's what we need to remember. When we get these tests, when we make these choices, that's what we need to keep in mind. Our lives are not about ourselves. They're really not even about others, although others are obviously involved. Our lives are about God. If we want to make God the number one thing in our lives, we need to remember that our lives are about God, and not about ourselves.

Abraham was able to remember that. He knew this whole thing was not about him, and it was not about Isaac. It was about God. Because Abraham remembered it was about God, he was able to pass the test. And he got his reward from God.

If we remember that it's about God, we'll pass our tests, too. And we'll get our reward. We may or may not get a reward in this world, but we will definitely get a reward in the next one.

 

The Cost

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church June 9, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 13:53-58.

            You know, we don’t often think about this, but Jesus was a small-town boy.  Nazareth, in Jesus’ time, is estimated to have had a population of around four hundred to five hundred people.  In other words, just a little bit bigger than Hoven.  

            That little town is where Jesus spent most of his life on earth.  He and his family returned there when Jesus was about two years old, after King Herod died and they were able to return from Egypt.  And he stayed there until he was about thirty, when he began his roughly three years of ministry.  Now, I’m sure he traveled once in a while.  We’re told of a time when Jesus and his family went to Jerusalem for the Passover, when Jesus was twelve.  It seems likely that they went to Jerusalem for the Passover in other years, too.  And even though travel was not all that easy back then, one would expect that they probably went to other towns once in a while.

            Still, Jesus spent most of his life in the little town of Nazareth.  And little towns back then had some things in common with little towns now.  For one thing, there were a lot of people in town who were related to each other.  It might be directly or it might be through marriage, but the chances were that if you lived in a town like Nazareth you had some cousins and uncles and aunts who lived there, too.  

Another thing a town like Nazareth had in common with our small towns today is that you really did not have a lot of privacy.  It was very hard to be anonymous in a town like Nazareth.  Everyone knew you.  Everyone knew your parents.  Everyone knew your brothers and sisters.  And everyone knew pretty much everything you did.  They knew if you liked to go to bed early or if you liked to stay up late.  They knew if you were a hard worker or if you were kind of lazy.  They knew if you were outgoing or quiet.  And that was especially true if you had a business where you had to deal with the public regularly.  Like, say, a carpentry business, which is what Jesus had.  

We don’t really know anything about Jesus’ life in Nazareth.  We don’t know if he was someone who stood out from the crowd, or if he tried to fit in.  He was not doing miracles then, of course.  We also don’t know what the people of Nazareth thought of Jesus.  We don’t know if they thought there was anything different, anything special, about him, or if he was just kind of one of the guys.

By the time of our reading for today, Jesus had been away from Nazareth for a while.  We don’t know how long.  He’d first gone to Capernaum, then started traveling all around Galilee.  He gathered up the disciples.  He did a lot of preaching.  He did a lot of healing, too.  He’d gotten into some arguments with the Pharisees.  He’d gotten a lot of notoriety.  Jesus was becoming famous by this time.

We’re not told, but you’d think news of what Jesus was doing must have spread to Nazareth.  We don’t know what the people of Nazareth thought about him.  We don’t know if maybe they asked Mary what this was all about, what her son was up to.  Maybe some of them were even proud of him.  You know, small town by makes good and all that.  Or maybe, hearing of his problems with the Pharisees and so forth, maybe they were a little embarrassed about him, like you would be if your town was known as the hometown of some fringe political activist or something.  We don’t know.

And now, Jesus is coming back home.  We’re not told why.  But how do you suppose he felt?  You’d think he was probably looking forward to seeing his mother, Mary.  And maybe other family members, too.  Maybe he was even looking forward to seeing some old friends.  He might even have been looking forward to showing the disciples around, showing them where he lived, where his carpenter shop was, all that sort of thing.  I mean, we don’t know, but it seems like a natural thing for him to have wanted to do.

He goes to the synagogue to teach.  Just like he’d done in the other places he’d gone.  And–the people were not happy with him.  They could not believe what they were hearing.  Who did Jesus think he was, anyway?  What made him think he could come back to Nazareth and start telling people about God and about how they should live?  He’s just an ordinary guy.  We saw him grow up.  We know his family.  We remember when he was starting his carpentry business and barely knew one end of the hammer from the other.  And now he’s acting like he’s some great rabbi or something?  What’s up with that?

Jesus had to be disappointed, don’t you think?  So, he made the famous statement that a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.  He did not do much in the way of miracles, because of the lack of faith of the people there.  And he left, resuming his traveling and his ministry.

