No One Hates the Insignificant

            I saw a quote recently that I really liked.  It said, "The opposite of love is not hate; it is use. Those who hate me at least recognize me as human, a force with which to be reckoned, a legitimate source of ideas. Those who use me consider me nothing more than a means to an end. Those who use me dehumanize me.”

            It seems to me there’s a lot of truth in that.  In an odd way, to be hated can be a compliment.  Think about it:  we don’t bother to hate someone who’s insignificant.  The act of hating someone, while not a good thing, at least recognizes that the one you hate is important. 

Think of the most hated politicians, of either party.  The one thing they have in common is that they have power.  Nobody hates a freshman legislator from the ninth district of Arkansas.  Nobody even knows who he or she is.  The people who are hated are the ones who have power.

            It works that way in sports, too.  What baseball team is hated the most?  The Yankees.  Why?  Because they win so much.  Nobody hates the Washington Nationals.  Why would you?  They’ve never won anything.  It’s not worth anybody’s time to hate them.

            This, of course, explains why the Pharisees and others hated Jesus while he walked the earth.  There were other people, around the time that Jesus was on earth, who claimed to be the Messiah.  Some of them even attracted some followers.  None of them was crucified.  Why not?  Because none of them had any power.  They made a little splash for a while, then they faded away.  None of them was worth hating.

            Jesus was.  Jesus had power.  Jesus had influence.  Jesus had the potential to really change things, to upset the apple cart.  That’s why the Pharisees and others hated him.  That’s why they thought they had to stop him.  If he’d just been a harmless crank, they’d never have bothered.

            So what does that say for the church?  Well, first, let’s look at what it doesn’t say.  It does not say that the church’s goal should be to be hated.  Jesus did not set out to be hated.  It simply was an unavoidable by-product of who he was and what he did. 

It also does not mean that the church’s goal should be to seek power and influence.  Again, Jesus did not seek power and influence.  It simply was the by-product of who he was and what he did.

Jesus did not have power and influence because he sought them.  He had power and influence because he was faithful to God.  He did not worry about what would result from that faithfulness.  That result was not his concern.  Jesus had power and influence because he served his heavenly Father in everything he said and did.  The power and influence were the result of his faithfulness.  Unfortunately, so was the hatred.

I think what that says for the church is that we should not seek power and influence.  Instead, we should always, in all things, seek to be faithful to God.  There may be times when power and influence results from that.  Or, there may not.  That’s not our worry.  Unfortunately, there may even be times when the church is hated because of our faithfulness.  Or, there may not.  That’s not our worry, either.

The job of the church is to be faithful to God at all times and in all circumstances.  What happens as a result of that is not our concern.  If the church is faithful to God, we can trust God to take care of what happens as a result.

First Things First, But Not in That Order

Below is the text of the message given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 8, 2012.  The scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.

I’ve mentioned before that my favorite TV show is Doctor Who.  One of my favorite quotes comes from that show, too.  The Doctor once said, “Put first things first, but not necessarily in that order.”

It makes sense to us to put first things first.  Sometimes, though, the first thing in putting first things first is deciding what the first thing is.  For instance, what’s the first thing, the most important thing, about faith in Jesus Christ?

           

I suppose there are a lot of answers we could give to that question.  The obvious one might be love.  After all, Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are that we love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. Because of that, it might seem like love is the first thing about our faith.

           

I don’t think so, though.  Love is really important, obviously.  The thing is that what Jesus said is only important if we already have faith in the first place.  If we don’t have faith in Jesus, then it really won’t matter much to us what Jesus said.  So love is important, but it’s not really the first thing about our faith.

           

How about obedience?  Jesus said blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.  Jesus said anyone who loves him will obey his teaching.  Again, though while obedience is important, it’s something that only becomes important if we already have faith in the first place.  If we don’t have faith, we won’t be very interested in obeying Jesus.

           

So what is it?  Well, I think the first thing about our faith in Jesus Christ is what we celebrate today.  The first thing, the most important thing about our faith in Jesus Christ is that he was raised from the dead.  That means that, in the story of Jesus’ life, the first thing came last.

           

Listen again to what the Apostle Paul said:  “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:  that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.’

Later on, Paul says this:  “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.”  In fact, Paul says that if Christ has not been raised, “We are to be pitied more than all others.”

