The Choices We Make

This article appeared in the April, 2014 edition of the Wheatland Parish newsletter.

            As many of you know, the Gettysburg High School prom has been scheduled for April 19.  This is, of course, the night before Easter Sunday, April 20.

            The purpose of this article is not to criticize the superintendent, the school board, or anyone else who was involved in this scheduling decision.  I would have preferred, of course, that the prom have been scheduled for a different day.  However, I’ve scheduled enough events in my life to know that doing so is always a difficult thing.  I know that the school only has so many weekends available.  I also know that whenever you schedule an event, there will inevitably be a conflict with something.  It’s impossible to please everyone, no matter what you do.

            The people I’d like to address with this article are the high school students in the Gettysburg church.  Now, I’m smart enough to know that church newsletters are not exactly popular reading material among high school students.  So, I ask the parents of those high school students to point this article out to them and ask them to read it.

            As many of you know, Easter Sunday is generally considered, along with Christmas, to be one of the two most important days of the Christian year.  At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Savior into this world.  At Easter we celebrate the resurrection of the Savior, who died to take away our sins and rose again to give us the promise of our ultimate eternal life in heaven.  These two events are at the heart of our Christian faith.

            When you’re in high school, though, the high school prom is extremely important, too.  I understand that.  I’m fifty-five, but I’m not so old that I’ve forgotten how important the high school prom is at your age.  I want you to be able to go to the prom.  I want you to have a wonderful time at the prom.  A high school prom can be something you remember the rest of your life.

            Is it possible for you to both have a great time at the high school prom and be in church on Easter Sunday?  Of course it is, if you choose to do that.  It’s even possible for you to have a great time at the post-prom party and still come to church on Easter Sunday.  And, of course, it’s not just important that you physically be in church.  It’s important that you actually come to worship God, which is what we’re all supposed to do every Sunday in church.  You can do that, if you choose to do so.

            So, it comes down to a choice.  That’s what life is all about really:  choices.  That’s what our Christian faith is all about, too. 

           The choices we make reveal, both to others and to ourselves, who we are and what we value.  Most of the time, it’s really not a question of knowing the right thing to do.  It can be, but most of the time, we know what the right thing to do is.  We just don’t want to do it.  And so, we make excuses for ourselves.  We find ways to justify our behavior.  We know better, but we find ways to convince ourselves that it’s okay to do things we know we should not do and that it’s okay not to do things we know we should do.

           That’s the case here.  You don’t need me to tell you that you should come to church and worship God on Easter Sunday.  You already know that.  The question is, will you do it?  Or will you make an excuse not to?  Will you do what you know you should do, or will you come up with a way to justify not doing it?

           It’s your choice.  The choice you make will reveal, to others but most of all to yourself, who you are and what you value.

Finding a Way to Forgive

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 13, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 18:21-35 and Matthew 21:1-11.

            Let’s review where we are so far in our sermon series, “Pray This Way”, looking at the Lord’s Prayer.  We started with “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”  We talked about how important it is for us to acknowledge the holiness of God.  We then went to, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”  We talked about how important it is for us to do whatever we can to make earth more like God’s kingdom and to do God’s will on earth.  In our most recent message, we covered, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  We talked about how important it is in all aspects of our lives to trust that God will give us enough for today--enough food, enough time, enough energy, enough inspiration, enough love--and that God will give us enough for tomorrow when tomorrow gets here.

            So now, we come to the next sentence.  “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

            Let’s get one thing out of the way early.  Some traditions, as we do, say “trespasses”.  Others say “debts”.  Others says “sins”.  It really does not matter.  We say “trespasses” because trespasses is an old English word, used in the King James Bible, and United Methodism started in England.  But I think we all know that when we pray the Lord’s Prayer we’re not asking God to forgive us for going on someone’s property without permission.  It’s not that kind of trespasses.  And I also think we know we’re not asking God to forgive us for owing money.  It’s not that kind of debts.  We’re asking God to forgive our sins.

            But asking God to forgive our sins is the easy part of this sentence.  That’s not to say it’s always easy.  Sometimes we don’t really feel like talking to God about our sins.  Sometimes we don’t even feel like admitting them even to ourselves.  Sometimes we want to pretend that our sins are not really sins, that we really did not do anything wrong.  Sometimes we’ll go to great lengths to justify our actions, or our inactions, and try to convince ourselves that everything we do or don’t do is okay.  And believe me, I’m as guilty of that as anyone.

            But even so, we know we’re sinners.  No matter how much we may try to push that thought away, we still know.  And we know we need to go to God and ask for forgiveness.  It’s not always easy to do, but we know we need to do it, and I think most of us probably do it.

            But there’s that second part of the sentence.  This is the part we tend to gloss over.  This is the part we tend to hurry right on past.  We ask God to forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us.

            That’s the tricky bit.  That’s the part we don’t like to have to deal with very much.  It’s one thing to ask God to forgive us.  It’s another thing entirely for us to forgive other people.

            But the thing is, the way Jesus puts it, the one is dependent on the other.  The extent to which we are forgiven depends on the extent to which we forgive.  In Matthew, right after teaching the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus emphasizes the point.  He says, “For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive you.”

            That’s the point of what we read from Matthew 18 today, too.  Jesus tells the story of a servant who owed his master a bunch of money and was forgiven for it.  That same servant then went out, found someone who owed him a piddly amount and refused to forgive.  When the master found out about it, he revoked the forgiveness he had given the servant.  Jesus said that’s how it’s going to work for us, too.  He said if we don’t forgive others, we are not going to be forgiven.