But as I’ve said before, the question is, what are we supposed to learn from this?  I mean, it’s an interesting story.  A little sidelight into the life of Jesus.  But everything that’s in the Bible is there for a reason.  We’re supposed to learn something from it.  So what can we learn from this?  Well, probably several things.  But there’s one I want to focus on today.

When Jesus started his three years of traveling ministry, he was doing what God the Father wanted him to do.  I’m sure Jesus knew that, and I’m sure he was willing to do it.  But it did not come without a cost.

The ultimate cost, of course, was when Jesus was killed on the cross.  But there were other costs along the way.  And one of those costs is highlighted in this story.

            As we said, Jesus had spent most of his earthly life in Nazareth.  And as most of us do, I assume he had gotten into a routine.  He got up at a certain time and went through his morning routine.  He got to the carpenter shop at a certain time.  He ate his meals at regular times.  He went to bed at a regular time.  He went through the sacrifices and routines that a Jewish man was expected to go through.  He lived, I assume, what was considered at that time to be a normal life.

            When Jesus started his ministry, he gave that up.  Once he started preaching, once he started healing, once he started letting people know who he was, there was no chance that he could ever live a normal life again.

            Maybe that does not sound like a big deal to you, but think about it.  Once he started his ministry, Jesus could never just walk down the street like a normal person.  He could never just go to a friend’s house for dinner.  He could never even just go home and relax in the evening.  Wherever he went, he was Jesus, The Divine Son of God.

            And wherever he went, people wanted things from him.  Teach us, Jesus.  Heal me, Jesus.  Feed me, Jesus.  Do a miracle for me, Jesus.  No one really wanted to get to know Jesus, the person.  No one wanted to know how he felt or what he was going through.  Even when they cheered him, they were really just cheering him for what they wanted him to do or who they wanted him to be.  Even his closest friends, the disciples, were always making demands of him or trying to tell him what to do.  I would think that had to be really hard on Jesus.  To know that no one, not even his closest friends, were all that interested in him as a person.  They were just interested in him for what he could do for them.  I would think Jesus had to feel very lonely sometimes.

            Most of us live our lives in some sort of routine, too.  We get up at a certain time and go through our morning routines.  If we have jobs or go to school we do that at a certain time.  We eat our meals at regular times.  We go to bed at a regular time.  We live what, for the most part, would be considered a normal life.

            And that’s not necessarily wrong.  But what if God called you to leave that normal life? What if God called you to leave your regular routines?  What if God called you to go somewhere different, or to do something different?  Would you do it?  Could you do it?

            It’s not easy.  It’s especially not easy if we like our normal life and our regular routines.  It would be a sacrifice.  There would be a cost to following the Lord.  But then, there’s always a cost to following the Lord.

            Maybe you think this does not apply to you.  Maybe you think you’re already where God wants you to be and are already doing what God wants you to do.  And that may very well be true.  But that does not mean that what we’ve talked about does not apply to you.  Just because God wants you to do what you’re doing now does not mean God will want you to do it forever.  Just because you’re where God wants you to be now does not mean God wants you to be there forever.

            And even if you are where God wants you to be, and are doing what God wants you to do, if you’re doing it right there’s still a cost involved.  There are still things you’re giving up to follow God.  Because there are always things we have to give up to follow God.  There is always a cost to following God.  It’s worth it–following God is always worth it.  But that does not make the cost less real.

            Jesus paid the cost.  Jesus gave up what he had to give up.  Jesus’ life is an example to us.  May we follow his example, and willingly pay the cost of following God.

When the Impossible Looks Easy

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on June 9, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 14:22-36.

            Most of you know what a sports fan I am.  One of the things that’s amazing about watching sports is how great athletes make what they do look so easy.  You see a baseball player make a great catch, or a football player make incredible moves, or a basketball player make a seemingly impossible shot, and yet they seem to do it so effortlessly.  They make these incredible plays, and they make it look like it’s the easiest thing in the world.  They make it look like anybody could do it.

            That is, they make it look that way unless you’ve actually tried to do it yourself.  And then, you know that very few people could do it, because it’s not easy at all.  It’s incredibly hard.  It took years and years of practice, hour after hour, day after day, week after week.  It took a lifetime of effort, really, to be able to do the things top athletes do.  It’s only because they’ve put in all that effort that they can make it easy.

