What Do You Want?

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Mark 10:35-52.

Do you pray regularly?

I hope you do.  If you’ve ever been to any church anywhere, you know how much churches believe in prayer.  We believe everyone should pray.  But here’s the question:  why?

Do you ever think about that?  When you come right down to it, why do we really need to pray?  After all, the Bible says that God knows our every thought.  The Bible says God knows what we need before we ask.  So, if God already knows how we feel, and if God already knows what we need, why should we bother to pray?”

            It's a legitimate question, but I think there is an answer to it.  Actually, there's probably more than one answer, but there's one I want to give tonight.  Even though God already knows what how we feel and what we need, we still need to pray because one of the things the act of praying does for us is it clarifies our own faith.  It reveals to us what we really think about God.

             I think our Bible reading for tonight shows that.  We heard two little stories.  Those stories are often dealt with separately, and there's value from doing that, but I also think they come back-to-back in the gospel of Mark for a reason.  There are things the two stories have in common, and so I think there's also value to be gained by looking at them together.

             In both of them, we have people asking Jesus for something.  James and John come up to Jesus and ask for something, and Bartimaeus comes up to Jesus and asks for something.

            But of course, the way they ask is completely different, right?  James and John come up to Jesus and almost demand that he do something for them.  They say to Jesus, “We want you to do whatever we ask.”  Bartimaeus, on the other hand, goes to Jesus and says, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.”

            Now, that's two totally different ways of approaching Jesus.  James and John seem to feel like they’re entitled to Jesus' help.  They call him “Teacher”, but at the same time, they talk to him more like he's their servant.  That's sometimes called the vending machine approach to prayer.  We make our requests, we push the button, and boom, God is supposed to give us what we asked for.

            Bartimaeus, on the other hand, does not seem to feel entitled to anything.  He's begging.  He's pleading.  He's hoping desperately that Jesus will hear him and will do what he asks.  He does not act like Jesus owes it to him to help.  But he knows that the only chance he has is if Jesus somehow, for some reason, decides to have mercy on him and help him.

            Two completely different ways of asking.  And yet, Jesus' response to them is exactly the same.  In both cases, he asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”

            Does that seem like kind of an odd question to you?  It does to me.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  Jesus surely knew what they wanted, right?  Jesus is God, the divine Son.  It seems like he'd have known what they were going to say before they said it.

            And yet, Jesus asked the question.  Even though he already knew what they wanted, he wanted to hear it from their own lips.  Why?

            I don't know the whole answer.  But here's something for us to think about.

            Have you ever had a thought or an idea or something like that in your head, and it made sense to you while it was in your head, but then you went to tell somebody else about it, and when you did it sounded totally different when you said it out loud than it did when it was still in your head?  I've done that.  I've gone to say something, and all of a sudden this thought or this idea, this thing that seemed like it was totally reasonable and sensible when it was in my head, sounded really stupid or arrogant or hurtful when I put it into words and said it to somebody else.  It happens because I really have not thought through all the meanings and implications of what I'm thinking.  And when I have to explain it to someone else, all of a sudden those meanings and implications become clear.  And it's not always a very pleasant experience.

I think that's one of the reasons Jesus asked “What do you want me to do for you?”  It's one of the reasons we need to pray, too.  We need to put our feelings into words.  We need to put our requests of God into words.  We need to do that so we can fully understand them.  We need to do that so we can really understand the meanings and implications of what we're asking of God.

I wonder, when James and John actually said to Jesus, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory,” how did they feel?  When they actually said that out loud, when they had to put it into words and say it to Jesus, were they proud of themselves?  Or were they a little ashamed of themselves, suddenly hearing what it sounded like when they said it?  Did they realize that this demand, which sounded so good and reasonable in their heads, sounded really arrogant and almost condescending to Jesus when they said it out loud?  I mean, here they were, telling Jesus they wanted him to put them above all the other disciples and to put them into positions of power and glory.  Did they realize how that was going to sound to Jesus and to the others?  The act of having to put their request into words revealed what they really thought about Jesus, and it did not sound particularly good.

Now, Bartimaeus did not have that same problem.  What he asked for did not sound stupid or arrogant or hurtful.  Still, it revealed what he really thought about Jesus, too.