            But then, Jesus said one more thing.  He said that the forgiveness you and I give someone must come “from your heart”.  In other words, it’s not enough for us to just say we forgive someone.  We need to feel it.  Our forgiveness needs to be completely and totally heart-felt if it’s going to count.

            And that’s really hard.  Because sometimes we’re not ready to forgive someone.  And sometimes we just plain don’t feel like it.  We feel like someone does not deserve our forgiveness.  We feel like they have not asked for forgiveness and probably could not care less whether we forgive them or not.  And sometimes, what someone did to us really hurt.  It was more than just the ordinary mistake or doing something wrong, it was a betrayal.  And when we feel someone has betrayed us, when we put our trust in someone and they let us down and hurt us, it’s really hard for us to forgive them.

            And that brings us, at last to Palm Sunday.  Imagine you’re Jesus on that first Palm Sunday.  You’re riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.  The disciples are walking next to you.  A crowd forms along the side of the road.  Pretty soon, there are people everywhere.  They’re shouting and cheering.  They’re waving palm branches.  They lay their coats down in front of you.  They lay the branches down in front of you, too, sort of like forming a red carpet for you.

            If you’re Jesus, how do you feel about this?  For some of us, it might be the crowning moment of our lives, making this triumphant, heroic entrance.  But for Jesus, there’s really no way it could have been.  Because Jesus knew what was coming next.

Jesus knew all this cheering, all this shouting, this whole red carpet treatment, was meaningless.  He knew none of these people even knew what they were cheering for.  They wanted someone who would come in and kick out the Romans and establish a new, self-ruled Jewish kingdom.  That’s what the palm branches were all about.  They were a symbol of Jewish nationalism.  

Jesus knew that in just a few days, he was going to be arrested, and beaten, and tortured, and killed.  And he knew that when that happened, not one of these people who were now cheering him on would do the slightest thing to help him.  Not one of them would lift a finger.  In fact, some of the people who were now cheering him on would soon be cheering on the authorities who wanted to kill him.

Can you imagine what that would feel like?  To see all this and know it was all meaningless?  To see all this and know all these people who are so enthusiastically cheering you on would turn on you less than a week later?  

In our Wednesday Lent services, we’ve been talking about how Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.  Because he was fully human, it seems like there must have been a part of Jesus that wanted to strike back at these people somehow.  He must’ve been tempted to bring down lightning bolts from heaven on them.  At the least, he must’ve wanted to tell them off, tell them what hypocrites they were.

So, if you’re struggling with forgiving someone, whether it’s for something that happened recently or something that happened a long time ago, know that Jesus understands what you’re going through.  Jesus knows what it’s like.  Jesus knows it’s hard.  Jesus has been there.

            But Jesus found a way to forgive.  And that's what we need to do, too.  No matter how hard it is to forgive, no matter how much we may not even want to forgive, we still need to try to find a way to do it.  The extent to which we are forgiven depends on the extent to which we’re willing to forgive.  That’s the rule.

            But as I was thinking about this, I remembered something we’ve said in other contexts about God’s rules.  We’ve said that God does not give us rules so that God can send us to hell if we break them.  God gives us rules because God knows we’ll be happier, we’ll do better, we’ll live better lives, if we just do things the way God tells us to.  And that includes forgiveness.  Jesus did not tell us this so that God would have an excuse to send us to hell if we don’t forgive people.  Jesus told us this because God knows that you and I need to offer people forgiveness.

            Sometimes in life, people do really hurt us.  And when they do, it is really hard to forgive.  And as I said, Jesus understands that.  But when we don’t forgive, we never get past the hurt.  The hurt stays in our hearts.  We re-live it, over and over again.  That hurt takes away our happiness.  It takes away our joy in living.  It takes away from our self-confidence.  That hurt even gets in the way of our ability to serve God.  The only way we can ever get rid of that hurt, the only way we can ever truly heal, is to find a way to forgive.

            It’s not easy.  I don’t have a magic formula to tell you how to do it.  I do think it involves prayer.  I think it involves asking God to help us be able to forgive.  I think it involves asking God to help us let go of the past and move forward in our lives.

            Again, that’s not a magic formula.  It’s not like saying one quick prayer is going to enable us to forgive.  It takes time.  It takes effort.  But I do believe that if we keep trying, and keep praying, eventually God will answer our prayer and will help us forgive.

            So the next time you say the Lord’s Prayer, think about those words.  “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Take a moment and ask God to help you forgive anyone you need to forgive, whether you want to or not.  When we pray this way, God will answer our prayer and get rid of our hurt.

You Say Good-bye, I Say Hello

This is the message from the Wednesday Lent Service in Gettysburg on April 9, 2014.  The Bible verses used are John 14:1-31 and John 16:16-33.

            What we just read could really be considered part of Jesus’ farewell address to his disciples.  The disciples had been with him for what we estimate as about three years, although the gospels really don’t make that clear.  And now it’s time for him to leave them.

            The disciples did not really understand that, of course.  As we’ve talked before, that’s one of the constants running through the gospels, the way the disciples did not understand what was going on.  But this sermon series is called “Jesus in HD”.  It’s not about the disciples, it’s about Jesus, both the fully human Jesus and the fully divine Jesus.

            We talked a few weeks ago about how lonely Jesus must have felt when he was on the earth, how there was no one who really was like him or who really understood what it was like to be him.  But still, the disciples were his friends, the people he was closest to on earth.  And now, he was preparing to leave them.