            I bring this up because I think, sometimes, we don’t really have enough appreciation for the miracles of Jesus.  I don’t think people did at the time, either.  We’re always told that people were amazed when Jesus did a miracle, but then a little while later, often in the next paragraph, people are back to treating Jesus like he’s no big deal, making demands, telling him what to do, complaining about what he has done.  It’s like whatever miracle Jesus did, it made no impact at all.  Jesus just seemed to make doing miracles look so easy.

            That’s not to say that it was easy for Jesus.  That’s one of the many things we don’t know:  just how hard doing miracles was on Jesus while he was on earth.  We have one instance in the eighth chapter of Luke, where a woman touches Jesus’ clothes and is healed, and Jesus says “I know that power has gone out from me.”  So clearly it was not nothing for Jesus when he did a miracle.  It took something out of him.  There are other times, too, where after healing people for a while, Jesus needed to go off by himself and rest and sort of recharge.  So working miracles was clearly not as easy for Jesus as it might have sometimes looked like.

            In fact, our Bible reading for today takes place right after Jesus had worked a miracle.  He had just fed over five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  And you know, this is often referred to as “Jesus feeding the five thousand”, but what the Bible actually says is that he fed five thousand men, plus women and children.  So it really could’ve been ten thousand people or even more that Jesus fed that day.  With five loaves of bread and two fish.

After that, Jesus sends the disciples on ahead of him in a boat, headed for the other side of a lake, while he stayed behind to pray.  Again, that sounds like Jesus needed to have kind of a restoration time after working a miracle.  But then, after he’s done, Jesus goes out to where the disciples were, walking on the water to get to them.

            Again, Jesus makes it look so easy.  Was it easy?  I don’t know.  But Jesus made it look that way.  In fact, Jesus made it look so easy that Peter says to him, hey, let me try that, too.

            And Jesus says, sure, go ahead.

            And Peter does it.  And he can do it.  And Peter is making it look easy, too.  But then, he looks around and sees the waves, and feels the wind.  Peter starts to think about what he’s actually doing.  And he starts to sink.  And, of course, Jesus reaches out and pulls Peter back up again and they get into the boat.

            So what’s the point?  Well, there are a couple of them.  One is, quite simply, that we should not take the miracles of Jesus for granted.  We’ve read and heard some of these Bible stories so often that we sometimes lose the impact of them.

            But really think about some of the things Jesus did.  There are people here who are dealing with chronic health issues.  Others of us have loved ones who are.  Think of what it would be like to have Jesus suddenly touch you and heal you.  Think of what a miracle that would actually be.

            Think about being in that crowd of five thousand men, plus women and children.  Think about being hungry and being a long way from anywhere that you could get food.  Think about what it would be like to see Jesus standing there with five loaves of bread and two fish and acting like he can feed that whole crowd with that little bit of food.  And then think about seeing the disciples start handing out food, and finding out that Jesus actually is going to do it!  He actually is going to feed that whole crowd with that little bit of food.  It’d be incredible.  It’d be a miracle.

            And think about being in the boat in our Bible reading for today.  Think about being in the boat with disciples.  You’re rowing against the wind.  It’s night time.  You’re trying to make it to shore.  And all of a sudden, you look up, and there’s what looks like a human being walking on top of the water coming toward you.  And then you see Peter get out of the boat, and for a little while he’s walking on top of the water, too!  What an incredible thing to see!

            But here’s the other point.  When Jesus worked miracles, he did not always work them by himself.  There were times when he let other people share in the miraculous power he had.  There were times when Jesus worked through other people.

            When Jesus fed the five thousand-plus people, what did he do?  Did he make the five loaves turn into five thousand loaves in front of everybody’s eyes and start handing them out to people?  No.  He took the five loaves and the two fish, he gave thanks to God, he gave the loaves and fish to the disciples, and he told them to get busy feeding the people.  In other words, Jesus worked his miracle through them.  Jesus allowed the disciples to use his power to do something no one would’ve thought they could do.

            And in our story for today, when Peter asked Jesus to walk on water, did Jesus say no?  Did Jesus say, “No way, only the son of God can do that?”  No.  Jesus said, sure, come on out.  The water’s fine.  Jesus allowed Peter to use his power to do something no one would’ve thought he could do.

            So that’s the other point.  While Jesus was on earth, he allowed his disciples to use Jesus’ power to do things no one would’ve thought they could do.  And now, Jesus still allows his disciples--you and me--to use Jesus’ power to do things no one would’ve thought they could do.  But there’s one condition.  We have to trust in Jesus’ power.  We need to have faith.  We need to believe.

