Finding the Middle Ground

             Some of you know that, to keep my weight down, I try to eat a low-carb diet.  Every once in a while, though, I give myself a treat.  I did that this past week.  I stopped at Dairy Queen and had an Oreo blizzard.

            Now I know that some people around here champion Zesto ahead of Dairy Queen.  I can’t say I’ve ever been disappointed in the ice cream treats at either place.  However, we were driving through Miller, so Zesto was not an option.

            Because I don’t do this very often, and because the ice cream was so good, I wanted to eat it slowly and really savor it.  But there’s a problem with doing that, which is, simply, that it’s ice cream.  If you eat it too slowly, it will melt, and you will be left with ice cream soup.  Now, that’s still the best kind of soup there is, but when you go Dairy Queen, you don’t want ice cream soup.  You want ice cream.  

            So, the dilemma.  Eat the blizzard too quickly, and your mouth freezes and the ice cream is gone before you know it and you can’t really savor it.  Eat it too slowly, and you miss out on the very thing you wanted.  You have to try to find a middle ground, and that can be tricky sometimes.

            It struck me that life can be like that sometimes.  We know, deep down, that our lives are short, even if we don’t like to think about that very much.  And the older we get, the more we live with that knowledge that life is short.  And so, sometimes, we want to slow down and savor our lives.  But there’s a problem with doing that.  If we slow down too much, we miss out on a lot of things we’d really like to be able to do.  But on the other hand, if we live our lives too fast and try do too much, the happy moments in our lives are gone before we know it and we never really get the chance to savor them.  

            The thing to do, as with eating the Oreo blizzard, is to try to find a middle ground.  And that can be tricky.  And so what I’m going to tell you to do, again, is pray about it.  Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to show you how to live your life.  Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to help you find that middle ground, where you don’t miss out on things, but you can still savor the things you do.  

            God wants us to enjoy our lives.  God wants us to enjoy them in God’s way, following God’s rules, but God still wants us to enjoy them.  That can be harder as we get older, when we can no longer do some of the things we used to do and we’re more likely to have things that hurt than we used to be.  But God still wants us to enjoy them.  In fact, God still wants us to savor them.  So ask God to show you how to do that.  And be willing to listen for God’s answer.

 

Trust God Anyway

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 11, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:7-12.

            Do you believe God always do what we’d like God to do?

            I suspect for all of us, the answer is no.  That’s true for a few reasons, but the biggest one is probably our own experience.  We’ve all had times when we wanted God to do things, and God did not do them.  Now, sometimes, after time goes by and we can look back on a situation, we feel very fortunate that God did not do what we wanted.  We can see now that God’s plan was better than ours.  And we thank God that God did not give us what we thought we wanted.

            But there are other times when we don’t understand why God did not do what we wanted.  My guess is that we’ve all had that experience.  We’ve prayed for the healing of a loved one, for example, and they were not healed, at least not in this life.  We’ve prayed for God to help us get out of a difficult situation, and God left us in the situation.  How many of us have prayed for an end to the coronavirus, and so far, at least, there is no end in sight?

            We don’t know why.  All we can do is hold onto our faith and continue to trust.  We trust that God must have some reason for not doing what we wanted.  We trust that God knows better than we do.  We trust that God has plans and purposes we know nothing about.  We trust that God can see farther into the future than we can.  We trust that, as it says in Isaiah chapter fifty-five, God’s ways are higher than our ways and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  And we trust that God loves us, and so God must have a better plan in mind for us than the plans we have for ourselves, even if we have no clue what that plan is.

            But the thing is, what, then, do we do with our Bible reading for today?  Because Jesus seems to say that God will do what we want God to do.  Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  And then, Jesus says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

            We know that God does not always do what we want God to do.  But as Christians, we also know that Jesus’ words cannot be wrong.  So, what does Jesus mean?  What’s Jesus talking about?

            Well, first, Jesus says that if we want God to do something, we have to take some action, right?  Jesus says that if we want something to be given to us, we need to ask.  If we want to find something, we need to seek it.  If we want the door to be opened to us, we need to knock.  

