All the Time

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Job 1:1-22.

It’s the month of Thanksgiving.  Giving thanks is an important thing for Christians.  The Bible tells us over and over that we are supposed to give God our thanks and praise.  Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, says we should be thankful in all circumstances. 

We know that, and we pay lip service to it.  But actually doing it is something else again.  Thankful in all circumstances?  Seriously?  Does God really expect us to be thankful in literally all circumstances?

What about those times when we don't really feel like we have much to be thankful for?  What about when our life stinks?  What about when it feels like life has punched us right in the nose, and then just when we're about to get up life kicks us in the stomach?  What about when we feel so beaten up by life that we feel like we can hardly catch our breath?  What about, well, times like now?  Are we supposed to be thankful?  For what?

In our reading from Job, Job had almost every bad thing happen that it's possible to have happen.  He loses all his possessions.  All his servants are killed.  Then, all his children are killed, too.  Later, in a part of Job we did not read, Job himself is afflicted with painful sores all over his body.

Now, Job stays faithful to God through all this.  He does not turn his back on God.  He says, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”  Later on, he asks the question, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”  Obviously, Job thinks the answer is no.  We need to accept whatever God gives us, good or bad.

And you and I know that, too.  And sometimes, knowing that helps us.  But sometimes it does not.  It's like all the other platitudes we hear.  “Count your blessings.”  “Things could be worse.”  “Think of all the people who have it worse than you do.”  Those things may be true, and the people who say them may mean well, but when we feel like our lives are falling apart, those platitudes don't make us feel any better.  In fact, sometimes they make us feel worse because we know they are true.  We know we should feel thankful to God, no matter what our circumstances are.  But the fact is that, a lot of times, we don't feel thankful.  And because we know we should,, we start feeling guilty about not feeling thankful, and we pile that guilt on top of all the other stuff we feel.

You know what, though?  I think God understands how we feel.  I don't think God gets mad at us when life turns on us and nothing's going right and we don't feel very thankful.  We might be better off if we could feel thankful, but I think God understands that sometimes we just cannot do it.  No matter how much we may know we should feel thankful, we really cannot force ourselves to feel things we don't feel.  Sometimes, we cannot feel things until we're ready to feel them.  And we don't need to feel guilty if we're not ready to feel thankful at the moment.

And you know, that's in the story of Job, too.  Job may have said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised”, but in a lot of the book of Job he is not praising the name of the Lord at all.  There are a lot of times in the book of Job where Job basically says, “God, what in the world are you doing?  This is not fair.  I don't deserve this.  And these friends of mine who keep giving me these platitudes about needing to trust you and to ask your forgiveness and all that are just making things worse.  If I'd done something wrong, I'd ask you for forgiveness, but I have not done anything wrong.  I've praised you.  I've honored you.  I've glorified you.  I've served you as well as I could all my life.  And this is the thanks I get?  What's the matter with you, God?  What are you doing here?”

All that does not sound like Job was feeling very thankful.  That does not sound like Job was just graciously accepting what had happened.  Job was upset.  Job was angry.  Job was demanding answers from God.

I'd guess that some of us have felt that way at some time in our lives, too.  We've felt like we've been mistreated by God, like God is not treating us fairly, like we've served God as well as we could and the thanks we get is to get shoved down into the mud.  Maybe you’re feeling that now.  If you've never felt that way, I'm glad, but you still might at some point in your life.  It's not that uncommon of a thing.

But there's one thing to notice about the story of Job.  Job may have been upset with God.  Job may have been angry with God.  But Job never gave up on God.  Job never decided that God was not there.  Job never decided that God did not care.  Job never lost faith in God.  No matter what happened to him, no matter how bad or mad or sad Job got, he never gave up on God.  He may have been arguing with God, he may have been demanding answers from God, but he never turned his back on God.

That's what we need to do.  When we cannot feel thankful to God, when we're upset with God, when we're angry with God, it's okay.  God understands it.  God won't be mad at us.  All God asks is that we not lose faith.  All God asks is that we not give up on God.  No matter what happens, all God asks is that we never turn our backs on God.

Job goes on being angry with God, being upset with God, demanding answers from God, for verse after verse, page after page, chapter after chapter.  These bad things happen to Job in the first two chapters of the book of Job.  Chapters three through thirty-seven are Job being upset with God and Job's friends giving him these platitudes about asking forgiveness.  Think about that.  Thirty-five chapters of Job ranting against God, demanding answers from God.  And then, finally, in chapter thirty-eight, God finally shows up.

And you know what?  God does not give Job any answers.  Instead, God reminds Job of just who God is.  God reminds Job that God is eternal.  God is all-powerful.  God is all-knowing.  God created everything there is.  And God is in control of it all.

God spends about four chapters telling Job this.  Some people read this as God being mad at Job, but I don't think so.  The people God gets mad at are Job's friends, the ones who sit there spouting these platitudes.  God explicitly tells them, “I am angry with you...because you have not spoken of me what is right.”  God tells them they need to apologize to Job for not being more understanding of Job.  God is angry with them, but God is not angry with Job.

I think God understands why Job felt the way he did.  I think the reason God goes on for those four chapters telling Job who God is, is so Job, and we, will get the point.  God knows more than we do.  God sees more than we do.  God knows the reasons for things that we cannot even being to understand the reasons for.  As Job ultimately realizes, “I spoke of things I did not understand, things to wonderful for me to know.”  