            When Peter trusted Jesus, he was able to walk on water.  But what happened?  Peter started looking around.  He started thinking, what in the world am I doing?  I cannot be doing this.  This is impossible!  This cannot be happening!  He stopped trusting Jesus.  He started thinking of all the reasons he could not do this, rather than trusting in Jesus and believing that he could.

            The Lord can still work miracles.  The Lord does still work miracles.  Sometimes, the Lord works miracles without human help, simply through the use of divine power.  But a lot of times, the Lord allows his disciples--you and me--to use that divine power to do miraculous things.

            But just like Peter, we need to trust in Jesus’ power.  Because, by definition, a miraculous thing is something that most people don’t think is possible.  And so, when we think of miraculous things, there will always be people who can come up with at least twenty-five reasons why what we’ve thought of won’t work.  In fact, those people will say that what we’ve thought of is not possible.  It simply cannot be done.

            And if we believe that, then it becomes true.  If we believe that something cannot be done, then it cannot be done, at least not by us.  But if we believe, as Jesus said, that all things are possible with God, then maybe it can be done.  If we open our hearts to God’s Holy Spirit, and if we trust in Jesus’ divine power, and if we ask the Lord to allow us to use that divine power, then who knows?  Maybe it can be done.

            After all, everyone knows you cannot feed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  But the disciples used Jesus’ power and did it.  In fact, they made it look easy.  Everyone knows you cannot walk on water.  But Peter used Jesus’ power and did it.  In fact, he made it look easy.  What other things that everyone knows you cannot do might be done, if we use Jesus’ power?

            That’s our challenge.  What’s your dream for this church?  What could this church do, if we trusted in Jesus’ power?  Yes, I know this is a small church.  Yes, I know it does not have a lot of money.  But that’s the point.  We’re not talking about something we can do through our power.  The disciples could not feed thousands of people with their own power.  Peter could not walk on water through his own power.  He could only do it with God’s power.

            Think about this.  Pray about this.  Open your heart to God’s Holy Spirit.  Pray for God to show you God’s will for this church.  Pray for God to show you God’s will for your own life, too.  If we do God’s will, the Lord will allows us to use God’s divine power.  And then, just like Peter, this church will be able to do the impossible.  In fact, it may even make it look easy.

 

The One and Only

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church June 2, 2024.  The Bible verses used are 1 Timothy 2:1-7.

            The Bible verses we read today are among the most important verses in the Bible.  As I thought about it, it’s surprising we don’t hear them talked about more often.  These verses really should be right up there with John Three, Sixteen and the Twenty-third Psalm as the most quoted verses in the Bible.  The Apostle Paul, writing to his young friend Timothy, sets out our most basic beliefs as Christians.  They are found right here, in these few verses.

            Let’s start with verse five.  “There is one God.”  That’s one of the most basic Christian beliefs there is, that there is one God.  Period.  There are not a variety of gods.  There are not different types of gods.  There is not a Christian god and a Jewish god and an Islamic god and a Hindu god.  There is one God.  Period.

            I understand that this is not how everybody sees it.  There are plenty of people who believe that all religions are equal and equally valid.  There are plenty of people who believe that it does not matter what you believe, as long as you are kind and treat people well.  If you believe that, well, your argument is not with me.  Your argument is with the Apostle Paul.  You can choose to believe him, or you can choose not to.  But I’m not going to tell you he did not say what he said.  Paul says there is one God.  Period.

            After establishing that there is one God, Paul says this, “and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”  A mediator, in this context, is a go-between.  Someone who can go to God on our behalf.  There’s only one mediator, and Jesus Christ is it.  The only way for humans to get to God is through faith in Jesus Christ.  Again, period.  That, too, is one of our most basic beliefs as Christians.  There are not several mediators.  There is not Jesus Christ or Mohammed or Buddha or anyone else.  There is one mediator between God and humans, and his name is Jesus Christ.  Period.

            And again, I understand that’s not how everybody sees it.  There are plenty of people who believe that there are lots of ways to get to God.  And again, if you believe that, your argument is not with me.  Your argument is with the Apostle Paul.  And again, you can choose to believe him, or you can choose not to, but I’m not going to tell you he did not say what he said.  Paul says there is one mediator between God and mankind, and that one mediator is Christ Jesus.  Period.