            We assume that the fully divine Jesus knew what was going to happen to him, and would’ve known that even though it was going to be hard, he would ultimately prevail, even over death, and that he would go back to heaven and be with God the Father.  That would’ve been a wonderful thought for him.  But still, he was leaving the people he cared about the most on earth.  And leaving people you care about, even when you know you’re going to something better, is still a hard thing to do.

            I find it interesting, though, that the gospels say nothing about how Jesus felt about that.  Jesus’ concern is for his disciples, not for himself.  In all the things we read tonight, and in the parts we did not read, and in the other gospels that describe this as well, all of Jesus words are aimed at preparing the disciples for what’s going to happen.  He’s trying to get the disciples ready.  He’s telling them that things are going to be all right.

            The one time we get a little insight into how Jesus felt is when Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We did not read that tonight.  We’ll get to it next week during Holy Week.  But we know that Jesus asked God that, if there was some other way things could play out, some other way humans could be saved that did not involve Jesus having to die, that God do it that way.  A lot of times we assume that Jesus did not want to go through the pain and suffering and death that were coming up for him, and I’m sure that’s part of it.  I mean, who would not feel that way?  But I wonder if, maybe, a part of that was also the fact that he did not want to be separated from his friends.  

I don’t know, but it seems possible.  It seems like a natural human reaction.  I remember Wanda’s grandmother, when she was near death, saying that she was not afraid of dying, but that she felt bad because she knew how much her family did not want her to go.  Maybe that’s part of what was going on here, too.  Maybe it was not so much that Jesus was afraid of dying, but that he did not want his disciples to go through all the grief of missing him.

Now, obviously, it’s not like Jesus just suddenly found out that he was going to die.  He knew it for a long time.  He told the disciples about it several times.  Jesus knew what was going to happen.  But no matter how much we try to prepare ourselves, it’s still very hard to say goodbye.

And yet we do it all through our lives.  People come into our lives, they stay for a while, and then they leave.  Not all of them, of course.  But a lot of them.  Of course, with the life I’ve led, living in a half-dozen different places, I may be more aware of it than some.  But still, think about it.  

How many people are there that you went to school with that you never hear from any more?  Even those of you who are still in school, I’ll bet there are people who you went to school with as little kids who are not part of your life any more.  And those who are older, think about people you used to work with are no longer in your life.  Think of family members who are no longer in your life.  There’s an old song that says, “The first time that we said hello began our last good-bye”, and it’s true.  Whether we think about it or not, somewhere in the back of our minds we know, when we meet someone, that at some point we’re going to say good-bye.  And good-byes are hard.

But you know, we could also turn that old song around.  We could also say, “The last time that we say good-bye begins our first hello.”  Because good-byes are what make hellos possible.  Letting go of one thing makes it possible for us to take hold of something else.  Moving away from one thing makes us possible for us to move toward another.  If we never said good-bye, nothing would ever change.  And if nothing ever changed, nothing could ever get better.

And that’s even true of life itself.  Just like Jesus, we, we know that at some point, we’re going to die, too.  We don’t just suddenly find that out at the end of our lives.  We may try to deny it for much of our lives, but we still know.  The time will come that we have to say good-bye, not just to a person, but to our lives on earth.

Ideally, we’ll be able to do it the way Jesus did.  We’ll be able to do it, not being sad for ourselves, but instead thinking about others, trying to prepare them for what’s going to happen.  We may not be able to do that, and I’m not saying it’s a sin if we don’t.  I cannot claim to know what it’s like to be in that position, so I certainly am not in a position to judge anyone else.

But regardless of whether we’re able to do it the way Jesus did, we have the ability to go where Jesus went.  What happened to Jesus can happen to us.  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, because of God’s great love for us and mercy on us, and because of our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we, too, will ultimately prevail, even over death.  We, too, will go to heaven to be with God the Father.  

A good-bye is always sad.  Again, even when we know we’re moving on to something better, it’s still sad.  And Jesus knew that.  When he was talking to the disciples, he told them that they were going to be sad when he was gone.  He told them it was okay for them to be sad.  But he also told them that, eventually, their grief would turn to joy.  Because they would understand what Jesus was telling them.  They would understand that Jesus had died and conquered death and gone to heaven, all to prepare the way for us to go to heaven.  And they would understand that Jesus was coming back to take them along that same way to that same place.  In other words, it was okay for them to feel sad at saying good-bye, because their good-bye would not be permanent.

But he also told the disciples something else.  He told them that after they had said good-bye, they needed to say hello.  He told them to say hello to all the people who had not heard of him.  He told them to say hello to all the people who don’t know God.  He told them to say hello to all the people who need to know they are loved, who need to know their sins can be forgiven, who need to know that they don’t have to be alone, that they have a God who wants to be with them and help them and guide them through their lives.  He told them to say hello to all the people who need to know that salvation is available to them through God’s incredible love and mercy if they just come to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.

And that’s what Jesus tells us to do, too.  We need to say hello to those same people.  The people who don’t know Jesus.  The people who are feeling alone and unloved.  The people who feel God’s presence in their lives, who don’t feel God helping them and guiding them through live.  The people who don’t know that salvation is available to them through faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is telling us to say hello to those people, just like he told the disciples to do.

            Good-byes are a part of life, and we have to accept them.  But let’s do what Jesus did.  Let’s not dwell on good-byes.  Instead, let’s say hello.  Let’s say hello to all those people Jesus told us about.  And then, someday, we’ll be able to say hello to our Lord and Savior in heaven.

Living on Purpose

This is the message from the Wednesday Lent service in Gettysburg on April 2, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 22:39-46.

            One of the things all of us have to deal with is temptation.  We are constantly tempted to do things we know we should not do, and we’re constantly tempted to avoid doing things we know we should do.  