Bartimaeus does not say to Jesus, “I want you to do whatever I ask.”  He just says, “Have mercy on me.”  Bartimaeus does not think Jesus owes him anything.  He has no real reason to think Jesus will do anything for him.  He does not even know whether Jesus will pay any attention to him.  After all, he'd never met Jesus.  As far as Jesus was concerned, he'd just be some guy on the side of the road, trying desperately to get Jesus to notice him.

When Jesus stopped and said he'd talk to Bartimaeus, how do you think Bartimaeus felt?  Was he excited?  Was he scared?  Probably both, and some other things, too.  He had no idea what Jesus was going to say.  For all he knew, Jesus might be going to chew him out.  He might be going to say, “Who do you think you are, yelling at me like this?  Get out of here.”

But Bartimaeus came up to Jesus.  And Jesus asked him the same question.  “What do you want me to do for you?”

That must have seemed to Bartimaeus like a really odd thing for Jesus to say.  I wonder if anybody'd ever asked him that question before.  You know, blind people were not treated very well in that society.  They were pretty much shunned by everyone.  They were considered to have been cursed by God in some way.  Once in a while someone might've take pity on Bartimaeus and given him something, but no one, at least no one respectable, would become his friend.  No one would've cared about Bartimaeus to ask him what he wanted.

But Jesus did.  Bartimaeus must have been stunned.  It probably took him a second or two to react at all.  He'd been so desperate just to get Jesus' attention that he probably had not really thought about what he'd actually say to Jesus if he got the chance.  He probably had an idea, but he'd never put it into words before, even in his head.  What did he really want Jesus to do for him?

Finally, he stammered it out.  He said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

Again, the act of having to put his request into words revealed what he really thought about Jesus.  He believed that Jesus had power that came from God.  He may not have known exactly what that meant, he may not have known that Jesus was truly the divine Son of God and all that, but he knew that Jesus was a man of God in some way.  He truly believed that Jesus could make him see.  And he knew that the only reason Jesus would do that is if Jesus had mercy on him.

So, what do you want Jesus to do for you?  And what do I want Jesus to do for me?  Our answer to that question reveals what you and I really think about Jesus.

Do we come to Jesus arrogantly?  Do we come to him demanding that Jesus give us whatever we ask, acting as if Jesus somehow owes that to us?  Or do we come to Jesus desperately, knowing that Jesus owes us nothing, and that the only reason Jesus would pay any attention to us at all, much less do what we ask, is because of the great love and mercy that Jesus has for us?

            Jesus did not give James and John what they asked for.  In fact, he said he could not give it to them.  He did not get mad at them, and he did not give up on them.  But he did use the chance to give them a lesson about humility and what greatness is really all about. 

            Jesus did give Bartimaeus what he asked for.  I have to think that Bartimaeus’ attitude, which truly was an attitude of humility, had something to do with that.

            Yes, God knows our every thought, and God knows what we need before we ask.  But our prayers reveal what we think about God.  They clarify what we actually believe and what we really want.  And that’s one of the reasons why we need to pray.

It Can Melt Away

We’ve had a lot of foggy days recently.  I’m not a big fan of fog, but one thing it does is put frost on the trees.  It makes them look really pretty, especially when the sun comes out and shines on them.  

But of course, the beauty only lasts for a little while.  The sun may make the frost-covered trees look pretty, but it also melts the frost.  Which means that if you want to see that beautiful sight, you have to be looking at the right time.  If you don’t, you’ll miss it.

It reminded me of when God gave the people of Israel manna.  Remember that story from Exodus?  Everyone was supposed to gather as much as they needed for the day--no more, but no less.  If they were not ready at the right time, we’re told, “When the sun grew hot, it melted away.”

God provides what we need when we need it.  No more, but no less, either.  But the thing is, we need to be ready to receive it.  Because if we’re not ready at the right time, what God has provided may melt away.  God may give us a second chance--God did provide more manna the next day, after all.  But getting a second chance--in anything--does not always make up for the first chance that we missed.  And if we still aren’t ready, we’ll miss that second chance, too.  And at some point, we run out of chances.  Not because God is not good, but because that’s simply the way life works.

So, we need to be ready.  All the time.  How do we do that?  Well, for one thing, we need to pray.  Pray for God’s will to be done, rather than our own will.  Pray that we will be open to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit.  Pray that we will be willing to go where God leads us to go and to do what God leads us to do.

And no matter what your situation, you can always do something.  You can be a friend to someone who needs one.  You can listen when someone needs to talk.  You can just sit with someone when they just need to know someone’s there.  You can give a smile to someone who may not have seen one today.  You can give an encouraging word to someone who’s having a bad day.  There are all kinds of things you can do, no matter what your situation.