            In other words, God does not just drop things into our laps.  God is willing to help us.  God wants to help us.  But God waits to be asked.  God waits for us to actively seek God’s goodness.  God does not open doors for us until we ask that they be opened.            

            So that’s one thing, and it’s an important thing.  Because sometimes our “requests” are really demands, right?  We do not ask humbly.  We do not ask recognizing how much higher and greater God’s ways are than our own.  Instead, we act as if we believe God owes it to us to do things for us.  We act as if God would not know what to do if we did not tell Him, and if God does not do what we tell Him, then there must be something wrong with God.

            Now, when you put it that way, it sounds kind of silly.  But if we’re honest with ourselves, I suspect some of us have done that.  I know I have.  And I doubt I’m the only one.

            Not only that, but Jesus’ statement implies that, if we want God to help us, we need to do our part.  Whatever we want God to give us, we need to actually seek it.  Whatever door we want God to open for us, we need to actively knock on it.  If we just sit back and do nothing, waiting for God to do it all, we are likely to be disappointed.  God will do God’s part.  But first, you and I need to do our part.

            But, we say, we’ve done all that.  We’ve asked humbly.  We’ve sought what we want god to do.  We knocked on the door.  We’ve done our part.  And--God did not do God’s part.  In fact, it looks to us like God has not done anything.

            Well, let’s look a little farther.  Jesus uses a couple of examples of how human parents act.  He says, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?”  Then he says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

 Jesus says God will give good gifts to those who ask him.  But here’s the thing:  Is everything we ask God to give us really a good gift?

We may believe it is.  We may believe we’re acting completely selflessly.  We may believe that what we ask would be best for everyone concerned.  We may believe there is downside to it whatsoever for anyone.  But that does not mean that what we believe is true.

Let’s look a little more closely at those good gifts that human parents give.  Those of you who’ve had children, let me ask you:  do you, or did you, give your kids everything they wanted, just because they asked for it?  And if you don’t have children, think of your own childhood.  Did your parents give you everything you wanted, just because you asked for it?

I’m pretty sure the answer for everyone here is no.  Human parents don’t give their children everything they ask for just because they ask for it.  And the reason human parents don’t give their children everything they ask for is because they love their children.  And human parents know that sometimes, the things their children ask for are not, in fact, good things.

The children may believe that they are.  The children may not think of themselves as being selfish at all.  In fact, sometimes they could probably give you a whole list of reasons why they should get what they’re asking for.  They may not be able to see any downside to it at all.

But you can.  Because human parents know better than their children.  Human parents know that it’s more important to give their children what they need than it is to give them what they want.  To use Jesus’ words, human parents will give their children bread even if they’ve asked for a stone.  They’ll give their children a fish even if they’ve asked for a snake.  The children might not see anything wrong with what they’ve asked for, but their parents do.  And so, parents will give their children good gifts, even if their children don’t see them as good gifts at the time.

That’s what God does for us.  God gives us the good gifts we need, which may not be the gifts we’ve asked for.  We may believe we’ve asked for something good, but God knows that it’s a snake.  And God won’t give it to us, because God knows it’s not a good gift, no matter how strongly we believe it is.

It’s still hard to understand, though.  We may understand the logic of it, but still.  When you’re loved one is in the hospital and you pray for healing and the healing does not come, it’s hard to understand why that healing would not be a good gift.  When we’re in a really tough situation and we don’t see any way out and God does not help us get out, it’s hard to understand how God helping us out of the situation would not be a good gift.  And it’s certainly hard to understand why God getting rid of the coronavirus would not be a good gift.  None of that makes much sense to us.

And so we end where we began.  Because again, it really comes down to a matter of trust.  Can you and I trust God enough to believe that what we are asking God to give us would not, in fact, be a good gift, even if every bit of our minds and hearts tells us that it would be?  Can you and I trust God enough to believe that, when God does not give us what we ask, it means that God has something better in mind for us, even if we cannot possibly understand what could be better than what we’re asking for?  In short, can we trust God enough to believe that God knows what He’s doing, even when what God is doing--or not doing--makes absolutely no sense to us?