Some of you may be wondering why the last thing about Jesus’ life would be the first thing about our faith.  After all, Jesus being raised does not change any of the things he said.  It does not change any of the things he did.  Jesus was still just as wise and just as good whether he was raised from the dead or not.

That’s true.  If Jesus was not raised from the dead, he was still a very wise man.  If Jesus was not raised from the dead, he was still a very good man.  That’s the thing, though.  If Jesus was not raised from the dead, he was a just a man.  A very wise man, a very good man, but still just a man, a human being.

We’re not supposed to worship a human being.  We can like a human being, we can respect a human being, we can admire a human being, we can love a human being, we can even try to be like a human being.  Even so, we’re not supposed to worship a human being, no matter how good and how wise that human being was.

If Jesus was not raised from the dead, he was just a man.  He was not the divine Son of God.  If Jesus was not the divine Son of God, if he was just a man, then anything he told us was just his opinion, the opinion of a man.  If the things Jesus said were just the opinions of a man, then we’re free to accept them or reject them as we like.  Jesus’ opinions don’t have any authority, if he was just a man.

While that’s all important, though, it’s not why Jesus being raised from the dead is the first thing about our faith.  The reason Jesus being raised from the dead is the first thing about our faith is that if Jesus was just a man, then he did not have the ability to save us.  The death of a human being, even a good and wise human being, would not give us any salvation.  Our belief in a human being, even a good and wise human being, cannot get us into heaven.  Only God’s grace, offered to us through our faith in the Savior, can do that.  If Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, it’s proof that he really was the divine Son of God, and that our belief in him leads to eternal life in heaven.  If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then he was not the divine Son of God and our belief in him does us no good at all.

That’s why Paul says that if Christ has not been raised, our faith is him is useless.  If Christ has not been raised, then our faith is based on a lie.  We’re wasting our time believing in him. 

In fact, it’s worse than that.  If Christ has not been raised, then we believe in a false god rather than the true God.  That’s why Paul says that if Christ has not been raised, we should be pitied more than anyone else.  It would be better to not believe in any god at all than to believe in a false god who has no power.

I think, even if we’ve never really thought about it in this way, most of us realize this.  There’s a reason that churches have their highest attendance all year on Easter Sunday.  It’s not just because it’s a nice spring Sunday and people feel like going to church. 

We come to church on Easter Sunday because we realize the event we remember on this day is the first thing about our faith.  We come on Easter Sunday because we realize how important it is that we acknowledge and affirm, to ourselves and to everyone else, that we really believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.  When we come to church on Easter Sunday, we are saying that we believe Jesus was more than just a human being, that he truly was the divine Son of God, and that he truly is our Savior.  We’re saying we recognize Jesus being raised from the dead as the first thing about our faith, and we are putting first things first.

The thing is, of course, that if that’s all we do, we never get past the first thing.  The first thing then becomes the last thing and we never get anywhere else.  It’s good to acknowledge that Jesus is our Savior, but it’s not enough.  We also need to live in a way that shows we believe it, because our actions reveal our beliefs.  We need to go on to the second thing and the third thing and the fourth thing if we really believe the first thing.

Those second and third and fourth things include the things we talked about at the start of this message.  They’re things like love and obedience and trust.  If we really believe in Jesus as the divine Son of God, then we need to take seriously what he said about loving God and loving our neighbor.  If we really believe in Jesus as the divine Son of God, then we need to take seriously what he said about loving even our enemies, and praying for those who treat us badly.  If we really believe in Jesus as the divine Son of God, then we need to take seriously what he said about being willing to give up everything, if need be, to follow him.  If the second thing and the third thing and all the other things are not there, it shows we were never really serious about the first thing.

Which brings me back to the saying from Doctor Who:  First things first, but not necessarily in that order.  As Christians, we cannot take things in that order.  We cannot start with the first thing and then go to the second thing and then go to the third thing.  The first thing and the second thing and the third thing and the fourth thing are all connected.  We don’t really believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that he’s our Savior, unless we love as Jesus loved, are obedient to Jesus’ teaching, and trust him enough to follow where he leads us.

Jesus died for our sins.  He was buried.  He was raised on the third day.  That’s the first thing.  The fact that we’re all here today shows we claim to believe that.  It shows that we claim to believe that Jesus really is the divine Son of God, our Savior. 