And here’s one other thing to pray for.  Pray that God will give you chances to serve Him.  My experience is that this is a prayer that God will always answer.  And usually, God answers it pretty quickly, and in a way that we were never expecting.  But again, we have to be ready for the chances to serve that God gives us.  If we’re not, those chances will melt away.

So let’s pray.  And let’s be ready to serve God.  Let’s not let any more chances melt away. 

The Power of God's Voice

We had another storm a couple of weeks ago.  Not much snow that time, but lots and lots of wind and very cold.  Thankfully, the power never went out.  Also thankfully, there were no fires--that would’ve been awful, to try to fight a fire in that wind and cold.  

It was bad enough, though.  It made travel very dangerous.  The wind has incredible power.  And it should, when you think about it.  The wind was created by God.  And we know that God has incredible power.

Whenever I think about that, I think of Psalm 29.  That psalm is about the power of God.  Let me just quote a few verses of it:

            The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

            the God of glory thunders,

            the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful;

            the voice of the Lord is majestic.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;

            the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

The voice of the Lord strikes

            with flashes of lightning.

The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;

            the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord twists the oaks

            and strips the forests bare.

That’s a lot of power!  And you know what’s really remarkable?  God does that with just God’s voice!  Think of what God could do if God really rolled up His sleeves and went to work!

God has tremendous power.  God has more power than we can imagine.  And I guess this should not come as a surprise to us.  After all, what are we told in the first chapter of the Bible?  God said, “let there be light” and there was light.  God said for the earth to be created and it was.  God created the universe and everything in it just by using God’s voice.  So the power God has, and especially the power in God’s voice, is something we should know well.

You and I can never fully understand God’s power.  If we could, we might be scared to death.  But we really would not need to be.  Because the really amazing thing about God is that God uses His amazing power for our good.  God would not have to do that, you know.  God can do anything God chooses.  That’s what makes God, well, God.  But God loves us.  And God does not just love humans as an anonymous group, either.  God loves each of us as an individual.  God loves you.  God loves me.  Despite who we are, despite everything we do, despite the fact that God is so far above us that we cannot even imagine how far above us God is, God loves each one of us.  God loves you.  God loves me.  And God uses God’s amazing power for our good, because God loves us that much.

God has incredible power.  And God uses God’s power for our good, because God loves us.  The next time there’s a storm--or the next time you feel like there’s a storm in your personal life--remember that.  And be grateful.

Focus on the Good

As I write this, it’s cold.  I don’t like that.  I don’t know anyone who does.  All summer I hear from people who say they love cold weather, but when we actually get cold weather, they all disappear.  People may like cool weather, they may even like it when it gets down into the twenties or even the teens, but once it gets below zero nobody likes it.

Well, maybe not nobody.  There are some animals that like cold weather.  When I was a kid we had a big dog that just loved it when it got cold like this.  The colder the better, as far as he was concerned.  Dad would leave a shed open for him to sleep in at night, with some old blankets and such, but he wouldn’t go into it.  He wouldn’t even stay close to a building for a windbreak.  He’d sleep right out in the open, right on the snow.  When we’d come out to do chores, he’d be bouncing around, wanting us to play with him.  He couldn’t understand why we didn’t want to spend time with him enjoying that “beautiful weather”.

But most humans don’t like it much.  And as I said, I’m among those humans who don’t like it.  But, on the other hand, I choose to live here in north-central South Dakota.  I’ve lived in South Dakota my entire life, and every January that I can remember has been cold.  And climate change or not, I don’t think January is going to stop being cold in my lifetime.  So, if I don’t like it, there’s only one thing I can do.  Move.  But I don’t want to move.  So, I’m going to have to put up with the cold.

Actually, there is one other thing I can do.  I can complain.  And I used to do that a lot.  I’d complain about the cold weather.  I’d whine about it, probably to the point where people got tired of hearing it.  And you know what?  It didn’t change a thing.  It didn’t raise the temperature by as much as one degree.  All it did was make me feel bad, because I was focusing on what I did not like.

So, I’ve stopped complaining about the cold weather.  Oh, I might slip once in a while, but for the most part, I’ve stopped.  Now, it’s probably easier for me to do that than for some, because it’s not like I have to work out in it.  I have great sympathy for those who do.  But even so, complaining about it is not going to change it.  So there’s no point to doing it.  Instead of focusing on the weather, which only makes me unhappy, I try to focus on things that do make me happy.