            There are also people who believe that, if Paul is right, this is not very fair of God.  Why would God limit us to only one mediator?  Why would God decide that the only way we could get to God is through Jesus Christ?  Why would God be so limiting and so exclusionary?  If God loves us so much, why would God not provide us lots of ways to get to God, rather than just one way?

            The thing to remember about that is that God did not have to provide any mediator at all.  God did not have to give us a go-between.  God did not have to give us a way to get to God.  God did not owe it to us to do that.  God could have just left us to deal with the consequences of our sinful nature.  The real question to ask is not why God would limit our ways to get to God.  The real question is, why would God give us a way to get to God at all?

And Paul gives us the answer to that, too.  Look at verse four.  Paul writes that “God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”  

It is because God wants us to be saved that God gave us Jesus Christ as our mediator.  The fact that God wants us to be saved, that God wants so much for us to be saved that God did provide a way for us to get to God, shows just how much God does love us.  Again, God was not obligated to give us the chance to be saved.  Salvation is not something that we have somehow earned.  God gives us the chance for salvation as a gift, and God gives us that gift because God loves us.

And Paul goes on to tell us how this works.  Paul says that Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all people.”

It is because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that he is able to be our mediator.  It is because Jesus accepted the punishment and paid the penalty for our sins that he can be our go-between.  We don’t have to be punished for our sins because Jesus already accepted that punishment on our behalf.  We don’t have to pay the penalty for our sins because Jesus already paid that penalty on our behalf.  

That’s why Jesus can act as our mediator.  That’s why Jesus can be our go-between in a way that no one else ever can.  Jesus, by taking the punishment that should go to us, has made it possible for our sins to be forgiven.  And in fact, more than forgiven, it’s like our sins never happened.  Our sins are washed away, wiped out.  You and I are made holy and perfect, even though we’re not, even though we’re not even close.  We’re made holy and perfect through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That’s why Jesus can act as our mediator.  And it’s why no one else can.  Because no one else did what Jesus did.  No one else accepted the punishment and paid the penalty for our sins.  No one else died for us.  No one else was resurrected.  Jesus is the only one who did that.  And so Jesus is the only one who can be our mediator.  Jesus is the only one who can save us from the consequences of our sins.

All of those things are basic to our Christian faith.  There is only one God.  That one God wants us all to be saved, because that one God loves us.  And so, that one God sent the divine Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to take the punishment that should have gone to us.  Because Jesus did that, he, and he alone, can be our mediator before God, if we only accept him as our Savior.

For Christians, those things are pretty much non-negotiable.  We can disagree about a lot of things as Christians, but not those things.  A Christian who did not believe there was one God and that Jesus Christ is the Savior would be like a farmer who did not believe in growing crops or raising livestock.  It’s simply a contradiction in terms.  It does not work.

But there’s one other thing to note here.  We’ve mentioned it, but we did not fully discuss the implications.  It’s what Paul wrote in verse four.  God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

God wants all people to be saved.  If you and I follow God, then we need to want all people to be saved, too.  And that puts a responsibility on us.  If we want people to be saved, then we need to do what we can to let people know what we know.  We need to let them know how they can be saved.  We need to let people know that there is one God, that the one God does love us, that the one God sent the divine Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us.  And that if they believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, they will be saved.  If we want people to be saved, as God does, then we need to do everything we can to spread that message to everyone we can.

Now, we need to be a little careful about how we do that.  We don’t want to be annoying or contentious about it.  After all, our goal here is not to win an argument.  Our goal is to spread God’s message of salvation.  

And in doing that, I can think of no better example than that of Jesus himself.  When Jesus was spreading his message, how did he do it?  He did not get into arguments with people.  Yes, he’d sometimes argue with the Pharisees, but even then, he was usually just answering their questions.  They were the ones doing the arguing, trying to trick him or trap him in some way.  

But when Jesus was just talking with ordinary people, he did not argue with them.  He simply told them the truth.  He just said, “This is the way it is.”  And he allowed them to make up their own minds.  He allowed them to either accept the truth or reject it.

Jesus was sad when people rejected the truth.  But Jesus would not compromise the truth to get people to accept it.  Jesus did not change his message in the hope that people might change their minds.  Again, Jesus said, “This is the way it is.”  And he allowed people to either accept the truth or reject it.

            That’s our example.  Let people know the truth of God’s message of salvation.  Then allow them to make up their own minds.  Don’t argue with them, but also don’t compromise the truth to get them to accept it.  The truth is the truth.  It’s up to everyone, including us, to either accept it or reject it.