So let's get past the first thing.  Let's resolve to love God and love others, to do what Jesus taught us to do, and to trust that, when we do, God will always be there for us.  Let's put first things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Neither Fight Nor Flight

Below is the text of the message given on Good Friday in the Wheatland Parish.  The scripture is Mark 15:1-39.

            At the start of that reading from Mark, Jesus was on trial.  The judge was the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.  Jesus was accused of all sorts of things.  Pilate turned to Jesus to hear his side of the story.  But Jesus said nothing.

           

Pilate could not understand that.  Pilate asked Jesus again what his response was to all the things he was accused of.  Again, Jesus said nothing.  We’re told that Pilate was amazed at this.

           

What Jesus did in front of Pilate is one of the hardest things for us to do sometimes.  To be in trouble, to have accusations made against us, and to say nothing and do nothing.  To accept what’s happening passively, with no response.  Very few of us can do that.     

It had to be even harder for Jesus.  I say that because Jesus had the power to get himself out of trouble.  After all, this is the divine Son we’re talking about.  This is the person who could drive out demons and raise people from the dead.  This is the person who could walk on the water.  You think he could not have gotten away from Pilate, if he’d chosen to do so?  Of course, he could’ve.  It probably would not have even been all that hard for him.

           

Yet Jesus did not do that.  Jesus stood there silently.  He stood there silently as his guilt was decided.  He stood there silently as his punishment was established.  He stood there silently as he was beaten and mocked.  He walked silently to the place for crucifixion.  He was silent as he was nailed to the cross.  He could’ve gotten away at any time.  Yet he refused to do so.

           

No one could understand it.  Even his disciples did not understand it.  Jesus was supposed to be the Savior.  He was supposed to be the king of the Jews.  Why would he not fight back?  Why would he not defend himself?  Why would he just stand there and let all this be done to him?

           

What Jesus did on that first Good Friday is something that goes against all of our human instincts.  After all, we all have a natural instinct for self-preservation.  Maybe you’ve heard it described as the “flight or fight” instinct.  When we’re threatened, we either run away or we stand and defend ourselves.  We don’t do what Jesus did.  We don’t remain passive and let people do whatever they want to do to us.

           

Yet, what Jesus did was right in line with what Jesus told us to do.  Remember, he said that if someone hits us on one cheek, we should turn the other to them.  He told us that if someone wants our coat, we should also give them our shirt.

           

Jesus did not tell us to either run or fight.  Jesus told us to love.  He told us to love everyone, and he told us to love in all circumstances.  He told us to love even our enemies.  He told us to pray for the people who persecute us.

           

We know those things.  We claim to believe in them.  The thing is, though, that we don’t very often live them.  I’m not saying nobody does.  I’m sure some of us here do, at least some of the time.  There are very few people, though, we live them completely, and who live them all the time.

           

Jesus did.  That’s why he did not run away from Pilate.  That’s why he did not fight back when he was beaten.  That’s why he allowed all these things to happen to him.  Jesus believed what he said, and he lived what he believed.  If our words and our beliefs are to really mean anything, we have to live them all the time, even when it’s hard.  In fact, we have to live them especially when it’s hard.  If we’re going to abandon our beliefs when they’re inconvenient for us, then we never really believed them in the first place.

           

Jesus believed them.  Jesus believed them all the time.  Jesus believed them, and lived them, even when it meant he would be arrested.  He believed them, and lived them, even when it meant he would be beaten.  He believed them, and lived them, even when it meant he would be killed.

           

It takes a lot of courage to live according to your beliefs when you know that doing so will get you killed.  More than that, though, it takes faith, and it takes love.  It takes believing that if we live our lives loving God and loving others, we can trust that God will be there for us in every circumstance.  It takes believing that if we live our lives loving God and loving others, we can trust that God is there even in our death.  It takes believing that if we live our lives loving God and loving others, God will be there with us even beyond our death on this earth.

           

Jesus believed that.  Jesus lived that.  Jesus loved God the Father and loved all the humans God created.  Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to stand passively and willing accept the worst that humans could give him.  He was willing to accept the beatings, the whippings, the mockery, all of it.  He was willing to accept even his own death.

           

If we truly claim to be followers of Jesus, that’s the kind of love we need to have.  That’s not an easy thing.  I don’t know that I have that kind of love.  I suspect very few of us do.