And that’s true of a lot of things besides the weather.  Now, don’t take this the wrong way.  If there’s a bad situation, and there’s something we can do to make it better, we should.  And we need to focus on the bad situation to make it better.  But if there’s nothing we can do, then focusing on it is a waste of time and energy.  It doesn’t help.  It just makes us feel bad.  So, we might as well stop doing it.

What’s a situation in your life that you don’t like?  Can you do something to make it better?  If so, then do it.  If not, though, focus on something else.  The chances are it’ll make you happier.

Not the Savior We're Looking For

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 26, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 9:1-7.

            Have you ever had someone tell you they had a surprise for you?  And you wondered what it was, and they would not tell you, but they told you it was something you were going to really like.  And so all kinds of thoughts went through your head as to what it might be.  And you keep asking about it, and they give you a few hints, but nothing more.  And so you keep speculating as to what it might be.  And time goes on, and your speculations get bigger, and they get grander.  And you can hardly wait to get this wonderful surprise you’ve been promised.

            And then the day comes!  And you finally get your awesome surprise!  And—it’s not really what you expected.  In fact, it’s nothing like you expected.  In fact, you’re not really sure what to make of it.  I mean, it’s nice and all.  But it’s really not the kind of thing you were thinking it would be.

            Our Bible reading for today is an Old Testament prophecy about the coming of Jesus.  It’s one of several prophecies in the Old Testament that said a King, a Savior, a Messiah, was going to be born.  The people of Israel knew all those prophecies.  They’d believed in them for hundreds of years.  But if you look at it, those prophecies really only kind of gave hints about who this Savior was going to be. 

            They talked about how the Savior was going to be born of a virgin, how he would be born in Bethlehem, and how he would be a descendant of King David.  And, of course, we talked about how each one of those prophecies came true.  But none of that tells anything about the person himself.  Just who was this Savior going to be?  What’s this Savior going to do?  Well, save people, I suppose, that’s why he’s called a savior, but how?  How are we going to be saved?  What does it even mean to say we’re going to be saved?  Saved from what?

           Look at what our reading from Isaiah today tells us.  The Savior is going to lead people out of the darkness and into the light.  The Savior is going to take away our burdens, shatter them.  The Savior will govern over everyone and bring peace.  And there will be no end to his governing or to the peace he’s going to bring.  He will reign with justice and righteousness forever.

            And the people of Israel heard that, and no one had a clue what it really meant.  You cannot blame them, really.  After all, the only frame of reference they had for interpreting this was human rulers and human governments.  They heard about a person who was going to reign on David’s throne, a person who would govern and bring justice and peace, and they got excited.  And they started speculating about this, and as time went on their speculations got bigger and grander.  They assumed this Savior would be someone who was going to take over on earth.  They assumed this would be an earthly king who would take over, wipe out the bad guys, put Israel back in control of the Promised Land, and make everything the way it should be on earth.  And they could hardly wait to get that wonderful Savior they’d been promised.

            An earthly Savior was not just the kind of Savior they expected, it was the kind of Savior they wanted.  And again, it’s hard to blame them.  These Old Testament prophecies of a Savior came when the Nation of Israel was in trouble, about to be taken over by a foreign country or to be sent into exile or something.  When you’re in that kind of trouble, what do you want?  What do you look for?  You look for some kind of a leader who can save you, someone who can take care of you.  You look for someone who can defeat the enemy, put things right, and solve all your problems, someone who will usher in a new Golden Age of prosperity and peace and justice.  That’s what the people of Israel wanted the Savior to be.

            And sometimes, that’s still what we want the Savior to be.  We look at the world, and there’s a whole lot of stuff going on, stuff that does not seem right to us.  We look at the country, and we see all kinds of arguments, a lot of anger, sometimes turning violent.  We look at our area, and see all kinds of problems in agriculture, with some crops from last year still out in the field.  We even see a lot of trouble within the United Methodist church right now—not this particular church, but the church as a whole.

            And a lot of times, what we really want is a Savior to come along and take care of the trouble.  We want a Savior who will come along and defeat the enemy, whatever we think the enemy happens to be.  We want someone who can make everything right, someone who can solve all the problems and user in a new Golden Age of prosperity and peace and justice for our country.  Sometimes that’s who we want our Savior to be, too.