When you and I have those times in our lives when it seems like every bad thing in the world is happening to us, that's what God wants us to know.  God does not get mad at us for being angry with God.  God does not want us to feel guilty about it, and pile guilt on top of all our other problems.  God understands.

But God wants us to understand, too.  God wants us to understand that God is eternal.  That God is all-powerful, and all-knowing.  That God created it all, and God is in control of it all.  That God knows more than we do, sees more than we do, and knows the reasons for things we cannot even begin to understand.

At the end of the book of Job, because Job stayed faithful to God, God blesses the rest of Job's earthly life even more than he had the first part of Job's life, before all the bad things happened.  That may or may not happen to us in our earthly lives.  But we know that if we stay faithful to God, God will certainly bless our eternal lives.

We are better off if we can be thankful to God in all circumstances.  But if you're having trouble being thankful, it's okay.  In fact, if you're mad at God, it's okay.  God understands.  Just stay faithful to God.  Just remember who God is, and that God knows the reasons for things that we cannot even begin to understand.  Don't give up on God.  Because God will never give up on you.

 

Peace in Uncertain Times

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, November 15, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Colossians 3:1-17.

            We live in strange, different, unusual times.  You know that, and you don’t need me to go through all the ways in which that’s true.  The world has changed a lot, and in many ways, from what it was a year ago, or even nine months ago.

            Change is not an easy thing for us to deal with.  Most of us like routine.  We can carry routine too far, of course, and allow our routine to become a rut.  But still, most of us like for things to stay more or less the same.  Even if things are not great, we don’t like them to change too much too fast.  We like to know how things are going to be tomorrow, next week, next month.

            It’s unsettling to live in a time of uncertainty.  We hope things will get better, we fear things will get worse, but we have no real evidence that convinces us of either one.  Yes, we believe that God is still in control, and that God is eventually going to win.  We even believe that, if we stay faithful to God and believe in Jesus as the Savior, we will eventually win, too.  But it’s that “eventually” that’s the tricky bit.  We can know things will be all right “eventually”, and still be unsettled and even fearful about what’s going to happen until that “eventually” gets here.

            In times like this, what we need, what we want, is peace.  We look for peace in lots of places.  We look for it in money or material possessions, thinking security can be found there.  We look for it in status, thinking the belief that others think well of us will make us feel better.  Sometimes we look for it in politics, thinking that if the “right people” are in control of the government, then somehow everything will be all right and we can be at peace.

            But peace cannot be found in any of those places.  True peace can only be found in one place, and that’s in faith in Jesus Christ.

            But maybe you think, wait a minute.  I have faith in Jesus Christ.  But there’s still all this stuff going on.  There’s still all this uncertainty.  I have faith, but with everything that’s happening, how can I possibly feel peace?

            The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, tells us.  He says, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

            When you think about it, all the things that have us concerned, all the things that get us upset, all the things that get us rattled and even fearful, are earthly things, right?  Whatever they are, whether it’s physical health or financial health or relationship problems or concerns about the country or the world or whatever it is, they are all earthly things.  They are not the things above.  They are not the things of heaven.  

            Now, it’s understandable why we have all these concerns about earthly things.  Earth is where we live, at least for now.  Earth is the only home we’ve ever known.  We have the hope and the promise of heaven, but we have a hard time really understanding what heaven actually is.  And besides, heaven is for someday.  Our concerns are for now, today.  And again, knowing that things will “eventually” be all right is not necessarily a lot of comfort when it seems like things are not all right now.

            But here’s the thing.  Paul is not saying we should ignore all earthly concerns.  He’s saying we need to focus on the things that concern both earth and heaven.  

            What are those things?  Paul lists them.  Compassion.  Kindness.  Humility.  Gentleness. Patience.  Bear with others.  Forgive others.  And over all those things, Paul says, put on love.

            Those are earthly things.  But they’re heavenly things, too.  They’re the things Jesus wants us to do.  They’re the things Jesus did.  And they’re the things that lead to peace.

            What do those things have in common?  Well, maybe a lot of things, but one of them is that they take our focus off of ourselves.  They are things we feel toward other people.  They are things we do for other people.

            It seems to me Paul is saying that’s how we can feel peace.  Take the focus off ourselves.  Put the focus on others.  If we do that, a lot of the things that make us feel unsettled, that keep us rattled, that keep us from feeling peace, will go away.  I mean, they’ll still be there, but they just won’t seem as important anymore.  We won’t have time for them.  We’ll be too busy focusing on others.

            So how can we do that?  Well, Paul tells us that, too.  He says this:

Be thankful.  Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

            The way we focus on others is to focus on God.  Learn from God.  Acquire wisdom from God.  Do that through psalms, hymns and other songs of the Spirit.  Take in everything the Bible has to teach us, so that Christ’s message will dwell in us.  When we do that, when Christ’s message really dwells in us, it becomes part of us.  When Christ’s message truly becomes part of it, we can no more get rid of it than we can get rid of a part of our body.  Christ’s message is no longer something we can choose to ignore.  We may not think about it every waking moment, but it’s always there.  It’s always part of us.

            When Christ’s message dwells in us, and becomes part of us, that message influences everything we do and everything we say.  It influences us even when we’re not consciously thinking about it.  It influences us even when we don’t realize it.  Because Christ’s message of compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience and forgiveness and love is so strong, it’s so powerful, that once it’s in us we cannot help but be influenced by it.  We can ignore it, for a while, but Christ’s message will always come back.  It may come back in the form of regret or guilt or conscience or something else, but it will always come back.  Once Christ’s message truly dwells in us, it is a part of us forever.