           

Jesus understands how hard that kind of love is.  Jesus does not demand perfection from us.  Jesus does expect us to keep trying, though.  It’s easy for us to say, “Well, I’m doing good enough.”  Jesus does not want us to settle for good enough.  Jesus wants us to love as he loved and do as he did.  Jesus wants us to have a complete and total love for everyone, no matter who they are and no matter what they may have done.

           

On this Good Friday, let’s think about the love Jesus had for us.  Then, let’s make up our minds to follow Jesus’ example.

The Maundy Church

This is the text of the message given in the Wheatland Parish for Maundy Thursday servides.  The scripture is John 13:1-17, 31b-35.

            This is Maundy Thursday.  Did you ever wonder why it’s called that?  Maundy Thursday.  I mean, we probably all get the Thursday part, but how about “maundy”?  What does “maundy” mean?  Anybody know?

           

Well, I did not know.  It’s not a word you hear very much.  In fact, the only time you ever hear it at all is in connection with this day, Maundy Thursday.  The spell-check on my computer won’t even recognize it as a word unless I capitalize it and use it in connection with this day.  When I was a kid, I used to think it was “Monday Thursday”.  That did not make sense, of course, but it was the only thing I could think of that it could mean.  I’d never heard that word “maundy” before.

           

Well, it turns out that “maundy” is an old English word.  It has the same root as the word “mandate”.  It means a command of some sort.  When we talk about Maundy Thursday, then, we’re talking about the command Jesus gave his disciples on that night when he was arrested.

           

What was that command, that “maundy”?  You heard it.  Here it is again:

           

A new command I give you:  Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

           

We’ve talked before about how Jesus said the two greatest commandments are that we love God and love others.  We’ve talked about how we really cannot love God if we don’t love the people that God created and we cannot really love the people God created if we don’t love the God who created them.  The idea that Jesus told us to love each other is probably not a new concept for most of us.

           

So listen to that last sentence again:  “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  Think about that.  Jesus said that love, love of others, is supposed to be the distinguishing characteristic of Christians.  That’s the one thing that we’re supposed to be known for.  The way people who don’t know us are supposed to be able to tell we’re Christians is that we love other people.

           

Now, what I want you to do is imagine someone who goes does not go to church regularly.  Imagine someone who does not know much about what Christians believe.  Instead, all they know about people who call themselves Christians is by observing what Christians do.  Then, suppose someone asked them what the main character trait of a Christian is, what the one thing is that distinguishes Christians from non-Christians.

           

What would they say?  Would they say that the thing about Christians that makes them different is how much and how well they love other people?

           

I don’t know.  I really don’t.  I want the answer to be yes, and probably sometimes the answer is yes.  I’m afraid, though, that too many times the answer is no.

           

If you turn on the news, what do you see about Christians?  Sure, once in a while you’ll see a story about a Christian group that does something nice for someone.  More often, though, you’ll see Christians arguing.  A lot of times, you’ll see Christians arguing with other Christians.  You’ll see Christians involved in scandals.  You’ll see Christians engaged in name-calling.  You’ll see Christians doing all sorts of things that do not seem to have anything to do with love at all.

           

Well, that’s how the news business works.  They always emphasize the bad news.  Is it really that much different, though, when we look around our community?  Well, sometimes it is.  I’m not trying to say that none of us ever acts in loving ways to others, because I know better than that.  I know there are a lot of people here who treat others in loving ways.  I’m sure there are people here tonight who do a lot better job of that than I do.  Please don’t think I’m up here trying to point fingers at anyone.

           

Let’s look at it another way.  Suppose you went up to someone and asked them what they knew about our church.  What do you think they’d say?

           

There are a lot of things they could say, of course.  Some of them would be complimentary.  Maybe all of them would be.  Some of them would be good things.  How many people, though, would say that the thing they knew most about us is how much and how well we love others?  How many do you think would say of our church, “That’s the church that loves people”?

           

Again, I don’t know the answer to that question.  Maybe some people would say exactly that.  Maybe a lot of people would say it, I don’t know.  If you think that not very many people would say that, though, then it’s a problem for our church. 

See, Jesus did not just say that loving others would be a nice thing to do.  This is not something that we’re supposed to do just once in a while, when we feel like it.  Loving others is not optional for us, not if we truly want to be recognized as Jesus’ followers.  Jesus said that if we loved other people, then everyone would know that we’re Jesus’ disciples.  If they don’t know that, it means we’re not living up to the maundy, the mandate, the new commandment that Jesus gave us.