This is where, as they used to say, the rubber meets the road.  This is where we find out whether we really have faith in God, or if we just say we do.  When we cannot understand why God is not doing what we’ve humbly and sincerely asked God to do, when we’ve knocked on the door and it seems like God has slammed it shut, can we continue to have faith anyway?  Can we continue to believe in God’s goodness anyway?  Can we continue to trust in God’s love anyway?

We really cannot know until we’ve been there.  And I know some of us have been there.  And those of us who have not been there yet will be at some point.  It’s just the way life works.

When we are there, may we trust in God’s greatness.  May we trust in God’s goodness.  May we trust in God’s love.  And may we trust that God will give us good gifts, even if we cannot see them as good at the time.  May we continue to trust God.

 

God Is Stronger

This is the message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday night, October 4, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 40:1-11.

            There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world.  You don’t need me to tell you about it.  We are living through things that nobody living has experienced.  

I mean, yes, there have been bad times before, and I don’t know how you compare things across eras.  But I never, in my wildest dreams, thought we’d see a time when churches were closed, the way they were earlier this year and the way some still are.  I never thought I’d see a time when sports was cancelled.  I never thought I’d see a time when people were wearing masks to go out of their houses.  I’m not saying that’s wrong, don’t misunderstand.  I’m just saying that seven months ago, I never would’ve thought that was possible.  It never even would’ve occurred to me that something like that would happen.

            Some people see God’s judgment in this.  I don’t know.  I’m not saying it cannot be.  I’m just saying I don’t know.  I know God is all powerful, which means that nothing ever happens that God does not allow to happen.  And God is all-knowing and all-wise, so God must have good reasons for allowing these things to happen, even if I don’t know what they are.  And God is all-loving, so whatever God’s reasons are, they have to be reasons that, in the long run, are going to be for the benefit of humanity, even if that’s hard for us to understand.

            But you know, this is not the first time people have had a hard time, nor is it the first time people have had trouble understanding why God was allowing bad things to happen.  That was the situation of the people of Israel in the time of Isaiah.

            Israel was a small country.  It did not have a big army.  And it had enemies on all sides, enemies that were a lot more powerful than it was.  The big dog, the one they were most worried about, was Assyria.  In fact, they were so scared of Assyria that they were trying to make a deal with Egypt to protect them from Assyria.  But Egypt was not going to do that just because the Egyptians were such nice people.  They were going to want something in return.  If Egypt saved Israel from Assyria, then Egypt was going to take over Israel.  Either way, Israel was in trouble.

            And the prophet Isaiah does not give Israel a lot of good news.  If you’ve ever read the book of Isaiah, you know that most of the book is Isaiah telling people that this is God’s judgment on them.  They have abandoned the Lord God, and so the Lord God has abandoned them.  God is going to allow them to be taken over.  

            But Isaiah does not tell them that the situation is hopeless.  Isaiah tells them there is, in fact, hope.  That’s the subject of our passage for tonight.

            God, speaking through Isaiah, gives the people a message of hope.  Yes, things have been hard for Israel.  And they’re going to be hard a while longer.  But, God tells Isaiah, there will come a time when the hard times will be over.  There will come a time when God decides Israel has paid for its sins.  And even though they’re going through hard times, they need to be ready for when the better times come.  Listen to what God, speaking through Isaiah, says:

In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord;  make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

God tells Isaiah that things are going to get better.  In fact, things are going to get really good.  And not only that, everyone’s going to know that it’s God who did it.  That’s what God means when He says, “The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.”  When things get better--and God makes it clear that they will--everyone is going to know that the people were saved by God, and they are going to give honor and glory and praise to God.

And the thing is, even Isaiah has a hard time believing that.  It says, “A voice says, ‘Cry out.’  And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’”  Isaiah says, in effect, you’re telling me to tell people things are going to get better, but how can I do that?  Things are falling apart.  People’s faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.  It’s here today and gone tomorrow.  And the same can be said of the people themselves.  How am I supposed to tell them that things are going to be okay?

Do you ever feel like that now?  It’s easy to.  We’ve got a lot of things that are not going well right now.  It’s not just the corona virus.  There are wildfires and hurricanes.  There are--well, you don’t need me to go through the list.  You know it as well as I do.  We keep looking for signs that things are going to get better, but--it’s really hard to see them.  We keep wanting things to get back to normal, but we’re starting to wonder if that’s possible.  In fact, sometimes we wonder what normal even is anymore.  How in the world can we accept a message that says things are going to be okay?