            The key to it, really, is what Paul tells us next.  “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  That’s how we feel peace in our lives:  by living them for Jesus.  That’s how we can stop focusing on ourselves and our problems:  by living our lives for Jesus.  If we do everything in the name of Jesus, we won’t have time to be focused on ourselves.  In fact, we won’t even think about that.  We’ll be too busy doing things for others in the name of Jesus.

            It sounds simple.  And it is simple.  But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.  Our “earthly nature”, as Paul puts it, is strong.  It’s powerful.  Even when we really try to live our lives for Christ, when we really try to do everything in the name of Jesus, our earthly nature keeps coming back at us.  It tries to pull us away from Jesus, and back to our earthly concerns.

            How do we avoid that?  Paul tells us that, too.  He says, “Be thankful.  Give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.”

            Being thankful to God keeps our focus on God.  Being thankful keeps us living our lives for Jesus.  Being thankful is what will give us lives of peace.

            How does being thankful do that?  Because when we focus on being thankful to God, we realize how much God has done for us.  And when we realize how much God has done for us, we realize how much God loves us.  And when we realize how much God loves us, we think about all the times God has been there for us.  

We think about all the times when we were worried, when we were concerned, when we were scared, when things in our lives were uncertain and that uncertainty had us rattled.  And then God was there.  God showed up, and somehow God made it all work out.  Not necessarily the way we wanted, but in a way that was best.

God has done that for me time after time after time.  And I suspect God has done that for you, too, time after time after time.  And when I think about that, I know there’s only one thing I should feel.  I should be thankful to God for all that God has done for me for almost sixty-two years now.  And I suspect, when you think about it, you’re thankful for God for all that God has done for you for all your life, too.

And when we feel that thankfulness, we also feel confidence.  If God has always been there for us in the past, why would God not be there for us now?  God does not set us up just to let us fall.  The same God who has been there for us all our lives is still there for us now.  God promises to never leave us or forsake us.  God will see us through everything we’re going through.  We don’t have to be afraid of what’s going to happen.  God will see us through all the chaos and uncertainty and fear that’s going on right now.  

Knowing that, we can take our focus off ourselves and our problems.  We can live lives of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love.  We can live our lives for Jesus.  And we can feel at peace.

The times are uncertain, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  If we trust him, take our focus off ourselves, and live for Jesus, God will take care of us.  And we will feel the peace that we all want in our lives.

 

Shout For Joy

The message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday night, November 8, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 100.

            Wanda’s favorite TV channel is the Hallmark Movie Channel.  That channel has been running Christmas movies for at least two weeks now.  I checked the calendar, and it is still only November 8.  But still, they’re already celebrating Christmas.

            Now, that’s not sinful or anything.  But still, this is November, and November is the month of Thanksgiving.  And while it’s not sinful to celebrate Christmas early, I think it is wrong to just skip over Thanksgiving.  After all, the Bible talks a lot about it.  Not the holiday itself, obviously, but the idea of giving thanks:  why we should do it, how it benefits us, and how it affects our relationship with God.

            The Old Testament, especially, tells us all the time that we should thank God.  In fact, one of the Old Testament rules that the people had to follow, one that's referred to lots of times in the Old Testament, is the thank offering.  This was a specific offering that was to be given to God at certain times and in certain ways as an expression of thanks to God.

            And even though we don't follow the Old Testament rules on thank offerings, we still carry on the spirit of them.  After all, we still take up an offering every week, right?  The real purpose of that offering is not to pay the bills of the church.  It's not even to fund mission projects or things like that.  That's what the money is used for, but that's not the reason we take up an offering.  We take up an offering to give thanks to God.  That's the real purpose of it.

            One of the things people will say sometimes to make fun of the Christian faith—and I'll bet some of you have heard this one—is “Why do we have to thank God all the time?  Is God so dependent on praise and thanks that God needs to constantly hear us say it?  Is God vain, or weak, or needy, or something?”

            Obviously, none of that's true.  God is not vain, or weak, or needy, or anything else.  God does not need to hear our thanks.  We need to say it.  We need to thank God for our benefit, not for God's benefit.

            One of the reasons we need to do that is just to make sure we have our priorities straight.  It's to make sure we recognize how important God is to our lives.

            Because it can be easy to forget, you know?  One of the things about our human nature is that we tend to take things for granted a lot of times.  If I go to the store and buy, say, some hamburger, and it turns out to be pretty good hamburger, am I going to go to the store and thank them for selling me such good hamburger?  Probably not.  I'll eat it and I'll go on about my business.  But if I go to the store and buy some hamburger and it turns out to be lousy, am I going to go to the store and complain?  Probably, yes.  It's just the way we are.

            And we tend to be that way toward God, too.  When things do not go the way we think they should go, we tend to be pretty quick to complain to God and ask why God is allowing those things to happen.  When things go the way we think they should go, though, we often don't take the time to go to God and say thank you for that.  We just accept it and go on about our business.

            That's not due to a lack of faith, necessarily.  It could be, but it also could be that we just take God for granted.  We know God is good, so when things go in a way we think is good, we just figure, well, okay then.  God is doing what God is supposed to do.  “God's in His heaven, all's right with the world”, as the saying goes.