            But that’s not who the Savior is.  At least not now.  The Bible tells us that Jesus is going to come again, and at that point there will be a day of judgment.  There will, eventually, be the coming of the new earth and the New Jerusalem and everything will be as it should be.  The Savior will do that, someday.  But not now.  For right now, that’s not who the Savior is.

            When Jesus came, he was not who the people of Israel assumed he would be.  And he was not who the people of Israel wanted him to be.  And so, when he came, a lot of the people of Israel missed it.  They looked somewhere else for the Savior, not even noticing that the Savior they had been looking for all these centuries was right there with them.  That’s a really sad thing, when you think about it.

            But you know, even the people who were there with Jesus, and recognized him as the Savior, missed it in a way, too.  Because even though they believed in Jesus as the Savior, they still were trying to make Jesus into the Savior they wanted him to be, rather than the Savior he was.  They kept trying to make him fight, to make him take power.  James and John asked Jesus to seat them at his right and left when he took control.  When Jesus told his disciples that he was about to be arrested, the disciples looked around for swords to fight back with.  Some people think one of the reasons Judas betrayed Jesus was to try to force Jesus to use his power to defeat their enemies and take power on earth.  They kept trying to make Jesus into the Savior they wanted him to be, rather than the Savior he came to be, the Savior he was.

            And we still, too often, try to make Jesus into the Savior we want him to be, rather than the Savior he came to be.  We want Jesus to take power on earth, to make everything the way we think it’s supposed to be.  But that’s not who Jesus is.  That’s who Satan wanted him to be.  Remember, that was the biggest temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness, the temptation to take power on earth.  And Jesus refused.

Jesus could’ve taken power that way.  Jesus could’ve raised an army, taken power, and ruled on earth.  Or, really, Jesus would not have needed to raise an army.  He probably could’ve just commanded and everyone would’ve had no choice but to obey.  But if he had done that, Jesus would’ve taken power by brute force.  And that’s not the kind of Savior Jesus is.

            I think one of reasons why that’s not the kind of Savior Jesus is, is that the most important thing to Jesus is love.  Jesus came to earth and lived among us out of love.  Jesus said the most important commandments are to love God and love others.  Jesus died for the forgiveness out of sins.  Jesus is a Savior of love.

            And brute force cannot result in love.  It can result in fear.  It can result in obedience.  But it cannot result in love.  In fact, it results in the exact opposite.  It’s pretty hard to truly love someone we fear.  And when we’re forced to do things against our will and without choice, we usually will come to resent whoever it is that’s forcing us to do it.  And the first chance we get, we rebel.  Brute force can require obedience, but it cannot result in love.

           Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  That’s what Isaiah called him, and that’s what he was and what he is.  And brute force cannot result in peace.  Only love can. 

So that’s how Jesus takes power—through love.  Jesus takes power through loving us.  Jesus takes power by loving us so much that he died so our sins would be forgiven.  And Jesus takes power when we open our hearts to him.  Jesus takes power when the Holy Spirit fills our hearts.  Jesus takes power when we feel his love and return his love and share his love with others.

That’s the kind of power Jesus wants—power over our hearts.  And that’s how Jesus saves us—when we give him that power.  When we give Jesus power over our hearts, we’re saved from fear.  We’re saved from worry.  We’re saved from anxiety.  We’re saved from selfishness and greed.  That’s not to say bad things won’t happen to us sometimes—those things are still part of life.  But when we give Jesus power over our hearts, we’re saved.  We know that no matter what happens, God will be with us and God will see us through it.  We’re saved.  Saved for a life of love in this world, and saved for eternal life and eternal love in heaven.

The Savior who came was not the Savior the people of Israel wanted.  And sometimes he’s not the Savior we want, either.  He’s better.  He’s not a Savior through the power of force.  He’s a Savior through the power of love.  And there will never be anything stronger than the power of Jesus’ love.

The Come to Jesus Moment

This is the message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday night, January 19, 2020.  The Bible verses used are John 1:29-51.

            Jesus is ready to start his ministry on earth.  He’s been baptized.  He had the Holy Spirit descend upon him like a dove.  A voice from heaven said, this is my Son, with Him I am well pleased.  All the preliminaries are done.  It’s time for Jesus to get started on what he came to earth to do.