Well, God gave Isaiah an answer.  And the answer is this:  “The Word of the Lord endures forever.”

God told Isaiah, you can tell people things are going to be okay because I am the Lord, your God.  If people need a reason to believe things are going to be okay, remind them of who I am.  Tell them that I am the all-powerful, almighty. eternal God.  Tell them I am the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise God.  Tell them I am the all-loving, all-caring, all-compassionate, all-gracious, and all-forgiving God. 

Listen to how God puts it:  “Lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah:  ‘Here is your God!’  See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.”  And also:  “He tends his flock like a shepherd:  He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

God tells Isaiah:  This is all you need to do--tell them who I am.  And tell them that because that’s who I am, they can be confident that I am stronger than any of their enemies.  I am stronger than Egypt.  I am stronger than Assyria.  I am stronger than anything you are facing or ever will face.  I will win.  And I love you, so if you will stay with Me, you’ll win, too. 

And that’s what God is saying to us now.  God says, I understand that you’re concerned.  Maybe you’re even scared.  I understand that.  But you don’t have to be.  I am the Lord, your God.  Remember who I am.  You don’t have to be afraid.  I am coming.  I will come at the right time.  And I will come with power and might.  I am stronger than anything you face.  I am stronger than the corona virus.  I am stronger than natural disasters.  I am stronger than anything humans can create, too.  And whatever you may be facing in your personal life, I am stronger than that, too.  I am stronger than anything you are facing or ever will face.  I am the Lord, your God.

But God also reminds us that God will use His strength for us.  God wants us to be part of his flock.  God wants to gather us in and carry us close to His heart.  God wants to gently lead us and guide us through all the things we’re going through.  

Isaiah had a hard time believing all that at first.  Maybe you have a hard time believing it, too.  It’s okay.  Again, God understands.  God understands why we have trouble, why we get scared.  But God does not want us to be scared.  God does not want us to live our lives in fear.  God wants us to trust Him.  Trust in His strength.  Trust in His power.  And trust in His love.  Trust that God will use God’s strength and God’s power for our benefit.  Trust that God will use God’s power to see us through everything, and to bring us out the other side, because God loves us.

And trust one more thing.  Trust that God has a reason for allowing things to be the way they are right now.  It’s the same reason God gave Isaiah:  “the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.”

I don’t know when things will get better.  I don’t know how things will get better.  But I know they will.  And I also know this:  when they do, it will be God who makes it happen.  And everyone will know it is God who made it happen.  When things get better, the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.

            God is in control.  God has always been in control.  God will always be in control.  And God will use His power for us, because God loves us.  No matter what you may see happening, either in the world or in your own life, we can trust God to see us through it.  Things will get better.  The glory of the Lord will be revealed.  All people will see it together.  And it will be awesome.

God and Viruses

We know about all the major holidays:  Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc.  And we know there are some lesser, but still important, holidays, too:  Labor Day, Memorial Day, Presidents’ Day, and so forth.  And there are other “unofficial” holidays, like Valentine’s Day, where nobody gets the day off but we all know that it’s supposed to be a special day.

But if you know where to look on the internet, you find that every day has some sort of holiday attached to it.  It might be something important, like VFW day, a day to celebrate Veterans of Foreign Wars.  Or, it might be something silly, like National Saxophone Day.  But every day has something.  And last Saturday, it was National Virus Appreciation Day.

I looked at that, and it was hard to believe.  Why would we appreciate a virus?  Viruses make you sick.  And in some cases, like the corona virus, they can make you really sick or even kill you.  Why in the world would we appreciate viruses?  And who would ever have the idea to create a Virus Appreciation Day?

Well, I don’t really know the answers.  But as I thought about it, I remembered this:  God is all-powerful.  And God is all-knowing and all-wise.  And God is always in control of everything.  

So, God knows that there are viruses on earth.  And God allows them to exist.  And God allows them to make us sick, and even kill us sometimes.