           

Jesus did not just tell us to do this, though.  Jesus showed us how.  Before he gave us this maundy, this commandment, Jesus did something, something that caught the disciples by surprise.  He poured some water into a basin and washed the disciples’ feet.

           

That’s something that’s probably lost some of its meaning in today’s society.  After all, these days people’s feet generally don’t look that bad.  We wear comfortable shoes, we wear socks, we trim our toenails, and we take baths or showers regularly.  Our feet today are usually in pretty good shape.

           

That’s not the way it was in Jesus’ time.  There was no such thing as socks back then.  There really were not shoes, either.  There were sandals, which sometimes people wore and sometimes they did not.  Sometimes they went barefoot.  They went barefoot on dirt, and not very smooth dirt, either.  They got big calluses on their feet.  Their toenails were not usually trimmed; they usually either wore off or were torn off.  Feet looked pretty bad.  Washing someone else’s feet was something only a servant or a slave would do.

           

That’s what Jesus was showing his disciples.  He was showing them that to love someone, we need to serve them.  He was also showing them that when we serve someone out of love, there’s no job too small or too low for us to do.  We need to be willing to do the smallest, dirtiest, unpleasant jobs, even if it means washing someone’s feet.

           

That’s how our church can be known as a church that loves people.  If we want to be known as a church that loves people, we need to be known as a church that serves people.  We need to do whatever it takes to serve people out of love, even if it means doing the smallest, dirtiest, most unpleasant jobs.

           

Does the thought of doing that excite you?  It should, but it might not.  Frankly, I’m not sure how much it excites me.

But Jesus did.  So that means I need to work on this.  Maybe you do, too.  It also means that, as a church, we need to work on this.  Again, I’m not saying we never do it, but we can always do better.  Any time we fail to serve people the way Jesus served them, we fail to love people the way Jesus loved them.  That means we’re not fulfilling the maundy, the new commandment Jesus gave us.

           

Our church can be known as a servant church.  Our church can be known as a church that loves people, all people.  Our church can live up to the maundy Jesus gave us.  That’ll only happen, though, if we all decide to make it happen.

           

Maundy Thursday.  New Commandment Thursday.  Loving Thursday.  Servant Thursday.  Except it’s not just something we’re supposed to do on this Thursday.  It’s something we’re supposed to do every day.  It’s something we’re supposed to do so often and so well that everyone can tell we’re followers of Jesus, just by how well we love others.

           

Jesus told us what to do.  Jesus showed us what to do.  It’s up to us to do it.

Fun at Work

            Last Sunday was Palm Sunday.  It was also April Fools’ Day.  There was another holiday that was celebrated yesterday, though.  Other than people who came to church in the Wheatland Parish, I’ll bet that not very many people know what it is.  Yesterday was International Fun at Work Day.  It’s a real thing.  It’s celebrated every year on the first day of April.  It’s dedicated to the idea that a person’s work should be fun.

            Is your job fun?  Do you enjoy it?  Do you find satisfaction from the work you do?  Or is it just a job, a paycheck, a way to get the bills paid and to fund the lifestyle you currently have?

            I know that not everyone can have a job they enjoy.  Jobs are not easy to come by right now, and sometimes a person has to take what they can get.  It’s easy to say that a job should not just be a way to pay the bills, but the fact is that we all have bills, and they do have to be paid.  I also know that, even when we do enjoy our jobs, there is always some aspect of it that is not much fun.  There’s reason they call it work, after all.

            Still, there are too many people who allow themselves to feel trapped in jobs that they really don’t like.  If you don’t get some enjoyment out of your work, if it does not give you any satisfaction, that may be God telling you that it’s time to look for something different.  If nothing else, it won’t hurt to look around a little bit and see what else is out there.  You may find out that you have more options than you realize. 

            If you feel that you don’t have any options, take a look at why not.  Many times, our limitations are limitations we’ve placed on ourselves, rather than things that are out of our control.  If it’s a matter of a lack of education, there may be ways you can get that education.  If you need training in a particular area, there may be ways you can get that training.  If it’s a matter of jobs not being available in your area, it may be that you can go to an area where there are jobs.