            We generally think of Jesus starting by calling the disciples.  And you know, this shows how sometimes we really need to take a closer look at some of these Bible passages that we think we know.  Because we all have said it that way:  “Jesus called the disciples.”  I’ve said it that way, too.  But if you look at John’s account here, which is the first five of Jesus’ disciples being called, Jesus actually only called one of them.  He accepted them all, of course.  He wanted them all.  But he was not the one who initiated things with four of the first five disciples.

            Look at how this works.  John the Baptist is standing there with two of his disciples.  Jesus walks by.  John the Baptist says who Jesus is.  And immediately the two disciples leave John the Baptist and start following Jesus.

            Those are the first two of Jesus’ disciples.  We’re told that one of them is Andrew.  The other one is not named.  We assume it’s the disciple John, the one who wrote this gospel, and that he simply did not want to use his own name.  There are other places in the gospel of John where he avoids using his own name, so we assume that’s what’s going on here.  But the point is that these first two disciples were not chosen by Jesus.  They chose to follow Jesus, not the other way around.

            And the third disciple, Simon Peter, was not called by Jesus, either.  He’s Andrew’s brother.  We’re told that after Andrew decided to follow Jesus, the first thing he did was go find his brother Simon Peter and tell him they’d found the Messiah.  Then it says, “and he brought him to Jesus”.  Jesus did not go find Simon Peter.  Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus.

            The next disciple is the only one of the first five that Jesus calls.  It’s Philip.  We’re told that Jesus “found” Philip, and said to him “Follow me.”  But then, look at what happens.  Philip goes and finds Nathanael and tells him they’ve found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about.  Nathanael is skeptical, but Philip just says, “Come and see”, and he does.

            So four of the first five disciples were not called by Jesus at all.  Two of them came on their own, after hearing what John the Baptist said, and the other two came because someone they knew brought them to Jesus.  And maybe you’re thinking, “So what?”  What difference does it make how they got to Jesus as long as they got there?  And in one sense, you’re right.  As long as we get to Jesus it really does not matter how we get there.  But I think there are some lessons here for us.  Because I think the way these disciples found Jesus mirrors the way we find Jesus today.

            Some of us are like Philip.  Some of us are just kind of going about our business, living our lives, and suddenly Jesus comes along and speaks to us.  It could be through a direct contact, actually hearing the voice of Jesus or of an angel.  That may seem far-fetched to some of you, but I’ve talked to enough people and heard enough stories that I believe it does happen that way sometimes.  Or, it could be the Holy Spirit speaking directly to our hearts and souls somehow.  But that’s one way we find Jesus--through the Lord taking the initiative and speaking directly to us.

            But there was only one of the first five disciples who found Jesus that way.  It was not the way it happened for the majority.  And I think it’s not the way it happens for the majority of us, either.  It’s great when it does, don’t get me wrong.  But for most of us it happens in another way.

            One of the other ways it happens is the way it happened for Andrew and John.  They were already following John the Baptist.  They’d heard John the Baptist’s preaching about repentance and forgiveness.  They’d heard him tell them that he was preparing the way for when the Savior came.  What that means is that Andrew and John had a background in the faith.  They were open to the message of salvation.  And when they found Jesus, the one who could give them that salvation, they were ready to follow him right then.

            Some of us are like that.  Some of us have grown up in the church.  We’ve heard the word preached.  We’ve heard about repentance and forgiveness and God’s love.  We’re open to the message of salvation.  And when we find Jesus, the one who can give us that salvation, we’re ready to follow.

            But some of us are like Simon Peter and Nathanael.  Jesus did not send us a direct message.  We did not grow up in the church.  We were not looking for the message of salvation.  But then, someone came along and told us about it anyway.  And they brought us to Jesus.  Maybe some of us were like Simon Peter, who seems to have come right away when his brother went to get him.  But some of us are like Nathanael, openly skeptical of what we hear.  And someone says to us, “It’s okay if you’re skeptical.  But come and see.  Come and see for yourself.”

            What this shows, I think, is that God has all kinds of ways of calling people to him.  God gives some people a direct message.  And that’s awesome when it happens, but it’s not something in our control.  God either does that or God does not, based on whatever reasons God may have.

            God calls some people through their parents or others making sure they grow up in the church and have a background in the church.  And that’s a wonderful thing, too, when it happens.  But if you’re an adult now, you either grew up in the church or you did not.  We cannot go back and change the past, even if we’d like to.  However we grew up is how we grew up, for better or worse.