Why?  I don’t know.  I don’t know why God would allow things like the corona virus to exist.  But I always remember what it says in Romans 8:28.  God can work all things for the good of those who love Him.

All things.  Not just the things we like.  Not just the things we approve of.  All things.  Bad things.  Terrible things.  All things.

If we believe that, then we have to believe that God is going to use even the corona virus for the good of those who love Him.  How will God do that?  I don’t know.  When will God do that?  I don’t know.  What’s going to be the way God chooses to do that?  I don’t know.  But I know God will do it.  God has promised us that.  And God always keeps God’s promises.

I still don’t appreciate viruses.  But I appreciate God.  And I know that somehow, in some way, at the right time, God is going to act.  All of this stuff we’re going through right now will, some day, be shown to have been for the ultimate good of those who love God.  And we are all going to be amazed at the wisdom and the power and the love of God.

So hang in there.  God is still in control.  And God is going to work this out for our good.

 

 

Judgment

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 4, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:1-5.

            “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  That’s probably one of the most quoted verses in the whole Bible.  You hear it all the time, right?  “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

            Of course, we usually quote that right after we’ve done something we know we should not have done.  We quote it after we’ve been called out for having done something we know goes against common opinions of right and wrong, good and bad.  We say it, of course, to try to avoid taking responsibility for our actions.  We used as if it was a divinely-given Get Out of Jail free card.  “You don’t have the right to judge me!  Jesus said so!  Only God can judge me!”

            Now there is truth in that.  At least in the last sentence.  God will judge us.  And in the end, that’s the judgment that’s going to be the most important one of all.  Yes, we can try to use Jesus’ statement to avoid the judgment of human beings, or at least to make ourselves feel better about that judgment, if we want to.  But there is nothing we can do to avoid God’s judgment.  And God’s judgment is final--there is no higher court to appeal to.  Human judgment can be wrong, but God’s judgment is always right, and it is always put into effect.

            But let’s look at the rest of it.  We can probably agree that Jesus did not mean for us to use this statement as a way to avoid responsibility for what we say or do.  But what did he mean?

            Well, first of all, let’s look at who Jesus was talking to and who he was not talking to.  He was not talking to people who may be on the receiving end of judgment.  He did not say, “If you ever feel like someone is judging you, here’s something you can use in your defense.”  Jesus was talking to the people who might be doing the judging.

            But did he really mean it literally?  Did he mean that you and I cannot judge that actions or words of other people?  That would lead to an attitude of “anything goes”, right?  If I cannot say that anything you do or say is wrong, and if you cannot say that anything I do or say is wrong, then everything is allowable and nothing is forbidden.  Is that really the kind of society Jesus believed in?

            Well, no, I don’t think so.  Remember, Jesus believed in Jewish law.  In fact, in this same speech, the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew Chapter Five, Jesus says this:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

Jesus did not have an “anything goes” philosophy.  Jesus believed in right and wrong, in good and evil.  And Jesus had no doubts about which side he was on.

But the thing is, when people quote that sentence about not judging, a lot of times they stop right there.  But look at the next sentence.  Jesus said this:  “In the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Does that remind you of anything?  It’s the same principle Jesus used when it comes to forgiveness.  In the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  And right after giving us the Lord’s Prayer, in Matthew Chapter Six, Jesus says, “If you forgive other people 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 your sins.”  And there are other examples in the Bible of Jesus saying pretty much the same thing.

When it comes to things like judgment and forgiveness, Jesus is pretty clear.  If you and I want God to forgive us, we’d better be willing to forgive others.  If you and I want God to show mercy to us, we’d better be willing to show mercy to others.  If you and I want to feel God’s grace, we’d better be ready to extend grace to others.

In a way, it’s sort of the reverse of the Golden Rule.  Jesus told us that we should treat others the way we would like others to treat us.  Here, Jesus is saying the way we treat others will determine how God will treat us.  

And that’s all consistent with what comes next, too.  Jesus says, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”

Again, Jesus is not talking to a person who’s on the receiving end of the judgment.  He’s talking to the one who might be doing the judging.  And he’s saying, look, anyone who’s going to judge someone else had better have their own life in order.  If you’re going to tell someone else what they’re doing wrong, you’d better make sure you’re doing things right first.  Because, again, the standard by which we judge others is the standard by which God is going to judge us.