We can be really good at making excuses for ourselves and justifying the times we give in to temptation, too.  We can convince ourselves that bad is good and wrong is right.  We don’t admit to ourselves that we’re doing that, of course, but we do it all the time.  So, as we continue our sermon series “Jesus in HD”, looking at both the fully human and fully divine Jesus, let’s look at how Jesus dealt with temptation.

Our first reading, from the fourth chapter of Luke, tells us about the devil tempting Jesus with three things.  The first was food.  He tells Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

There are at least two ways that had to be really tempting for Jesus.  The first one, the one that seems the most obvious one, is that Jesus was really hungry.  He’d been fasting for forty days.  Some bread would’ve tasted pretty good to him.  In fact, even a piece of moldy, stale, rotten bread would probably taste pretty good after you’d had nothing to eat for forty days.  So, when the devil said, “tell this stone to become bread”, there was probably a part of Jesus that thought, “Hey, that’s a good idea”.

Now, of course, he was fasting.  He had decided he was not going to eat anything for this period.  But, on the other hand, Jesus was out in the middle of the wilderness.  There was no one around to check on him.  He could have a little snack out there and no one would ever know.  It had to be pretty tempting.

And then, too, there’s the way the devil asked the question.  “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread”.  A part of Jesus was probably thinking “what do you mean, if I’m the Son of God.  I am the Son of God.  I’ll show you who’s the Son of God.”  The human Jesus was tempted because he was hungry.  The divine Jesus was tempted to prove that he really was who he said he was.

But he resisted the temptation.  How?  He quoted the Bible.  He said, “It is written, people do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Jesus resisted the temptation because he knew who he was and what he was about.  He knew what he was doing and why.  He was not out there in the wilderness by chance or by accident.  He was out there because God the Father wanted him to be.  He was out there preparing for his ministry.  He knew that, while of course he needed to eat, there was something more important he needed to do.  He needed to get himself mentally and spiritually prepared for all the things that were going to happen to him in his ministry, so he could handle all those things and continue to serve God.

Then the devil takes Jesus to the highest point on the temple, which was the highest point in all Jerusalem.  He tells Jesus “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.”  The angels will protect you.

That had to be tempting, too.  I mean, that’d be awesome, right?  Jump off a tall building, and not only survive but make a really graceful landing.  Sort of like an Olympic gymnast, except that you’d start from way up in the air and then just sort of stick the landing perfectly.  How cool would that be?

And how much easier would it’d have been for Jesus to attract followers after that?  Think of it.  This guy jumps off the temple and not only survives it but makes it look easier than jumping off a step-stool.  That’d attract attention.  The story’d spread.  Pretty soon, everybody’d have heard about it.  Jesus could’ve saved himself a lot of time and trouble that way.  When people saw him jump off the temple and land like that, they’d have known that only the Son of God could do that.  Everybody would’ve believed in Jesus if he’d done that.  The human Jesus was tempted because it would be amazing.  The divine Jesus was tempted because it would show everyone that he really was the Son of God.

But Jesus resisted the temptation.  How?  Again, he quoted the Bible.  He said, “It is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, Jesus resisted temptation because he knew who he was and what he was about.  Jesus knew he had not come to earth to put on a show.  When you look at the miracles Jesus did, they were all to help other people--healing people, feeding people, and so on.  He never did a miracle for his own benefit.  In fact, he often told people not to tell anyone that he’d healed them.

Jesus knew he was not here to glorify himself.  He was here to glorify God.  He could get followers by putting on a show, but that’s what they’d be there for--to see the show.  

Jesus would not have been acting as the Son of God.  He’d have been like a popular entertainer.  People might come to see him, but only because he was famous.  And after a little while, they get bored.  They’d want to see a bigger show.  They’d want Jesus to top himself.  “Okay, Jesus, we saw you glide down from the temple.  What’s your next trick?”  And if Jesus didn’t perform one, they’d move on.  Jesus would’ve been a one-hit wonder, someone who was hot for a little while, and then vanished again.

            The devil was not done with Jesus.  He took Jesus to a high mountain.  He showed him all the kingdoms of the world.  And he said, “All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.”

            That had to be pretty tempting, too.  The chance to become the ruler of the earth.  If you’re Jesus, think of all the good you could do as the ruler of earth.  Think of all the people you could help.  You could do away with all injustice.  You could do away with all slavery and oppression.  You could do away with all poverty and inequality.  If you were Jesus, and you were the ruler of the earth, you could actually bring about God’s kingdom on the earth, exactly what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer.  The human Jesus had to be tempted by the power.  The divine Jesus had to be tempted because he could use that power for good.

            But Jesus resisted the temptation.  How?  Once again, Jesus quoted scripture.  He said, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

            Again, Jesus resisted the temptation because he knew who he was and what he was about.  Jesus knew he came from God the Father, and that God the Father has more power than the devil will ever have.  Jesus knew God the Father could’ve given him all the power the devil offered and more, if that had been the plan.  But that was not the plan.  And Jesus knew he’d fail if he followed any plan other than the plan of God the Father.

            But the devil did not give up.  He just waited, biding his time.  And that brings us to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

            We’re not told that the devil was involved here, but I have to think the devil probably was.  After all, this would’ve been one of Jesus’ most vulnerable points.  Knowing he was about to be arrested.  Knowing he was about to be tortured and ultimately killed.  And knowing, too, that he did not have to go through it.  Knowing that he had all kinds of choices.  He could run.  He could fight.  He could use his divine power.  He could do almost anything he wanted to avoid what was going to happen.  The human Jesus was tempted because he did not want to suffer and die.  The divine Jesus was tempted because he knew how easy it would be to avoid all that.