            There is only one God.  Period.  There is only one mediator between God and humans, and that’s Jesus Christ.  Period.  Jesus Christ is the one and only Savior.  We can either accept that or reject it.  But that’s the way it is.

 

The Kingdom of Heaven

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on June 2, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 13:24-33, 44-52.

            So, who’d like to go to heaven?

            Silly question, right?  We’d all like to go to heaven.  Maybe not today--a lot of us feel like the old Kenny Chesney song that says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now.”  And I think, for all of us, that God has some more things God wants us to do here before we go.  But still, I assume all of us hope that, whenever our time does come, we’ll go to heaven.

            But what does that mean, exactly?  What do we think heaven will be like?  There’s no real way to know, is there?  I don’t think it’s going to be sitting around on clouds strumming harps, the way some popular images suggest.  I don’t think we’re going to do a lot of sitting around at all--the Bible indicates in Revelation that we’re going to serve God in heaven.  But I also don’t think our service is going to seem like a burden or anything.  I think we’ll enjoy serving God and want to serve God.

            But that’s about as far as I’m willing to go.  I mean, heaven has to be a pretty awesome place, because it’s the place where God is.  Just that alone would make it pretty awesome.  But exactly what it’s like, what we’re like when we get there, we don’t know.  The Bible does not tell us.

            But heaven does not have to be a complete mystery to us, either.  Jesus talked about heaven quite a bit.  And in our reading for today, Jesus used some parables to tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like.   There are several of them, and we’re not going to look at them all in detail right now, simply because we don’t have the time.  We’re just going to do a quick overview of what Jesus told us in these verses in Matthew.

            He starts out by saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who planted good wheat seeds, but whose enemy snuck in and planted weeds in among the wheat.  Both of them came up.  The man knew an enemy had done this to him, but he told his servants not to pull out the weeds, because they might take out some of the wheat, too.  He says that they should wait until harvest.  Then, they can take the weeds out and burn them, and put the wheat in the barn.

            So what do you think about that?  Well, it kind of depends on which one we think we are, I suppose.  If we think we’re the wheat, then we’re in good shape.  We’re going to go and be with the master.  If we think we’re the weeds, then we know we’re not in good shape at all.  We’re going to be burned.

            Well, we’ll come back to that.  Next, Jesus tells two parables that are somewhat similar.  He says the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that’s been planted.  It’s very small, but it grows into a huge tree.  And then he says the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman mixed into a big batch of flour until it worked all through the dough.

            In both those cases, the kingdom of heaven is something that seems small, almost insignificant.  But it grows and develops.  It becomes incredibly important.  In the case of the mustard seed, it becomes so big it provides shade for the garden and shelter for the birds.  In the case of the yeast, it changes everything about the dough.  It’s what makes the dough worthwhile.

Jesus goes on to say that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field and it’s like a pearl of great value.  In both cases, the person in the parable is willing to do whatever it takes to possess it.  It’s worth anything and everything they have to sell or trade to get it.  Jesus tells us that there is absolutely nothing in the world that is more important the kingdom of heaven.

            And then, finally, Jesus says that kingdom of heaven is like a net that catches all kinds of fish.  Eventually, the boat is brought to shore and the fishermen go through, separating the good fish from the bad.  The good fish are kept in baskets, but the bad fish are thrown away.  And Jesus says, “This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            The gospel of Matthew presents all these parables, all these examples of what the kingdom of heaven is like, one after another after another.  All of them are in the same chapter.  I would think the disciples’ heads must have been spinning.  In fact, you know what’s happening in those verses we skipped?  The disciples ask Jesus about the parable of the weeds in the field.  I mean, Jesus has gone on to tell two more parables, and they’re still back on the first one.  They’re going, “Um, Jesus could we--could you--could we just slow down a little bit?  Could we go back to that one about the weeds in the field?  We didn’t get that one.”

            And maybe our heads are spinning a little bit, too.  So let’s see what we can learn about the kingdom of heaven from all these parables.

            Well, for one thing, the kingdom of heaven, and being allowed into it, is a Really Big Deal.  Being allowed into the kingdom of heaven is worth more than anything else in our lives. For another thing, the kingdom of heaven will completely transform our lives, just like yeast in dough.  And we can also learn that if we don’t treat the kingdom of heaven that way, if we don’t make it worth more than anything else, there are some pretty severe consequences for that.     