            Some situations are obviously easier to work with than others.  There are nearly always alternatives to our current work situation, though, if we’re really willing to look for them.

I don’t think God wants us to be miserable at our work.  After all, our work takes up a large portion of our lives.  If we’re miserable at our work, we’re likely to be miserable in our lives.  It’s going to be pretty hard for us to serve God when we’re miserable.  It’s going to be even harder for us to love God and to love others when we’re miserable.

I hope you get some satisfaction and fun out of your job.  If you don’t, though, take a look around and see what you can do about it.  See if God might be leading you in a different direction.  Think about what God may be telling you to do with your life, and think about what you’d have to do to make that a reality.  You may find out that there are more alternatives than you think.

If we’re doing what God wants us to do with our lives, we will find satisfaction from that.  Then, we can make every day a Fun at Work day.

April Fool!

Below is the text of the message at the Onida Lent service Sunday night, April 1, 2012.  The scripture is John 12:12-18.

            Have you ever been on the receiving end of a really cruel April Fools’ joke?  I’m not talking about the kind of joke that’s innocent and fun.  I’m talking about where someone fools you about something really important.  I’m talking about where someone plays with your emotions in a really serious way, and then pulls the rug out from under you.

           

The reason I ask that is that today is both Palm Sunday and April Fools’ Day.  It seems to me that, in a way, it’s kind of appropriate to have both of those come on the same day.  After all, what’s the essence of a really good April Fools’ joke?  It’s convincing someone that something is true when it’s really not.  That happens over and over again throughout the last week of Jesus’ life.

           

Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem is kind of April Fools’ joke, really.  This huge crowd is cheering Jesus on.  Everyone’s telling Jesus how great he is and how much they love him.  None of them really meant it.  As we said this morning, they may have thought they meant it at the time, but it was all on the surface.  There was no depth to their love of Jesus.  Not long after that, some of those same people would be in the crowd that demanded Jesus be killed.  They were telling Jesus how much they loved him, only to say “April Fool” just a few days later.

           

How about Judas?  Judas was one of the most trusted of the disciples.  He was the one who was in charge of the money.  No one suspected Judas was disloyal to Jesus.  They all thought he was very loyal.  And for a while, he was.  After all, it’s not like he was planning to betray Jesus the whole time he was with him.  It was only at the end that he betrayed Jesus.  He had earned everyone’s trust, only to say “April Fool” and sell Jesus out to the Pharisees.

           

Then there’s Peter.  Peter was the one who swore up and down that he’d be loyal to Jesus to the end.  When Jesus tells Peter that’s not the way it’s going to be, Peter not only denies it, Peter actually gets kind of mad at Jesus for saying it.  Peter was sure he was going to stick with Jesus all the way, even if it meant he was going to have to die for him.  In the end, though, he said “April Fool” and denied he even knew who Jesus was.

           

None of these April Fools were fun, innocent pranks.  All of them had to really hurt Jesus.  Jesus was not really fooled at all, of course.  He knew exactly what was going to happen.  Still, it had to hurt him.  All these people said they loved him.  All of them, including the ones who were closest to him, were going to betray him and abandon him.  Can we even imagine what Jesus must have gone through, being with these people, hearing what they said, and yet knowing what was going to happen?

           

So, how about us?  We say we love Jesus.  We say we mean it.  We think we mean it.  But do we really mean it?  Or is our love for Jesus just an April Fools’ joke, too?

           

I don’t know that we can answer that question.  I don’t know that anyone can until we’re really tested.  After all, the crowd thought they meant it when they said they loved Jesus.  Peter thought he meant it when he said he’d never abandon Jesus.  Even Judas thought he meant it when he became Jesus’ disciple.

           

Maybe that’s why Jesus talked so much about counting the cost of following him.  No matter how much we think we mean it when we say we love Jesus, no matter how strong we think we are in our faith, we never really know for sure whether we mean it until our faith is tested.  We never know for sure whether we can handle the cost of following Jesus until we’re actually asked to pay the price.

           

You know how, in the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “Lead us not into temptation”?  From what I’ve read, that’s not actually the right translation.  What I’ve read is that it really should say “Do not lead us to the time of testing.”  I don’t know for sure if that’s right, but it does make sense to me. 

After all, we don’t really need God to lead us to temptation, do we?  We can find enough temptation on our own.  The time of testing, though, is different.  God does put us to the test sometimes, and it can be a scary thing. 