So, what does that mean for our lives?  Does that mean that, if we see someone going down the wrong road, we should never say anything to them?  That we should let them continue going down that wrong road, because after all, we make some mistakes, too?

Not necessarily.  I’ve told you before that I’m very fortunate that, at some important times in my life, people loved me enough to tell me what I was doing was not right and that I needed to change some things.  Maybe you’ve had that happen, too.  I did not like hearing it at the time, but after I looked back on it, I could see how lucky I was that they did that for me.  Had they looked at me and said, “Well, I’ve got to let Jeff keep doing things the way he’s doing them, because I have no right to judge him”, my life would not have gone as well as it has.  So yes, sometimes the most loving thing to do is to call somebody out when they’re headed down the wrong road.

But it’s something we need to do carefully.  And one of the things we need to be careful about is our attitude.  When we try to correct someone in this way, are we truly doing it because we love them?  Or are we doing it for some other reason?  Are we approaching them with love and forgiveness and grace and mercy?  Or do we have some other motivation?   Are we acting in the way we would want someone to act toward us, if the situation was reversed?  

Those are tough questions.  Knowing our own motivations can be a tricky thing.  It can be hard, sometimes, for us to know what our real motivations are.  It can be really easy for us to convince ourselves that we’re acting for totally pure and selfless reasons when in fact, that’s not really the case.  And the thing is that, a lot of times, we don’t even realize we’re doing it.  The sad fact is that, quite often, the biggest lies we ever tell are the lies we tell ourselves.  I don’t know if that’s true of you, but I can think of times when it’s been true of me.  The reason I can talk about this stuff is that I’ve done it myself.

And that’s probably one of the biggest reasons Jesus warns us against doing this, or at least to be really careful about doing it.  Because Jesus understood human nature better than you or I ever could.  Jesus understood human nature from two standpoints.  He understood it from the human standpoint, because he was fully human.  And he understood it from a divine perspective, because he was fully divine.  Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves.  And Jesus knows how easy it is for us to tell ourselves what we want to hear and then to convince ourselves that what we’ve told ourselves is true.

Jesus did not tell us we should say “anything goes”.  But Jesus did say we need to be careful about judgment.  Because the way we judge others will determine the way God judges us.  If we want God to forgive us, we need to forgive others.  If we want God to give us mercy, we need to give mercy to others.  And if we decide that we can judge someone else, God is going to judge us by that same standard.  And if we cannot stand up to judgment by that standard, there will be consequences for us.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  Jesus did not give us a Get Out of Jail Free card.  Jesus gave us a warning.  And when Jesus gives us a warning, we’d probably better pay attention.

 

Be Strong and Courageous

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, September 27, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Joshua 1:1-9.

The passage we read tonight is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  Maybe it’s one of yours, too.  It is for a lot of people.  Whenever there’s a survey of favorite Bible passages, this one always comes out near the top.

            And it’s easy to see why.  God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous.  God says that over and over again, “be strong and courageous.”  And even better, God is going to help Joshua be strong and courageous, because, God says, “I will be with you.  I will never leave you nor forsake you...The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

We all need to hear that sometimes, right?  We all need to hear God tell us to be strong and courageous, and we especially need to hear that God will be with us.  It’s hard for us to be strong and courageous a lot of times.  It’s really helpful to hear God telling us that we can do it, because God will be with us no matter what.  

Joshua especially needed to hear that, because he was in a pretty tough position.  Moses has died.  Moses, one of the greatest heroes of the Bible.  If there was a Bible Hall of Fame, Moses would be in it.  After all, Moses stood up to the mighty Pharaoh.  Moses led the people of Israel across the Red Sea into freedom.  Moses led the people of Israel for forty years of wandering in the wilderness.  Moses talked directly to God.  Moses brought the people the Ten Commandments and all of the Mosaic law.  

Not only would Moses be in the Bible Hall of Fame, he’d be in on the first ballot, no question.  After Moses died, here’s how the Bible described him: 

Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land.  For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

            That’s what the people thought of Moses.  So now, here comes Joshua.  He’s supposed to replace Moses.  He’s supposed to be the next leader of Israel.  Talk about having big sandals to fill.  These would be size twenty-five quadruple X’s.