            But again, Jesus resisted the temptation because he knew what he was about.  Jesus knew he had been sent to earth to do those things that were coming up for him.  He knew he was sent here to suffer and die so that the sins of human beings would be forgiven.  Yes, Jesus could’ve made other choices, but if Jesus had made any of those other choices, he would not have been able to do what he came to earth to do.

            Jesus resisted temptation because he knew who he was and what he was about.  How about you?  And how about me?  Do you and I know who we are?  Do we know what what we’re about?

            You and I are not here by chance or by accident, either, any more than Jesus was.  You and I are not here to do things for our own benefit, either, any more than Jesus was.  And God the Father has a plan for our lives, for your life and for my life, just as God the Father had a plan for Jesus’ life.  And you and I will fail if we follow any plan other than the plan of God the Father.  You and I have the ability to make other choices, just as Jesus had the ability to make other choices.  But if we make other choices, we will not do what we were put on this earth to do.

            Temptation is a hard thing to resist.  The things we’re tempted to do are things we really want to do--otherwise, they would not be tempting to us.  And the things we’re tempted not to do are things we really don’t want to do--again, if that was not true, it would not be tempting for us to not do them.

            But you and I know we are here to worship God.  You and I know we are here to serve God and to love God.  And you and I know that the best way we can serve God and to love God is to love and serve the other people God created.  You and I know that we are here to share God’s word and show God’s love.  And we know that any time we’re tempted to do or not do something that goes against that, we’re being tempted to go against the things God put us on earth to do.

            Jesus resisted temptation because he knew who he was and what he was about.  You and I know who we are and what we’re about, too.  And if we remember that, we’ll be able to resist temptation, too.

Manna, Man!

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, March 30, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 16:1-20 and Matthew 6:25-34.

We’re in the middle of a sermon series called “Pray This Way”, looking at the Lord’s Prayer.  We’ve talked about “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”, looking at why it’s important in our prayers to acknowledge who God is.  We’ve talked about “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”, looking at how, as Christians, we have a responsibility to do our part to bring God’s kingdom and God’s will closer to our world on Earth.  Today, we look at the next sentence of the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread”.

            Unlike the first two sentences of the prayer, this is something that appears in both Matthew’s version of the prayer and Luke’s version.  This was clearly something that stuck with the people who heard Jesus give this prayer.  “Give us this day our daily bread”.

            When the people of Jesus’ time heard this, they would’ve instantly thought of the story from Exodus we read today.  The people of Israel were out in the wilderness.  God, through Moses, had led them out of slavery in Egypt.  But now, they’re out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to eat.  And they’re not very happy about it.  They accuse Moses, and of course by implication accuse God, of having led them out into the wilderness to starve.  They say they’d have been better off to stay in slavery, because at least there they had enough to eat.

            So, God gives them something to eat.  Manna.  Moses refers to manna as “the bread the Lord has given you to eat”.  But, he tells them, they can only gather as much as they need for today.  Don’t try to save any of it for tomorrow.  That won’t work.  God is only giving you enough for today.

            Now of course, people being people, somebody had to test that, right?  Sure enough, some people tried to save some manna for the next day, and sure enough it was no good.  Surprise, God, speaking through Moses, told the truth.  Who’d have thought?  God only gave them enough for today.  They’d have to learn to take it one day at a time.  God would give them enough for tomorrow when tomorrow got there, and not before.

            That’s the story people would’ve thought of when Jesus said this line of the Lord’s Prayer.  And it goes along perfectly with what Jesus said in our reading from Matthew today.  Jesus tells us, don’t worry about whether you’ll have enough to eat or enough to drink or enough clothes to wear.  God knows we need those things.  Jesus says, what you should be trying to get is not food or drink or clothes, but God’s kingdom.  Jesus says that if we get that, everything else will fall into place.

            That probably accounts for the order in which we say these things in the Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus tells us to first acknowledge who God is, then pray for God’s kingdom to come.  Only then are we supposed to ask for anything for ourselves.  And when we do, we’re supposed only ask for enough for today, and not worry about tomorrow.

            In fact, it seems to me that the order in which Jesus put things in this prayer is a tremendous example to us about keeping our priorities straight.  Jesus tells us that we need to keep our focus first and foremost on God.  Not on ourselves, and not on the things of this earth.  On God.  

Jesus acknowledges that our earthly needs are important, too.  It’s just that Jesus says they get a lower priority.  Our first priority should be serving God’s kingdom and doing our part to bring about God’s kingdom on earth.  In fact, if you think about it, probably the only reason we pray for our daily bread is that without it, we would not have the strength to do our part to bring about God’s kingdom on earth.  We need food and drink to survive.  But we’re not supposed to pray for those things for ourselves.  We’re supposed to pray for them so we can have the strength we need to serve God.

Which is also probably one of the reasons Jesus told us to pray for bread.  Bread, after all, is one of the staple foods of life.  There’s nothing fancy about bread.  I mean, nowadays there can be.  People bake all kinds of fancy breads now.  But in Jesus’ time, bread was pretty simple.  It was pretty basic.  That’s what Jesus told us to pray for:  just our basic needs.  Just pray for what we need, not what we might like to have.

            That’s not always the easiest thing to do.  There are a lot of times when we’re like those people of Israel who tried to save the manna for tomorrow.  We don’t really want just our daily bread.  We want enough for tomorrow and next week and next month.  