What makes the time of testing scary is that we can fail the test, just like the crowd did, and like Peter did, and like Judas did.  We think we love Jesus.  In fact, we’re sure we do.  We swear up and down that we’ll never abandon Jesus.  Then, the test comes.  We get into trouble, we get scared, and we don’t trust Jesus enough to stay with him.  So, we yell, “April Fool” and run away.

That has to hurt Jesus.  There's good news about it, though.  The good news is that we always get another chance.  Even though we fail the test, even though we hurt Jesus, Jesus still gives us another chance to get it right.

Peter realized what he’d done.  He repented, he asked for forgiveness, and Jesus forgave Peter.  Peter not only was forgiven, he became the first leader of the disciples.  I’d guess that some of those in the crowd, some of those who wanted Jesus killed, eventually realized what they’d done, too.  I suspect some of them repented and asked for forgiveness, and if they did, I’m sure Jesus gave it to them.  Even Judas eventually regretted what he’d done.  The Bible does not say that Judas ever asked for forgiveness.  In fact, it implies that Judas did not think he deserved forgiveness.  Still, the Bible does not explicitly say that Judas did not ask for forgiveness, either.  If Judas did repent and ask for forgiveness, it’s possible that Jesus even forgave Judas for what he’d done.

We get that same chance.  No matter how much we’ve hurt Jesus, no matter how many times our faith is just an April Fools’ joke, we always get another chance.  We can still go to Jesus, we can still repent, and we can still ask for forgiveness.  When we do, Jesus will give us that forgiveness. 

There is nothing we can do that will stop Jesus from loving us.  No matter how many times we hurt Jesus, and no matter how badly we hurt Jesus, Jesus still keeps loving us.  The salvation Jesus gave us on the cross is still available to us.  All we need to do is repent and ask Jesus for forgiveness.  When we do, we get that forgiveness every time, and we can accept the salvation Jesus offers us.

And that salvation is no April Fools joke.

I Wanna Be a Rock Star

This is the text of the message given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 1, 2012.  The scripture is Mark 11:1-11.

            Have you ever thought about what it’d be like to be treated like a rock star?  Even if it was only for one day, that’d be great, don’t you think?  Everywhere you go, there are huge crowds waiting to see you, and they all love you.  Everyone in the crowd is thrilled to see you, excited just to be in your presence, even if you don’t even acknowledge them. 

You get out of your car, and the crowd magically parts to make way for you.  They roll out the red carpet ahead of you, making your entrance as smooth as they can.  You send someone for something, and all they have to do is let people know who wants it and boom, it’s yours, no questions asked.  To just have one day like that, one time where we got that special, red-carpet treatment; that’d be something we’d never forget the rest of our lives.

            In our Bible reading for today, Jesus had a day like that.  But you know what?  I’ll bet he did not think it was all that special.

            We don’t know that, of course.  We’re not told what was going through Jesus’ mind on that first Palm Sunday, when he road into Jerusalem on a colt.  I somehow don’t think he was that thrilled about it.  Not just because he was humble, either, although of course he was.

            The reason I don’t think Jesus was that thrilled is because Jesus knew that his big day was just that.  It was one day.  It was not something that was going to last.  Jesus knew that the crowd did not really love him, at least not in any lasting sense. 

That’s not because they were hypocrites, exactly.  Some of them were, probably, but a lot of the people were sincere at the time.  They really thought they loved Jesus.  The really thought they were going to follow Jesus forever.

            The love of the crowd was sincere, but it was all on the surface.  It was the love people have for someone who’s a big star.  It’s like saying we love Tom Hanks or Taylor Swift or Tim Tebow.  In fact, it’s sort of like when Whitney Houston died.  Lots of people were really sad, and that feeling was sincere.  Maybe some of you felt it, I don’t know.  For those who did, that feeling was not phony or fake.  It’s probably similar to the feeling I had when Harmon Killebrew died last summer.  The feeling is real.  We really do feel a kind of love for people like that.

Here’s the thing about that kind of love, though.  It’s real, it is a kind of love, but it’s not a love that has depth.  It’s not the same as the kind of love we have for a wife or a husband, or a parent or a child, or a brother or a sister, or even a close friend.  We may have feelings for celebrities, but we don’t know them.  We may be sad about their deaths, but their death does not really impact our lives in any lasting way.  Our lives continue to go pretty much the same way they did before.  We feel sad for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but then we move on.