            And there's truth in that.  God is good.  Good is what God is supposed to do.  It's just that there's a really fine line between recognizing that God is good and thinking God owes it to us to be good, that God owes it to us to do good things for us.  And that's not true.  God does not owe us anything.  And when we think that way, we get our priorities out of order.  We start thinking God is there to serve us, rather than realizing that we are here to serve God.

            That's why we read Psalm 100 today.  I don't often preach from the psalms.  We read one in the morning service every week as a responsive reading, but I don't very often preach on it.  But there's a lot of good stuff in the psalms, and we need to not just read them, but think about what they say and do what they tell us to do.

            Our psalm today tells us to “shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.”  When's the last time you did that?  When is the last time you shouted for joy to the Lord?  Did you do it in the last week?  In the last month?  In the last year?  Have you ever done it?  Have you ever been so full of joy for what God has done that you shouted for joy, that you shouted your thanks to God?

            Now, I know we're midwesterners.  Shouting for joy is not really our thing around here.  And yet, I go to a lot of football games and volleyball games, and in the winter I go to a lot of basketball games and wrestling meets, and I hear a lot of shouting for joy at those things.  I'm not being critical of that—you all know I love sports, and if you've seen me at a game you know I shout as much as anyone.  The thing is, though, how come we can shout for joy when our sports team wins, but we cannot shout for joy for all the things God has done for us?

            We should shout for joy.  The psalm tells us why.  “Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

            That, right there, should be enough to make us shout for joy.  God made us, and we are his.  That's what it means to be God's children.  We are God's people, the sheep of God's pasture.

            And yet, that's what we so often take for granted.  And that's sad.  Not because we're going to go to hell for it or anything, but because when we take those things for granted, we deprive ourselves of the joy of knowing them.

            We are God's people.  Think about that.  Think about how awesome that is.  God made us, and we are God's people.  We are the sheep of God's pasture.

            That's incredible.  We did nothing to deserve that.  We never could.  We could do nothing to deserve God creating us at all.  And we can do nothing to deserve being called God's people.  I'm not saying we're all terrible people, but we're people.  We're weak.  We're flawed.  We're sinful.  And yet, the all-powerful, flawless, sinless, perfect God claims us and calls us God's people.  God loves us, and God is with us, and God helps us, despite who we God is and who we are.

            The wonder of that is beyond my ability to describe.  The thought of that should constantly fill us with joy.  That joy is we lose when we take what God does for granted.  That joy is what we take away from ourselves when we don't think about all the amazing things God has done for us and when we don't stop and thank God for them.

            That's why we need to do what Psalm 100 says.  We need to come into God's presence with thanksgiving.  We need to come with praise.  We need to give thanks to God.  Not because God needs to hear it, but because we need to say it.  Because when we say it, and when we mean it, we realize all that God does for us.  And when we realize that, we cannot help but feel incredible awe and wonder and joy.

            And then, we will realize why it is that we are asked to serve God.  God does not ask us to serve as some sort of punishment or duty or obligation.  God does not ask us to serve because God needs us to do things.  God could do anything and everything God wants to do without us.  God does not need us to do anything.  We are allowed to serve God.  We are given the privilege to serve God.  When we think about how great and how good and how loving God is, we realize that it is an incredible honor to be allowed to serve our wonderful God.

            As Psalm 100 says, the Lord is good.  God's love endures forever.  God's faithfulness continues through all generations.

            So, if you're struggling tonight, if you're having trouble feeling joy, if you feel like things are going wrong and you don't know what to do, read Psalm 100 and really think about it.  Think about the fact that you are one of God's people.  Realize that God is not there to serve us, we are there to serve God.  Realize what an incredible honor that is.  And then, do what the psalm says. Shout for joy to our amazing, incredible, awesome God.

Extreme Service

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, November 8, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 20:20-28.

            When you think of the word “great”, what do you think of?

            Most of us would think of something happening that’s really, really good.  Something incredible, really.  Something awesome.  “Boy, that was great!”  Or, maybe you think of a person who’s at the top of their profession, somebody who’s better than anybody else at what they do.  “That person is one of the all-time greats.”  Or maybe you think of an individual performance that was super.  “That team played a great game!”

            That’s how the dictionary defines greatness.  But that’s not how Jesus defined it.  Jesus said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”

            Serving is not something we think of in connection to greatness.  But Jesus says we should.  In fact, it sounds like Jesus is saying serving should be the first thing we think of in connection to greatness.

            This is another case--and there are a lot of them--where being a Christian means we really need to adjust our thinking.  We need to not think the way the world thinks, and not value what the world values.  We need to think the way the Lord thinks, at least to the extent that’s possible for a human being.  We need to value what the Lord values.  It reminds me of what it says in Proverbs, Chapter Three, Verse Five:  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”  We need to give up our own understanding, and look at things the way God looks at them.

            Jesus says that “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”  And in talking about this, I need to be careful.  Because we have a lot of servants who are sitting here in our congregation today.  Almost everyone--in fact, it may be literally everyone--who is here does a lot of serving.  You serve your church.  You serve your community.  You serve your family and friends.  You serve in other ways, too.  You’ve been doing that for quite a long time now.  And in doing that, you serve the Lord.

            And so, I don’t want anyone here to think I am criticizing you for not serving enough.  I’m not.  This church would not be here without the service that you have given it, again for many years for some of you.  I’m sure I don’t even know a lot of the things you’ve done.  But know that I deeply appreciate it, and I’m sure God does, too.