We’re like the people of Israel in another way, too.  Remember, in the book of Numbers, how the people complain about having nothing to eat but manna every day?  They go to Moses and say, “All we ever get to eat around here is manna.  Manna for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for dinner, manna for supper.  Manna for a midnight snack.  Manna, manna, manna.  Man, oh man, am I tired of manna!  I’d rather eat a banana with my nana in Montana while wearing a bandana than eat any more of this stupid manna!”

And that’s true of us, too.  We don’t want just to just have our basic needs met.  We don’t want just enough to get by.  We want a lot of other stuff, too.  We want to have a nice house and a nice car and a nice home entertainment system and enough money to do some traveling and to have some more nice stuff, too.

Now, before we go any farther, please understand that I am not pointing a finger here.  Everything I just said applies to me just as much as it applies to anyone else.  And I’m not saying we cannot be Christians and have some nice stuff.  I think we can.

But it gets back, again, to priorities.  And it also gets back to what we should be praying for.  Our first priority, in our prayers and in our lives, needs to be God’s kingdom.  Our first priority, in our prayers and in our lives, needs to be serving God.  Our first priority, again in both our prayers and our lives, needs to be to do our part to bring about God’s kingdom on Earth.

And our prayers, in terms of what we’re asking God to give us, is enough to give us the strength to do that.  If God chooses to bless us with other things, that’s up to God.  But God does not owe it to us to give us anything else, and Jesus did not tell us to pray for anything else.  Jesus told us to pray the basic things we need to get us through the day.  No more and no less.

What Jesus is telling us to do, basically, is take one day at a time.  And you know, think of how much less stress and worry there’d be in our lives if we did that.  Think how much easier our lives would be if we just asked God to give us enough to get us through today, and trusted that God would give us enough to get through tomorrow when tomorrow got here.

And then, think about how much less stress and worry there’d be in our lives if we carried that principle into other areas besides food.  I suspect a lot of us have “to-do” lists.  I know I do.  And that’s okay.  For me, it’s the only way I can keep from forgetting things, and sometimes I still forget things anyway.

But you know, sometimes, when we look at that “to-do” list, it’s kind of scary.  We look at all the things we have to do for a week, or for a couple of weeks, and then we look at the amount of time we have to do them in, and we think, “How am I ever going to get all this done?”  Have you ever done that?  Happens to me all the time.

But what if we applied the “daily bread” principle to that?  What if we prayed, “God, give me enough time and energy today to do the things I need to do today.  And I’ll trust you that, when tomorrow comes, you’ll give enough time and energy to do the things I need to do tomorrow.”

How much less would we worry if we did that?  How much less stress would we have in our lives?  How much better off would we be, how much happier would we be, how much more able to serve God would we be, if we just trusted God to give us the time and energy to get done all the things we need to do?

God, through Moses, told the people God would give them enough for today.  Jesus told us to pray that God give us enough for today so we have the strength to serve God’s kingdom.  And Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow, because as long as we serve God’s kingdom, God will take care of tomorrow.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”  Acknowledge who God is, do our part to bring about God’s kingdom on earth, and ask for God to give us the basic things we need for today.  No more and no less.  If we pray this way, we can be pretty confident that God will answer our prayer.

Mixed Emotions

This is the message from the Wednesday Lent Service at the Gettysburg United Methodist Church on March 26, 2014.  The Bible verses used are John 11:1-44.

            Our Lent sermon series is “Jesus in HD”, looking at both the fully human and fully divine Jesus.  This week we’re going to look at the human Jesus.  Specifically, we’re going to look at how Jesus dealt with the death of someone close to him.

            There are not a lot of things more human than that, are there?  One of the certainties of life, some might say the only certainty of life, is that we’re all going to die.  And that means that all of us, if we live very long, are going to have someone close to us die.

            A lot of us try not to think about that.  We don’t want to think about the fact that we’re going to die, and we don’t want to think about the fact that those close to us are going to die.  And to an extent, that’s good.  I’m not suggesting we should go around all day thinking about death.  That’d be a pretty unpleasant way to live, after all.

            But we should not ignore the reality of death, either.  And in fact, we cannot ignore it, even if we want to.  Death has a way of forcing its way into our consciousness, whether we want it to or not.

            As I said Sunday, in the not quite three years I’ve been in this parish, I’ve conducted roughly fifty funerals.  Some of them have been for people who you were close to.  And of course, there have been a lot of other funerals in this community that I have not been a part of.  Every week, when you read the newspaper, there are two or three obituaries, sometimes more.  That means every week, there are quite a few people in this community who are mourning the death of a loved one.

            That’s a hard thing.  Even when it’s the death of someone who’s lived a long and full life, it’s hard.  And when it’s someone who passes away at a young age, due to an illness or an accident or something, it’s even harder.  It’s a tough thing for us to deal with.

            In our Bible reading for tonight, Jesus deals with the death of a loved one.  Lazarus was a good friend of his.  We have no idea how old Lazarus was, but from the context, it seems like he must have been a younger man.  I say that because his illness and then his death are not being treated the way we’d expect the death of an elderly man to be treated.  There’s no sense of Lazarus having lived a long and fruitful life and now going on to his reward.  The sense of it seems to be that Lazarus’ death is considered a sad, even tragic thing.

            And it seems to me, as I read this story and think about it, that Jesus has a mix of emotions about the situation.  When Jesus first hears about Lazarus being sick, he seems to be in complete control, both of the situation and of his own emotions.  He stays where he is for two days, apparently knowing that in that time, Lazarus is going to die.  When it’s time to go, Jesus tells the disciples what he’s going to do.  He tells them that Lazarus has died and that he’s going to raise him again.  When he gets to Bethany, Jesus tells Martha that he’s going to raise Lazarus from the dead.