Jesus knew that was the kind of love the crowds felt for him.  The crowds did not have any deep love for him.  The crowds did not know him.  He knew that his death in a few days would not make any lasting impact on their lives.  Some of them might be sad for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but then they’d move on.  That knowledge probably took away any joy he might have felt by being treated like a rock star.

I don’t suppose I’ll ever get that one day of being treated like a rock star.  Probably you never will, either.  Most people don’t.

Even so, as we go through our lives, it can be really tempting for us to play to the crowd.  In our lives, the crowd won’t be thousands of adoring fans.  In our lives, playing to the crowd can mean trying to impress our friends.  Playing to the crowd can mean trying to get noticed by the boss.  Playing to the crowd can mean doing things that help us get accepted by the in group at school.

It’s understandable why we do that.  The need for acceptance is a very strong human emotion.  We all want to have friends.  We all want to have people think highly of us.  We all want to get ahead.  Playing to the crowd, whoever the crowd is in our lives, is a way to do that.  It’s understandable why it’s so tempting to do it.

The thing is that playing to the crowd means doing things we would not normally do.  It means going against our better judgment, doing things we know better than to do, just to impress people.  Ultimately, playing to the crowd means not being ourselves.  When we spend too much time trying to be someone we’re not, we can forget how to be who we are, and we’re not the people God created us to be any more.

In our last sermon series, we talked about how each one of us has been selected by God to do something.  The thing about that is that God never selects us to be somebody we’re not.  When God selected me to be a pastor, God did not tell me to completely change who I am.  I still love sports, and I still love music, and I still love to laugh and tell bad jokes.  God did not select me and then tell me to be somebody else.  Instead, God selected me to be the best me I can be.

God does that same thing for each one of us.  God created each one of us with different interests and different abilities.  God created each one of us with certain things we love to do and certain things we don’t like to do.  God wants us to use those things we love to do to serve God.  God does not want us to be someone we’re not.  God just wants us to be the best at being who God created us to be.

Did you notice, as we heard the story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem, that we’re not given any indication of how Jesus reacted to the crowd?  In fact, we don’t know if Jesus reacted at all.  We don’t know if Jesus even acknowledged the people along the road who were cheering and waving palm branches, and laying their coats in front of him and generally treating him like a rock star.

What we do know is that those people did not have any effect on him.  Jesus never played to the crowd.  Jesus never did anything because he wanted to impress somebody.  He never did anything because he wanted people to like him.  Jesus never did anything because he wanted to get ahead. 

It was probably tempting, sometimes.  I mean, think of the power Jesus had.  We’re talking about someone who could do miracles.  We’re talking about someone who could bring people back from the dead.  It must have been tempting for him to put on a show for the people.  That was one of the things Satan tried to get him to do when he was tempting Jesus.  Satan said, “Jump off the top of the temple and have the angels save you.”  Think about how impressed everyone would’ve been, to see that.

Jesus never did it.  Even when Jesus worked miracles, he never did it in a showy way.  When he cured a blind man, he did not use a flash of light or a puff of smoke.  He rubbed mud on the man’s eyes and told him to go somewhere else and wash it off.  When Jesus cured ten lepers, he did not use a magic spell or wave a wand.  He told them to go somewhere else and show themselves to the priests, and on the way there, they were healed.

Jesus never played to the crowd.  He never tried to impress anybody.  The reason for that, I think, is that Jesus always knew who he was.  He knew who he was, and he knew he had to be who he was if he was going to do what God had selected him to do.  If he tried to impress people, if he tried to play to the crowd, if he tried to be someone he was not, he’d never be able to get it done.  The only way he could do what God had selected him to do was to be who he was supposed to be.

That’s true for us, too.  We need to know who we are, because that’s who God created us to be.  God created us to be who we are because that’s the only way we can do what God has selected us to do.  If we try to impress people, if we try to become part of the in group, if we try to get ahead by being someone we’re not, we’re eventually going to forget who we are.  If we forget who we are, we’ll never be who God created us to be, and we’ll never do what God selected us to do.

God does not want us to be someone we’re not.  God just wants you to be the best you that you can be.  When we do that, we don’t need to be treated like rock stars.  We’ll have something better.  We’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that we are who God created us to be.