            But sometimes, God uses people to call other people.  God used Andrew to call Simon Peter.  God used Philip to call Nathanael.  And God can use you and me to call people to God, too.

            Now, notice, God did not have Andrew and Philip call complete strangers.  Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother.  Philip and Nathanael don’t appear to have been related, but from the way it’s written they clearly knew each other.  The people Andrew and Philip went to were people they already had a relationship with.  Simon Peter knew he could trust Andrew.  Nathanael knew he could trust Philip.  That relationship had already been established.

            And notice, too, that Andrew and Philip did not use any fancy words to persuade Simon Peter and Nathanael.  Andrew simply told Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah”.  Philip uses a few more words, but he basically says the same thing.  “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote.”  And when Nathanael is skeptical, Philip does not argue with him.  He does not go into a big spiel to try to persuade him.  He simply says, “Come and see.”  See for yourself.  We’ll show you what we’ve found, and you can decide whether I’m right or not.

            That’s all God asks us to do.  We don’t have to go onto a street corner and confront strangers with the gospel.  All God asks us to do is to go to people we know, people we already have some sort of relationship with, people who know they can trust us.  Go to those people, and tell them what we’ve found.  Tell them what our faith means to us.  Tell them how important our faith is to us.  Tell them how our faith helps us.  Tell them what this church means to us, how important this church is to us, how this church helps us.  And if they’re skeptical, we don’t need to argue with them or go into a big spiel to persuade them.  All we need to do is say, as Philip did, “Come and see”.  See for yourself.  We’ll show you what we have here, and you can decide for yourself whether we’re right or not.

            We won’t always succeed.  For all we know, Andrew and Philip might not have always succeeded.  Maybe they went to some other people and got turned down, we don’t know.  But we’ll succeed sometimes.  And when we do, we’ll have done what Jesus told us to do.  We’ll have made disciples of Jesus Christ.

            We come to God in all kinds of ways.  Sometimes God brings people to himself directly.  But sometimes, God uses us to bring people to him.  May we always be open to sharing our faith.  And when people are skeptical, may we always invite them to come and see.

Be An Andrew

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 19, 2020.  The Bible verses used are John 1:29-42.

            We all know there are twelve disciples, right?  How many of them can you name?

            Don’t worry, I’m not going to call on anybody.  But think about it.  How many of the names of the disciples do you know?

            Some of you probably know them all.  You maybe had to learn them in Sunday school class, or in confirmation, or something like that, and you still remember them.  I’m pretty sure my Mom could still rattle off all their names.  In all honesty, I cannot.  I never had to memorize them, and I’ve never bothered to.

            There are some we could all think of.  Peter.  James and John.  Judas, of course.  But after that, well, it gets a little tougher.  We might be able to come up with Philip.  Maybe Thomas--we remember Doubting Thomas.  And then, after some thought, maybe we could come up with one more.  Andrew.

            Andrew is kind of an unsung hero among the disciples.  He’s mentioned only twelve times in the Bible.  Four of them are just lists of the names of the disciples.  Two of them are when he’s called by Jesus to follow and become a disciple.  Twice he’s just mentioned in passing, and really has nothing to do with what’s going on.  

But the other times are all something really significant.  Andrew may not do much, but what he does always leads to something that turns out to be really important.

            One of them is in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  Andrew is the one who finds the boy who has five loaves and two fish, and he’s the one who brings that boy to Jesus.  And of course, Jesus then uses those five loaves and two fish to feed all those people.  If not for Andrew--well, I’m not saying Jesus could not have fed them anyway, but the story certainly would have been different.  Andrew’s part in that story is small, but it’s crucial to how the story plays out.

            Another time, there are some Greeks who want to talk to Jesus.  They tell Philip, but for some reason Philip does not want to tell Jesus about it.  He tells Andrew instead, and Andrew tells Jesus about these people who want to see him.  And this leads Jesus to tell Andrew, and all the rest of the disciples, that his death is going to come very soon.  Again, I’m not saying Jesus would not have found another occasion to tell them about this, but the fact is that’s Andrew going to Jesus that prompted him to do it.  Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s crucial to how things go.

            Yet another time, Jesus tells the disciples about a time when the temple will be destroyed.  Andrew is the one who asks Jesus when this is going to happen, and what the sign will be that it’s going to happen.  That’s what prompts Jesus to tell them about the end times, about families turn against each other, about false messiahs that will come, and that only the father knows when this will happen.  That’s a whole other sermon, or maybe even a sermon series, but the point here is that Andrew is the one who asked the question that prompted all this.  Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but crucial.