            That makes sense, when we think about it.  After all, Jesus is the one who conquered death itself.  He did that not just for himself, but for all of us.  We read in Mark’s gospel of Jesus, very early in his ministry, raising Peter’s mother-in-law from the dead.  So it makes sense that Jesus would not get too shaken up over death.  Jesus knew he had power over it.

            And yet, somehow, when Jesus sees Mary, Jesus’ whole demeanor changes.  We’re told that Jesus was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled”.  In fact, we’re told Jesus wept.  It’s like, when Jesus was actually face-to-face with the reality of the situation, something inside of him changed somehow.  Jesus, who had seemed in total control of the situation, who knew he had power over death, cried.

            And oddly enough, I could not find a good picture to represent that.  I searched all kinds of things on Google images, and I could not find a normal-looking picture of Jesus crying.  It’s like showing a normal-looking Jesus crying normal tears makes us uncomfortable.  It’s like we don’t want to see the human Jesus crying real human tears at a real human loss.

            And that’s too bad.  Because both of Jesus’ reactions--the composed, in control Jesus and the sad, troubled, crying Jesus--are needed to complete the picture.  In fact, it seems to me that Jesus’ two reactions mirror the way we often react to death.  

As Christians, we believe that we are saved by God’s grace and mercy and through our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.  So, if we’re confident that our loved ones have that faith, we know that when they die, they are going on to heaven.  They are going to eternal life in the presence of God.  They will be in the place of love and peace and joy forever.

            And that belief is a comfort to us.  It can lead us to say, as we sometimes do, that the death of a loved one is a blessing.  That’s especially true if our loved one has lived a long and full life and was more recently suffering in some way.  We know that their suffering is now ended, and that makes us feel better about someone’s death.

            And yet, when a loved one dies, even in that situation, will still cry.  We still grieve.  Despite what we believe about life after death, there is still sadness and pain involved when someone we love dies.

            And sometimes, we feel guilty about that.  Sometimes, we wonder if our tears and sadness show a lack of faith.  After all, we think, logically, if I know my loved one is in heaven, I should be happy.  And I’m not.  Does that mean I don’t really believe my loved one is in heaven?

            No.  It does not mean that.  I think one of the things Jesus’ reaction to the death of Lazarus tells us is that both of those feelings--the belief that a loved one is now in heaven, and the sadness at a loved one’s death--are perfectly natural, normal things for us, as human beings, to feel.  No matter how strong our faith is, no matter how confident we are that our loved one is in heaven, both of those feelings are perfectly natural and perfectly normal.

            We know it’s normal because it was the reaction of the fully human Jesus.  Jesus, who understood death better than any one of us ever will, who knew what heaven is like far better than any one of us ever will while we’re on this earth, who in fact had actually lived in heaven before he came to earth, and who knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, still cried when he came face-to-face with the fact of Lazarus’ death.

We don’t know exactly what the mix of emotions was in Jesus at that time.  I wonder if Jesus himself fully understood the emotions he felt right at that moment.  He may have--I’m not saying that he did not.  But think about it.  As human beings, there are many times when we don’t fully understand our emotions.  That’s especially true when we’re faced with something as serious and traumatic as the death of a loved one.  I think it’s entirely possible that Jesus himself did not fully understand why he cried in this situation.

            What does that mean for us?  Here’s one of the things I think it means.  It means that it’s okay if you and I struggle with the reality of death, especially the death of a loved one.  It’s okay because even the fully human Jesus struggled with it, too.

And what that means is that, when a loved one dies, whatever it is that we’re feeling, it’s okay.  It’s okay if we’re happy at the thought that our loved one is now in heaven.  It’s okay if we’re sad that our loved one is gone.  It’s okay if we feel anger or confusion.  It’s even okay if we just kind of feel numb or if we’re not even sure what we feel.  

All of those feelings and many others are okay.  In fact, all of those feelings at once are okay.  None of those things show a lack of faith, a lack of caring, or anything else.

Dealing with death is never easy.  It was not easy for Jesus.  It’s not going to be easy for us.  There are no rules for it.  But the one thing we don’t need to do is feel guilty about whatever we’re feeling.  It’s hard enough to deal with the death of a loved one.  Don’t pile guilt on top of everything else you’re feeling.

But remember this:  Jesus ultimately defeated death.  He defeated death for himself.  He defeated death for Lazarus.  He defeated death for Peter’s mother-in-law.  And Jesus will defeat death for you and me, too.

Death is a reality in this world.  We cannot ignore it. But it our almighty, all-powerful, all-loving God is always with us, in life and in death.  God never leaves us to face anything alone.  God is always there for us, all the way.

Till Kingdom Come

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish Sunday, March 23, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Genesis 2:4-15 and Revelation 21:1-7.

            Our sermon series as we approach Easter is called “Pray This Way”, looking at the Lord’s Prayer.  Last week, we looked at the first sentence of the prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”, and we talked about how important it is that we recognize that we’re praying to the holy, perfect God.  This week, we’re looking at the second sentence of the prayer:  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.’

            And just as with the first sentence of the prayer, this second sentence follows Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, not Luke’s version.  Luke simply says, “Thy kingdom come”.  Nothing about God’s will, nothing about earth or heaven.  I think it’s all implied, though.  

I mean, if it’s God’s kingdom, then God rules over it.  That means that in God’s kingdom, God’s will is always done. And when we say, “Thy kingdom come,” that pretty much has to mean come to earth.  After all, there’d be no reason to pray for God’s kingdom to come to heaven.  By definition, heaven is already God’s kingdom.  What we’re praying for is God’s kingdom to come to earth.  We’re praying for God’s will to be done on earth, just like it already is in heaven.