            Now, Joshua was not unknown to the people of Israel.  He’d been Moses’ chief aide.  He’d fought for Israel and gone out on spying missions for Israel.  He’d served the people loyally for many years.

Still, there’s a big difference between being the number two guy and being number one.  There’s a big difference between executing someone else’s decisions and being the one who’s supposed to make the decisions.  Joshua had to be pretty nervous about this. 

He had to be nervous, really, on a couple of levels.  For one thing, he had to have some doubts about himself.  He had to wonder whether he could ever be as great, as wise, as strong as Moses had been.  Plus, he also had to wonder whether he could ever get out of Moses’ big shadow.  He had to wonder whether he could ever get the people to follow him the way Moses had.  After all, even as great as Moses was, there were plenty of times when the people had questioned him and threatened to rebel.  If there were times when the people had not even wanted to follow the great Moses, why would they ever want to follow Joshua?

That, to me, is one of the coolest things about the reading from Joshua that we heard today.  When we read the words God said to Joshua, it’s obvious that God understood exactly what Joshua was going through.  God knew all the doubts and fears that Joshua had.  God knew that Joshua was pretty unsure of himself, that Joshua did not know if he had what it took to lead the people of Israel.

The thing is, though, that God remembered how it was when Moses started out.  Do you remember that story from the Bible?  Moses was nobody when God called him.  He was just out tending the sheep.  When God called Moses and told him to go and talk to the great Pharaoh and tell him to let the people of Israel go, Moses’ reaction was basically, “Who, me?”  Moses came up with every excuse he could think of for why he should not be the one to go and talk to Pharaoh.  But God saw that Moses had greatness in him.  God worked with Moses, God was there for Moses, and eventually God helped Moses develop greatness and let it out for all the world to see.

God knew that was true of Joshua, too.  God knew Joshua had greatness in him, too.  He might not be Moses, but God was not asking him to be Moses.  Moses had done what Moses was supposed to do.  Now it was time for Joshua to do what Joshua was supposed to do.  God did not ask Joshua to be Moses.  God asked Joshua to be the best Joshua he could be.  In doing that, Joshua would achieve greatness on his own.

Just like with Moses, though, God knew Joshua would need some help to develop that greatness.  So, what God basically does is give Joshua a pep talk.  Listen again to what God says to Joshua:

…get ready to cross the Jordan River…I will give you every place where you set your foot…No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life.  As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you…Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land…Be strong and very courageous.  Be careful to obey all the law…Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips…Then you will be prosperous and successful…Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Replacing Moses was not going to be easy.  God knew that.  So, God told Joshua that he did not have to do it by himself.  God promised Joshua that God would be with him, every bit as much as God had been with Moses.  Then comes the big part, the part that we love, the part that God says to Joshua three times in these few verses:  Be strong and courageous.

You see, each one of us has been chosen by God to do something.  You and I may not be chosen to do great, important things that will be remembered forever, the way Moses and Joshua were.  We may be--it’s not my place to limit what God may have chosen you to do.  Maybe God has chosen you to do something great and important that will be remembered forever, I don’t know.

But for most of us, that’s not how it works.  Most of us are chosen by God to do smaller things, things that may only be remembered by a few.  Maybe by no one.  Maybe they’re not even noticed when we do them.  But they’re still important.  If God has chosen you to do something, then in God’s eyes that thing you’ve been chosen to do is every bit as important as what Moses and Joshua were chosen to do.  All people are important in God’s eyes, and everything God chooses us important people to do is an important thing, too.

And you know, the thing is that a lot of times, deep down, we really know what we’re supposed to do.  Not always, but a lot of times.  The fact is that we just don’t want to do it.  One of the main reasons we don’t want to, frankly, is because we’re scared to.

You know, the things God chooses us to do are not always easy.  The things God chooses us to do sometimes take us out of our comfort zones.  A lot of times, we’re happy with the life we already have.  And if we’re not happy, at least we’re more-or-less satisfied with it.  And even if we’re not satisfied with it, we’re at least used to it.  We know how to handle it.  We don’t know what might happen to that life if we do what God has chosen us to do.  We don’t know where the things God has chosen us to do might lead.  We don’t even know if we’re actually capable of doing the things God has chosen us to do.  Agreeing to do what God has chosen us to do can be pretty scary. 