            But as I thought about this, I started thinking about who Jesus was originally talking to.  The disciples.  I wonder what they thought when they heard this.

            You know, the disciples gave up a lot, at least in human terms, to follow Jesus.  They left family behind.  They left homes behind.  They left businesses behind.  They left everything behind to follow Jesus.  They did it because Jesus had called them, and they agreed to follow him.  They did that because they understood, at least to some extent, who Jesus was, and they wanted to serve Him.

            And now here’s Jesus, essentially telling them that it’s not enough.  Because Jesus did not stop at saying whoever wants to be great needs to be a servant.  He went on to say that they needed to serve “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

            Jesus was not calling the disciples, or us, to ordinary service.  He was not even calling the disciples, or us, to above average service.  Jesus was calling the disciples, and us, to extreme service.  Jesus was calling us to serve as much as Jesus himself served.  And that means to serve at the cost of everything, even life on earth itself.

            Now, let’s be clear about something.  Jesus did not say that we need to engage in this sort of extreme service to be saved.  He did not say our eternal life depends on this.  Again, as we’ve said many times, we cannot earn our way into heaven by doing good works, not even good works of extreme service.  Our salvation and eternal life depend on our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Nothing else.

            Jesus did not say our salvation and eternal life depend on extreme service.  What he did say, though, is that extreme service is what we’re called to do if we want to be great.  So, that’s the question:  Do you, and do I, want to be great?

            Not everybody does, you know.  I mean, we might want to in theory.  But in practice, a lot of us don’t really want to be great.  And I’m not just talking about greatness in service.  I’m talking about all kinds of things. 

            Becoming great at anything is not easy.  That’s true whether we’re talking about being a great athlete or a great musician or a great farmer or a great plumber or a great electrician or a great anything.  Becoming great at anything takes a lot of work.  It takes a lot of sacrifice.  It takes a lot of dedication.  And a lot of us simply don’t want to put in that kind of work.  We don’t want to make that kind of sacrifice.  We don’t have that kind of dedication.  What it boils down to, really, is that we don’t want to pay the price.  A lot of us simply don’t want to pay the price to become great.

            But here’s the difference between becoming great in God’s terms and becoming great at those human things I mentioned.  Becoming great at those human things carries a tangible reward.  It might be money.  It might be fame.  It might be the praise of human beings.  But whatever it is, it’s a real and tangible reward.  There’s a price to be paid to become great, but there are substantial benefits, too.

            But becoming great in extreme service does not bring those rewards.  It does not even bring the reward of salvation and eternal life, because again, our salvation does not depend on our deeds.  I suppose it’s possible that a life of extreme service might gain one an exalted place in heaven, but that’s certainly not the point of it.  In fact, service done in exchange for something else would not really be service, would it?  It would be a business transaction--I do this so I can get that. 

            Service, true service, is done with no expectation of getting anything in exchange.  Maybe a good feeling inside, knowing that we’ve done what God wants us to do.  But nothing else. 

            That’s what makes extreme service so hard.  Extreme service involves sacrifice, and what we’re really sacrificing, when you come right down to it, is ourselves.  Maybe not in the way Jesus did, sacrificing our earthly lives.  But in a way, we are.  We’re sacrificing our time, and what is life made up of if not time?  We’re sacrificing the time to do things we enjoy.  We’re sacrificing our ego.  We’re sacrificing our material possessions, either by giving them away or by forgoing the chance to gain more.  We’re sacrificing the chance to relax and take it easy.  Sometimes we may be sacrificing sleep, or even our health.  We sacrifice all kinds of things when we live a life of extreme service.

            But think of how lives like that can change the world.  What would a world like that be like, with everyone sacrificing themselves in lives of extreme service?  What would a world be like if only ten percent of people did that?  Or even five percent?  Or even one percent?  One percent of the world’s population is seventy-eight million people.  Can you imagine a world in which seventy-eight million people lived a life of extreme service?

            But how does that start?  It starts with one.  It starts with you.  Or, it starts with me.  Just as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, seventy-eight million people living a life of extreme service starts with a single person.  It starts with you.  Or, it starts with me.

            We’re not told how the disciples reacted to Jesus’ statements.  Matthew drops the subject at the end of our reading for today and goes on to tell the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem in triumph, riding a donkey.  And maybe Matthew drops it there because how the disciples reacted is not the point.  The point is, how will you react?  How will I react?  Will any of us be willing to be that one with whom this all starts?

            This is a hard thing Jesus is asking us to do.  If it was easy, everyone would do it.  But let’s take this seriously.  Think about it.  Pray about it.  Really consider whether God is calling you to a life of extreme service.

            Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.”  Jesus gave us a call to greatness.  Let’s answer the call.

Get Up and Do It Anyway

I’ve told you before how much I love my job.  It’s still true.  I have rewarding work to do.  I have wonderful people to do it with.  I do it in a beautiful place.  I am blessed to be a pastor, and I am blessed to be a pastor here in these great communities.

And yet--recently I had a couple of days where I just did not feel like getting out of bed and going to work.  I was not sick or anything.  There was nothing in particular that was wrong, nothing to do with my work that was going to be unusually hard or unpleasant or anything like that.  I just--didn’t really feel like doing anything.

Do you ever have days like that?  Where you just feel like doing pretty much nothing all day?  I think a lot of us do. 