            And it’s the same in our reading for today.  This is just after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, which we talked about last week.  Andrew, at this point, is following John.  But then Jesus walks by, and John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”  And Andrew starts following Jesus instead.

            Now that’s pretty good in and of itself.  But then we’re told, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ).  And he brought him to Jesus.”  Jesus, of course, changes Simon’s name to Peter, which means rock.  And in Matthew, Jesus goes on to say that Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build his church.  And of course, Peter not only becomes the leader of the disciples, he becomes the leader of the church in the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Again, not to say Jesus could not have found Peter anyway, but the fact is that Andrew is the one who brought Peter to Jesus.  If not for Andrew, the entire story would have different.  Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s crucial.

            We know about Peter, James, and John because they’re among the Bible heroes.  They get a lot of publicity and acclaim, and rightly so.  They were Jesus’ closest friends while he was on earth.  In the years after Jesus left, they were instrumental in forming the early Christian church.  They did great, awesome, heroic things for God.

            But while we respect Peter, James, and John for that, and maybe even revere them for it, it also makes it harder for us to relate to them.  Because the fact is that most of us are not going to be heroes for God, at least not in the world’s eyes.  Most of us are not going to do great and awesome things.  We’re not going to preach to huge crowds.  We’re not going to spread the gospel to large groups of people who’ve never heard it before.  We’re not going to bring thousands of people to Christ.  And so, while we consider Peter, James, and John to be heroes, we also kind of think of them as being on a different level from us.  We admire them, but we don’t really think we could be like them.  And so, a lot of times, we don’t try.

            But Andrew is someone we can relate to.  Andrew did not do great, awesome, heroic things for God, or if he did the Bible does not tell us about them.  Andrew did small things.  But they were crucial things.  Andrew may not have brought thousands of people to Christ.  In fact, other than Peter, we don’t know if Andrew ever brought anyone to Christ.  But there are lots of people who would not have been brought to Christ if not for the things Andrew did.  Andrew may not have been the final step for anyone.  But he was part of the process.  He was a link in the chain.

            That is something that you and I can do.  We can be like Andrew.  We can do small things, but things that are crucial.  We may not be able to be great heroes.  But we can be part of the process.  We might never be the final step for anyone.  But we can be a link in the chain.

            And here’s the thing.  I suspect the chances are that when Andrew did the things he did, he did not do it with any grand plan in mind.  He probably never thought, “I’m going to be a part of the process of bringing lots of people to Christ!”  He simply did what he could do.  He did what needed to be done.  He said what needed to be said.  He asked the questions that need to be asked.  The questions he asked were sometimes obvious questions, and the things he did were sometimes obvious things, but nobody else would ask them or do them.  Andrew had the courage to ask and to do.  He took advantage of the chances that presented themselves in his time with Christ.

            When Jesus talks about the temple being destroyed, Andrew asks the obvious question, but one nobody else wanted to ask:  when’s this going to happen, and what will the signs be?  When some Greeks want to talk to Jesus, Philip is afraid to tell Jesus about it.  But Andrew knew someone needed to tell him, so Andrew did it.  When they’re looking for food for the five thousand, Andrew finds some food.  It’s not much, and he’s not sure what good it’ll do, but he still tells Jesus about it.  And when Andrew finds Jesus, and knows he’s the Messiah, he goes and finds his brother, so they can both follow Christ.  And whenever Andrew did these things, something happened.  Something changed.  Sometimes in a big way.  You can make the argument that the entire course of Christianity changed because of the things Andrew did and said.

            God may have called you to do something big and heroic--God does that sometimes.  But that’s not how it works for most of us.  Most of us will not be a Peter, or a John, or a James.  But we can all be an Andrew.  We can do what needs to be done.  We can say what needs to be said.  We can ask the questions that need to be asked.  When no one else has the courage to do things, or to say things, we can do them and say them.  And in doing that, we can follow Christ, just like Andrew did.

            You and I might bring people to Christ, or we might not.  But we can all be part of the process.  We can all be a link in the chain.  And when step up and have the courage to do our part, who knows what may happen?  Something may happen.  Something may change.  Maybe something will change in a big way.  Maybe we’ll change someone’s life for the better.  And maybe, just maybe, that person we change will change the world.