It’s important that we recognize that.  Maybe you’ve noticed this, but a lot of Christian churches are de-emphasizing heaven these days.  They still believe in it and all, but they say that we focus on heaven too much.  We should be more concerned with life on earth.  We should do what we can to help others, or to make the world a better place, or to transform society, or to get more enjoyment out of our own lives.  They say those are the things we should focus on, not getting into heaven.

            Well, I don’t think Jesus would agree.  Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is more important than anything else.  We should be willing to sacrifice anything and everything to get there.  And if we’re actually willing to do that, our lives will be transformed in the process.

             So--you probably already know what the questions are.  Are we willing to make the kingdom of heaven more important than anything else in our lives?  Are we willing to sacrifice anything and everything to get there?  And are we willing to allow our lives to be transformed in the process?

            In asking those questions, I don’t presume to know what the answer for each of you is.  These questions are not asked as an accusation.  You have to answer them for yourselves.  The only person I can answer them for is me.  And my answer is---I don’t know.

            The kingdom of heaven is obviously important to me.  I’m sure it’s important to you, too.  But there are other things in my life that are important, too.  Wanda is important to me.  My brothers and their families are important to me.  So are Wanda’s siblings and their families.  Music and sports are important to me.  Would I be willing to sacrifice all of that?  Would I be willing to give up all those people and all those things for the kingdom of heaven?

            I don’t know.  To be honest, it’s hard for me to imagine a situation where God would ask me to give up Wanda or any of those other things.  To have the Lord ask me to voluntarily give Wanda up, for the kingdom of heaven--in all honesty, I don’t see how that would work.

            And the other thing to remember is that God knows we’re not perfect.  God does not expect us to be perfect.  God understands why other things sometimes become important to us, and God is not going to automatically condemn us when that happens.

            But we should not use that as an excuse, either.  The point remains that God needs to be number one in our lives.  God needs to be more important than the things we enjoy doing.  God needs to be more important than our parents.  God needs to be more important even than our spouses or our children.  God needs to be number one.  The kingdom of heaven literally is that important.

            So, let’s look at our lives.  Let’s look at what we consider to be important.  And let’s look at how those things relate to the kingdom of heaven.  And if they’re getting in our way, we need to do something about that.

            But here’s the good news.  God will help us.  God wants us to make the kingdom of heaven the most important thing in our lives.  And God wants to help us get rid of the stuff that’s getting in our way.  So if we go to God and ask God to help us, God will give us the help we need.

            It’s not easy.  But the kingdom of heaven is worth it.  Let’s get rid of all the things that are getting in our way.  Let’s claim our place in the kingdom of heaven.

What Love Means

The Sunday evening message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on May 26, 2024.  The Bible verses used are 1 John 5:1-12.

            Do you love God?

            I assume most of us would say we do.  But what, exactly does that mean?  What do we mean when we say we love God?  

            I don’t know that we talk about that very much.  We should.  After all, loving God is one of the most basic things there is about Christian faith.  In fact, it goes back long before Christ.  In Deuteronomy Chapter Six, when the early nation of Israel is being taught the basics of their faith, the first thing they are told is:  “Hear, O Israel.  The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  The idea that we need to love the Lord our God shows up over and over again in the Old Testament.  

And then, of course, in the New Testament, Jesus himself said the most important commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”  So, obviously, loving God is essential to our Christian faith.  But what does it mean to love God?

Or, let’s look at it another way.  If someone asked you to prove that you love God, how would you do that?  What would you say?  What would your evidence be?  How could you prove, to someone else’s satisfaction, that you love God?

Now, I’m not saying we should allow anyone else to judge our faith.  The only one who can truly judge our faith is God.  The point is that loving God cannot just be something we say.  The love of God needs to be something real in our lives.  And loving God cannot be real in our lives unless we know what it means to love God.

Luckily for us, the Apostle John, in our reading today, tells us what it means to love God.  And it turns out that it’s pretty simple.  He says, “this is love for God:  to keep his commands.”

It’s simple, and yet–there are a lot of times when we don’t want to accept it.  We’re like the guy Jesus was talking to in Matthew Nineteen.  Remember that story?  A man comes up to Jesus and asks what he needs to do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus says, keep the commandments.  And the guy says, “Which ones?”