I wonder sometimes if Jesus ever had days like that.  There’s nothing in the Bible that tells us he did, so this is just speculation.  But Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine, which means he felt all the same things we feel.  And after all, if it did happen, it’s not the sort of thing the gospel writers would probably put in the Bible.  “And it came to pass that the Lord spaketh unto us, and said, “Yea, verily, I shouldst like to sleepeth in today.”’  When it came time to write the gospels, something like that is not going to make the cut.

But I think it’s possible.  I’m not talking about the times Jesus went to the mountains and spent time in meditation and prayer.  Those times were very important to Jesus, of course.  But I’m thinking that maybe he had a day, once in a while, when he just didn’t feel like healing people.  He didn’t feel like arguing with the Pharisees.  He just wanted to rest a while, and then maybe going over to the carpenter shop and work with his hands and make a table or something. 

But here’s the thing.  If Jesus ever did feel that way, I don’t think he ever acted on it.  I think he got up and served God the Father anyway.  Jesus knew what his mission was, and he knew he was not going to accomplish it by staying in bed.  So he got up and started plugging away, putting one foot in front of the other, and doing what needed to be done, what God wanted him to do.

And I think that’s what God wants from you and me, too.  God understands that, sometimes, we may not feel like doing anything, that we might just feel like staying in bed.  God understands it--but God does not want us to act on it.  God has things for us to do.  No matter our age, no matter our situation, God has things for us to do.  And we are not going to accomplish them by staying in bed.  So, even if we don’t feel like it, we need to get up and start plugging away, putting one foot in front of the other, and doing what needs to be done, what God wants us to do.

And you know what?  Most of the time, when we do that, our feeling of wanting to stay in bed goes away.  Because there is something about serving God that gets us going.  It gives us energy.  It fires us up.  And all of a sudden, we don’t feel like just staying in bed anymore.

So, if you have a day where you feel like sleeping in, know that God understands.  But know, too, that God has things for you to do, and you’re not going to accomplish them by staying in bed.  So get up and do what needs to be done, what God wants you to do.  You’ll feel better.  And you’ll be serving God.

Letting Go

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, November 1, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Luke 5:1-11, 27-32.

When you came here tonight, you probably had some idea of what this service would be like. You expected that we'd have a few songs. You expected that we'd read some scripture. You expected that I'd talk to you for a while. In other words, you came here knowing more or less what to expect.

And that's true of most of our lives. When we get up in the morning, we usually have some idea of what to expect out of our day. When we go to work, we know what we expect to be doing. When we go home, we know what we expect when we get there. Sure, sometimes things the unexpected happens, sometimes things come up that we don't anticipate, but even then it's usually not something totally out of the blue. It's rare that we're totally surprised by something, that something happens that we had absolutely no idea might happen and that we did not expect at all.

You’ve heard me and other pastors talk about how we need to give up control of our lives and give that control to God.  But sometimes, that’s a really hard thing for us to do. The thing that makes that so hard is that, when we give control of our lives to God, we don't really know what will happen next. God may have all kinds of surprises in store for us, and they may or may not line up with what we'd like to have happen. When we give God control of our lives, we really don't know what to expect. And that scares us.

Think about your life.  Have you ever gone into a situation where you had no idea what might happen? That's pretty scary, right? That was one of the hardest things for me to deal with when I was a lawyer. Whenever you go into court, you don't really know what's going to happen. You prepare as much as you can, you try to get ready for whatever might happen, but there's almost always something that happens that you did not expect. A witness does not say what you expect them to say. The judge makes a ruling you did not expect the judge to make. No matter how much you prepare, something always happens.

It's all very easy to say “expect the unexpected”, but the truth is that, by definition, you cannot expect the unexpected. And that's not a comfortable thing. It's hard. It's scary.

And it's what God asks us to do. Tonight, we heard the story of Jesus calling his first disciples. Do you think they had any clue what they were signing up for when they started following Jesus? I don't. I don't think they had the slightest idea what to expect.

It kind of makes me wonder why they did it. You know, sometimes we think of the disciples as sort of this rag-tag band of people who were just sort of wandering around because they really had nothing better to do with their lives, anyway. It's not true, or at least it does not appear to be true. Peter, James, and John had a fishing business, and it looks like they were fairly successful. They were successful enough that they went into partnership and had at least two boats. Levi, also known as Matthew, was a tax collector, and tax collectors made a pretty good living. Peter, at least, was married, and it's thought that at least some of the other disciples were, too.

These were not people who went and followed Jesus because they had nothing else to do. These were not people who were leaving nothing behind when they followed Jesus. They were leaving lots of things behind. They were leaving homes and families and business and money behind. They were leaving behind things that most of us would put a pretty high value on.

            And yet they did it.  Did they have some fear about it?  Maybe.  After all, this was a pretty big step they were taking.  I assume they must have had some fear, because Jesus told them “Don’t be afraid”.  But still, they did it.  They did it without hesitation. They did not ask Jesus to wait while they made arrangements for an orderly transition for their businesses. They did not ask Jesus to wait while they made arrangements for someone to watch over their families. They did not do things that we would consider to be responsible things to do.  No matter what fears they might have had, we're told that they simply walked away from their old lives and followed Jesus.

They did that having no idea what would happen when they did it. They did that having no idea what to expect. It's pretty amazing, when you stop to think about it. It's something most of us can probably not even conceive of doing, to just leave everything behind and follow God, having no idea what to expect when we do.

And yet, as I was thinking about this subject this week, something occurred to me. Why is this so hard? Is it because God makes it hard? Or is it because we, you and I, make it hard?  Is it because we let our fear of the unknown get in the way?