If that’s where you are, if you feel like you’re not sure you can do what God wants you to do, know this:  God understands.  And God is saying the same thing to you that God said to Joshua.  Get ready.  I will be with you.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.  Be strong and courageous, because you will be able to do what I’ve chosen you to do.  Be strong and very courageous.  Do what I’ve told you to do.  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

God knows why we hesitate.  God knows why we’re scared.  But God knows we have what it takes, and God will bring that out in each one of us.  When we’re weak, we can rely on God’s strength.  When we’re scared, we can rely on God’s courage.

Each one of us has greatness in us.  God may not select us to lead a nation, like God did with Moses and Joshua, but again, that’s not the qualification for greatness, at least not in God’s eyes.  Greatness, in God’s eyes, means agreeing to do whatever God has chosen us to do, whether it’s something big or something small.  Remember, too, that something that seems to be small in human eyes can be something big and great in God’s eyes.  Human beings might not consider us to be on a level with Moses or Joshua, but doing what God has chosen us to do will make us hall-of-famers to God.

            You have greatness in you.  In God’s eyes, we all have greatness in us.  If we trust God, and rely on God, we can say yes when God chooses us.  And we can be strong and courageous, just like Joshua was.

Extra Strength

About two and a half weeks ago, I started getting pain in my lower back.  It started on a Monday morning, got better for a little while, then got worse.  It was better Tuesday evening, but much worse Wednesday.  So, I went to the doctor and discovered I have bulging discs in my back.

Now, I don’t want you to waste a lot of time feeling sorry for me.  They gave me some medication, and I’m much better than I was.  For the most part, I don’t really even feel it any more, other than when I do something I shouldn’t.  I’ll start some physical therapy to strengthen my back next week, and I’m sure I’ll be fine.  I’m just getting older, as happens to all of us.  I’m sure many of you have to live with a lot more pain than what I have.

The reason I bring it up, though, is that I started thinking about how fortunate I am--how fortunate all of us are--to live in the time we do.  I mean, people didn’t just start having bulging discs in the 21st century.  What did people do a hundred years ago when they had bulging discs in their back?

Well, I looked on the internet.  It appears that what people did was have surgery.  And sometimes that helped, and sometimes it didn’t.  Sometimes it might make things worse.  If you lived out in the middle of nowhere, the way we do, you probably didn’t have access to a doctor who could do that kind of surgery.  And even people who did have that access to that sort of doctor were probably hesitant to have the surgery, because again, there was no guarantee that it would work and it might have the opposite effect.  So, lots of people probably just learned to live with the pain and kept going as best they could.  That wouldn’t be easy--I only had the worst pain for a few days, and it was no fun at all.  To have to live with it for years--well, I don’t like to think about it.

But I’m sure people did it.  They did it because, really, what choice did they have?  They did what they had to do, and for the most part, they probably didn’t even complain about it.  It just was what it was.

I think that tells us something about human nature.  All of us are a lot stronger than we think we are.  All of us can do things we don’t think we can do.  But when we have to do those things, when we have to be that strong, we are.  We do it because we know that, really, we don’t have any other choice.  So we develop that strength, and we do it.  And we probably don’t even complain about it.  It just is what it is.  You’ve probably already experienced that in your life, maybe more than once.

But it also tells us something about God.  God put that strength in us.  God knows that life can be challenging.  In fact, life can be very hard.  God knew there would be times when we would need extra strength.  And so, God put that strength inside us, waiting to be called on when we need it.

But God also knows that there are times when, no matter how strong we are, it won’t be enough.  That’s why God allows us to call on Him.  When our own strength is not enough, we can rely on God’s strength.  God will encourage us, God will sustain us, God will empower us.  God will give us whatever we need when we need it.

So, if your own strength seems like it’s not enough, pray.  Ask God to give you some of God’s strength.  God’s strength never fails.  And God will allow us to use as much of it as we need whenever we need it.