You know, we pray that every week.  How many of us have actually thought about what that would be like?  What would it look like, what would it be like, if God’s kingdom came to earth?

That brings us to our Bible readings for today.  Our reading from Genesis tells us what the earth was like in the beginning, before sin entered the world.  The reading from Revelation describes the new heaven and the new earth.

Listen to what it says in Revelation.  “God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’”

Think about that.  No more tears.  No crying.  No pain.  No death.  No mourning.  There will be nothing but love and peace and joy.  We will always be in the presence of God.

That’s what we’re praying for when we pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth.  That’s what we’re praying for when we pray for God’s will to be done on earth.

It’s a wonderful vision.  It’s a wonderful dream.  It’s something we’d all like to see.

And it’s absolutely nothing like the world we live in now.  We live in a world where there are lots of tears.  There’s lots of crying.  There’s lots of pain.  And there’s lots of death and mourning.  In less than three years here I’ve conducted about fifty funerals.  And of course there have been many other funerals in the parish that I have not conducted.

Everyone here has lost loved ones.  Everyone here knows someone who’s dealing with a serious physical problem.  Sometimes it’s you, yourself.  Everyone here knows someone who’s in pain, whether it’s physical pain, emotional pain, or some other kind of pain.  And again, sometimes it’s you, yourself.

When we think about the world we live in, and how far it is from the kind of world we pray for, it makes our prayer seem kind of empty.  I mean, yes, of course, we’d love to live in that world we’re praying for.  We’d love to have God’s kingdom, the kingdom of eternal peace and joy, come to the earth.  But it seems there’s about as much chance of it actually happening as there is of my flapping my arms and flying to the moon.

So, are these just empty words?  Are we praying for something that will never happen until that glorious day when Jesus comes back to earth?

Well, in one sense, yes.  As long as humans are what we are, this world will never be a perfect world.  And even if there was a fundamental change in human nature, there’d still be death and mourning.  Our physical bodies, as they’re constructed, will only last so long.  No matter how many medical advances we make, there will always come a point at which our bodies wear out and we die.

At the same time, I don’t think Jesus would’ve told us to pray empty words.  There has to be a reason Jesus told us to pray this way.  In fact, I think there are at least a couple of reasons.

One of them is that we are praying for that day when Jesus comes back to earth.  Because that is the only way this is truly going to happen.  And while Jesus said no one but God the Father knows when that day will come, there’s nothing wrong with praying for it.  The next to last verse in the Bible says, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’  Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.”  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with praying for that promise to be fulfilled.  There’s nothing wrong with asking God to have Jesus come soon.

But there’s another aspect of it, too.  I don’t think that, as Christians, you and I are supposed to just sit back, accept things as they are, and wait for Jesus to come again.  I think you and I are supposed to do what we can to make earth more like God’s kingdom.  You and I are supposed to do what we can to help God’s will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

We cannot stop death, of course.  But we can, sometimes, stop tears.  We can sometimes, stop crying.  We can, sometimes, stop pain.  And if we cannot stop it, we can at least lessen it, at least for a while.

After all, you and I are made in the image of God.  We claim to be God’s children.  We claim to worship God and to serve God.  That means that you and I are not here by accident or by chance.  We are not here to passively observe the world.  We are here to change the world.  We are here to do our part to bring about God’s kingdom on earth.

What’s our part?  It’s what Jesus told us to do.  Love our neighbor as ourselves.

Every time we act out of love, we bring God’s kingdom a little closer to this earth.  Every time we are there to wipe the tears from someone’s eyes, we bring God’s kingdom a little closer to this earth.  Every time we ease someone’s pain, we bring God’s kingdom a little closer to this earth.

There are so many ways we can do that.  A lot of times, all it takes is being there.  A lot of times, all it takes is doing something to show someone we care.  A lot of times, all it takes is doing something to show someone that they’re not alone, that they have someone who loves them.

But it takes one other thing, too.  It takes God’s people paying attention to the people around us.

I’ve had two professions in my life--lawyer and pastor.  By the nature of those professions, I’ve had the chance to learn things about people that most people don’t know.  And what I can tell you as a result of that is that pretty much everyone you will encounter is hurting in some way.  It may not look like it.  They may not be letting anyone but their family and close friends know.  In fact, sometimes we don’t even let our families and close friends know.  Sometimes, we suffer in silence.  We think there’s no one who’s interested, no one who cares, no one who could do anything anyway.

As God’s people, we need to be interested.  We need to care.  We need to realize that there is always something we can do.  If the church is not interested in people’s pain, who will be?  If the church does not care when people are hurting, who will?  If the church does not try to do something, who’s going to?

Am I perfect at this?  No.  I’m a long way from perfect at it.  I miss chances all the time to help hurting people.  This is something all of us need to work at.

And in working at it, we need to rely on God.  Part of our caring, part of our doing something, is praying for hurting people.  We should not just pray and do nothing else, but we also should not run around doing things and not pray.  It’s like the old saying.  We should work as if everything depends on us, and we should pray as if everything depends on God.  Because both of those things are true.

We pray to a holy, perfect God.  We pray for that God’s kingdom to come on earth.  And then we work to bring God’s kingdom closer to coming on earth.  And then, we will be that much closer to the day when there truly are no more tears and there truly is no more pain.  We will be that much closer to the day when there will be nothing but love and peace and joy, and we will always be in the presence of God.