Think about it this way: how many of us have lives that have gone exactly the way we expected them to go? Think back thirty years, or twenty years, or ten years, or whatever period of time you consider to be a long time ago. Think about how you expected your life to go at that point. How much of it has gone the way you expected it to? In fact, has any of it really gone the way you expected it to?

It has not for me. Thirty years ago, in October of 1990, I was the Enforcement Director of the Securities Division of the South Dakota Department of Commerce. Wanda and I had been married for about a year.  I expected that I'd live in Pierre the rest of my life.

            Twenty years ago, in October of 2000, I was a lawyer in Wessington Springs. Wanda and I had been married for eleven years, and we'd lived in Springs for about nine years. My expectation was that I'd be a lawyer until I retired and that we'd live in Wessington Springs the rest of our lives.

Ten years ago, in October of 2010, I was the pastor of the ARK United Methodist church in North Sioux City.  I was hoping I’d stay there for many more years.  If not, I knew I’d be moved somewhere else, but I had no expectation that it would be Gettysburg.  I only had a vague notion of where Gettysburg even was.  I’d never been here.  I’d been to Onida once, I think, as part of a singing group that put on a show for the Venture Communications annual meeting.

The point is that nothing has worked out the way I thought it would. I did not stay in Pierre. I did not stay a lawyer until I retired. I did not stay in Wessington Springs, not even until I graduated from seminary. I did not stay in North Sioux City—instead I came to a completely different type of community.

Now, I don't say that because I think there's anything special about me. My guess is that everyone here could tell a similar story. The details would be different, but I doubt that any of us can say that our lives have gone exactly the way we expected them to go, that we are exactly where we thought we'd be, that we're with exactly the people we thought we'd be with, and that we're doing exactly what we thought we'd be doing. Life never goes the way we expect it to go.

But here's the thing about that. Life may not go the way we expect it to go. But if we let go of our expectations, and let go of our fears, God can lead us to some pretty wonderful places. I am really, really glad that Wanda have been married all these years. I'm really glad that I spent some time as a lawyer in Wessington Springs. I'm glad we got to go to North Sioux City, because I learned a lot there, both about being a pastor and about who I am. And I'm even more glad now that we're here and with all of you and doing the things we're doing.  Life has turned out really well for me. And it's all because life did not go the way I expected it to go.

We're not told what the disciples expected when they followed Jesus. Maybe they did not expect anything. Maybe that walking away from home, and family, and business, was symbolic of something else. Maybe it symbolized walking away from all of our expectations and fears and just following Jesus on an incredible adventure.

Because, when we let go of our expectations, and we let go of our fears, that's what life becomes: an adventure. By coincidence, this week I happened to read a quote from E. Stanley Jones, the great United Methodist missionary and theologian. Here's what he said:

Many live in dread of what is coming. Why should we? The unknown puts adventure into life...The unexpected around the corner gives a sense of anticipation and surprise. Thank God for the unknown future.

The disciples had no idea what was going to happen when they followed Jesus. They had no idea what to expect. But they do not seem to have been afraid of it. I mean, there were times when they got scared. There were times when they did not understand. There were times when they wondered what was going on. But there is no time in the gospels when any of them threatened to quit. None of them, as far as we know, ever said, “I'm leaving and going back to my old life.” None of them ever seems to have considered it. Through everything that happened, through the ups and downs, the good times and that bad times, they stayed with Jesus. No matter what happened, they decided following Jesus was worth it. They let go of their expectations, let go of their fears, and embraced the adventure.

So can we. The disciples were just ordinary people, you know. They were just folks, just people like you and me. If they could let go of their expectations and their fears and embrace the adventure of following Jesus, so can we.

I don't know what that means for you. I don't know what it means for me. That's the point. Letting go of expectations and fears means we don't know what will come next. It may be a pretty wild ride, the way it was for the disciples. But following Jesus will be worth it. So let's let go of our expectations and our fears and embrace the adventure of following Jesus Christ.

 

Stumbling

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, November 1, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 18:1-9.

            What causes you to stumble?

            It’s an important question.  I assume that everyone here, and everyone watching on the livestream, would call yourself a Christian.  Don’t get me wrong--if you don’t, I’m still glad you’re here.  I’m still glad you’re watching the livestream.  You’re always welcome.  But I assume that the vast majority of us would call ourselves Christians.

            But I also assume that the vast majority of us would say we are imperfect Christians.  That really goes along with being a Christian.  Someone who claimed to be a perfect Christian would, pretty much by definition, not really understand what being a Christian really means.

            We like to use words like imperfections, but of course what we’re really talking about is sins.  We know we’re all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.  Sometimes we make excuses for our sins, of course.  We say things like, well, after all, nobody’s perfect.  Well, after all, I’m only human.  Well, after all, I’m doing the best I can.  I may not be perfect, but you know, I’m pretty good.  I’m a lot better than some people I know, I can tell you that.  So, you know, I don’t really need to worry about my sins too much.  Sure, I should ask God for forgiveness, and I do--once in a while--but it’s not really any big deal.  I can just keep doing what I’m doing.

            Now, I’m not saying we should constantly beat ourselves up.  We don’t need to walk around with our heads down, feeling nothing but shame and sadness.  But we should not ignore our sins, either.  Nor should we treat them as if they were no big deal.  Because they are a big deal.  Our salvation and eternal life may depend on how we deal with our sins.