Which ones?  You know, there may be times when we’re not really sure what God wants us to do, but that’s not really the biggest problem we have.  Most of the time, we know what God wants us to do.  It’s just that, sometimes, we really don’t want to do it.  We don’t really want to keep all of God’s commands.  Some of them are hard.  Some of them require us not to do things we’d like to do, or to do things we’d rather not do.  Some of them might make us unpopular.  So we say, can’t I love God by just keeping some of God’s commands, rather than all of them?

Well, yes and no.  I mean God’s not keeping score.  God’s not sitting in heaven watching our every move with a big red pen in his hands, waiting to give us a big check mark every time we fail to keep one of God’s commands.  God knows we cannot be perfect, and God does not expect us to be perfect.  But if we truly love God, we should do our best.  We should try to keep God’s commands–all of God’s commands–as well as we can.

Look at it this way.  Suppose you’re married, and your spouse has a list of things they want you to do.  And you look at the list, and there are some things that are going to be hard to do.  There are some things that are going to take a lot of time.  There are some things that are going to be unpleasant.  To come to the point, there are some things on that list that you really would rather not do.

But what would show more love to your spouse?  If you just choose to do some of those things?  If you just choose to do the easy things, the things that won’t take long, the things that are fun?  Or if you do all of the things your spouse wants you to do, regardless of what they are or how long they’ll take or anything else?

That’s how it is with God’s commands.  If we look at the things God wants us to do, and we decide to just do the easy things, the things that don’t take much of a commitment, the things that are going to be fun, how much love does that show to God?  It does show some, I think–I’m not saying that it shows no love for God at all.  But it does not show as much love to God as it would if we decided to try to keep all of them.  If we decided to do the hard things, the things that are not much fun, the things that do take a deep commitment.  That would show more love to God, don’t you think?

So the question is, how do we get there?  And again, luckily for us, John gives us the answer.  He tells us that God’s commands are not actually that hard at all.  Why not?  Because “everyone born of God has overcome the world.  This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world?  Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

So that’s what it comes down to.  Do we really believe that Jesus is the Son of God?  Now, again, I suspect most of us here, maybe all of us here, would say that we do.  And I believe that, to some extent, we do.  But how much do we believe that?  Do we completely and totally believe it?  Is our belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God strong enough to overcome our reluctance to do the things God asks us to do?  Even when they’re hard?  Even when they’re not much fun?  Even when they’re not really what we want to do?

Here’s another way to say it.  When we think doing the hard things, the un-fun things, the things God wants us to do that we’d rather not do, what is it that keeps us from wanting to do them?  It’s our worldliness, right?  It’s caring more about the things of the world than the things of God?  We’re concerned about pleasing people, rather than pleasing God.  We’re concerned about having time to do the things we want to do, rather than the things God wants us to do.  We’re concerned with making sure we can provide for ourselves, rather than trusting in God to provide for us.  We’re in the position of Simon Peter when he was trying to tell Jesus what to do.  Jesus said to Peter, “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

It’s easy to have those human concerns.  After all, we are human.  But that’s why we need to overcome the world.  If we overcome the world, those human concerns go away.  As John wrote, if we truly love God, we can overcome the world.  And if we overcome the world, then God’s commands are not burdensome. But the only one who can overcome the world is the one who believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

So what it means to love God, really, is to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  To really believe.  To fully and completely believe.  To believe so much that our belief overcomes the world.  To believe so much that we can put our human concerns behind us, and fully focus on the concerns of God.  To believe so much that doing the things God wants us to do does not seem hard or burdensome.  To believe so much that we want to follow all of God’s commands, that we are happy to follow all of God’s commands, because there is nothing more important in our lives that showing love to God.

That kind of total belief, that kind of complete love, should be one of the goals of every Christian.  Now, that’s not say that we’re suddenly going to become perfect.  The greatest heroes of the Bible all failed sometimes.  Moses failed.  David failed.  Peter failed.  James and John failed.  If they all failed, we cannot expect that we will never fail.

But here’s the thing:  when they failed, they eventually recognized their failing.  And they repented.  And they asked God for forgiveness.  And they continued to believe.  They continued to have faith.  And they started again to follow all of God’s commands, and to allow nothing in their lives to become more important than showing love to God.

The way we show love to God is to keep His commands.  At first, that sounds like a hard thing.  But it’s really not.  Not if we truly believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, as the Son of God.  So let’s truly believe in Jesus.  Let’s believe in Jesus so much that our belief overcomes the pull of the world.  Then God’s commands won’t seem burdensome at all.  Because there will be nothing more important in our lives than showing love to God.