            And you say, but wait a minute.  I thought we were saved by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  I’ve heard you say that any number of times.  And I do have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Jesus died so my sins could be forgiven.  So why do I have to worry about all this “sin” stuff?

            Well, we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.  But faith in Jesus Christ means actually following Jesus Christ.  And following Jesus Christ means actually doing the things that Jesus told us to do.  

            Remember all the times when Jesus would tell someone their sins were forgiven?  It happens over and over in the gospels.  And it’s an awesome thing when Jesus does that.  We read those passages, and we put ourselves in the place of those people.  We say, yes, our sins are forgiven!  But then, remember what Jesus would always say after that?  This is the part we tend to forget about.  After telling someone their sins were forgiven, Jesus would say something else.  He would say, “Go, and sin no more.”

            You see, if we say we have faith in Jesus Christ, but we don’t allow that faith to impact our life in any meaningful way, how real is our faith?  Can we really say that we have faith in Jesus if the way we live is pretty much the same as it would be if we did not have that faith?  

            And I want to make clear, I’m not saying this in an accusatory way.  It is not for me to judge anyone’s faith other than my own.  And I know I often fall far short of what I should be.  I have a plank in my own eye to take care of before I start looking for specks in anyone else’s eye.

            But the point is that we are all sinners.  We all have things that make us stumble.  And we need to deal with those things.  Because in our reading for today, Jesus makes it clear that our stumbles are pretty serious.

            Think about what he says.  Jesus says that if it’s our hand, or our foot, that’s causing us to stumble, that’s causing us to sin, we should cut it off and throw it away!  Jesus says if our eye causes us to stumble, if our eye causes us to sin, we should gouge it out and throw it away!

            That’s pretty extreme, right?  To cut off your hand or your foot?  To gouge out your eye?  Did Jesus really mean that literally?

            Well, I don’t know that Jesus actually expected anyone to do that.  After all, as far as we know, none of his disciples cut off their hands or their feet or gouged out their eyes, and they had to be sinners, too, just like we all are.  But Jesus was trying to make a point.  His point was that, as bad as it would be to lose a hand or a foot or an eye, it would be even worse to be thrown into the fire of hell.  And so, whatever it is in our lives that is causing us to stumble, that’s causing us to sin, we need to get rid of it.  We need to do everything we can to get rid of everything we can that causes us to stumble and to sin.

            So, what is it for you?  And what is it for me?  What is it that’s causing you and me to stumble?  What is it that’s causing you and me to sin?

            I don’t know the answer for you.  I don’t know the full answer for me.  I know that for me, and I suspect for a lot of others, selfishness and self-centeredness enter into it.  I know that for, and I suspect for a lot of others, arrogance enters into it.  Now, maybe those things enter into it for you.  Maybe for you it’s something else.  Again, I don’t know what it is for you.  Each of us needs to look at ourselves and our own lives to figure out what it is that’s causing us to stumble and sin.

            But of course, just figuring out what it is, is not enough.  That’s just the start, really.  Once we figure out what’s causing us to stumble and to sin, then we need to do something about it.  We need to repent of our sins.  We need to confess our sins to God and ask for God’s help to stop committing those sins.  And then, we need to put as much effort as we can to actually stop committing those sins.

            Because it takes both.  We cannot, of our own accord, just decide that we’re going to stop sinning.  At least, I cannot.  And I don’t know anyone else who can, either.  We can maybe make a few improvements at the margins.  We can, maybe, pick out one or two things about our lives to work on and improve.  But if we’re really going to stop stumbling, if we’re really going to change our lives, we cannot do it by ourselves.  We need the help of God.

            But at the same time, we need to do our part.  God could change us without our help and even without our consent.  After all, God is all-powerful.  God can do anything.  But God does not work that way.  God does not force us to do things or not do things.  God may give us some nudges sometimes.  And in fact, sometimes those nudges get fairly forceful.  But God does not force us.  Yes, we need God’s help, but we also need to take action ourselves.

            And we need to do more than take action.  We need to have desire.  We need to have a real, true desire to change.  We need to have the determination to stop stumbling, to stop sinning.  We need to be committed to changing our lives and getting rid of those things that are causing us to stumble.

            So the question is, will you and I make that commitment?  Do we have that determination?  Are you and I willing to do whatever it takes to get rid of whatever it is that is causing us to stumble, to get it out of our lives?  No matter what the cost?

            Because that last question is really the tricky one, isn’t it?  “No matter what the cost.”  Another way of asking that, really, is “how seriously do you and I take this?”  Do you and I really believe that our eternal life depends on this?  Do you and I really believe that, if we don’t get rid of whatever it is that’s causing us to stumble, we could be thrown into the fire of hell?

            Those are not easy questions.  As I said, most of us can get really good at excusing our sins.  I know I can.  And again, I’m not suggesting that you and I should beat ourselves up and hang our heads in shame and live our lives in guilt and fear.  But I think we do need to take this seriously.  After all, we’re talking about the words of Jesus.  If we’re going to consider ourselves Christians, we need to take Jesus’ words seriously.

            Each of us has something in our lives that’s causing us to stumble.  It may be several things.  What is it for you?  Are we willing to confess it to God?  Are we willing to ask God to help us get rid of it?  And are we willing to do whatever we need to do to get rid of it, too?

            Let’s make our faith real.  Let’s stop stumbling.  Let’s walk confidently, with the help of the Lord God.